(Hong Kong, China)- Recently, Nick
Southward, owner of the J/109 WHISKEY JACK sailing out of Hong Kong,
China caught up with us and had this to say about his J/109 sailing
adventures off Hong Kong's islands- "Below you will find some excellent
stories written by Guy Nowell (with Sail-world.com) on our adventures in the China Cup International Regatta held in Daya Bay, China." Guy's commentary follows:"Day 1- Not a bad day.
IRC combined divisions rolled into the start area in a good 2m swell-and-chop, and with just 14sec to go before the P down, instead it was Class down and AP up as the pin dragged off downwind at a rate of knots. By the time the buoy had been reset and the scattered sheep rounded up and pointed in the right direction, it was 25min later, meaning that the IRC boats had some catching up to do with the regatta’s Glamour Division (Beneteau 40.7OD) and the HKPN fleet.
Whiskey Jack came off mid-line with the height and pace of an electric giraffe on a skateboard, and was delighted to be keeping company with Jamie McWilliam’s rather more powerful Ker 40, Peninsula Signal 8. It felt good while it lasted. The trip from Hong Kong to Longcheer is a straight-line coaster, with one corner near the end. Breeze for most of the trip was steady in strength, and the main decision was to ‘go in’ or ‘stay out’. Staying out at sea for an anticipated lift at the top of the track certainly paid, but not for the reason expected – in fact the breeze was all over the compass, starting at 090 wandering back and forth between 060 and 070.
But at the left-hand headland just six miles from the finish line, it collapsed into puffy, shifty stiff from all directions – on the finish line it was 270 - and overlaying a big ocean swell pushing into Daya Bay, good for surfing had been any more wind! Surfdude did some very entertaining 360 turns trying to get to the last patch of puff in order to finish.
So Whiskey Jack was happily surprised to find herself only third IRC boat into the marina, and happily spent an hour tidying up after the energetic 35nm beat. Crew hit the Quarantine queue at 1705h, and were dismayed to find that this was just the queue for the next queue – Immigration. Quarantine declarations ('no, I do not have bird flu') were meticulously checked letter by letter and digit by digit against passports. And then on to Immigration. One crewmember’s Arrival Card was rejected because it was completed in blue biro instead of something black (although nowhere on the form is this specified, and blue ink works perfectly well at every other entry point to China). Darkness fell. And then, almost 2 hrs after starting to queue, down came the rain. Officials rushed to provide flimsy plastic ‘emergency’ ponchos (queueing in a tent would have been a better idea) and a great many grumpy voices began to make themselves heard. 'Don’t exactly make you feel welcome here, do they?'
Day 2. The view from the rail of Whiskey Jack (again).
If this report seems a little WJ-centric, we do not apologise. Diametrically opposite to the way that China Cup reports itself as a whole collection of events with a regatta thrown in, these reports are written from the point of a competitor on the racecourse and with the same collection of events thrown in and ignored. Please draw your own conclusions.
Moving swiftly on from the monochrome breakfast at the Pattaya Hotel, and after a pleasant 45-minute doze on the bus en route to Longcheer, sailors were greeted by flapping flags, clattering halyards and 15kts of breeze in the marina. Time to go sailing.
Two sausages (course 6) for everyone except IRC 1 (an extra sausage). The Beneteau 40.7 division started first with 20 of the 26 boats trying to fit into the ten yards of the start line closest to the Committee Boat – probably the best place to be at that point was on the top deck of Kellett VI, watching the drama unfold mere feet away and listening to happy exchange of words between crews. A couple of hundred yards away on Whiskey Jack we could hear it all, and although Cantonese and Mandarin are not the first language of any of the crew we could still recognise some hard words in the hubbub.
Four minutes later, approaching the line with under a minute to go, we were surprised to be rolled by a Swan 83 that arrived on our starboard quarter with pace, failed to respond to luffing calls of ‘Up! Up!’, rolled straight through and across in front of us and steamed off down the line. Maybe that rattled the Whiskey Jacks – instead of sticking to the carefully planned ‘go right’ protocol, we went left and lost out badly. Catching up with the back markers of the 40.7OD fleet made for an altogether too exciting leeward rounding in traffic that looked like Hong Kong Central in rush hour, organised by Hong Kong minibus drivers about to go off shift. Preferably something never to be repeated in this lifetime.
With the breeze swinging hard right and a sea breeze building past 12kts, the RO called another course 6 and off we went again. This time a planned boat end start began perfectly but went badly awry when the big Swan appeared (again) from the back row, barged through the fleet of smaller boats that had just crossed the line, and thundered away leaving in her wake some shaking knees and more than one skipper wondering if the value of his boat might not have suddenly increased in value by the addition of a few microns of Swan gelcoat to the topsides. It was, in truth, a scary experience. Once again, the right side of the course paid and the breeze held. And lo and behold out came the sun. Top mark for IRC 1 and the 40.7s was set at 1nm, and 0.8nm for everyone else, making for another short sharp race (40mins) with little or no chance to recover from any mistakes – it was good short-course racing in good conditions. In fact, just about as good as it gets, anywhere.
Third race, course 6 again, and Whiskey Jack’s principal start plan was to stay as far away as possible from any large Swans in the general vicinity – a simple strategy that worked well and produced a stress-free start, a sparkling first beat, a dancing run and a nail-biting close quarters leeward rounding that worked nicely when A35 Andiamo left the door open just a couple of inches (but it could easily have been a different story!), and then a second lap with more of the same for a third place on the water and second on handicap.
Day 3 – A Grand Day Out
Some of the Whiskey Jacks were looking a little dusty this morning. Nothing to do with last night’s prize-giving followed by a sojourn in a karaoke bar accompanied by a bottle of whisky. Nothing at all.
