It was a matter of waiting for wind at the start of the Hebe Haven yacht Club Summer Saturday series Race-7 on Saturday July 20 and, even though the start was delayed for nearly one hour, there was hardly sufficient breeze to move the boats forward.
All races were shortened to one lap or less.
Three HKPN boats did not finish the race, one retired and one did not start. This left only seven HKPN boats to fight it out for the points.
All boats in the other classes managed to finish the shortened courses.
It was nearly 4.30pm by the time the last HKPN finisher crossed the line, which did not leave time for a second race.
Geoff Tayler in “Paloma” explained his difficulties to the Epoch Times.
“I had just arrived at the committee boat an hour and a half late when the RO [Race Officer] announced the start of the first race, meaning my start was in 10 minutes,” explained Tayler. “It took me the entire 10 [minutes] just to traverse the start line.
“By the time the race had started, the wind changed 90 degrees and we had a beam reach to the windward mark. By the time we were there it had changed again and we were close hauled to the leeward mark. Finally [we had] a broad reach to the finish.”
IRC
IRC boats took 48 minutes to cover one lap of a sausage course with “Lighthorse” taking line honours just two minutes ahead of “Barnstormer”, but the first four boats on corrected time were “Barnstormer”, “Lighthorse”, “Impala I” and “Talking Head” respectively.
“Taxi”, “Moll” and “Barnstormer” are currently the top three boats, respectively, in the series standings, but when eight races have been run and two discards become available “Impala I” is expected to move into a top three position.
HKPN
Even in the light breeze “Bits & Pieces” still took line honours ahead of “Getafix” and “JeNa PaBe” respectively, but on corrected time the final order has “JeNa PaBe” (Ben Chong) in first-place, then “Getafix”, “Bits & Pieces” and “Jazz” (Justin Shave), respectively.
“JeNe PaBe” is leading in the overall series ahead of “Getafix”, “Bits & Pieces” and “Jazz”, respectively. When available, two discards are unlikely to affect the standings order in this division.
Sports Boats
“Fly By Wire” came in first, “Merlin” took second place and the two GP26 yachts “Stingray” and “Ricochet” took the next two places, respectively.
“Merlin”, “Stingray” and “Phoenix” are the respective top three boats in the series standings and are expected to remain the top three even after two discards are available. “Merlin” remains well ahead of the field, but “Stingray” in particular is performing well in this division.
Dragons
Having extolled the virtues of “Puff” for the last few weeks and commenting that they only needed one more first place to take the series, “Puff” finished fourth in Race-7. “Shiva” came first followed by “No Name” then “Fei Chi”.
“Puff” still has a clear lead over “Moonraker II” and “Maiden of Hong Kong” in the series standings, but it will need another race at least for “Puff” to clinch the title.
Next events
This coming Saturday July 27 and 28 in the Nautica Typhoon Series is the Mires Bay passage race (Race-7) on July 27.
J80’s and Sports Boats will not take part in the Mires Bay races and instead will race over an Islands course on Saturday July 27.
The Mirs Bay return race, on Sunday July 28, is a pursuit race, but it does not count in the Typhoon series.
