HONG KONG—On a drizzly overcast weekend 91 boats took to the water to compete in the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club’s Spring Regatta. Although not entirely Spring weather, the full three races were completed over two days of racing in Victoria Harbour last weekend, May 20-21.
In RHKYC races, individual competitions are run for class categories, but rather than the slowest classes starting first, a mixed starting sequence was adopted interweaving boats of different speeds. This approach seemed to work well without major interference and the overall effect looked pleasing to onlookers.
Although the weather overhead was rather poor the wind speed was good, generally ranging from 8 to 15 knots, with some stronger gusts giving fast downwind speeds and billowing kites.
Boats were segregated into Classes: Big Boats (1, 2 and 3), J80, Sportsboat, Etchells, Impala, Flying Fifteen, Dragon, Ruffian and Pandora.
With just 4 boats competing in the Big Boat 1 category Andrew Taylor helming “Ambush” finished 1st in each race to take the overall class prize, “Straight Up” came 2nd, “Kiasu” was 3rd and “Rampage II” 4th.
of the RHKYC Spring Regatta on Saturday May 20. 2017. Bill Cox/Epoch Times
