HKISC Day 2 - Backe bites back

The Hong Kong Invitational Sportsboats championships ended today with a clear winner in the mixed SBR fleet. Peter Backe on Black Magic answered his critics with a superb display of downwind speed, picking up three consecutive bullets to push the overnight leader Frank van Kempen (Fly by Wire) into second place. 

(c) Cynthia Law/HKSA

 While the wind didn't quite reach the survival conditions of Saturday, a steady 18 knots meant that huge gains were available to those willing to live on the edge downwind, and some spectacular broaches were seen at both ends of the fleet. Brace Brace Brace, sailed by Paul Murphy, was seen after some gybes with crew sitting on the keel – if it was a dinghy, it might be called “capsized”! 

(c) Cynthia Law/HKSBA

With two days of strong winds it was clear which boats had been well maintained, as gear failure started to take its toll. A broken lower shroud ended Jens-Erik Olsen's (Red Herring) quest for a top three position, and a few broken mast tracks and lifting chainplates caused varying degrees of concern. Big gains on the second day were made by Northern Light (David Knight) and Catch 22 (Mark Bennett) by managing to sail all the races. The black Longtze of Gaetan Verhegge (Exocet) continued its storming pace by beating many of the Magic 25s on elapsed as well as corrected time.

The J80 fleet continued to be close, with a single point separating the top two boats. John Hodgson (J Chi) celebrated a hard earned victory with another bottle of Grey Goose Vodka for first place, with Steve Trebitsch on Jazz not quite doing enough to sneak past him. 

Peter Backe thanked the RHKYC for organising a fantastic regatta, and proposed that the event become an annual fixture for Asian sportsboats. With fabulous windy sailing conditions (and an improved economic climate!), it is hoped that next year will see a return of the foreign contingent and the same high quality competition that this year has enjoyed.

(c) Cynthia Law/HKSBA

Overall Results:

Sportsboats

1, Black Magic, Peter Backe, 7pts
2, Fly By Wire, Frank van Kempen, 10pts
3, Exocet, Gaetan Verhegge, 22pts

J80

1, J Chi, Jonathan Hodgson
2, Jazz, Simon Blore
3, Hakwati, Dan Tulberg

HKISC Day 1

The Hong Kong Invitational Sportsboats Championships started with a bang with strong winds, multiple breakages, and lots of very fast downwind legs. Race Officer Russ Parker set a mixture of windward/leeward and geometric courses off the coast of Lamma Island testing the reaching (and broach recovery) skills of the fleet.

(c) Joyce Ravara/HKSBA

Peter Backe and Frank van Kempen lived up to their pre-event billing by battling for the lead in the sportsboats fleet, each winning two races and setting up a match race for the overall victory tomorrow. The J80 fleet looks like a competition between the North Sails Hong Kong loft, with John Hodgson (crewed by Tim Somerville) just edging out Steve Trebitsch and Simon Blore on Jazz.

Most of the sportsboat fleet trialled new kites provided by Zoke and with winds topping at 25 knots they were all grateful for the crispy sailcloth. 

A total of 24 boats took part in the first four races of the championships, with three more to come. The Sportsboat Association is very grateful for the organisation of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club and the sponsorship of Grey Goose Vodka, who provided day prizes to the top competitors.

Results after Day 1:
Sportsboats
1. Fly by Wire, Frank Van Kempen 6pts
2. Black Magic, Peter Backe 7pts
3. Exocet, Gaetan Verhaegge 19pts

J80
1. J Chi, John Hodgson 5pts
2. Jazz, Simon Blore 8pts
3. Hakwakti, Dan Tulborg 12pts

HKISC - Northern Light preparation...

Right, off to prep my boat by putting the stickers on - it's all about the photos. I promised ages ago to put up the new boat graphics, but things have beeen a little downgraded since then - anyway, here they are:

This is on the back of the t-shirts, but boat graphics are purely red tape! 

Team this weekend should be pretty fast, but we're rather hoping for 8-10knts as we're 70kg under weight. Given the forecast for 18-20knts, we may be a little slow upwind! The problem with the Lamma racetrack is that is purely a boatspeed venue with very constant wind direction and pressure, so no chance to shift hop as we normally do in Port Shelter! Still, I can't wait: 18knts downwind in a swell will be awesome, however light the crew, and we've got about 15 downwind legs to do. With a brand new kite.

HKISC - the excitement mounts

So while it's not quite what was planned (no shipping deal so few (no?) overseas entrants) we're still looking forward to a awesome weekend (13th/14th) of sportsboats racing. With the promise of sponsored kites for the mixed SBR fleet we've got 13 Magics racing, 2 Longtzes, an FT10 as well as the Hugh Welbourn/DSS "Brace Brace Brace".

Possibly the best Magic fleet turnout worldwide since the heyday of the HK fleet in terms of numbers, there is also some talent at the top end of the fleet. The favourite has to be reigning HK Magic Champion Frank van Kempen on "Fly by Wire", but he can expect to be pushed very hard by Peter Backe ("Black Magic") who has been pushing the envelope of sail development and Steve Bourne ("Merlin") who has finally quit complaining about the holes in his sails and brought a new set. Dark horses (literally - who would order an entirely black machine and then sail it in the HK summer sun?!) are the guys on "Bracex3", who have finally started showing some serious pace in strong breeze. Helmed (I think) by HK 470 Olympic contender Sam Sakai, the innovative horizontal lifting foil might prove to be the weapon it was promised to be. Or will it be difficult to handle in the expected 1m swell and fail to correct out the 5mins it gives to most of the rest of the fleet?

Reduced to a weekend event, with 7 races in forecast 17-20knt winds on the "world's" race  course off Lamma in the South China Sea, there should still be plenty of excitement. Oh yes, there are also some J80s racing in a one design fleet as well - almost forgot...

Results online here:
http://www.rhkyc.org.hk/article.aspx?c=2&a=1577
and tracks will be published here asap:
http://www.rhkyc.org.hk/article.aspx?c=2&a=1522