Hebe Haven Yacht Club Monsoon Spring Series 2024 - Race 3
by Camellia Poon 13 Mar 19:06 GMT
2 March 2024
Bonnie Yung helms DEA II across the line - Hebe Haven Yacht Club Monsoon Spring Series 2024 Race 3 © HHYC
Held at the tail end of winter and the beginning of spring, the Hebe Haven
Yacht Club's Monsoon Spring Series traditionally starts with two windward / leewards followed by
an islands race. There are five race days and seven races and, being held on Saturday afternoons,
it gives sailors the opportunity for a 'family day' on Sunday if they so wish.
Last year, conditions were rather gloomy for the 42 starters but, as the afternoon wore on, most
of the boats were able to finish under blue skies and 8 knots of wind.
This year, on Saturday, the
2nd of March, things were pretty much the same for the 24 starters. And although numbers for IRC
and PHS were down, interestingly the Sportsboat fleet increased from seven to nine and included
the club's J/80s and VX One - Golden Star, piloted by rising star, Alex Liauw.
Before leaving the dock, race officer Queenie Ho said: "Courses 30 and 40 - that's what I have
in mind. The plan is to have everyone finished by four o'clock." She also mentioned a single
geometric if the wind didn't co-operate but coxswain, Mikey, advised that he had received reports
from the support boats that the wind was blowing 5 knots from the northeast - enough to get
everyone moving on an islands course.
As the committee boat, Hebe One, searched for a suitable place to drop anchor, there were white
horses across Port Shelter and the sun was just beginning to shine through. There was also one
wind reading of 10 knots offshore - so an islands course it would be with the start to the west of
Kau Sai Chau and Jin Island!
After due consideration, Queenie decided on Course 31 for everyone and laid a windward mark
some 300 metres from the committee boat. Course 31 takes in a club mark, Bluff Island (s), Trio
(p), an Inner Port Shelter Mark (p), Table Island (p) with a finish off Little Palm Beach. The distance
for this course is 11 nautical miles - in the conditions this would almost certainly have everyone
home by four.
A welcoming address was made over VHF at 1350, in both English and Cantonese. Interestingly,
the starting window has been increased from 4 to 10 minutes which means the support boats
have to wait a little longer before lifting the outer distance and windward marks.
At 1300, two IRC and nine Sportsboats had a clean start over a line of reasonable length, given
the size of the three fleets. A minute later the P flag was raised and, at 1305, the 13 PHS boats
had a noisy start before heading for the windward mark and leaving the confines of Port Shelter.
Very soon all boats were just little specks on the horizon. Some had raised their kites.
Across Rocky Harbour, it was through the gap between Bluff and Basalt, and then the wind died.
Boats wallowed, pointing in all directions. But it didn't last long and very soon Sportsboat crews
were out on their trapezes and heading southwest for the Trio group of islets.
The first boat home was Dexter II in an elapsed time of one hour, 45 minutes and 11 seconds.
Dexter II also took handicap honours ahead of Talkinghead in the IRC fleet.
The first Sportsboat across the line was the Magic 25, Catch 22. But, on SMS handicap, veteran
sailor Patrick Pender seized victory in his VX One, Serendipity. Catch 22 placed 2nd and the club's
2
VX One, Golden Dragon, scored a 3rd. Under the new SailSys handicapping system, Golden
Dragon emerged victorious, with Carter USM in 2nd and Catch 22 3rd.
In the PHS/ORC division, H3O pipped Minnie the Moocher by three seconds for line honours but,
on handicap, clear winner was Wing Hung Ng's No One Else with Marmalade in 2nd and H3O in
3rd.
Day 3 of the Monsoon Spring Series will be on the 9th of March 2024.