The 2008 Around the Island Race took place on Sunday, 23 November. Relatively light winds greeted the sailors in the morning, but otherwise, it was a beautiful day. For some reason, the starting line seemed surprisingly free of big boat traffic just before the start. Is it me, or did they spread out the starts more this year?
After fair starts in both beach multihull divisions, the cats were able
to maneuver throughout the harbour with consistent winds getting them
to the open water. That’s where the race changed dramatically for some.
As the mouth of the harbour opened up, the light winds seemed less well
focused and channeled. Pockets of wind formed in some areas of the
course and, inevitably, holes formed too. A large hole between Chai Wan
and Big Wave Bay saw most of the fleet come to an abrupt halt, with
boats often strugglingto move at all. As the wind started to fill in,
the new wind came from the front of the fleet, effectively creating big
divides among the boats. In the F18 fleet, Mike Scantlebury and Dave
Harris barely seemed to even slow down to put them leagues in front of
their nearest rival: a lead that they would only build on all the way
to the finish. The Hobie 16s and Dart 18s were closely contested up to
this point. However, a few managed to squeeze themselves through by
steering clear of the big boats and finding tiny patches of wind to get
themselves though the holes. In the Dart fleet, Tom Nunan and Daniel
Choi got their Darts through with clear leads. Amongthe Hobie, it came
down to Tong Shing and Jimmy Shum. Although these battles were
hardfought, there were never any lead changes from that point on.
Around Shek O and Tai Tam, the wind was steady but never strong, but
quickly dropped off nearing the Ap Lei Chau marker. Mercifully, the
race organisers shortened the course to make this marker the finish for
all fleets in the entire race. As all the boats came to within 500-600
metres of the finish line, the wind dropped further! The last 50 metres
proved to be a very time consumingordeal indeed, with some boats taking
more than 10mins to cover that distance!
Congratulations to all the winners, and truly everyone who completed the race.
- Fleet Results – beachcat
- Overall results – beachcat
