Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club Nha Trang Rally kicks off
by RHKYC Media 16 Oct 2019 11:48 BST
15-16 October 2019
Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club Nha Trang Rally © Guy Nowell / RHKYC
Due to a course amendment to Nha Trang and with a view to protecting the integrity and race records of the original Hong Kong to Vietnam Race, today's event was renamed the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club Nha Trang Rally.
The start time too had to be adjusted to 1510hrs after the race management team published a revised course late morning which included an additional exclusion zone near the east of Quoy Nhon, Vietnam and a new finishing point.
This rally features two racing trimarans; Italian Maserati Multi70 and Hong Kong entry SHK Scallywag/FUKU looking to set a new speed record and then over in the monohull fleet, Lucky, a high performance Maxi 72 owned and skippered by Bryon Ehrhart, is one of the leading contenders for monohull line honours.
The rally started in an easterly breeze of 12kts with seven competitive yachts lining up perfectly on the start line. Sam Chan's TP52 FreeFire made great start, however SHK Scallywag/FUKU soon overtook, stretched her legs and led the fleet to clear Lei Yue Mun Gap first. Second to pass through was Lucky followed by Maserati Multi70, which was forced to tack a few times due to incoming commercial traffic in the harbour. The rest of the fleet then cleared the Gap, and continued on past Shek O Rock and out of sight to the south.
At 1700hrs HKT, Maserati Multi70 has overtaken Lucky, and is currently clocking 16.4kts VMG, 2nm behind SHK Scallywag/Fuku, which is sailing at 17.7knts VMG. Lucky is in third place, 8nm behind Maserati Multi70.
The Hong Kong Observatory predicts a strong northeast monsoon will bring windy conditions to the racing area in the northern and central parts of the South China Sea. With a forecasted breeze up to force 5 to 6, all yachts will be surfing fast downwind in challenging conditions.
The start of Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club Nha Trang Rally was split over two days; IRC Racer 2 yachts Nicolas Cohen-Addad's J122e Jinn and Michael Lunn's Azuree 40's Lion Rock started nearly 28 hours ahead of the main fleet. The sequence acts predominantly as a safety measure with the bigger boats coming up behind the smaller fleet for support should they get into any trouble.
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