Coastal Race

Coastal Race – Persistence Prevails!

WORDS: VIVIAN NGAN AND NIKKI CLARINGBOLD | IMAGES: VIVIAN NGAN | CAMERON FERGUSON | NICK SOUTHWARD |

Persistence prevails when all else fails! It was forecasted to be light winds for the first day of the Coastal Race as 17 boats started off Shek O Rock at 1100hrs in a 3kts southerly breeze eventually leading to only six boats managing to finish the 83nm racecourse. A marathon coastal race that was a true test of perseverance and endurance!

As a replacement race of the Rolex China Sea Race, deferred from 2020 to 2021 and eventually cancelled due to Covid-19, the Coastal Race was scheduled for Easter Saturday, 3 April. Along with the usual offshore race entries including the winner of China Coastal Race Jinn, Whiskey Jack and Ambush, a variety of cruisers joined the Easter action, including four yachts from Aberdeen Boat Club and Discovery Bay Yacht Club. Also amongst the entries were several shorthanded crews – two double-handed entries Concorde and Tuatahi Decathlon, and one single-handed entry Blue One.

Race Officer Ailsa Angus opted for an 83nm racecourse around the beautiful islands of Hong Kong, with the fleet first sailing down to Lamma, along the southern shore of Soko Islands, then continuing on up to Nine Pin and Shek Ngau Chau before finishing off Tung Lung Chau. The breeze remained light and challenging during the first half of the race. The fleet searched for any bit of breeze to keep their boats rolling out of the start. The leading boat Ambush elected to head inshore towards the tip of Cape D’Aguilar and leaving Kau Pei Chau to port, while others in the fleet opted to head between Kau Pei Chau and Po Toi in search of breeze. Managing to sail past Lamma in 12kts of steady breeze, Ambush inevitably saw the breeze die at the bottom of Soko Island, leaving her wallowing just 200m off the westward SKLMP mark – in a building tidal current, going backwards she opted to anchor for over 6 hours.

Before the tide turned on 2100hrs on Saturday, many boats dropped their anchor, broadcast music and enjoyed a nice supper. A group of finless porpoises provided much needed light entertainment for others. “We were joined by a large school of Hong Kong’s rare finless porpoises which currently number only around 220. They joined us, silently going about their day,” said Nikki Claringbold on board Ambush.

Myra Kwok, a new crew on board Daydream was amazed by the wildlife as well. “We saw many jellyfish along the way, and we even saw sea sparkle out of the darkness.”

Prevails!

PAULINE ROBICHON

Most of the fleet retired in the early hours of Sunday 4 April after hours of waiting and wallowing around the westward mark. Nick Southward from Whiskey Jack (who retired at 0018hrs on 4 April) said “When the routing says ETA at Po Toi is 2000hrs tonight you know it is time to retire.”

Pascal Martin, skipper of Legende II who managed to finish the race, admitted that they did have a one faltering moment. “We definitely thought about retiring between 8pm and midnight, when our boat was moving backward… particularly as we saw other boats abandoning the race. But we knew things could only get better, so we hung around.”

However, Wicked seemed determined to continue despite the retiring domino effect and carried on. “Once we decided to start the race it didn't make sense for us to retire. We didn’t even mention the idea on the boat… and to be honest I was personally disappointed that so many crews did. It was planned to be a long race as at first it

The second part of the race was a totally different story, with the yachts that continued through to the second day enjoying breeze up to 30kts. Pascal Martin from Legende II summarised their journey: “The wind picked up gradually in the morning, shifting direction 180 degrees, and as we passed Lamma on the way back, it was up to 15 kts+, then 20kts around Po Toi, with nasty gusts, and all the way through to Shek Ngau Chau, the ultimate northern Mark of the race. The most memorable moment was to turn around Shek Ngau Chau, when the wind almost died down again and we thought we were going to be stuck all over again. Fortunately, it picked up and we had a nice breeze until the Finish mark.” The sudden wind change brought some excitement on board Wicked. Pauline Robichon said, “We didn’t have any battery charge left on the boat and had to sail without any navigation device and nearly faced two MOBs at the same time. On Sunday morning we wanted to change our jib because the wind was building strongly, and we were overpowered. One of our crew members went to attach the new jib and fell down to the leeward rail while the boat was heeling with big waves. Another crew member went to help him and fell on him instead. Luckily those two are strong men and managed to come up without being MOB.”

Diamond Queen crossed the finishing line at 15h 25m 23s on 4 April, unfortunately as they missed a mark, Line Honours was awarded to Wicked who finished one hour and 21 minutes later. Wicked also took out 1st place in IRC division with Daydream, skippered by Sunny Chai, in 2nd Place. The only single-handed entry in the race, James Dagge, managed to sail his Mini Transat Blue One to a finish on Sunday at 19h 37m 00s, taking the HKPN division first place with a corrected time 21 minutes ahead of Pascal Martin’s Legende II. Generations, skippered by Eddy Lee, took 3rd place of HKPN division; his crew was full of praise for the coastal race. “It gave us practice on coastal offshore training, night sailing and team/crew building on a slightly longer period. This has given us a guided experience/trial if the crews are capable of strong wind and open sea condition within the safety environment of Hong Kong waters.

