The Times Clipper 2000 Round The World Yacht Race
Hong
Kong / San Fernando
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The
Times Clipper 2000 On your marks….. The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club is uncommonly
quiet. After a day of frantic activity as the skippers and crews of the
Times Clipper fleet carried out their usual last minute loading and preparation
for the race ahead the bar is almost deserted. Even the most hardened
party animals are retiring early, or engaging in hushed conversations
over supper. A far cry from last night when the Mount Gay San Fernando
Race party (rum and red hats) had crews and locals alike chatting late
into the night. Ailsa, the club’s sailing coordinator, had cleverly planned her birthday to coincide with this event and in honour of the occasion demonstrated the traditional club bar challenge of “climbing over the bell”. Mounted vertically on a wall in the bar is a long iron pole, curved at the top, from which hangs a ships bell. If one succeeds in shining up the pole, clambering between the bell and the ceiling, then dropping down the other side without ringing the bell drinks are free for the rest of the evening. If however one nudges the bell in the process the unsuccessful participant stands the shout. Luckily Ailsa’s purse remained closed and her glass remained filled. When the gun goes off from the committee boat at noon local time (0500 UK) the eight Clippers will be crossing the start line with 25 local boats, including Sam Chan’s 70 foot ULDB “Ffree Fire” and the Philippines Swan 80 “Maligaya”. One boat tipped to do well is the Beneteau 45 “Tipsy Free” skippered by Leon Chan and his all Chinese crew. With the wind forecast to be 20 knots from
the north east it should be an exciting start. From the start line in
Junk bay the yachts will head out of the harbour towards the south east
and the finish line 480 nautical miles away at San Fernando. As they approach
the Philippines the wind is forecast to veer more to the east and ease
off, with the final approach being notoriously light and fickle. Much
time has been spent poring over weather maps as they plan their strategies,
though on a short race like this a lot will come down to pure boat speed
and fast crew work as they change sails to suite the changing conditions.
Little will be certain until the yachts are safely at anchor. Tim Hedges
in Hong Kong |
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The
Times Clipper 2000 Perfect start caps fantastic visit to Hong Kong 32 yachts crossed the line at noon in Hong Kong (0600 in Britain) for the bi-annual San Fernando race across the China Sea to the Philippines, one of the series of international races supported by the Royal Ocean Racing Club of London. The line was stretched out from Junk Bay, some 3 miles from the yacht club, and there was no way the Start Official, even a high Court Judge of the Hong Kong Court, Graham Jackson, could manage to create a windward start, so the yachts set off on a reach. The build up to the start saw the Clippers mixing it with the other yachts, but, perhaps in deference to a Judge, no one dared be over the line at the start. These were perfect conditions for the start of the 9th stage of The Times Clipper 2000 race around the world the 480 miles from Hong Kong to San Fernando on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. But this leg has one major difference. This time the Clipper yachts are sharing their race and for many of the crews they have the unusual sight of starting a race against a variety of other racing yachts.
Hong Kong has been overcast, with rain and even hail storms for the past three weeks, but today, Thursday 12th April, as if it were making a final effort to persuade the departing yachtsmen to stay a while longer, the day dawned clear, the sun shone, and, much more importantly, a fresh North-Easterly wind enveloped the harbour and adjacent waters. Junk Bay is outside the busy main harbour in Hong Kong, on the eastern approach, but there is still a large amount of shipping using the channel and perhaps honours should go to a container ship that sailed serenely through the fleet just as the gun went! Naturally the lightweight flyers took the lead, when a boat weighs under 20 tons and has a waterline of nearly 80 feet it is bound to leap ahead, but the clipper yachts were packed into the middle of the fleet and powering along in comfortable conditions. An hour after the start Leeds held a slight lead of perhaps 20 yards over the next clipper yacht London. But up to weather, Glasgow had moved into fourth place and a small veer in the wind would give her the lead. Leeds, under her new and temporary skipper, Ras Turner, winner of the 1996 Clipper race, was showing a new aggression, and everyone is watching to see how Ras does against his fellow Plymouthian, Matt Baker, skippering Plymouth. These two have raced against each other many times before and have old scores to settle. The forecast for the leg is east to north-easterly
winds of force 4 – 5 (16 – 21 knots) along a straight course roughly to
the south east. However past experience says to expect the wind to decrease
or even disappear as the yachts approach the Philippines. If this happens
the heavier Clippers, carrying food for 55 days instead of plastic bags
of sandwiches, will have to rely upon the momentum of their heavier displacement
to keep themselves moving. The Clipper crews are no longer novices, but
this will be the first time they have been able to try their skills against
