Flying Fifteen Hong Kong Nationals at Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club - Overall
by Lindsay Lyons, RHKYC 31 Oct 2013 14:19 GMT
29-31 October 2013
The race management and mark laying teams had to show quick reactions today, which brought lighter conditions for the third and final day of the Flying Fifteen Hong Kong Nationals, with around 10 to 14kts of breeze, starting easterly first thing and tracking round to the south throughout the day.
The race area was one again in the Lamma patch, however with the lighter breeze, boats were corralled by the safety team at the Lamma shipping channel and RO Jerry Rollin raised the AP to ensure that all competitors could get to the start in time.
First one, then two, then half the fleet crossed the middle of the line before the start gun resulting in a general recall and a black flag on the re-start sequence. Just on the one-minute signal, Rollin raised the AP to allow a large crane barge which had just weighed anchor to clear the race area.
This took 20 minutes to accomplish before the start sequence could recommence and, perhaps impatient to get started, another bunch of competitors were over early, this time at the committee boat end of the line. Caught in this bunch, and probably missing out on an overall win in the Nationals were Nick and Janet Jerwood on Ineffable, scoring BFD along with seven others including three-time world champion Steve Goacher.
Defending world champion Graham Vials led the race from start to finish on Foof, crossing the line nearly a minute ahead of Grant Alderson on El Toro. The remaining 31 boats followed them in a processional with the last boat nine minutes behind.
A quick turnaround, relaying the marks to address the tracking wind, and the fleet was off again on the black flagged start of race 6. The competitors were very circumspect this time, and after a clear start Matthew Owen and Andrew Reed on The Wife's Ffault led the fleet around the course until the final leg, when Greg Wells nipped past to take his second 1st of the series, followed by Graham Vials in 2nd and Owen in third.
The provisional overall results show Graham Vials/ Chris Turner in first on 9 points, ahead of Nick and Janet Jerwood on 15. Third place goes to Grant Alderson and Dean McAullay with Greg Wells and Andrew Jameson in fourth.
Full results with elapsed times can be seen on the RHKYC website and race tracking can be seen thanks to tacktracker.