Dingle update

Hong Kong from Lei Yue Mun, last year (nothing to do with post below....)

There was a bit of a dingle at the start of the race yesterday, involving a collision at the pin end between front runner Matt Allen's Ichi Ban, the local GP42, and top-rated boat Wan Ma Rang and Baby Tonga.  WMR hit both the other boats, was judged at fault and disqualified.  Ichi Ban was hit and spinnaker pole bent, so they had to retire and seek redress; which they got -- they will be awarded an extra place at the end of Friday's racing equal to the average of its places to that day's racing.  Tonga had damaged stanchion, but was otherwise unaffected by the event.
One other result: Wan Ma Rang, promptly rechristened "One More Prang".

Baby Tonga update: had chat with Pete Sorensen, skipper of Tonga last night's skipper's reception.  He's keeping close eye on us as well, as the only other Premier class boat in the fleet, and given our close competition in King's Cup.  They finished three places up on us yesterday, against the two points we made on them in Day one, giving them one points lead on us overall so far....
Pete said he liked Xena.... so we invited him to join us for a regatta closer to home -- Boracay in the Philippines maybe, in February.  Chatted with Ross Dawson of Ffree Fire, who's crewed with us on Xena from time to time, and he says Borocay is a great regatta, with steady strong breezes in the 20+ knot range, dependable.  It's in February, winter there, no need for air-con.

Met the lady that takes photos for the Regatta, who directed us to the Regatta website where there are plenty of photos, too many maybe....