The 2015 Edmond de Rothschild Autumn Regatta took place over the weekend (Sept 19-20) with 77 boats taking part over 11-classes. There was 1-race on Saturday and 2-races on Sunday, all taking place in Victoria Harbour.
The wind was fickle and of low force on Saturday and for race-1 on Sunday, but conditions suddenly improved for the start of the second race providing an invigorating last hour of racing allowing the regatta an earlier than expected finish.
The race on Saturday extended from Kowloon Bay to Tai Koo Shing on a light easterly breeze, but the direction was not consistent neither was the strength resulting in slow progress and a number of the IRC-Division 2 boats failing to finish within the 3-hour allotted time. There were also start delays for some classes waiting for adequate wind to arrive..
On Sunday, the races took a different shape, although still starting in Kowloon Bay, the start position was close to Kai Tak with the courses set to the south east, towards Causeway Bay, producing much traffic congestion in the rather restricted area and at times many boats were trying to round the Leeward mark at the same time. In the first race (race-2 of the Regatta) many boats proceeded at a very slow pace making navigation around the mark difficult. But for race-3, the racing was fast and exciting.
The top three performers in each Division were Ambush, Lighthorse, and Sell Side Dream in IRC Division-1; Talkinghead, Calamansi and Andiamo in IRC Division-2; Zephyr, Kam Loong and Dragonfly (Dragon Class); No Name, Gunga Din and Fuzzy Duck (Etchells Class); Puff N Stuff, Noisy Forefather and Tomffoolery (Flying Fifteen Class); Impala 1, Rainbow Chaser and Caviar (Impala Class); Footloose, JeNa PaBe and Sail La Vie (J80 Class); Windfall, Solstice and Panache (Pandora Class); Schannuleke, Bandolero and Scallywag (Ruffian Class); and R2B2, San Long and Ricochet (Sportboats).
