RN5: Anchor Watch

Last weekend was the annual Mirs Bay race, run by HHYC as part of the Typhoon series. It's essentially a coastal race, running from Port Shelter into Mirs Bay on the Hong Kong/Chinese border and stopping at Wong Shek Pier in Sai Kung Country Park for a barbeque and prize giving. Generally people anchor overnight then race back again the next day, though after this year some people might rethink that...

The race up was quite good fun - an easterly breeze providing a fetch for most of the way. There were many holes in the wind, and places were gained and lost by being in the right place at the right time! We thought we were flying (I was back on Strewth) after using a tidal eddy out of a bay, getting a puff of breeze, and setting the code zero to romp to the last island turning mark. We were miles ahead! However, turning the corner we dropped into a hole and were almost caught by Mandrake and Jelik V.

Port Shelter to Mirs bay - Course for IRC A.

After a Michelin starred BBQ (What steak... It's handy to have a restaurant general manager in your crew) and a quiet drink or three we retired to the boat, to find a north/north-easterly breeze throwing 30 knot gusts straight into the harbour. If you look at the map above you can see that it's not particularly well sheltered from that direction! 

Normal Wind direction in Hong Kong in August - notice nothing from the north!

"It's not normally like this" - and it actually isn't! However, it required anchor watches to check whether we were dragging, and to watch out for rogue catamarans sailing around their anchor chain. It didn't turn out to be a fun night, and everyone lacked sleep.

The race back the following day again gave us all conditions from zero knots on the start line to 18 knots at times, and we used every sail in the warbrobe. As downwind trimmer for much of the race, I was absolutely shattered by the end of the day - sail changes, high loads, concentration on the 25nm course, and new sail cloth materials completely wore me out. 

Mirs Bay to Port Shelter. Course for IRC A.

Still, it was an awesome course, and we got relatively high speeds out of the boat.  I wasn't really expecting the last sausage, and was incredibly grumpy by the end of the race. A beer and a 12hr sleep restored me.

RN4: Mark rounding photos

Thanks to the awesome photography of Joyce Ravara (Chaos Photos - some great shots! Apologies for borrowing this sequence...) here is the leeward mark rounding from last weekend!

Behind Merlin (we have the blue kite)

Coming into the leward mark rounding, and going wide - only just got mark room on Barnstormer outside us.

Rounding inside

Ahead!

And this is what I meant about bigger boats - that's me in the middle, with an 79ft yacht on my lee bow.

All photos (c) Chaos Photos

RN4: Line Honours in a class of two

I was a little shocked this weekend at the drop in fleet numbers - is it something to do with people leaving Hong Kong for August? Cowes Week? The forecast light wind? Whatever it was, we went from a fleet of eight Magics to a fleet of two.

However, it was still a fantastic couple of races. We (I) decided to go out early to check out where the wind was, and ended up about 30 mins early for the start... I'll factor that in next time. Promise. We determined that there were major wind variations as you moved north of Port Shelter Island, and decided that going right would pay.

Wind and marks in Port Shelter before the start of the first race

The race committee put the windward in underneath the island, but we stuck with our original plan and got a boat end start (at the second attempt!). Tacked off to starboard along with only three other boats and gained a lot on the first two thirds of the beat. However, with the mark so sheltered, the top third was very difficult and we ended up completely out of phase with the shifts. Rounded behind Steve on Merlin by about a minute and the gap stayed for the rest of the race.

Second race - similar strategy, much better start (first rank, and held until there was clear air to tack off), and just in front of Merlin at the top mark.The run was close, with Merlin just to leeward and able to get inside at the first leeward mark. We let him in, went wide, and were able to do a great gybe/drop and nip in inside them coming out of the rounding. From there it was as if we were match racing - covering tacks, and not letting him get away! We were helped by Frank (another Magic sailor, but driving a big boat) being happy to let us play silly buggers and keep out of our way...


After a momentary panic as we got a wrap on our final gybe to the line, we crossed for our first race win! It was a shame that only two were out, but I got plenty of chat from the race officer at the prize giving, as well as some shiny flags and a t-shirt. A good weekend's sailing!