BuyAssociation Tomes Cup 2019
by RHKYC Media 3 Jun 2019 04:08 BST
01 June 2019
Sportsboats heading for Shau Kei Wan. BuyAssociation Tomes Cup 2019 at RHKYC. © Guy Nowell / RHKYC
Finally, after having been abandoned and then postponed due to unfavourable weather, the BuyAssociation Tomes Cup was held on Saturday in Victoria Harbour with 41 boats competing. The regatta is the fourth and last constituent event of the Top Dog Trophy Series 2019-2019.
The Tomes Cup is a pursuit race; the slowest boats start first and so on through a series of staggered start times until the fastest boats set off – in pursuit of the rest of the fleet ahead. In theory all boats should finish on time if sailed to the best potential of the boat.
With the summer winds already affecting Hong Kong waters, sailors gathered at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club to find a south westerly of 6 to 7kts at the start of the day. Race Officer Anthony Root set a start line just off North Point and sent the fleet off eastwards with a downwind start.
The first leg of the race passed without incident, but unfortunately on the second leg the westerly breeze did not funnel around the corner at North Point, resulting in a large park up at Shau Kei Wan with the easterly and westerly breeze fighting each other for dominance.
Plucky Pandora sailor Tom Ho managed to sneak his way out of the park up and took off back to Kowloon Bay leaving the fleet fighting for space at Shau Kei Wan. Soon to also break out were Flying Fifteen Forty Forte and Dragons Elfje and Eaux Vives, with Big Boat Ambush closely following on their heels.
With a lot of turning heads, the four boats couldn’t stop Ambush slowly picking them off one by one on the final leg to the finish to take the win for today’s BuyAssocation Tomes Cup, with Pandora Windfall crossing the line in second place, narrowly beating Flying Fifteen Forty Forte. Ambush is co-owned by Joachim Isler and Drew Taylor. Said Isler after racing “It was a cracking race. We had a very slow start, but we worked our way through the fleet and we had great crew work, great calls, and quite a bit of luck. It all came good right at the end.”
The Club would like to thank BuyAssociation for their title sponsorship of the pursuit series this year, and to all our supporting sponsors for their engagement and support.
BuyAssociation Tomes Cup Results
1st Ambush – Joachim Isler / Drew Taylor
2nd Windfall – Tom Ho
3rd Forty Forte – Warwick Simons
4th Elfje – Andreas Brechbuhl
Top Dog Series 2018-2019 Results
1st King of the Pin – Frank Van Kempen
2nd Impala 1 – Mike Burrell / Gaston Chan
3rd Ambush – Joachim Isler / Drew Taylor