Hong Kong Etchells Cirrus Race Series 3

by The Wanchai Belle on 24 Sep 2000 After a season packed with upsets and stunningly exciting racing, it was
something different on Saturday... Mike Burrell the Race Officer set a square
start line at Hung Hom (shurely shome mishtake!-Ed.), and against a foul tide
in a nice 12 knots the fleet got away cleanly and flipped onto port heading for
the island shore. However, this time it was not the early southerners who got
the goods; the Wanchai Belle having started down by the pin (for no apparent
reason) hooked into a large left-hand puff and got a huge jump. After that it
was merely an example of how much easier it is to beat up the shore when
you have got no other boats to worry about, and with a healthy lead at Shau
Kei Wan the race was pretty much over.

Marty Kaye and Simon Watson on EasyTiger shook off the rest of the pack to
take second, and in fact caught the leader so much that if the race had gone
on for another few minutes they might well have got into the lead. For the
minor placings, the usual suspects were in contention although one feels that
perhaps not everybody was as sharp as normal, maybe due to the
celebrations the night before marking the return of old Etchell grunt Logan "of
Arabia" Devoy, who added nothing to the performance of Quest. Nick Burns
also had the unpleasant experience of seeing a battle for 2nd turn into a
struggle to come home in fifth, evidently the floating debris in the harbour is
not all gone. Many fleet members may remember fondly a race leader several
years ago having his hopes scuppered by running into a submerged
mattress...

Anyway another cracking day of sun and breeze, unfortunately no race next
weekend although our esteemed Fleet Secretary Alex Hill has suggested a
swaparound race to give people a chance to see how other boats go and to
cross-fertilise ideas (and stuff like that). No doubt he will be online with the
word soon.

Overall Rankings and Standings:
No./Name/Skipper/Ladder Points/Ladder Place/Average Points/Rank
48 Wanchai Belle McWilliam / Mead / Parker 1793 1 2.50 1
27 Lickety Split Hill / Yourieff / Maynard 1652 2 4.50 2
37 Easy Tiger Kaye / Watson / Norton 1648 3 5.17 5
51 Quest Kinmonth / Thornburrow / Shutt 1596 4 4.67 3
29 Heather Mowser / Mowser / Mowser 1541 5 6.33 6
39 Gunga Din Nick Burns 1456 6 5.00 4
42 The Answer Is... Whitehead / Macaulay / Breen 1363 7 8.00 9
4 Paddington Green John Elsden 1267 8 9.50 11
23 Cruella Hill / Egerton 1219 9 10.17 13
30 Hi Flyer Day / Day / Pilcher 1137 10 9.40 10
10 Diva Mark Yeadon 1111 11 7.75 8
21 Matthew Tait / Massey / Strip 1111 11 7.25 7
46 Atalanta Kim / Downes 1089 13 9.50 11
26 Kestrel Richard Urry 1059 14 11.80 14
33 3 x 11 Jimmy Farquhar 1015 15 13.00 15
34 Marianne Brunet-Moret / Jeangrand 841 16 13.00 15
24 Malpractice Botsford / Scott / Beattie 737 17 13.67 17