China Coastal Race

WORDS: VIVIAN NGAN AND NIKKI CLARINGBOLD | IMAGES: 小四哥 | VIVIAN NGAN

Due to the cancellation of this year’s biennial Hong Kong to Vietnam Race, the replacement event, the China Coastal Race, was held on Saturday 23 October, a Category 3 offshore race in Hong Kong waters, exploring the beautiful islands around Hong Kong. Great conditions greeted the competitors with 13 to 17kts of northerly breeze for the start at 1100hrs off Shek O Rock. Nine yachts set off on the 100nm race, making short work of the first loop of the course up the Hong Kong coastline to Basalt Island before returning to round Waglan Island.

here were some varying conditions on the first beat up to Basalt Island – with the breeze proving to be very hard to pick around the Nine Pins area where Joachim Isler and Andrew Taylor’s Mill 41 Ambush managed to momentarily fall into a hole of a measly 2kts of breeze. However, once past the Port Shelter area on the second beat, the breeze proved to be much more stable. The long 28nm leg up to Ping Chau Island took the fleet through to the northern most extreme Hong Kong waters. As the boats settled in the sailors needed to closely monitor their whereabouts on the course when in proximity to the Hong Kong waters boundary as of course under the current Covid measures, anyone coming in over that invisible line might well find themselves being sent to Penny’s Bay for quarantine!

As the forecasted Northeasterly Monsoon began to take effect, the breeze gradually built and by late afternoon the fleet was enjoying 20+kts. With a considerable amount of general coastal shipping and fishing boats being spotted on the beat up to Ping Chau, the fleet was well prepared for the need to keep a watchful eye out for the expected traffic throughout the long night.

By 1700hrs Ambush was experiencing 22kts which enabled her to take a significant jump on the rest of the fleet. Reveling in the breezy conditions she reached Ping Chau before sunset at 1800hrs. As the breeze picked up to 25kts, Ambush pushed downwind making great time in the breezy conditions on the long downwind leg back down to the Sham Shui Pai mark off Cheung Chau via the Wind tower mark. Passing Waglan Island on the way to Sham Shui Pai at 2030hrs, the full cloud cover began to break up for a chance to take advantage of the full moon to light up the course. Container ship traffic picked up considerably at the bottom end of the course in the Lamma region and the fleet was kept busy needing to be alert to the fast-moving traffic.

Ambush put in an impressive performance to take Line Honours at 00h 42m 58s on 24 October and taking overall 1st place in IRC division, backing up their IRC Racer 1 win in the China Coast Regatta the week prior.

As the remainder of the fleet raced on throughout the night, Nick Southward’s J-109 Admiralty Harbour Whiskey Jack finished 3h12m behind Ambush, taking 2nd place overall and Nicolas Cohen-Addad’s J122e Jinn took 3rd place overall with a corrected time of 17h 37m 53s. After a few hours of rest, Jinn went on to participate in the Waglan series on 24 October – what a passion for sailing!

Tim Bruce and Charles Lam’s Sun Odyssey 49 Diamond Queen finished at 08h 25m 00s on 24 October, lifting the HKPN division trophy as the heavy conditions took their toll and saw the retirement of the two other boats in the division. Humble skipper Tim said they won as the last man standing, “We were very fortunate in this race because we had a steady

Coastal Race 2021 23 to 24 October 2021

YACHT NAME SAIL NO. OWNER DESIGN

IRC DIVISION

Ambush

HKG2388 Joachim Isler / Andrew Taylor Mills 41 Admiralty Harbour Whiskey Jack HKG2102 Nick Southward J-109

Jinn HKG2509 Nicolas Cohen-Addad J122e

RATING FINISH ELASPED TIME CORRECTED TIME PLACE

1.234 24/10/2021 0:42 13:42:58 16:55:32 1 1.019 24/10/2021 3:54 16:54:01 17:13:17 2 1.093 24/10/2021 3:07 16:07:52 17:37:53 3

Zesst Neo One Krampus

HKPN DIVISION

Diamond Queen Generations Happy Ours HKG2207 Henning Mueller HKG2390 Stefan Fillip HKG2159 Brendan Dunne Sunfast 3600 Neo 400+ Anteros 36 1.041 24/10/2021 4:12 17:12:00 17:54:19 4 1.209 24/10/2021 3:05 16:05:00 19:26:41 5 1.096 24/10/2021 5:54 18:54:00 20:42:52 6

HKG2060 Tim Bruce / Charles Lam Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 49 1129 24/10/2021 8:25 21:25:00 18:58:11 1 HKG2370 Eddy Lee Beneteau Sense 46 1196 RET RET RET

18 to 23kts of wind almost for all of the race (in fact the highest wind speed we saw was 28kts). These conditions suit a heavy cruiser with minimal sail choices (mainly furling genoa) like Diamond Queen. For a large part of the Race we had both the genoa and main well reefed and were still doing between 8 and 10kts over the water (our hull speed is roughly 10kts). This kept all hands (at least those who weren’t seasick) busy for almost the entire race. To add to the fun, although the HKPN division had only three boats we were well matched against Generations, which has a similar handicap and therefore gave us someone to try and beat over the water.”

Henning Muller’s Sunfast 3600 Zesst crossed the finishing line at 0412hrs. Henning was glad that this time the conditions were better “The race was a lot of fun, especially with the wind being much stronger than forecasted. After a good start heading north became more challenging with just having the J1 onboard, we were overpowered and had to reef the main early. After Ping Chau going south was at first a lot of fun in close to 20kts wind but became increasingly challenging with many fishing boats trawling, we finished and loved every moment of it apart from hitting a fishing net. We will definitely join the next races and encourage others to join.” Diamond Queen’s Tim Bruce also said he would definitely recommend this kind of long-distance race to other sailors. “These races give big boats and their crew the opportunity to practice their skills required for offshore sailing (heavier seas, navigational challenges, night sailing) without the pain of having to clear the crew and boats out of Hong Kong, having to worry about taking time off work and scheduling flights. Plus, with the security that if something does go wrong, reliable emergency services are close at hand. In many ways these races are more challenging than the Philippines/Hainan races because the navigator/ tactician must be constantly on the ball looking for the next mark, avoiding crossing the Hong Kong border and being aware of the tide.”

We would like to extend a huge thank you to supporting sponsor St. James’s Place Wealth Management and partner Peroni for their continued support of the China Coastal Race. Without them, our events would not be able to continue to grow!

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