HONG KONG—The Hebe Haven Yacht Club UK Sailmakers Summer Saturday Series 2015 of 9-races commenced with two geometric course races on Saturday June 13 and will continue at fortnightly intervals until August 8. This series of races which take place inside Port Shelter (except for an Islands Course for Race-5), provides enjoyable Saturday afternoon racing for hardened sailors but also allows less experienced crews the opportunity to gain racing experience. Day-1 attracted 32 boats for the races.
With three well balanced starts per race: IRC and Sportsboats (12 boats), HKPN (11) and Dragon Class (9) competitors and two races during the afternoon produced an enjoyable afternoon. Race Officer of the day, Gerry Daughton had some difficulty in deciding a suitable course as a large Hong Kong Sailing Federation flotilla had already staked out a number of courses for its “Festival of Sport” Regatta, but after some manoeuvring a windward/leeward course was set to suit the southerly airstream.
Races proceeded in orderly fashion with all boats completing a two-lap course. The IRC and Sportboats started first completing a longer course. Sportboats, although sailing as a separate Division were competitive on time with all but the fastest IRC boats.
IRC
In Race-1, “Lighthorse” took line honours followed by “Stella”, “Vixen”, and “Avant Garde”.
On corrected time “Lighthorse” took 1st place, “Moll” finished 2nd and “Stella” 3rd, followed by “Vixen”, “Goddess”, “Ding Dong”, “Avant Garde” and “RB”.
Race-2 was almost a duplicate of Race-1 with all 8-IRC competitors finishing in the same order, except “Vixen” slipped down the order to 6th place.
Sportsboats
For Sportsboats, the finishing order in Race-1 was “Merlin”, followed by “Red Herring II”, “Good Vibrations” and “Phoenix”. In Race-2, “Merlin” dropped a crew member overboard (twice) going round the “Leeward Mark” pushing her back to 3rd place. “Red Herring II”, won the race with “Good Vibrations” a worthy 2nd.
HKPN
In the HKPN Division “Kiasu” took line honours in both races but on corrected time, “DEA” came 1st, “Ichiban” was 2nd and “Kiasu” 3rd.
In Race-2 “Kiasu” took line honours and first place on corrected time followed by “DEA”, “Ichiban” and “Bits & Pieces”.
Dragon Class
The 9-boat Dragon Class fleet was as competitive as ever D47 “Wudi” forged ahead of the fleet in Race-1, finishing 1-minute ahead of D38 “Phylloong” with “Maiden Hong Kong” next followed by “Wyuna”, “Eaux Vives”, “Celines”, “Shiva”, “Puff” and “Johan”.
In Race-2, D40 “Maiden Hong Kong” took the win half a minute ahead of D1 “Celines” with “Wudi” 3rd followed by “Puff”, “Shiva”, “Wyuna”, “Eaux Vives” and “Johan”. “Phylloong” retired from Race -2.
Next Races
Day-2 of the Quest Yachting Typhoon Series takes place this coming Sunday June 14.
