China Coast Regatta Day 1 Race Report

After the passing of two tropical storms in the space of a week, the first day of the rescheduled China Coast Regatta 2021 saw 6 to 8kts of easterly breeze to start the first race.

21 boats took to the race track which was located southeast of Hong Kong’s Lamma Island. All IRC racing divisions were sent off on a windward / leeward to start the day’s action with no major incidents taking place on the race track.

With the rain starting to kick in and a building breeze throughout Race 2 it was up to 20kts at the end of second race, absolutely soaking all sailors and the Race Management team alike.

The TP52 division and IRC Racer 1 were sent on a 20nm Island course, sailing around Sung Kung, Po Toi and Beaufort before finishing at Stanley while IRC Divisions 2 and 3 were sent a shorter course of 16.5nm around Sung Kung and Beaufort.

In the TP52 division, there was head to head competition between Sam Chan’s FreeFire, Noel Chan's Rampage88 and Shawn Kang’s Alpha+, with Alpha + taking two bullets.

In IRC Racer 1, William Liu’s Ker 42 Custom Seawolf 2 earned a 1-2, leading two Mills 41 yachts: Joachim Isler /Andrew Taylor’s Ambush and Helmuth Hennig / David Kong’s Quest.

James Verner’s Judel Vrolijk Custom 36 Nightshift took a 2-1 in the most competitive division, with 2 points in hand leading Nick Burns’ King Mills 40 Witchcraft in second place. In IRC Racer 3, Andrew Pidden ‘s J99 Juice took two bullets leading Dexter II in second place.

Race Officer Inge Strompf-Jepsen was pleased with how Race Day went saying “today started a bit slowly in terms of wind and weather and some teams do not have full crew, but we will have three windward/leeward courses for tomorrow in forecasted heavier conditions. The Island course lasted for around 2.5 hours. I hope everyone has a good rest to prepare for tomorrow’s racing”

A few more boats from IRC divisions and six boats from HKPN will join the weekend’s action.