other yachtsmen. Their progress and the results will be fascinating. |
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The
Times Clipper 2000 The Charge is On... The yachts are thundering along towards the beach party in San Fernando in the fine company of a number of yachts from Hong Kong on the classic San Fernando race. The Jersey crew have obviously made the most of the opportunity to recharge their personal batteries and appear to be relishing the chance to be racing on the water again. They have opted to go slightly south of the rhumb line from Hong Kong to the Philippines on what is a shorter distance and currently faster point of sail. In the final stages they may have a problem if the wind veers from the North East to the East as is expected in the approaches, as they will then be left with a harder course to sail. They will however make the most of their current situation by trying to draw away from the rest of the fleet at the higher speed that they are currently making. Leeds also are showing renewed vigour under the watchful and experienced eye of temporary skipper, Ras Turner, as they are hot on the heels of Jersey and are keeping closer to the rhumb line and thus keeping their distance to cover to the least possible. It would be great to see the mighty Leeds finally pull off a good result and so we watch them with interest. The remainder of the fleet are spread out over a small distance to the North of the rhumb line. There seems to be a line abreast over a line from the northeast to the southwest of London, Bristol and Glasgow. These yachts are actually attaining a lower speed than those to the south of them and this may be explained by the fact that they are sailing closer to the wind. Whilst at the moment that means a more uncomfortable sailing angle, if the wind changes as previously mentioned, they will be ideally placed to free off their sails slightly and increase their speed over the ground dramatically. Bob Beggs is a master at tactics, as he has already proved, and so it will be fascinating to watch the final stages of the race unfold as he has placed his yacht in the middle of the fleet in a covering position. Finally to the north of this group are the close-knit group of Liverpool, Plymouth and Portsmouth. These guys appear to be within spitting distance of each other, and are bound to be using this to bolster their concentration and competitiveness as they race towards their goal. Having another boat on visual let alone within speaking distance really gets the adrenaline going and so will be adding superhuman strength to their limbs and hearts. They are, however experiencing an adverse current of about 3 knots which it appears the others to the south are not suffering from so much, so that will put a bit of a dampener on the situation. Having finally got underway on the second
half of this fantastic race around the world, the crews will be shaking
off the cobwebs of days and in some cases months away from the yachts,
and will be enjoying the intense work of this relatively short dash to
the Philippines in the company of many other yachts racing with equal
concentration. Let’s hope that the Clipper fleet prove to the rest of
the world what great ocean racing yachts they are. |
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The
Times Clipper 2000 Hot and Steamy in the South China Sea Things are hotting up now in the San Fernando race from Hong Kong to San Fernando, Philippines. Rupert Dean, Duty Race Skipper and Liverpool’s boss, reports that it is very hot and sticky out there. The Clipper yachts continue to show a fine turn of speed, so consistent you could set your clock by them. Having said that, it will probably all change as the wind is bound to do something that throws a spanner in the works! Looking at the position table for the 0300GMT report, the yachts are basically in the same relative positions as they were twelve hours ago, and doing the same sort of 12 hour runs. Jersey continues to lead the fleet, some way to the south of the main bunch of them, but the rest of the yachts have clawed a precious couple of miles each off the determined islanders. Current rumours from the base at San Fernando itself are that the wind has dropped at that end of the rhumb line and if this is the case then Jersey will grind to a halt first, thus giving the others a chance to catch them again. It will also possibly warn the remainder of the fleet that there are such problems ahead, and thus they will be looking for alternative solutions to avoid the wind hole and to try and sail around the hapless Jersey. Leeds are still going strong down the rhumb line and will be looking to outfox Jersey as soon as they can. They will also keep plugging on to ensure that the rest of the yachts don’t do the same to them! Glasgow have consolidated their move into third place which had happened by Friday afternoon our time, and they hopefully will hold onto this place at least to get them some vital points for the leader board. London and Bristol have diverged overnight, and the outcome of that is that London have won a bonus of pulling ahead of Bristol and getting slightly closer to the finish line. Bristol is reported as flying her lightweight spinnaker, as the wind angle has backed slightly to a marginal call for a kite (spinnaker), but Rupert reports that it does not seem to be an advantage at present, as Liverpool are holding their own against them and are flying their white sails. Finally at the rear of the Clipper fleet it appears that Plymouth and Portsmouth are doing some sort of Fandango, as they keep swapping positions within close range of each other. If the wind drops completely in the south these chaps to the north may still be able to pull off a spectacular result! Whilst it looks like the race will soon be over, one can never tell, and you may be reading these reports for some time yet! It has to be said, however that the first yachts have finished the race already. A catamaran called Atmosphere finished metres ahead of a yacht called Ffree Fire. I believe that both of them have broken the course record of 2 days, 2 hours and 2 minutes. Some going hey?! In the meantime Jersey is currently 5th in
