Day Four: the curate's egg. Final Results

Results today: Line Honours and pipped into second on corrected time by one minute 24 seconds.

Final Results: Four Races: Four Line Honours, Two wins, Two Seconds, equal first on points, second on countback.  Gutted.

(We -- and many others -- thought there should have been five or six races, but weather and the presence of a superyacht, Perseus, conspired against that).

We sailed a good race (probably our best) leading from the delayed start of an islands course. All the way round the long beats past the islands and through gates, we played the shifts well and pulled away from the fleet, leading comfortably till rounding the last island to the shortened finish. We lost breeze, which dropped to 1-2 knots for us. We put up our A1 for the final run to the finish, which we go to In 2 hours 20 minutes, some 5+ minutes in front of Baby Tonga, Moonblue 2, Storm2 and Aussie Maid, which all brought the breeze up with them. But we needed to be six minutes in front to beat Baby Tonga on handicap, so on corrected time we were second by 1:24 minutes.

Frustrating to have led comfortably all round the course, only to have It evaporate in sight of the finish. Ah, well, as they say, that's yacht racing. Sometimes the bikkie crumbles your way, sometimes the other.

The result gave us two firsts and two seconds and Tonga two seconds and two firsts, for equal first in the Regatta, but they win on count back. Full marks to Tonga for a good race. We met some of their crew, Sydneysiders, who want to come to Hong Kong to sail on Xena, so some new friendships made.

There's been some grumbling (and not just from us!), about only having four days of racing count to Regatta results, with tomorrow's race being more of a fun race. And somewhat silly that we only got four races in, when we'd expect to have at least six. They didn't do windward-leeward courses for the Premier Class this year because the Superyacht, Perseus, couldn't do them, as they're not manoeuvrable enough.

Great crew party last night, with performances on piano by our Bowman, Matt ("G"), and TC on vocals. Wonderful restaurant on the waterfront at Chasong Pier.

Photos to come, promise! [Later: now some here]

Breezes light, fickle, 5-9 knots, E veering to S. Afternoon thunder squalls.

Full results here.

Asian Yachting report:

Although Peter Forsythe & Jing Lee's X-55 Xena claimed line honours today, it was Peter Sorenson's chartered Beneteau F53 Baby Tonga that secured the handicap honours and in doing so, ended up tied on points with Xena but as Sorenson triumphed in the last race, they have won the Premier Cruiser trophy and Baby Tonga has defended the title. Consistently scoring four 3rd places, Jon Wardill's Cassidy 55 Australian Maid holds onto third overall. [Full report here]

Bangkok Post says:

In the Premier Class, Hong Kong's Peter Forsythe and Jing Lee's Xena conceded to Aussie Peter Sorenson's Baby Tonga, finishing equal first but Peter took the honours on a count-back. Third was consistent performer and regular yachtsman Jon Wardill, on his Cassidy 55 Custom Australian Maid.