China Coast Regatta 2022- Day 2

We had sun and blue sky but otherwise conditions were a complete contrast to yesterday's perfect conditions with a measly 6 to 8 kts of north-easterly breeze starting the day. Eight entries from HKPN division joined in the racing and it was a magnificent sight to see Niccolo Manno’s Trimaran Carbon 3 back to racing action but unfortunately there wasn't enough wind to properly show off her stunning speed.

Race Officer David Norton selected a 17nm islands course for IRC Race Divisions 0 and 1 that took the competitors rounding Po Toi, Sung Kong before finishing off at Stanley Peninsula whilst the route for all other divisions was reduced to 10nm round ocean mark one and Beaufort Island before ending off Stanley.

The wind dropped significantly to around 3kts during the race, forcing the race management team to shorten the HKPN division to within Beaufort Channel.

David Norton said that the wind was light and shifty and forecast to drop in the early afternoon so the team made a decision to run an island courses for all divisions; “A huge wind shift part way through the start sequence validated our opinion that today was not a day for geometric courses. There was very challenging light weather sailing for all, however apart from two retirements, all boats managed to finish.”

Noel Chan’s Rampage 88 sailed extremely well today and it was especially exciting during the last leg where she came from a good distance behind to close the gap with Alpha+ and whilst Alpha+ crossed first, Rampage 88 took the win on handicap. Overall in this division, Rampage 88 is sitting at the top but only one point ahead of Sam Chan’s Free Fire.

In the most competitive IRC Racer 1 division, whilst Andrew Taylor / Denis Martinet's Cape 31 Capitano took a bullet today, overall they still two points behind Nick Burns' King 40 Witchcraft. Third on the leaderboard overall is Eddy Lee’s new boat Next.

In the IRC Racer 2 fleet, Stephen Jones and James Verner’s Nightshift also took a bullet today, positioning them overall just one point behind Nicolas Cohen-Addad’s Jinn.

There's also an extremely tight score card for IRC Racer 3. Andrew Pidden’s Juice came away with a win today which puts him in third with 9 points. Ahead of him is Nick Southward’s Admiralty Harbour Whiskey Jack with 8 points and in first place Simon Wong’s Dexter II has 7 points. So it's all to play for tomorrow.

For the HKPN division, although Carbon 3 finished well ahead in the fleet, once the handicap was applied, Mike Delaney’s Sea Eagle is in first place followed by Sunny Leung’s Jibulai.

The final day of the regatta starts tomorrow at 1030hrs. All divisions are scheduled to sail three races hopefully with better sailing conditions.