China Coast Regatta 2022 - Day 1
The Club’s first major Big Boat event of the season - the China Coast Regatta - got underway today in perfect conditions across the race track with blue skies and a 16 to 18kts north easterly breeze and a lumpy sea to start the day. 21 boats took to the race track today, which was located southeast of Hong Kong’s Lamma Island. All IRC racing divisions were predominately sent on sailing three 1.1nm long windward-leeward races.
Even though the wind softened to around 11 kts and the sea calmed as the day progressed, conditions were still ideal for the best sailing day Hong Kong could offer.
Race Officer David Norton was pleased with how Race Day 1 went saying "The conditions were much better than I had expected; there was great wind for the first two races and the wind shifted right and dropped to 6kts at the end, but I think we made the most of the day. Although all boats had to work very hard in challenging conditions, we are one race ahead of schedule and well set for tomorrow. “
Among the five strong giants in IRC Racer 0, Sam Chan’s FreeFire made a striking fight back after the first race, taking two firsts to give him the Overall IRC Racer 0 Division title at the end of Day 1. Although struggling with a spinnaker issue during Race 1, Noel Chan’s Rampage88 maintained their steady performance and took 2nd place, trailing by only one point.
In the most competitive IRC Racer 1 division, Andrew Taylor / Denis Martinet's newly launched Cape 31 Capitano made a stunning first reveal. The first Cape 31 Orion DYP was transported to Hong Kong in 2019 just to participate in China Coast Regatta, now we have Capitano, taking two second places of the day and is now in overall second place with 3 points behind Nick Burns' King 40 Witchcraft.
In IRC Racer 2 fleet, Nicolas Cohen-Addad’s Jinn has earned a 2-1-1 today leading Stephen Jones and James Verner’s Nightshift.
It was a tough battle between IRC Racer 3 Simon Wong’s Dexter II and Nick Southward’s Admiralty Harbour Whiskey Jack, Dexter II took two bullets followed by Admiralty Harbour Whiskey Jack and Andrew Pidden’s Juice.
Eight HKPN entries will join the action tomorrow. The forecast looks a bit lighter and more shifty conditions and the race management team have planned one windward-leeward course and an islands course. Hopefully all yachts will be enjoying an easier day. Racing starts at 1030hrs.
