St James's Place China Coast Regatta 2020
by Suzy Rayment 9 Oct 2020 12:48 AEDT
RHKYC China Coast Regatta 2019 © Guy Nowell / RHKYC
2020 marks the 28th edition of the regatta which was established in 1993 by the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. Hong Kong’s premier big boat event, the three-day inshore racing series is renowned for its tough competition and often testing conditions. This year’s line-up of 34 yachts are all local competitors, as travel restrictions have put paid to any overseas yachts or sailors taking part. However, this does show the strength of the Hong Kong sailing scene, of which the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club with its 170-year history, has been a driving force.
Running out of the Club’s Middle Island clubhouse, the 34 yachts will be competing in six divisions: IRC 0,1, 2, 3, and Cruiser, and HKPN. Racing over the three days will consist of a variety of windward/leeward, geometric and island courses, all overseen by a top-class race management team lead by RO Inge Strompf-Jepsen.
With plenty of racing pedigree on the water, it’s tough to predict the winners. In the IRC 0 fleet three TP52 are going head to head with Alpha+ (previously Luna Rossa) skippered by Shawn Kang is odds-on favourite, with their recent-generation yacht and a well-honed crew professional and semi-professionals, they will be challenged by Sam Chan, skipper and owner of Freefire, who has years of experience on this race track, and new kid on the Phoenix owned and raced by Robert Wiest, Victor Kuk and David Ho.
Winner of the IRC 1 is harder to predict with Ambush, Quest and Zannekin all being potential winners. The two Mills 42 are strong contenders with Ambush (“The Mighty Bush”) co-owned by Joachim Isler and Andrew Taylor going head to head with Quest co-owned by Helmuth Henning/David Kong who is bringing in the new talent from the Youth America’s Cup Team Agiplast to boost their chances. The highly competitive Zannekin (Kerr 46) owned by Marcel Leidts will be pushing hard and making sure that there is no room for errors in a highly competitive division that also .includes Red Eye skippered by David Mitchell.
IRC 2 is the biggest fleet with 11 yachts, and is more of a mixed bag as to who will come out top of the leader board. Hot favourite is probably Blue Bunny (King Mills 40) skippered by veteran sailor Nick Burns, but Mona Lai’s DEA III Fire (Mills 40) and Rampage (Tripp 40) owned by Kelvin Au Yeung, will be snapping at their heels, along with Kingsman (Sydney 38) co-owned by Gordon Liu and Cowen Chiu. Other competitors in the fleet are Day Dream, Full Tilt, Intrigue, Jinn, Kiasu, Victoria, and Wicked.
Favourite for IRC division 3 with nine competitors would have to be Whiskey Jack (J/109) skippered by Nick Southward, but he will be facing a stiff challenge from Dexter II (A35) skippered by experienced helms woman Mei Han Cheung and the aptly named Legende Dynamite 2 (J/105) skippered by Richard (“shouldn’t you be sailing a Beneteau?”) Allen. Other yachts in the fleet include Arcturus (Sunfast 3600) skippered by Dennis Chien, and Blu (Italia Yacht 9.98) owned by Alan Cheung along with Ding Dong, Goddess, Vsai One, and Zesst.
IRC Cruiser division ranges from the mighty Xena (X-55) down to the Dehler 42 Daydream. Racing will be ‘around the bushes’ rather round the cans, and thereare plenty of inlands on the south side of Hong Kong just waiting to be used as marks.
The HKPN fleet will not be racing on the Friday, but are saving their strength for the weekend when Amaze, Generations, H30 and Jibulai will also participate in gentlemanly ‘islands’ courses to see who has bragging rights for the coming year.
Competing yachts can expect the best of Hong Kong’s sailing conditions, with excellent breeze, blue skies, and warm waters, but social distancing restrictions have put paid to the hardstanding parties this year. the parties have been put on hold this year due to Covid restrictions. But after this year from hell all people really want to do is get out on the water, race hard and drink beer. If 15 to 20 knots of north-easterly breeze in shorts and t-shirt weather is your sort of sailing, watch this space!
The St James’s Place China Coast Regatta will be followed by the inaugural St. James's Place China Coastal Race, a Category 3 offshore race, no life-rafts starting The race will stay within Hong Kong waters so there is no requirement to ‘clear out’ boats or crew. Boats which compete in both the St. James's Place China Coast Regatta and the St. James's Place China Coastal Race will automatically be entered in the St. James's Place China Coast Race Week 2020 and will be eligible for prizes under IRC and HKPN handicap.