Inaugural Eastern Asia Offshore Race concludes
by Vivian Ngan 1 Jun 13:22 BST
29 May - 1 June 2025
Fenice - Inaugural Eastern Asia Offshore Race 2025 © RHKYC
The remaining boats in the Eastern Asia Offshore Race arrived on Sunday 1 June at Tainan, the final destination of a 350nm journey. Sheltered by the coast, the wind was light, making for a nail-biting catch and chase among the main pack - Fenice, Parnassus, and two Sunfast 3600s, Zesst and 2Easy.
Franco Cutrupia's Solaris 60 Fenice crossed the finish line at 0208hrs with an elapsed time of 2d 14h 48m 33s, marking the race record in the Inaugural race and also taking 1st place in the IRC Cruiser Division.
Team manager Rosario Pedicini was thrilled that Fenice has created history, "We are definitely happy to be the first boat across the line. It was very tough for most of the race. And we had a lot of rain, strong gusts of wind and we lost a halyard but the boat was in a state of the art condition, everything was good. We were prepared for the toughest of situations. The team was well organised and we made it and we were happy even though it was really tough with gusts of 30 knots. We were happy to be there and doing well so we enjoyed it a lot. "
One hour later, Parnassus arrived taking 2nd place in the IRC Cruiser Division. Skipper Laurence Hillyer said "It was pretty testing, and felt like a long, long slog. But happy to be out on the other side. For 36 hours, it was rather heavy on the nose, but we achieved quite a nice day today and managed to crack the sheets a little bit and it was enjoyable. "
Less than three hours behind the much larger cruiser, Henning Mueller's Sunfast 3600 Zesst finished an impeccable Cat 1 race in an elapsed time of 2d 17h 22m 30s to take the title of IRC Overall Winner..
Henning Mueller was delighted "It was exciting, exhilarating and very, very tough. The sea state at times was crazy because the waves came from all over the place. It was not smooth. It was hard pounding on the boat all the time. When you were inside the boat, you think the boat is going to break down and I was afraid that the rig would come down and it was really crazy. So we're happy to arrive in one piece. One person got slightly injured, we had broken some sails and instruments. But we made it and we're very happy.
When asked why the team stayed in the race, he answered "Determination and commitment and people are waiting for me when we arrive, so commitment for the team to do the race and finish it."
Another Sunfast 3600, 2Easy finished 64 minutes later, claiming IRC Overall 2nd place in their first offshore race. Skipper Amanda Cheung only started sailing three years ago during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tiger Mok admitted it was tough for their team of relatively inexperienced crew, "it was a pretty challenging thing for them especially for the conditions the half this time. It's not the worst that they've been through, but it was the toughest and the duration was longer than what we trained for. I'm really surprised that they really stood up to it and then acted as a team and completed that task."
The latter pack also had an exciting chase towards Tainan around noon-time, Korean entry Random()chased up quickly from behind at the final approach, crossing the finish line at 13h 16m 30s, taking IRC Overall 3rd place.
Hojun Song could not believe the result they achieved, "it was really intense with a lot of choppy waves and we broke one of our stays. As we were coming into this harbour, we thought we were dreaming. Because we thought we wouldn't make it before the cutoff. But we did our best yesterday, super focused on our steering, trying to stay in close-hauled all the time and fight against the current.
The sole IRC Racer 1 and double-handed entry remaining, Chinese Taipei entry Mondher Latiri and Kent Lo on Gutsy, finished 21 minutes behind Random() claiming victory in both divisions. Mondher Latiri talked to us about the brutal conditions out there: "it was tough, you just couldn't eat, and every time you went down the cockpit, you are being catapulted like a projectile against the bulkhead." But Gutsy is determined to join again, "we look forward to the next challenge once Gutsy is fixed. "
Inaugural Eastern Asia Offshore Race started in Hong Kong's stunning Victoria Harbour on 29 May at 1120hrs. The race is organised by the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, in cooperation with Argo Yacht Club in Tainan, offering competitors a new and exciting offshore race destination.