Volvo China Coast Regatta 2023 – What a great finish!

The north easterly monsoon finally arrived bringing the most ideal sailing conditions Hong Kong could offer for the final day of the Volvo China Coast Regatta. The Race Management team saw 8 to 10kts of breeze at the race area South East of Lamma Island.

All IRC racer divisions were sent on two windward/leeward courses and one island course while the PHS division was given one windward/leeward followed by an island course of 16.5nm taking them around Waglan and Sung Kong before finishing off of Stanley.

Throughout the second race, the breeze continued to build with an average of 12 to 13kts, gusting up to 15knts; a perfect way to conclude the regatta.

At the end of three days of racing and having completed their scheduled seven races, all IRC divisions enjoyed one discard. Noel Chan's Rampage 88 took five bullets holding strong on to their 1st place overall in IRC Racer 0 division. Dominic Law’s Happy Go took the win in the final Island courses and earned themselves a 2nd place and the Philippines entry, Emerson Villena’s Standard Insurance Centennial 3, came back strong to take 3rd place overall.

In the IRC Racer 1 division, William Liu's Seawolf won all three of their races today and walked away with 1st place overall in the division. Marcel Liedts' Zannekin was only 0.5 points behind in 2nd place followed by Bo Wu and Kiki XinQi Lu's Unicorn in 3rd.

The standings for IRC Racer 2 remained the same as they have been since the start; Nick Burns' King 40 Witchcraft won all seven races giving him a convincing win overall win in the division. Andrew Taylor and Denis Martinet's Cape 31 Capitano and David Kong's Cape 31 Out of Africa was fighting neck to neck today. They were both tied at 16 points but after a countback, Capitano took second overall.

For the IRC Racer 3 division, although Nick Southward's Admiralty Harbour Whiskey Jack took the win in today's final Island Race, Andrew Pidden’s Juice were still five points ahead, giving them the overall win. Henning Muller’s Zesst got third overall.

In the PHS division, Johnson Yuen’s Zoe took the trophy with two bullets with Carl Wilkinson's Lisa Elaine in second place followed by Patrick Kwan’s DBX2.

Race Officer Inge Strompf-Jepsen commented that "we were lucky to have wind to finish all of the scheduled races; we sent the PHS class off on a longer Island course and so that all the boat would finish together at around 1530hrs.”

We hope that everyone enjoyed the three days of racing and the social events - we're looking forward to seeing you all next year!