Out on the water at 1000hrs for an 1100hrs start, 5kts on the windward mark swinging between 30 and 80?, and we were slacking off the rig. But after the trip back down to the starting area it was 18-20kts from 100? and we were tightening the rig with just 9 minutes to go before the start. Never mind, it was a good clean start with no Swans in sight, and a punchy beat to follow. The hoist was good too, but the gybe wasn’t. In fact, the wrap was still firmly in place as we rounded the bottom mark.
The hoist for the second run was a bit substandard too, with the kite wrapping itself as it went up, and the net result was a finish under jib at the very back of the division. All of a sudden, yesterday’s fifth place didn’t look like a discard any longer. An even worse morning for Yomovo when a D1 gave way and dropped the rig, and Surfdude who had an unscheduled meeting with a port-tack Beneteau 40.7 and lost her mast as well. There was also news of a FarEast 26 and the boom of a big Swan, but this is strictly unconfirmed at press time.
Race 6, Islands Course 3. ‘Islands race can be considered as a special harbour race, replacing the buoys with islands, reefs or lighthouses. Participating sailboats are required to circle such fixed marks.’ (Extract from the CCIR Service Manual – A Treat for Charms of Sailing’). While we anxiously waited for the Race Committee to replace the buoys with islands (or reefs, or lighthouses) we disentangled the spin halyard from the forestay, tidied up, and had another Red Bull.
It was a good powerful beat out to sea towards the Daya Bay Needles, and we hung on to the A40, Sea Wolf, all the way. Then a bear away to port onto an A-sail reach, a gybe to port at a navigation mark, and a full-blooded power reach back across the bay to the finish. 9-10kts on the clock felt pretty good until 500 yards before the finish line when the spinnaker suddenly split down the middle and turned into French underwear. All in all, a cracking afternoon’s sailing.
Day 4- A Challenging Day
The brown smog squatting heavily on the hills behind Longcheer didn’t look so good, but the breeze felt fantastic. 20kts and some as we poked our nose out from the marina, and that’s the way it stayed. The RO probably didn’t want another boat-breaker of a day (and probably nor did any of the owners) so where the program said ‘geometric or islands course’, it was geometric.
The starting sequence was changed from Sunday – Beneteau 40.7s away first, then IRC 1 and 2 together, and IRC 3 at the very back of the draw. This was a ploy to keep the sharks out of the paddling pool, or the biggest IRC boats away from the smallest ones. Speaking from experience, it is pretty scary to be rolled over on the start line by a boat more than twice your own length. Actually, we spoke to a crew member from the big boat and suggested politely that on Sunday they had failed to respond to a luffing call (fat chance!). We were quickly told that we had made no luffing movement, and were quickly referred to a Rule number which I now forget.
So, it has to be asked, is it a realistic suggestion that a J/109 should deliberately barge into the side of an 83’ cruiser? – after all, it’s big (the cruiser), it has lots of momentum and it has less maneuverability than the 35-footer. Or might it not have been a more considerate thing for the big boat to have kept clear of the smaller boats in the first place? Buffalo girls, and all that. Of course, rules are rules, and we’re not trying to sidestep them, but where there are big boats and (relatively) little boats starting together, a bit of common sense might sometimes over ride a stand on ‘rights’.
Moving swiftly on – two sausages, and yesterday Whisky Jack blew out her heavier spinnaker, so the choice was between the flimsy stuff and soak down, or Code 0 and go for the angles. The latter seemed to be the better call. Let’s just say that the execution wasn’t bad, but there were some stomach-churning mark roundings with boats in close quarters. In the strong breeze, everyone had their hands full from bow to helm, and knew it. Thankfully, there were no excessively large boats rounding with us.
Second race of the day, triangle and a sausage, better for the code 0 which was pressed into service again. The gybe mark was ‘interesting’ and so was the leeward mark, and different fleets going in opposite directions in the same patch of water all added to the fun. One thing we learned this weekend – when there are an awful lot of boats in a small patch of water, there are no clear lanes in the middle, and banging the corner suddenly becomes a much better idea.
Another thing we learned – in good breeze it’s very hard for a J/109 to hang on to an Archambault 40. Congratulations to Sea Wolf who took out the IRC 3 division with eight bullets form eight races. It was a bit of a mixed bag of results for the rest of us, but Whiskey Jack did indeed come home second overall in her division. Reason to be Cheerful Part 1.
Reason to be Cheerful Part 2 was the ride home to Hong Kong on Monday evening – but first we had to get past the Immigration dept. The desks were still there on the quayside, but they were unmanned. Bits & Pieces and Outrageous presented their passports around midday, and we joined in as soon as racing was finished, but it turned out that there were NO immigration arrangements at the venue, and helpful chaps were rushing backwards and forwards to the nearest immigration office (some 30min away by car) with batches of passports. At least it wasn’t raining.
Eventual departure time – after 1700hrs. A punchy trip to ‘the corner’ under engine and main in 25kts of breeze gave way to a glorious run in the dark with the wind on the port quarter. Novice night sailors were introduced to the joys of identifying navigation lights and trying to work out which way something is going (today we have an Answer Sheet – it’s called AIS). Gradually the sea calmed as we approached Hong Kong, and then it was time to gybe and head up Port Shelter and into Pak Sha Wan. The breeze carried all the way – there was still 18kts blowing us in through the entrance to Hebe Haven at just after 2200hrs. Welcome home to Hong Kong!" Again, thanks to Guy Nowell, with kind permission of www.sail-world.com/ Sail-World Asia.
