RHKYC Tomes Cup 2018 – a moment of truth
by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia 23 Apr 2018 01:13 BST
Buster. RHKYC Tomes Cup 2018 © RHKYC / Guy Nowell
6 kts of breeze coming straight out of Lei Yue Mun promised a good start for the Tomes Cup, the last pursuit race in the RHKYC’s Top Dog Trophy Series – four races off the same start line for all Club classes to decide who really has the bragging rights in the Main Bar. (The others are the Lipton Trophy, the Around the Island Race, and the HKRNVR Memorial Vase).
There’s a little bit of history involved, as befits Asia’s no 1 yacht club: the Tomes Cup has been around for ever and has been contested under different names. Once upon a time it was the Sugar Refiner’s Cup, but that was in the dim and distant past when sugar didn’t have such a bad rap. Today it is a pursuit race that welcomes all of the Club’s classes (Pandoras, Ruffians, Impalas, Flying 15s, Etchells, J/80s, Sportsboats and the IRC divisions) and races them around a course to the east of Victoria Harbour. Staggered starts, and a 2½ hr target time for the race, which in theory means that everyone finishes together. In theory.
Of course, the trickiest thing about pursuit races is that the first starters (Pandoras, here) might kick off in a modest 6kts of breeze, with the IRC Big Boats up to an hour later in a completely different wind. But that, as the saying goes, is yacht racing. If you don’t like it, Extreme Ironing is a viable if somewhat less exhilarating sport. And 10kts is what the middle and late starters caught on the first leg from Kowloon Bay to Shau Kei Wan. There was a healthy outgoing tide of a couple of knots, so the Etchells and Sportsboats and eventually the IRC boats started catching the early starters quite quickly.
After Shau Kei Wan it was a long leg back up the harbour to Dock Buoy, and then a close reach to the PWC buoy near North Point, giving the Sportsboats, Etchells and Big Boats another chance to power up the catch up programme. The next part of the course, from PWC to Tai Koo Shing, was ‘interrupted’ by a huge liner departing from the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal that cast a wind shadow across and out from the Kwun Tong shore and allowed the back markers to gybe set away from the Cruise Terminal and run for Dock Buoy without falling into said hole. Local knowledge helps, and so does an appreciation of cruise lines schedules.
At this point the breeze started to back to the north. Jamie McWilliam sailing Etchells ‘Shrub’ reckoned that staying out of the dead zone was worth some 40 places on the water, and sailed into the lead between Tai Koo Shing and Dock Buoy.
However, and this was the Moment of Truth. With Nick Burns (Etchells, Gunga Din) snapping at his transom, McWilliam rounded tight at the mark and one of his crew members touched the buoy with an elbow (or was it the Hand of God?) during the spinnaker drop, and Shrub was obliged to peel away for a penalty turn. After that the tacking duel was on…
Meanwhile, veteran pursuit race RO Gareth Williams, watching the circulation very closely from near Dock Buoy, decided that the 2½ hr limit would be best served with a finish line at Gate, steamed east at a brisk rate of knots, dropped anchor, and signalled Gunga Din as the winner at 16.29.54, just 6 seconds inside the target time and a mere 2 seconds in front of Shrub. Wow, indeed.
So Nick Burns and his merry men were declared worthy winners, McWilliam came away with a 2nd place, and the next boat across the line was Drew Taylor’s Ambush (Mills 41, Big Boat IRC) having started a full hour behind the first Pandora. Which begs the question: in a pursuit race, who ‘enjoys’ the most stress? Is it the first starter who spends a large portion of the race getting a crick in the neck while looking over his shoulder at the advancing horde, or the last starter, cruising up and down the start line and champing at the bit while waiting to be let go?
At a spirited prizegiving back at the RHKYC Kellett Island clubhouse, Jamie McWilliam was presented with a 2nd place for the Tomes Cup, but also the Top Dog Trophy for the best cumulative result over the series: Around the Island Race, 1st; Lipton Trophy 6th; HKRNVR Memorial Vase, 1st; Tomes Cup, 2nd.
There were 62 baots in the Tomes Cup race, and more than 80 have participated in the Top Dog Series, proving once again – if proof were needed – that the racing calendar in Hong Kong is stuffed to the doors, and Hong Kong is the place to be to go racing. “Racers go where the competition is,” we have been told. Hong Kong is the hub of sailing in Asia, the RHKYC is the prime racing club in Hong Kong, and long may it continue that way.
Top 10 Tomes Cup 2018
1. Gunga Din Etchells Nick Burns
2. Shrub Etchells Jamie McWilliam
3. Ambush IRC Big Boat Taylor/Isler
4. Tchaikoffsky Flying 15 Peter Backe.
5. Impala 1 Impala Mike Burrell
6. Gambit IRC Big Boat Keith Mowser
7. Taxi Impala Denis Chien
8. Diva Deux Etchells Mark Yeadon
9. Rainbow Chaser Impala CY Choi
10. Merlin Sportsboat Steve Bourne
Top 10 Top Dog Trophy Series 2017-18
1. Shrub Etchells Jamie McWilliam
2. Phoenix IRC Big Boat David Ho
3. Dive Deux Etchells Mark Yeadon
4. Merlin Sportsboats Steve Bourne
5. Ambush IRC Big Boat Taylor/Isler
6. Incoming Etchells Fleming/Wood
7. Taxi Impala Kan/Chien
8. Impala 1 Impala Mike Burrell
9. Tchaikoffsky Flying 15 Williams/Backe
10. Gunga Din Etchells Nick Burns