HONG KONG—TP52, “Team Beau Geste” won the IRC-0 Class, Hong Kong to Hainan yacht race recording a record time of 25h 54m 33s for the 380 nautical mile trip. This is 2h 49m 21s less than the record set by “FreeFire” over a 10nm shorter course in 2012.
Wind was good at the start line in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor on Thursday at 1.20pm and strengthened as they left Lei Yue Mun gap for the open seas. A force 5 to 6 north easterly wind continued throughout the race giving exceptional sailing conditions all the way to Sanya on the south coast of Hainan Island.
Sam Chan’s “FreeFire” came in second finishing some 53 minutes after “Team Beau Geste”. “One Sails East” came 3rd in the IRC-0 Class.
Sam Chan has taken part in the race five times and has won the record twice, in different boats. Sam said he was pleased to get to Sanya at all as they changed a mast on “FreeFire” and had the boat re-rated in just 48 hours before the race.
In the IRC-1 Class “EFG Mandrake 3”, a Sydney GTS 43 recorded a win over “Island Fling”.
“Krampus” beat “Sell Side Dream” in IRC-2 Class and “Surfdude” who lost time at the start of the race replacing a broken Halyard line still managed to finish ahead of “Tipsy Easy” in the Premier Class
