by Gabriel Kicks
On Sunday 29 June, Discovery Bay Yacht Club kindly extended an invitation to LBC sailors to join their annual regatta. Meeting early on the beach for our own skippers briefing saw a big emphasis on safety, and strict instructions to stay out of the way of the big guys. No hailing for ‘water’ or ‘starboard’!
Despite the forecast of thunderstorms several boats were set up, but the approaching dark clouds and lightening strikes put a few sailors off. In the end a mixed fleet of 2 Dart 18s, 2 Hobie 16s, a Dart 20 and a 15 set out for the other side of Peng Chau.
The inclement weather meant there was a reasonable breeze to get to the race area, and even a massive downpour prior to the first race didn’t dampen people’s spirits. DBYC arranged for the Tall Ship ‘Bounty’ to be the committee boat and it made for an impressive sight, albeit with a huge wind shadow down the start line.
Some confusion about the position of the line meant a couple of Hobie 16s managed to park themselves in the way of the starting yachts. But fortunately there were no incidents and they soon got the message and moved.
For our own start, we were started a full 30+ mins behind the first boats. Despite some difficulty seeing our class flag against the Bounty’s rigging, everyone got away cleanly. Racing was quite tight between the first three of Tom Nunan (Michele Felder), Gabriel Kicks (single helm) and Fung Tat Choi (Chan Yu Ting) until the B mark, where Tom managed to slip round the buoy leaving the rest in a wind hole. He held on to his lead and crossed the line bagging his first win of the day followed by Gabriel then Choi.
The lack of wind resulted in a course shortening, although not as short as Cathy Lam thought sailing with her sister Pam, over from California. Thinking that just one triangle would suffice she lost a lot of ground going back to finish the sausage leg. Although she still managed to secure fourth place, just beating John Rempel (Tony Leung) on handicap.
The second race was going to be round the islands but after the fleet sat bobbing around for an hour that was changed to a second ‘round the cans’ race. Gradually the wind started to fill in, and filled and filled. The start of our class. again at the back of the fleet, featured all the cats lifting hulls and powering across the start. Our class started without much confusion, although Gabriel was caught napping and crossed the start a full 5 minutes late.
Choi was on fine form and stormed off looking like he had the race in the bag with nobody able to catch him. But an unfortunate capsize with a full inversion at the A mark allowed Tom to pass. After that, Tom was off and with the wind really picking up managed to storm past the entire fleet on the reaching leg giving him line honours...something that surprised more than a few of the DBYC sailors and proved that our little boats are serious contenders. (Even Atmosphere, the awesome 50 foot cat, was in the race but managed to tangle herself in the top mark).
Despite a second capsize at the weather mark, Choi still managed to bag second as the wind started to die leaving the rest of the fleet to limp home. Including John Rempel who struggled with a novice crew meaning he couldn’t take full advantage of the 20’s power.
The day ended with celebrations and prize giving at the DBYC bar where LBC sailors were made to feel very welcome. All in all the day was a great success and bodes well for future joint events and cooperation between the two clubs.
