The second weekend of the Sportsboats Championship promised excellent conditions with heavy breeze. This, however, was never to be seen. Instead we had a medium easterly breeze with the typical tricky wind shifts that can only be found in the Shelter Cove area. Five more boats joined the race for the second weekend, and so with 16 in the fleet this is the biggest class in the Hong Kong championships this year. 

The first start was a clean with Shenanigans getting a good pin end start heading out on the left side of the course. The majority of the fleet were holding on to the left hand side upwind and the boats that tacked early really missed out on the last shift. It was a very close rounding at the firstmark between Shenanigans, Merlin, Sidewinder and Fly by Wire. Black Magic notonly dusted off the old kite, but also made sure it was washed and clean before hosting it….the right way up….unlike Merlin!

Although the winds were very tricky the top of the fleet stayed close and Merlin crossed the line first just seconds ahead of Shenanigans, having ducked behind them just yards from the finish. Sky’s the Limit was close enough behind to win on corrected time. But then it was tight!!! Tornado and Sidewinder managed to get in on the same corrected time and Fly by Wire and What’s the Story had a dead heat!

The second race started off with a battle for the pin end ofthe line. Black Magic got off the line as they were shot out of a gun and protected the left hand side followed by the rest of the fleet. The winds were much steadier and the boats that could cover the left hand side did well. BM held their lead and won the race in front of Fly by Wire and Shenanigans.

 Sunday morning was rainy with very little breeze. But the after a cup of coffee and refueling the engine the rain stopped and the easterly breeze kicked in with about 8 knots of breeze. Black Magic crossed the start line first, but were called over and had to go back. Sidewinder went straight in to the shifts and managed to tack up the middle of the course infront of the fleet. It was all about keeping in sync with the wind shifts and if you missed one you lost a lot of places. The first downwind was also tricky and Tornado squared out their spinnaker and went down in the middle of the course with the only gust that was there and rounded just behind R2B2. The second upwind R2B2 focused on covering the right hand side of the course and made sure they were well on the lay line before they tacked. This turned out to be too far and BM and Tornado got ahead inside. BM tried to shake off Tornado, but they were hanging on as if they were on a tow. BM crossed the line firstwith Tornado just behind who was well ahead on corrected time.

The second race was yet again a fight for the pin end of the line. Merlin and Fly by Wire were over the line, but only Merlin restarted.This time R2B2 wasn’t going to give an inch and they got the lead early. It was tricky all the way with the wind shifting up to 40-50 degrees. R2B2 held it all the way and won the race. Sky’s the limit were close behind and finished second on corrected followed by Shenanigans.

Before the third race the wind change by 80 degrees and they re-set the course. This time the pin end what not only favored, but also impossible to make the pin on starboard tack. A few boats managed to make a port tack start by the pin and looked very promising before the RO cancelledthe race. The wind was all over the place and eventually died out and the third race was cancelled.

Re-sail

It is the intention of the Notice of race to sail 10 races and so with only six races sailed we will now try and re-sail four of the races on March the 15^th. More info about this will be sent out ASAP

Provisional results can be found under the results section.

Sportsboat Championship - Race 1 & 2

After some hectic weighing in race 1 got under way in a 5-7knot south easterly. Adam lead off the pin end whilstGareth was well over …at that stage there wasn’t enough fog to hide his blunder! Adam and Steve headed hard left and had a comfortable lead which they maintained tothe finish with Jens third.However on handicap the SB3 did well with the other tiny tot melges 20 in 2nd. 

In race 2 Steve lead from the pin end but this time headed right covering the bilk of the fleet, and it was the Mumm who had gone hard left to lead at the windward mark justahead of Jens and Adam. On the next beat the fog really closed in leading to a shortened course and the Mumm cleaning up. Adam just pipped Jens on the line whilst others missed it altogether. The melges 20 had to beat back to finish and  Howard Winn went all the way to theuniversity to get his bearings finishingjust 15 seconds before the cut off.

Sunday dawned even foggier and this time the RO let us have an extended breakfast before calling the racing off at Midday.  It’s likely that some of these races may be re-sailed so bring an extra sandwich on Sunday! Otherwise the series will only have one discard..... Hopefully the Longtze walkabout teams will be out in force to mix up the results a bit. Welcome home guys!

 Here are the overall results after two races. For the exact times have a look here .