St. James’s Place China Coast Regatta 2020 – Day 1 Race Report

The Club’s first major Big Boat event of the season – the St. James’s Place China Coast Regatta got underway today with 30 yachts across six divisions competing in a variety of windward/leeward and island courses.

Under the influence of a northeasterly monsoon, this year St. James’s Place China Coast Regatta brought the best of Hong Kong’s sailing conditions; excellent breeze, blue skies, warm friendly waters and 10kts of northeasterly breeze to greet sailors southeast of Hong Kong's Lamma Island.

Race Officer Inge Strompf-Jepsen sent all IRC racers divisions on two windward/leeward race and three yachts from the IRC premier Cruising division were set an islands course around Beaufort Island and Ocean Mark 2.

Given this Sunday's forecast for lighter wind, race management decided to add another race in today - IRC Racer Divisions 0 and 1 were sent on a 16.5nm island course, sailing around Sung Kong and Beaufort while IRC Racer Divisions 2 and 3 were sent on a 10nm island course, sailing around Beaufort Island and finished at south of Stanley Peninsula.

Strompf-Jepsen was pleased with how Race Day 1 went saying “We are lucky the wind was kept steady today, it was around 10 to 13kts with little swell, almost perfect conditions, so we could get the start sequence going on efficiently. “

In the IRC Racer 0 division included three TP52s: Sam Chan’s FreeFire, Robert Wiest, Victor Kuk and David Ho’s Phoenix and Shawn Kang’s Alpha+. It was rare to see a split team for TP52s - two chose to sail down Beaufout channel rather than around Beaufort Island which cost them as they lost to TP52 Freefire who now leads the division with two bullets on the first day.

In IRC Racer Division 1, Marcel Liedts’ Ker 46 Zannekin has earned a 1-2-1 today leading two Mills 41s: Joachim Isler /Andrew Taylor’s Ambush and Helmuth Hennig / David Kong’s Quest.

Nick Burns’s Mills King 40 Blue Bunny took three bullets in the most competitive division, with 9 points in hand leading Noel Chan and Denis Ma’s Rampage in second place.  In IRC Racer 3, Nick Southward’s Whiskey Jack has a strong lead with 3 bullets as well.

In the IRC cruiser division, Mark Nie and Dominic Law’s Xena won both island courses, leading Sea Wings with 3 points.

Four more boats from HKPN division will also join the weekend action, they will be sent on a windward/leeward followed by an island course whilst the IRC Race Classes will be set more windward/leeward with the possibility of island course.