St. James’s Place China Coast Regatta 2020 – Day 3 Race Report

A superb day of excellent conditions; 8 to 10kts of northeasterly breeze, sunshine and blue skies set the stage for the final races of St. James’s Place China Coast Regatta 2020. 34 boats came out for the Sunday action.

Racing got away with all IRC Racer divisions sailing one long islands course ranging in distance from 16.5 to 20nm. The islands course took the IRC Div 0 and Div 1 on a beat towards a windward mark and two ocean marks, rounding Sung Kong, Po Toi and Beaufort before finishing off south of Stanley Peninsula. The IRC Div 2 and Div 3 were sent to sail a similar course rounding Kung Kong and Beaufort.

The wind strengthened to 15 to 18 kts during the start sequence which saw some boats in IRC Div 2 and HKPN division getting a little excited and going over the line too early.

Shawn Kang’s TP52 Alpha+ bounced back in the final race, after learning a lesson from Day 1, and closely covered Sam Chan’s Freefire, coming away with a bullet in the island race, taking the division overall only one point ahead of Freefire after discard.

In the IRC Racer 1 division, Marcel Liedts’ Zannekin scored another bullet and with six wins out of seven, Zannekin ran away with first place, seven points ahead of Joachim Isler /Andrew Taylor’s Ambush.

In the biggest fleet, IRC Racer 2, Nick Burns’ Blue Bunny remained on top with an impressive seven wins, with Kelvin Au Yeung on Rampage in second overall and Nicolas Cohen-Addad on Jinn in third.

Although losing today’s island race to Blu, Nick Southward’s J-109 Whiskey Jack lifted the trophy for IRC Racer 3, five points ahead of Cheung Meihan’s Dexter II. Eva Leung’s Blu climbed to third place thanks to a bullet in the final race.

IRC Cruiser division sailed a 10nm islands course and Mark Nie and Dominic Law’s Xena won all island races lifting the trophy in their division.

HKPN were given one windward / leeward and an islands course of around 10nm around Beaufort Island. Sunny Leung ‘s Jibulai took two bullets and was declared overall winner in the division.

Thank you all for joining the St. James’s Place China Coast Regatta! The inaugural St. James’s Place China Coastal Race will start on 16 October, which is a Category 3 offshore race which starts and finishes in Hong Kong waters.

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.