From Fragrant Harbour Magazine #262, August 2011
Air Canada Asian Open Regatta
The Notice of Race and entry form for the 2011 Air Canada Asian Open Regatta are available on the LBC website (www.lantauboatclub.com). The regatta is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, November 12–13, and the Pre-Regatta Party will be the preceding Saturday, November 5. Get your entry in before October 30 for a big discount on the entry fee!
Summer Series Final Results
Congratulations to Branco Ng and Henry Kwok for their overall win in the Summer Series, by a big margin! Their results once again confirm the old rule that you don’t have to win all the races, it’s consistency that pays (though winning a few, as Branco and Henry did, doesn’t hurt). Second place overall went to Thomas Cheng, and third place to Nelson Finan.
Branco Ng (right) and Henry Kwok wave on the way to their Summer Series win.
Typhoon Series #1
The forecast for August 13 was very hot and almost no wind. Conditions looked less than promising, with wind speed over Peng Chau at only 4-6 km/h when we started the prerace briefing. But since the boats were already rigged, we thought we might as give it a try.
Short courses were set north of Peng Chau with two sausages only per race. Once we got out to the race area, the picture changed completely. A steady breeze greeted the sailors, and despite some confusion setting the flags, we got the countdown started were soon off together for the first race.
The fleet was going fast and one could see the occasional hull flying and crew trapezing. The unexpectedly strong wind produced really short races, with times under 15 minutes. Since we were having so much fun, we decided to add another race, for a total of four.
Christoph Merz won line honours in each race but was beaten on handicap every time. The final results were a close competition between Clara Ng and Thomas Cheng, who won two races each. The overall win went to Thomas—congratulations!
But the real winners were all of those who made an effort to show up, as agreed by everyone sipping beer and munching on hamburgers and sausages at the now-traditional post-race BBQ.
Typhoon Series #2
The weather on August 27 started off much like two weeks earlier—light winds and very hot. Fortunately the wind soon improved.
Since the wind was a bit of a gamble, we started the day with two around-the-cans races, planning an island race later if the wind came up.
It was a slow crawl out of the bay for the first boats, but soon the wind picked up and the race committee set a course north of Peng Chau. Not everyone seemed fully awake yet, which gave Stefan and Jenny Hengstmann on their Dart 18 a chance to get in a port start ahead of everyone. Soon, however, they were caught by Tom Nunan and Gabriel Kicks, who won the race.
Gabriel Kicks displaying ideal trapezing form.
The second race was extended to a triangle-sausage-triangle and this time it was a classic start-to-finish win by Tom and Gabriel. Behind them was much jostling for second place. Clara Ng captured the second spot, in front of Branco Ng and Richard van den Berg, with all three finishing within 25 seconds of each other on corrected time.
Clara Ng rounds the leeward mark just ahead of two Darts.
The wind was still going strong, so we decided to go for an island race. The course ran around the DB1 mark, Siu Kau Yi Chau, and Peng Chau, finishing just east of the DB marina. With three boats going for a port start at the same time, there was a bit of a commotion at the start, but with a bit of ducking and shouting all the issues were resolved in a seaman-like manner.
Tom Nunan in hot pursuit of Stefan Hengstmann around the DB1 mark.
On the long downwind leg, the only F18 in the fleet showed its advantage rounding Sui Kau Yi Chau ahead of everyone else but had to let some of the more experienced crews pass on the upwind leg behind Peng Chau. After an hour of sailing, line honours went again to Tom Nunan, only to be beaten by Richard van den Berg on handicap by a mere 45 seconds. Third place went to Stefan Hengstmann, only another 25 seconds behind. All in all it was very impressive that only eight minutes passed between the first and the last boat over the line!
Who said it wasn’t windy?
Holiday Series #2
Only five days had passed since the last race day, so on July 1 the question was if people were already tired or really starting to get into the groove.
The answer was clear in everybody’s eyes with 14 boats getting ready on the beach and 11 of them making it to the start line. After a lot of “around-the-can” races in the last series we thought it was time for some long(er) distance races.
