This weekend offered was the first two races of the J-boats series. The weather was absolutely perfect with 10 knots of breeze and sunny conditions. The RO put the top mark right under shelter island which gave all sailors some exiting and challenging races.

All boats got off to a good start with some tacking over to port after a few minutes. Fly by wire kept going to the left hand side and picked up a nice lift which took them all the way to the top mark and rounded first. All boats got around within boat lengths and had a great fight all the way downwind. Black Magic made a nice gybe hoist and separated from the fleet, which later proved to be a bad move and saw most of the fleet pass ahead of them. All boats were close enough on the second upwind to make it really interesting. Fly by Wire seemed to be unbeatable and got a good lane through the shifts and kept their lead. BM had a better upwind than downwind and rounded just ahead of Merlin and Sidewinder going down for the last leg towards the finish. Merlin didn't give an inch and followed BM until they both had to gybe which game Merlin the chance to cover and pass. Sidewinder ignored them both and kept on going for a few boat lengths. As Merlin was approaching some big waves from a Junk, BM took the chance to heat it up and pass. During this internal fight Sidewinder managed to sail really fast and pass them both. But it was FbW who won by miles, sidewinder second and BM third.

The second race equally tricky, but what had worked on the first race was totally different in the second. The fleet was split all over the course. Sidewinder who went furthest right got some great breeze and were first around the mark. FbW squeezed in on port right ahead of Merlin and were red flagged. Frank who is an honest sailor took his penalty as soon as he could just after they had taken down their kite and rounded the downwind mark!! Sidewinder really found their groove and got some good leg on the other boys and held their lead all the way to the finish. Black Magic came in second followed by Fly by Wire (who yet again squeezed in ahead of Merlin, this time legal).

Full race result can be found here.

The third and forth race of the J-boats will be sailed the 19th of September.

The last race of the North Sails Saturday Series was sailed over the weekend, with 8 boats on the start line, blue skies and a sea breeze, which built to a steady 8.5 knots for the start of the first race. It was an even line most boats had a clean start. Peter Backe took his crew away from the black boat and tried his luck in the Longtze, however starting behind the bigger boats was never going to pay off. Fly By Wire had a much better start and lead around the first mark followed by Merlin, R2B2, Catch 22, Wild at Heart, Longtze Belle, Monsoon and Good Vibrations. As the boats were arrriving at the layline for the leward mark, R2 gave Merlin the room that they wanted to gybe early, only to be stabbed in the back after the gybe as Merlin, rather aggressivly took them out. However karma did come around as this little episode let a couple of boats through and Merlin had to gybe back to make the leward mark. Going up the next beat there was less drama and FBW was able to extend their lead. Merlin was trying to recover lost ground and hold their position at the top of the overall points board. LB also made up good time and R2 was recovering from doing their 720. At the finish FB had done enough to secure the lead. 2nd over the line was Longtze Belle, having found some good downwind pace followed by Merlin, Catch, R2, Monsoon (who had a good race to come 3rd on corrected time), Wild at Heart and Good Vibrations.

In the 2nd race the fleet got off to a clean start and with the wind down from the first race it was the boats who found the pressure who did well. First around the mark was FBW, who went up the middle of the beat followed by R2 who went further right, LB and Merlin chased up the leaderrs followed by Catch Wild at Heart, Good Vibrations and Monsoon. Going to the bottom mark FWB gybed a little before the layline, which allowed R2 to stand on and take the lead as the boats came together at the bottom mark. Going up the beat R2 went up the right hand side and FWB could only try and split tacks. Merlin followed R2 while LB tacked off and went to the right with FBW. Catch 22 followed by Good Vibrations, Wild at Heart and Monsoon. Going up the beat the decision to head to the left did not gain any ground and the positions still stood. Down the run the leaders covered the boats behind them and the positions stood to the finish. LB were able to make it 2 out of 2 on handicap.

Overall Merlin had done enough to take first place, followed by LB and R2.

New Season Drinks

Tuesday September 1st
7 - 10pm Happy Hour
Typhoon
37-39 Lockhart Rd, Wanchai

1 FREE DRINK FOR ALL WHO PAY MEMBERSHIP AT EVENT!