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Board » Flag Officers » Races » Rolex China Sea Race 2014

Posted by
RainbowChaser


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2014-04-17 11:08:35 - Rolex China Sea Race 2014
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16 April

Rolex China Sea Race - at 2200hrs on day 1, after more than 8 hours of racing averaging 10kts VMG, Ragamuffin 90 has built up a cushion of 20nm on the water, and seems poised for Line Honours. There is little between FreeFire, Hi Fi, Lucky, Centennial and Antipodes, who have all stayed well below the rhumb line for the first night out, then there's a 5nm gap to Shahtoosh. The 'hot 40's' are keeping in touch with each other a little further back, followed by Premier and Cruiser. Wonderwall, after divesting themselves of their hitch-hiker at Po Toi, are only 10nm off the back of the fleet. It's early days, but projected corrected time shows Hi Fi leading, ahead of FreeFire and Red Kite II .. that will surely change over the next few days. Images : RHKYC/ Guy Nowell

Rolex China Sea Race - 16 hours after starting in Hong Kong, Syd Fischer's maxi has covered 170nm leaving the TP52s, Hi Fi and Antipodes 30nm adrift in the race for line honours. Centennial seems to be following her 2012 game plan of sailing far below the rhumb line for as long as possible before turning towards the Philippine coast. The Racer 1 division are sticking together with the exception of Surfdude, which has dropped a little below them, as has Krampus in Racer 2. Premier seem to be making good VMG, with Shahtoosh out ahead of the rest of the division, while Wonderwall has bridged the gap to the Cruiser competitors and is with Soko and Dearg Doom. Images : RHKYC/ Guy Nowell

Rolex China Sea Race 2014 Gets Underway
At 1320hrs (HKT) the 2014 edition of the Rolex China Sea Race started in Hong Kong’s iconic Victoria Harbour, in front of Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club’s Kellett Island clubhouse.
With a consistent 7kts from the start line through the harbour and Lei Yue Mun, Race Officer Simon Boyde felt there was no choice, the 34-strong fleet requiring a line which stretched northwards from in front of the Club, almost to Kowloon.

On an offshore start line for the first time, Sea Wolf was perhaps a tad aggressive, pushing Ramrod over early, and taking herself half a boat length over in the process. Both Ragamuffin 90 and Antipodes chose to stay out of trouble at the pin end and, as expected, it was ‘Rags which quickly put distance between herself and the rest of the fleet.
Boyde’s decision to start in the harbour was vindicated as the boats made a clean break past Shek O towards open water, with Ragamuffin 90 heading the fleet, followed by Hi Fi and the TP52s, then the Ker 40s and Antipodes.

Six hours after the cannon fired to start the race, ‘Rags had built up a lead on the water of nearly 10nm on the 52-footers. Currently averaging just over 10kts boat speed, ‘Rags is forecast to finish at around the 50 hour mark, outside the existing record of 47h 43m 07s set in 2000 by Karl Kwok.

All boats are carrying a Yellowbrick tracker unit, which will report positions every 30 minutes , while the race will feature for the first time as a virtual race on Sailonline.org.
For more information about the Rolex China Sea Race, please visit:
www.rolexchinasearace.com
all photos: RHKYC / Guy Nowell

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--- Last Edited by RainbowChaser at 2014-04-17 11:10:40 ---
Posted by
RainbowChaser


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2014-04-17 11:11:17 - Re: Rolex China Sea Race 2014
17 April 2014

Rolex China Sea Race
At the risk of putting the commentators curse on the lead boats – it seems that the weather forecast, at least in terms of wind strength, is on the pessimistic side of the equation. Whilst boat speeds for the lead boats have dropped marginally over the last few hours, the forecast wind close to the lead boats’ position is around 3 knots or less – but with a boat speed of 10 Kts for Ragamuffin 90, and just over 8 for the TPs and Hi Fidelity then it is more likely the yachts are seeing around 6 to 8 Kts of breeze. This may of course all change as the sun sinks in the West, and with most weather forecast sites talking around 5 not 25 kts in the middle of the China Sea then sunburn rather than seasickness might be the biggest challenge for the sailors tomorrow.
Meanwhile the most southerly boat, Standard Insurance Centennial, has started to close gauge with the pack – whether they are cutting their losses or consolidating gains remains to be seen. At the moment it looks to be more the former than the latter – but “watch this space”.

1300utc
Rolex China Sea Race - at 2000hrs HKT after over 30 hours of racing, Ragamuffin has averaged just over 10kts VMG since the start of the race and, having suffered a slower patch as she reached the latitude of the Philippines, she's now achieving over 9kts again. Standard Insurance Centennial has moved back towards the rhumb line to join the other 52 footers and Antipodes, with Lucky, Hi Fi and FreeFire sticking very close together. The predictions for IRC Overall make interesting viewing, with FreeFire slightly ahead if calculated from the start - Hi Fi if calculated on the last five Yellowbrick reports. Lucky is still in the mix though, with both methods showing her lying second. Racer 1 is wide open, with the predicted IRC results showing Ramrod, EFG Bank Mandrake and Orient Express less than 30 minutes apart on corrected time after 565nm, while in Racer 2, Talkinghead is taking the race to Red Kite II. The theory is all very well, as Day 3 will start bringing the holes and land/sea breezes off the Philippine coast that the more experienced skippers know can make or break their race.
Images : RHKYC / Koko Mueller

______________

--- Last Edited by RainbowChaser at 2014-04-17 13:04:36 ---
Posted by
RainbowChaser


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2014-04-20 08:04:48 - Re: Rolex China Sea Race 2014
Pics showing just how well matched the virtual fleet is with the real one!






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