The last two races of the Hebe Haven Quest Yachting Summer Saturday Series 2013 were contested on Saturday Aug 24 in a mixture of rain and sunshine, but with a good breeze.
The lead boats in the series continued their impressive performances, but the last two races produced some changes to the second and third places in the series standings.
IRC
In the IRC division “Barnstormer” upset a clean sweep by Impala boats to take third place in the series pushing Moll into fourth position. But it was “Taxi” that took the IRC series title with “Impala” I in second place at the series prize giving after the races.
“It was a good afternoon of racing,” Walder Ip.of “Taxi” told the Epoch Times after winning both races and clinching the overall IRC series title. He was understandably pleased with their success.
Earlier in the afternoon, “Talkinghead” won Race-11 (with line honours) while “Impala I”, “Taxi” and “Moll” took the next three places, respectively.
“Taxi”, “Impala I” and “Lighthorse” (line honours) were first second and third in Race-12.
HKPN
In the HKPN division “Getafix” notched up another two wins in Races-11 and -12 to make it five wins in the 12-race series, taking the series title ahead of Ben Chong “JeNa PaBe” in second place with “Windseeker” third.
“Windseeker” jumped four places in the standings to take her third place prize. She came third in Race-11 and second in Race-12 pushing her above “GA”, “Jazz”, “Kyte” and “Bits & Pieces”.
“Bits and Pieces”, who dropped, was holding third place at the beginning of the final day’s racing finished in sixth place. Sailing three short on full crew compliment and electing not to use a spinnaker, she struggled in Races-11 and -12 finishing in seventh place losing her grip on third place in the series.
Sports Boats
With Frank van den Kempen’s “Fly By Wire” snatching victory last week From Steve Bourne (“Merlin”) in the final of the HHYC Typhoon Series, it was another showdown between the two boats for the Saturday Series Sports Boats title, but unlike last week where they started on equal points, “Merlin” was ahead by three points.
Steve had flown off to England for a break and was not available for the second “showdown” with van den Kempen two weeks in a row. So it was left for his daughter Jade to uphold the Bourne name.
Steve will be proud of daughter Jade’s achievement, as She (together with an experienced crew) won both of the races including the second race by a margin of 2:50 minutes confirming “Merlin”’s win in the series.
Jade explained about “Merlin”’s match winning strategy in the second race (Race -12) while talking to the Epoch Times.
“We started from the pin end on the second race and we shot right over to the far right of the course. For some reason it really paid off and, half way through the beat up, I looked back and asked ‘are we in the right place? Where is everyone else?’ Because I honestly did not see anyone when I turned round for a second.
“But I had two very capable, intelligent and experienced crew with me today, Nick and Oliver, and they made all the good calls for me. I am very happy.
“When I turned round and asked if we were on the right course, that was the defining moment and what I really loved personally was that there were a few boats that are very competitive with Merlin and we did very well in this race … we really did,” she added with gleam.
Frank van den Kempen was quite unconcerned about the losses, he had handed the tiller over to one of his crew who discussed the race with the Epoch Times.
“His [Franks] tactics were not quite right today, we did make a couple of wrong turns we made a couple of jibes when Jade went down the other which was much better.
“Jade had a good start in the second race and we just followed. We also had some problem with teamwork in getting the kite down,” the stand-in helmsman explained.
“I don’t like losing to Steve, but losing to Jade is not so bad!” van den Kempen added.
Jim Daly in his GP26, “Stingray” had another good afternoon finishing in second and third places respectively in the two races pushing him ahead of “Phoenix” to take third place in the series.
The final series result was “Merlin”, followed by “Fly By Wire” and “Stingray” in third place.
Dragon
In the Dragon Class “Puff” held onto first place in the series on 10 points, although she did not compete on the final day of racing. The boat still has some rigging problems that have still to be fixed and some of the crew are competing in Championships in France other Dragon competitors told the Epoch Times.
“Eaux Vives” after two wins in Races-11 and -12 put her on 14 points, equal with, but ahead of “Moonraker II” on count-back, to take second place in the series.
The crew of “Moonraker II” told the Epoch Times that they really enjoy the summer racing at Hebe Haven.
“There is no wind in Victoria harbour in the summer, but there is wind here in Hebe Haven,” they explained.
They also like the Summer Series because they can race with other boats, not just Dragons.
“At Royal Hong Kong it is class racing so we only start with boats of the same design—this is different, we start with and race with other boats,” they added.
The next racing event at Hebe Haven is the Port Shelter Regatta on Sept 14 and 15.
