HONG KONG—The final day of racing in the Henbe Haven Saturday Series took place in Port Shelter on Saturday Aug 6, with 2 geometric races planned. IRC and Sportsboats started at 2:30pm with HKPN and Dragon Class boats setting off at 3:35pm and 2:40pm respectively.
Many boats gathered at the Leeward mark midway through race 1 (Race 8) as the fickle wind dropped off. It looked like it would be a long race and maybe the 2nd race of the day would be impossible –but conditions changed.
The previous south easterly wind dropped to zero and then started to blow from the south west. This allowed the boats to start moving again and with such a change in the wind direction boats were using spinnakers on the “up wind” leg. The first boats crossed the finish at 3:25pm with all boats finishing within a further 10 minutes.
Before starting the final race of the series – Race 9 - the course had to be reset as the wind had swung from 130º to 240º. The running of race 9 (the 8th run in the series as Race 5 was cancelled) allowed boats to discard a 2nd result.
IRC
In Race 8, although series leader “Lighthorse” secured line honours, 5 boats: “Moll”, “RB”, “Jazz”, “Arcturus” and “Vixen” all finished ahead of her on corrected time. In Race 9, in a more normal race setting, “Lighthorse” took 1st place, “Stella” came 2nd and “Mojito” came 3rd. “Lighthorse” won the series with 6 points, “Moll” came 2nd with 16 points and “Vixen” was 3rd with 22 points. “Acturus” pushed ahead of “Stella” on the last day to take 4th place.
Sportsboats
In the light wind before race 1, several boats did not set off early enough from harbor and were late for their start time. “Merlin” series leader of Sportsboats was one in question – only “Ricochet” and “Good Vibrations” started on time with the others joining the race as they arrived. But with the lull in the wind part way through the race “Merlin” caught up and took line honours. It was a close finish for “Ricochet”, “Good Vibrations” and “Phoenix”, with “Good Vibrations” pipping “Ricochet” to the line, but “Ricochet” with a lower SMS rating took 1st place “Merlin” was 2nd and “Good Vibrations” 3rd.
In Race 9, “Merlin” took 1st place, “Gnarwhal” was 2nd and “Ricochet” 3rd. “Merlin” headed the series with 6 points, “Ricochet” was 2nd on 12 points and “Good Vibrations” was 3rd on 25 points.
HKPN
In Race 8, “Bits & Pieces” took line honours but was pushed into 9th place on corrected time. “Wind Rider” came 1st, “Tara” was 2nd and “GA” took 3rd place. In Race 9, “Bits” had a similar experience as Race 8, again finishing 9th, while “Ichiban” took 1st place, “Tara” was 2nd and “Happy Hour” was 3rd.
In series terms, “X-Terminator” and “Tara” both finished with 12 points, but “X-Terminator” won on countback. “Ichiban” came 3rd, “GA” was 4th and “Bits & Pieces” finished in 5th place.
Dragon Class
Many Dragon Class boats also missed their start time. The race started with just 3 boats: “Phyloong III”, “Puff” and “Wyuna”. “Dragonfly”, “Maiden Hong Kong” and “Shiva” joined the race as soon as they arrived. “Fei Chi” did not take part in Race 8 but took part in Race 9. The winning order for both races was “Phyloong III”, “Wyuna” and “Puff”. “Phyloong III” topped the series with 11 points, “Puff” finished 2nd on 14 points and “Wyuna” took 3rd place with 19 points.
Next Races
Day 7 (Race 8) of the Hebe Haven Typhoon Series takes place with an island race on Sunday Aug 14.
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