Slow Rolex China Sea Race

(Hong Kong, China- April 5)- The 25th China Sea Race started Thursday 01 April 2010, from Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong and sent the fleet across 565 nm course across the straits to Subic Bay in the Philippines.  The prevailing strategies are to do whatever it takes to get across the straits fast then the issue becomes what to do with the Philippine coastline, stay in our stay out offshore to get the best winds-- and it changes a lot from year to year.  As one of the sailors said about this year's conditions, “It was very unique in that there were very light winds on the first day, and strong winds on Friday afternoon and Saturday. It was exciting in the sense that you have to prepare your route and where you’re going to have your landfall. It paid off in that we were more east compared to the others in our division, so we were able to get the land breeze earlier.”  Another navigator said, “We always planned to go north then come south, but we actually had to do an ‘S’. Our plan was to stay high, but we knew from the weather on Thursday night that a big surge would come through. Our plan was just to bear off and go with our max VMG with the surge. It was very frustrating sitting around yesterday, and we caught a corridor of wind and we were desperate to get to the land by dawn, but we didn’t make it. We knew there would be no wind out on the sea and we wanted the land breeze. So we had to struggle; we would go along the coast and sail into each bay – there was more wind in the bays than outside, so we scalloped our way down the coast.”

Having a bit of struggle with this year's navigational challenge were the two J's racing across this Asian offshore classic.  The J/145 RED EYE sailed by Paul Leese and Wayne Thompson- finished 4th in IRC Racing B, they were also 10th boat across the line behind a fleet of very fast vintage TP52s. The J/109 WHISKEY JACK that sailed well by Nick Southward in the 2009 Asian offshore series faired not much better, getting a 4th in IRC Racing C.  For more Rolex China Sea Race info.