23rd
China Sea Race
AY Race Report 6
Although
Boracay took line honours by 50 minutes from Jelik in
the battle of the 70 footers it was the smaller 51ft Burns / Kinmonth
owned Mandrake that finished about eight hours latter to race
away with the handicap honours. After a long wait for other yachts to
finish Boracay, helmed this time by the UK’s Peter Morton
managed to hold onto second place by a mere one minute and two seconds
from the Anthony Day/ R Killip owned Siren. Through-out the race
competitors experienced extremes in conditions varying from complete calms
to brilliant downwind surfing conditions which turned into a bit of a
lottery depending on what time they closed in on the Luzon coast and approached
the Subic Bay finish line.
As predicted throughout the race, Mark Thornburrow's Dream took first place on corrected time in Premier Cruising, while Steve Manning's Walawala took line honours for IRC Division B at 05:14hrs, followed just over an hour later by Blackjack.
After wrestling with the light Philippine morning airs the remaining boats are expected latter today or early Tuesday morning. Worst off is multihull Zuma, which is limping down the Luzon coast after reportedly breaking a crossbeam last night and, although all the crew are fine, will need repairs when she finally reaches her destination.
Full results at:
http://www.chinasearace.com
Boracay
takes line honours at dawn, 50 minutes ahead of Jelik and the
battle of the 70 footers is over! As the remainder of the fleet are still
racing Boracay will have to wait a while to see if she can take
first place on corrected time. However it appears that the morning breeze
along the Luzon coast has dropped to around 7 knots and the Burns/Kinmonth
owned Mandrake will be the next to finish. Drumstick, Siren,
Moonblue 2 and Hocux Pocux 2 are expected to finish in close
succession during the afternoon having suffered badly in the light morning
airs.
The
fleet have had a very frustrating 10 hours parked just south of Pratas
Reef in light breeze, with Boracay holding on to a slender 17nm lead over
Jelik. Jelik, in common with Mandrake and Siren, seems to have gambled
on taking a route north of the rhum line, however it has yet to pay off,
with the IRC B Division hot on the heels of the front runners after 200nm
of sailing. 
Overnight,
the fleet averaged 7 to 8 knots boat speed, however by the 0800hrs report
wind speeds had dropped dramatically and the tail end of the fleet has
been making ground on the leaders ever since. According to the Purplefinder
tracking on board the boats, Jelik appears to have found the breeze again,
after parking at Pratas reef for a few hours, and is once again pulling
away from Mandrake.
Thursday
13th April:
For
the first time shore-based fans will be able to follow the action online.
Pole Star and SkyWave have joined forces to provide a web based tracking
facility for the event. SkyWave have supplied all participating boats
with one of their DMR 200 units and Pole Star, utilising their Purplefinder
technology to provide the satellite (Inmarsat) based positional data from
each boat, which will be updated every two hours during the race. This
propels RHKYC's usual twice-daily radio reporting schedule into the 21st
Century and has obvious safety benefits should any boats lose radio contact
with the fleet or retire from the race. Connect through at: 
The
five yachts competing in the IRC Premier Cruising Division are evenly
matched and expected to have a good race. Aussie Geoff Hill's Lyons 49
Strewth is in good company with the Hong Kong regulars Hocux
Pocux 2, Shahtoosh and Moonblue 2 being joined
by Doc Nicholson's new Dubois Global 80 Intrigue.