(Xiamen, China)- The China Club Challenge Match is the premier Chinese
sailing event for Chinese sailors, with 34 teams from around this
country of 1.0+ billion people battling it out for the right to
challenge the 2010 trophy holder. It is run on the waters off Xiamen in
Fujian Province, renowned for serving up good breezes every day, like
clockwork, at this time of year.
The event is open to all sailors in China - including foreigners who
live and work in the country. The China Club Challenge has earned a
reputation in recent years for good winds, tight courses, fair, unbiased
umpiring and rulings, and good tight racing in the ‘proper’ spirit of
sailing. Such is the good-natured spirit of the event that even
defeated teams crossing the line a few boat lengths behind the victors
have been seen spontaneously raising their hands in applause for the
victor!
The
regatta starts with a "fleet racing" format to setup the elimination
ladder for the match races. It was expected that the fleet racing
element of the event would sort out the men from the boys. The breeze
was providing a steady 20kts, and with some sailors on the J/80s for the
first time it proved so, with some of the fleet opting to avoid the
spinnaker. But with the committee boat recording 30+ kts in the gusts
perhaps this wasn’t surprising. Spin outs were very much in evidence,
with some skippers failing to keep their boats under the rig, providing
some dramatic viewing for those on the spectator boats.
A busy time was had by the on-the-water judges who then were back
sitting behind the table in the protest room for much of the evening,
especially on day 1 when they left the venue at 2250h. Altogether around
a dozen protests were lodged, but it could easily have been more as the
racing was close. Having said that, boat damage and breakdowns were
remarkably light considering the conditions, and the J/80s lent by
Hudson Yachts proved to be more than up to the task-- only two requests
for redress due to gear failure were lodged in the entire fleet racing
section of the regatta. After the initial three days of racing, with 14
races run in total, the fleet was whittled down from 34 to 16 for the
match-racing portion of the event.
The
event then shifted gear into the match racing phase with the round of
16 requiring 24 races in one day. Sounds incredible, but that is what
the race management team managed to squeeze out on day four. Race
Officers Russ Parker and Tony Liu, along with umpires Al, Ewan, Peter
and Tim certainly earned their stripes on this day, with all of them on
the water for every race.
The fleet were gradually whittled down to four semi-finalists from all
over China - SANYA, SHENZHEN, IRONROCK of Xiamen (the hosts for the
event) and SHANGHAI. Two matches later, SEAWOLF from Longcheer Yacht
Club in Shenzhen emerged the winners of the China Club Cup Challengers
Trophy, earning the right to sail against the defenders on the final day
of the event.
For the Match Race Finals, it was a bit of a David and Goliath event,
with the defender Team HUDSON (the J-80 builder and skippered by Jim
Johnstone) competing against the SEAWOLF team from Shenzhen.
Unfortunately for Shenzen's SEAWOLF Team, the result wasn’t the same as
the Biblical encounter, with Team HUDSON successfully defending their
trophy, although the SEAWOLF Team from the south were hardly embarrassed
by the 4-1 score line and never finished a race more than eight boat
lengths down on the winners.
What
an event! There were 34 teams (seen here at right), 72 races, 12
protests, too many blue, yellow and green flags to count (along with a
couple of reds and blacks thrown in for good measure), a worthy winner
in the challenger series and a fair and penalty free challenger/defender
series. And just like Queen Victoria was told all those years ago
during the original "Round Island Race" for that 100 Guinea Cup (aka
today's America's Cup)– "there was no second." No matter, it was clear
the enthusiasm and the popularity of the event continues to grow
significantly across China with next year promising to be an even bigger
event! Many "Thanks" must go to Hudson Wang, Hudson Yachts and those
sponsors that supported this year's China Challenge Cup.