Coastal Race 2021 – Starts 3 April 2021

YACHT NAME SAIL NO. OWNER DESIGN RATING FINISH ELASPED TIME CORRECTED TIME PLACE

IRC DIVISION

Wicked

HKG2171 DS Cheung Daydream HKG2272 Sunny Chai Mumm 36 Mod Dehler 42

Ambush HKG2388 Joachim Isler / Andrew Taylor Mills 41

Jinn

HKG2509 Nicolas Cohen-Addad Krampus HKG2159 Brendan Dunne J122 E Gp Anteros 36

Neo One HKG2390 Stefan Fillip Neo 400+

Palaemon II HKG2240 Guy Malpas Jeanneau 469

Whiskey Jack HKG2102 Nick Southward Zesst HKG2207 Henning Mueller J-109 Sunfast 3600

HKPN DIVISION

Blue One GBR241 James Dagge Mini Transet 1.069 4/4/2021 16:46 29:46:14 31:49:29 1 1.096 4/4/2021 17:00 30:00:10 32:47:35 2 1.236 RET RET RET

1.094 RET 1.097 RET RET RET RET RET

1.205 RET RET RET

1.055 RET RET RET

1.019 RET 1.042 RET RET RET RET RET

1228 4/4/2021 19:37 32:37:00 26:33:39 1

Legende II HKG1508 Pascal Martin

Beneteau Oceanis 51.1 1107 4/4/2021 16:48 29:48:00 26:55:11 2 Generations HKG2370 Eddy Lee Beneteau Sense 46 1186 4/4/2021 19:45 32:45:19 27:37:06 3 Diamond Queen HKG2060 Tim Bruce / Charles Lam Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 49 1129 RET RET RET Concorde HKG1403 Patrick Delpy Dehler 38 1129 RET RET RET Ffreefire HKG1892 Sam Chan Nelson Marek 68 799 RET RET RET Happy Ours HKG2190 Christopher Wong / Spencer Suen Hanse 470 1077 RET RET RET Tuatahi Decathlon HKG2334 Philippe Grelon Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 47 1191 RET RET RET

It was a nice long weekend out with good food, open sea racing with nature.”

Pauline Robichon from Wicked also highly recommended this race to other sailors. “Racing is a passion for our crew, and it makes us happy! These kinds of longer races are special to us. Mentally challenging as you must deal with the team, be better organised for them and work on the navigation strategy for several days. It’s a great way too to discover further places around Hong Kong. We will definitely join long distance races again.” Pascal Martin, skipper of Legende II shared the same opinion, “Yes definitely, it’ s fun to take the challenge: navigation, sail handling in a variety of conditions, night sailing.”

For Generations, one of the most memorable moments that would be the envy of most sailors, “Our 3 Star Chef offered us a cupper at the top round mark (SNC), hand filter coffee and hot afternoon tea was excellent with hot cross buns. Chef is our best of friends in the cold windy open sea, a luxury on a different scale.”

Next time, bring your own Three Star Chefs on board for long distance race; it could be your secret weapon of endurance.

James Dagge’s pursuit of his Mini Transat Race dream

James Dagge who has competed internationally for Hong Kong in the Finn Class has shifted his attention to the Mini Transat Race, a solo transatlantic yacht race run biannually in odd-numbered years.

James shares his passion of his Mini Transat and his memorable moments of the race:

“My boat is a Mini Transat, designed by Mark Mills, it’s all carbon fiber and has a canting keel and twin daggerboards. They are pretty simple boats, 6.5m long, 3m wide, 2m draught and a 2m rotating bowsprit. The whole class is built for a race from France to Brazil, 4000nm solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

I shipped this boat to Hong Kong from the UK at the start of this year to use as a training boat locally and I have a new one getting built in France with a scow bow hull shape, but with the Covid restrictions I can’t get over there, so bringing a boat to me was the next best option.

The overall plan was to do the Mini Transat race in 2023 but due to the lack of training opportunities in Europe because of Covid, it looks like that will have to be pushed out to the 2025 edition of the race. I primarily brought this boat here so I can train the solo sailing aspect which is very difficult. There are no creature comforts on these boats and indeed no bed, not even anywhere for me to lie flat, no galley, no head, not even any paint inside the boat to save on weight. It’s just a carbon shell. So that’s something I can train on here on my own without needing the fleet racing aspect of training I would get in Europe. I would really like to be the first Hong Kong person to do the Mini Transat and there are plenty of opportunities for me to train here and I want to maximise those.

My training plan involves joining as many local offshore races as possible, once the border restrictions are eased then I will be sailing to the Philippines and back to practice the longer distance legs and other places where I can get a combination of long distance and straight lines. Now I am sailing a couple of times a week out in the area of the Nine Pins to Mirs Bay to make the most of the good breeze, big waves and less shipping.

I really enjoyed the Easter Coastal race from a challenge point of view. I didn’t sleep at all during the race and it was quite tough but I have done many long offshore races before so it wasn’t unusual. I really hope another one can be run soon, hopefully in more than 3kts of wind though so I can really demonstrate the full potential of these little boats. Surfing downwind in 25kts is what they were designed to do!