the whole fleet. Lets hope for them and for everyone else that the wind
continues to hold true and that Clipper can finish with a good result
in this classic ocean race. |
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The
Times Clipper 2000 Hot and Steamy Easter Happy Easter to all race followers from the joint RHKYC and Clipper Race Committee on their hardship posting in San Fernando. As the wind dies and the yachts slow down there is lots of time to talk about the race so first some thoughts today are on Easter. The busy reader may wish to jump to the sailing report. The Race Party drove here from Manila on Friday 13th. Normally the best way is to fly and avoid the 6 hour drive but for either religious or superstitious grounds the local airline cancelled its flight. This was a hidden bonus as it meant we were to witness the various religious ceremonies on the way up. In Manila we passed several processions with hooded cross bearers making their way to the temples to pay their penance. In some areas these ceremonies are taken to extreme and the newspaper reported 16 cases of the worshippers actually being crucified. The cross bearers continued into the country and villages. Apparently it is a great honour to carry one carry the cross, the same also goes for being singled out to whip your back in an act of self flagellation. This was not a pretty site as the martyrs backs bled and the blood ran onto their T-shirts tied around their wastes. It couldn’t have done their sheets much good either. For those not following the religious side of the festival the Sheraton hotel had a ‘special’ on their fluffy Easter Bunnies just to remind us that this is really a commercial festival, not a religious one. For me the Easter theme was summed up by one cross placed in the cross parking area outside a village temple. It had a simple board nailed to it saying ‘Mr Nice Guy’. Looking at the country as a whole the adjective I would choose to describe it would be ‘colourful’. The Jeepnies and motorbikes with side cars, known as Trikes, are a mass of bright colours. The boats on the beech in many countries would just be in their natural wooden state; not so in the Philippines where they are every bright colour under the sun.. The people all smile and the beer is a sensible price. I think the Clipper crews will enjoy their short stay here. And now the racing ….. Jersey’s southern approach paid early dividends but then she and Leeds parked and the guys to the north kept going. At one time it looked as though Jersey had gone from first to last and the in one radio schedule. The northerners must have been holding their breath as their cunning plot unravelled but it was not to be. The next radio schedule showed the southerners picking up the new breeze and it was time for the others to park. During this critical period London moved south of Leeds, got the breeze and took second place. The order at the front remained the same and Jersey crossed the line at 0143GMT to take her second consecutive first place and markedly strengthen her second place overall. London were on the horizon and held their breeze to finish an excellent second place, just what they needed after some uncharacteristically poor results in the least few races. The race for third and forth turned into procession after the scene setting the night before. Leeds finished third at 0602 GMT which is a result that will please the whole fleet. They had been one of the pace setters and this podium finish will give them tremendous confidence for the remaining races. Bristol is due to finish at about 0830 providing the light wind keeps up. The last 4 are tightly grouped some 20 miles further back after having one of the most frustrating days they could imagine. Being hot, becalmed and with positions down the fleet is hard to take. Having the other crews ashore drinking beer makes it even harder. The last positions put Glasgow leading the group of 4 with Portsmouth and Liverpool two miles astern and Portsmouth one mile further back. A quick look at the overall race results
show that the 8 Clipper yachts have put up a remarkably good performance.
It has also been a race where we the fleet have been totally integrated
both professionally and socially. This has been a land mark event on the
water. I will hold my judgement for the shore side, but I have my suspicions. Return to AsianYachting News & Views |
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The
Times Clipper 2000 Round the World Yacht Race Race
9 - Hong Kong to the Philippines "The San Fernando Race" Return to AsianYachting
News
& Views |
Bristol
was first to cross, third in the whole fleet, soon followed by Liverpool
and Leeds. Plymouth, London, Portsmouth, Glasgow and Jersey followed.
The wind had been fresh to strong during the morning, but it fell away
to 7 knots as the start gun was fired, enough to give the yachts good
speed and control.