Gunwoo Park and Sam Gilmour. Image copyright RHKYC
by Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club media
With
an impressive field from around the world joining four Hong Kong based
skippers for this year’s 1O1O 4G
Match Racing International Regatta, bright sunshine greeted Race
Officer, Inge Strompf-Jepsen as she went in search of a race area this
morning.
After
some time spent considering a Club race track, Strompf-Jepsen decided
that the wildly swinging breeze
did not suit her criteria, and moved the committee boat northwards into
Kowloon Bay where she was rewarded with a more stable breeze at around
220°, with around 40° of oscillation.
Ian Williams. Image copyright RHKYC
By
1020hrs, with the breeze building to 14kts, the RO was able to start
the first flight, with Laurence Mead
beating Herman Wong, Gunwoo Park (KOR) beating Wataru Sakamoto (JPN)
and SAM Gilmour (AUS) signaling his intent by beating Ian Williams (GBR)
in the first match. Flights two and three followed swiftly, but by
flight five, the breeze was gusting to 20kts, being
pushed ahead of a rain band with the direction holding reasonably
stead. As the boats awaited the warning signal, a single bolt of
lightning hit Laurence Mead’s mast. Everyone on board was unharmed, but
it was a sign of things to come.
Laurence Mead and Wataru Sakamoto. Image copyright RHKYC
While
starting flight six, Strompf-Jepsen was forced to AP for 25 minutes due
to a lack of visibility and high
winds caused by a rainstorm sweeping through from the west. By the time
the band passed, the wind speed had dropped to 3kts and shifted, giving
some concerns about the first match making the windward mark without
tacking and precipitating yet another AP for
match 2 and 3 of the flight.
With
the boats struggling to move in the fading breeze, the Race Officer and
Chief Umpire agreed that the best
course of action was to raise AP over A (racing postponed, no more
racing today) and get the boats back to the dock for some repair works.
Sam Gilmour. Image copyright RHKYC
Scores after seven flights;
Laurence Mead 4 – 3,1
Sam Gilmour 4 – 3,1
Ian Williams 4 – 3,1
Gunwoo Park 4 – 2,2
Wataru Sakamoto 4 – 1,3
Herman Wong 4 – 0,4
David Gilmour 2 – 2,0
William Tiller 2 – 2,0
Jeremy Koo 2 – 1,1
Maximilian Soh 2 – 1,1
Gordon Gregor 2 – 0,2
Lui Kam 2 – 0,2
Spinnaker work on the bow. Image copyright RHKYC
Flight eight gets underway first thing tomorrow morning, with the team under pressure to fit in a further 14 flights – double today’s total.