As a warm-up, a short race with two “sausage”-rounds was set east of Peng Chau. This proved to be a good idea since several boats were quite far away from the line at the starting signal with the race officer at the very back with his (borrowed) brand new Nacra Infusion. The fleet stayed together during the first round, which lead to quite a commotion at the downwind mark with boats coming from all directions. However, a lot of shouting and a bit of pushing solved the situation in a seamanlike manner. It was not a surprise that Tom Nunan and Gabriel Kicks took the win in the first race followed by William Fung and Jimmy Shum in second and Thomas Cheng and Joe Shieh in a close third. The F18’s were found in the second half of the leader board, but their time would come in the island race.
The island race course was set to first leave the windward mark and Peng Chau to port, then Sui Kau Yi Chau to starboard and finally to head out to Datum Rock before heading back to the finish line.
Some were so excited that they headed straight for the southern tip of Peng Chau not bothering about the first windward mark. Luckily the race officer had a better start in this race and was able to bring everyone back on track leading around the windward mark.
Disaster struck at the rounding of Siu Kau Yi Chau with a few boats being reminded quite harshly that in the lee of an island the wind quite can be quite unpredictable, or non-existent. After everyone had dug themselves out of their holes, racing continued. However, by this time two F18’s were way head battling for first place and generally enjoying a great spinnaker run back to the finish line.
James Branch and Martin Kidgell took line honours, the first place in the island race and first overall – well done! They seem to be ready for the arrival of their C2. Second over the line were Christoph Grebe and Christoph Merz, only to be beaten by two seconds on handicap by Branco Ng and Henry Kwok on their Dart 18.
Summer Series #2
There was no wind in Discovery Bay when the race officer opened his eyes on Sunday morning, June 26, and the wind forecast didn’t look promising. Thoughts of canceling crossed his mind.
These thoughts were swept away immediately when he saw there were 14 boats getting rigged and ready on the beach. We started off the briefing with a talk from Tom Nunan on successful starting techniques and tactics – thanks again for this, there was a bit for everyone to learn!
The race course was set north of Peng Chau. With the idea of having a practice session on the starting we just learned this morning, the course was set relatively short and we only did one triangle-sausage round per race with the plan get a total of four races in. However the breeze was quite light and the races took longer than expected.
The start of the first race was mixed and it didn’t look like the explanations from Tom had all been memorized too well. The wind held up and the lead changed a couple of times making it good racing. With the race officer taking line honors and Tom Nunan and Gabriel Kicks winning the race on handicap, everyone got ready for the second race.
This time the starting line was very crowded with various boats being at the right place at the right time. But only one boat crossed the line with speed and got away – clear air is all that matters as we learned earlier this morning. Needless to say that this specific boat completely messed up the down wind leg and landed at the very back of the pack, which tells us that while the start is important, you will still have to stay focused after the gun as well. This time Tom and Gabriel took line honors and also the win on handicap.
The third race started with a wind shift leaving the starting line quite empty at the sound of the gun. The wind was dropping even further and the currents become more and more apparent with some boat struggling to make the top mark. Awah showed mercy and ended the race after one round.
With Tom and Gabriel taking line honors as well as the win on corrected time again it was pretty obvious who the day’s winner was – Congratulations! It seems that the transition from Dart to Hobie is finally completed for Tom.
Close racing between two Darts, Richard van den Berg on left, Stefan Hengtmann on right.
Clara Ng rounds the DB1 mark.
Freddy von der Luehe rounds DB1.
Richard van den Berg and crew speeding along on their Dart 18.
Word from the Commodore
LBC has had a successful and active summer season this year. We've seen strong turnout for all of our club races, especially our new Holiday Series, even on a few days when the wind did not cooperate. On behalf of everyone, let me thank our Race Officer, Christoph Merz, for all his effort running races, publishing the results, and organizing a new LBC tradition, regular post-race barbeques.
We are exciting about the upcoming regatta season this autumn. We've just completed the ABC Opening Regatta and now look forward to the Hobie Asian Classic and LBC's own Asian Open Regatta, scheduled for November 12–13. For LBC's outrigger canoe contingent, we also have the Lantau Classic coming up on October 1. And we have again scheduled an annual training week with top coach Brian Phipps, who will be in Hong Kong from November 4 to 14.
I look forward to seeing everyone on the water at these upcoming events!
Joe Shieh
Commodore
