HONG KONG—The final race of the Hebe Haven Quest Yachting Typhoon Series 2014 took place on Saturday Aug 23 with 61 boats taking part.
After setting an initial course, wind died just before the start of the first race. Race Officer Rob Allen decided to move further out to sea and reset the Windward Mark towards Trio Island. A good breeze picked up and the sun shone for most of the proceedings.
A local storm over Sai Kung Town made for strange conditions as the fleet set out for the final race of the Typhoon series with winds coming unusually from the North.
In between this wind and the prevailing south easterly sea breeze there was a large hole with no wind at all which would have made the race a complete lottery.
Race Officer Allen explained the situation to the fleet and then decisively set off to locate the Committee boat securely off shore in the sea breeze. He managed to set a really good course and start the race just 45 minutes later. This decision produced a last race of the series that was as fair as possible and a fitting end to a hotly contested series.
Several sailors including Gaston Chan of “Calamansi” concurred with the reposition decision.
“The Race Officer did a good job in difficult circumstances. The wind died 2-minutes before the IRC-A start, and he AP’s [delayed] it.
“He shifted the whole race course to between Shelter and Trio where the new wind was. The whole procedure took only 45 minutes.”
Nearly all of the boats leading in the series continued to display good sailing capability to confirm series prizes, but with an additional discard allowed after Race-9 (8th race in the series) a few boats improved their positions. Sell Side Dream in IRC-B moved from 7th to 2nd place and in HKPN “Kiasu” and “Jive” both jumped 2-places to take 1st and 2nd in the series respectively.
IRC
“Jelik” again took Line Honours in IRC-A making an impressive spectacle speeding through the water with her 75ft hull and massive sails.
On Corrected time, “EFG Mandrake” continued her good form to win Race-9, “Signal 8” came 2nd with “Ambush” 3rd. The additional discard made no difference to the positions of “Madrake” (6-points) and “Signal 8” (13) who took 1st and 2nd respectively in the series but it did allow “Ambush” (18) to regain 3rd position in the series.
In IRC-B, “Mojito”, “Lighthorse” and “Stella” took the first 3-places in Race-9. “Mojito” won the series (9-points), “Sell Side Dream” (16) took 2nd place and “Stella” (18) was 3rd.
In IRC-C, “Talkinghead” won Race-9 ahead of “Vixen” and “Dexter II” to claim 1st place in the series (on count back) from “Dexter II” (both on 13-ponits). “Vixen” after missing Races-7 and 8 came 3rd (again on count back) from “Gambit” (both on 18-points).
In IRC-D, “St Happens” achieved her 3rd win of the series in Race-9 ahead of “Moll” and “Taxi” to take the series win with 9-points, “Taxi” took the series 2nd place on 12-points, just beating “Calamansi” (also on 12-points) on count back.
Sports Boats
“Merlin” logged her 5th win the series to finish on 7-points to take the series win, “Black Magic” finished 2nd place with 13 points and “Sidewinder” was 3rd on 15 points.
The finishing order in Race-9 was “Merlin”, “Sidewinder”, “Red Herring II” followed by Line Honours winner “Brace Brace Brace”.
HKPN
“Scintilla”, “Elites 99” and “Windseeker” took the first three places in Race-9 but Line Honours winner “Kiasu” won the HKPN series, “Jive” jumped to 2nd place and “Windseeker” took 3rd.
Next Race
The final race at Hebe Haven is the Port Shelter Regatta, a 2-day event on Saturday Sept 6 and Sunday Sept 7, 2014.
