Hong Kong Dragon Championship at Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club
by RHKYC Media 15 Jan 2014 11:43 GMT
10-12 January 2014
Tam Nguyen (HKG55) wins the Hong Kong Championship and the Hong Kong Helm title; Marc Castagnet (HKG1) takes the Corinthian Trophy.
The 2013-14 Hong Kong Dragon Championship took place over three days from 10 to 12 January off Lamma Island where the competitors enjoyed a variety of waves and wind conditions with 18 knots NE wind on Friday decreasing to 13-15 knots on Saturday and no wind on Sunday!
Out of the 17 boats registered, 12 boats were Corinthian i.e. with no professional (as defined by ISAF) on board. The remaining 5 boats included two top teams from Russia with RUS76 (2nd in the 2013 World Championship and winner in Cannes just before their trip to Hong Kong) helmed by Dmitry Samokhin and crewed by Alexey Bushuev and one of the best tacticians in the World, triple Olympian and current Russian Yachting Federation Sailor of the Year Andrey Kirilyuk. The other Russian boat, RUS 34 was helmed by International Dragon Association (IDA) Vice-Chairman Vasily Senatorov with 470 gold medallists Igor Iwashintcow and Slava Varnachkin as crew. Theis Palm, North Sails Dragon expert re-joined HKG55 after a successful campaign with Tam Nguyen in Europe last year when they won the Coupe de Bretagne together. In addition to his regular crew Greg Jarzabkowski, Karl Grebstad (HKG51) had as third crew Jamie McWilliam, co-owner of Ker 40 Signal 8 and a top Hong Kong Etchells sailor.
Race Officer Sofia Mascia set perfect courses a long way from shore to avoid the left bias of Lamma Island and the commercial traffic and anchorages. They consisted of 1.1 to 1.4 mile windward / leeward courses with an offset mark and a leeward gate.
Friday conditions were perfect with strong winds (18-25 knots) and waves (1-2 metres). The wind was oscillating around the 75 degree mark and the successful teams were the ones who managed to get the sync right.
On the very first race of the Championship, Tam Nguyen (HKG55), was first at the windward mark and was caught by surprise with a current much stronger than expected: "We knew there was current. We rounded the windward mark and only slightly bore away. But you had to remain on a close-hauled course to be able to make the offset mark! That is the issue with being the first one out there! We then had to duck 5 or 6 boats."
Tam went on to win Race 2 and Race 3 ahead of Dmitry Samokhin (RUS76) who came 2nd on those two races putting Tam one point ahead of Dmitry in the overall ranking while Marc Castagnet was 1 point ahead of Lowell Chang in the Corinthian.
Conditions on the second day softened with wind of 15 knots, still from the same direction. With medium wind, balance was less of an issue and the key was to get the speed to punch through the waves. However with the bodies starting to get the impact of six races over three days, the fleet recorded a number of men over board, butt over board, head over boom etc. and thankfully without serious consequences. Tam won the first and last race of the day while Dmitry won Race 5. With one discard, Tam had now a 2 points lead over Dmitry. Marc (D1) showed a great performance on Race 6 with an outstanding 3rd position. It was also a great day for Karl Grebstad with two 2nd positions (Race 4 and 5).
The third day was expected to be a fight among the leaders of each category as so few points were separating them. Unfortunately, after a two hour wait for the wind to fill in, the Race Officer had to call it a day and abandoned the last 3 races.
Overall Results: (top three)
1. Tam Nguyen (HKG55)
2. Dmitry Samokhin (RUS76)
3. Vasily Senatorov (RUS34)
Hong Kong Helm
1. Tam Nguyen (HKG55)
2. Karl Grebstad (HKG51)
3. Phyllis Chang (HKG50)
Corinthian
1. Mac Castagnet (HKG1)
2. Lowell Chang (HKG46)
3. Simon Chan (HKG8)
The participants, families and sponsors enjoyed a casual hamburger dinner on Middle Island terrace before the Prize Giving ceremony where sponsor Central Oceans presented the first three winners of each category with prizes provided by L'Occitane and North Sails.
Dmitry Samokhin (RUS76) concluded: "Thank you for a wonderful event. On the water the competition was strong and it was good to see a mix of international sailors, Hong Kong sailors sailing in Europe and local weekend club sailors. The level of hospitality in this fleet is amazing with friendly dinners and parties every night. We will give this great feedback to other Russian sailors and we will come back again!"
The success of the event was made possible by the strong support of the sponsors, Central Oceans, and Northrop & Johnson and was covered by photographer Eileen Sze and cameraman Oliver Merz, both of whom were driven around the course on the Northrop & Johnson rib. The fleet is also grateful to all the volunteers of the race management team who spent the time on and off the water to make this event a success.
For more information, please go to www.rhkyc.org.hk/DragonClassChamps2013.aspx