Rolex China Sea Race: Overall win to Mandrake III
by RHKYC Media 31 Mar 2018 10:32 BST
31 March 2018
Mandrake III - Rolex China Sea Race 2018 © Rolex / Daniel Forster
With half of the fleet finished and the other half of the fleet succumbing to light breeze off of Subic Bay, the Rolex China Sea Race leaders have been decided.
For long time Rolex China Sea Race entry Fred Kinmonth and Nick Burns' GTS 43 Mandrake III, persistence has paid off taking the Overall Rolex China Sea Race win! "I think it's been a big build up over a number of years actually. We've got a nice boat, we've got a crew that we've been sailing with for years, and this year we have a very good navigator which we haven't (in the past) and I don't want to be rude to any of our previous navigators, but this guy was something special. What can I say?" said Kinmonth of their success.
With the breeze coming down from Hong Kong with Mandrake III, they were able to maintain pressure on the fleet overall and continue to the finish taking a well deserved win.
Fred added, "If you look at the race itself, it wasn't very windy; well we had some wind in the middle of the Race, but not quite wide enough for the big boats to take off. We just kept on going with good sail selections. Looking back on the Race, I don't think we could have done better actually. We were lucky - we came down the coast and had a tiny little bit of breeze waiting outside and then we came around the corner and had 22kts of breeze pretty much all the way to the finish. We just had a very pleasant, lovely race; the weather was fantastic."
With the sea breeze forecasted to fill in throughout the day, pushing the rest of the fleet down the coast, the final boats are expected to arrive throughout the night with the on location prize-giving be held on Sunday night.
To keep up with the progress of the rest of the fleet, follow the YB tracker online at yb.tl/rolexchinasea2018