Class 40 rockets

I've always liked these Class 40s. They're real off-the-wind rockets, speeds in the high teens.  They won't rate under IRC, have to be in One-Class, like the US and Europe, so I guess we'll never see them here.  Pity 'dat.
Here the are at the Atlantic Cup.
And at Owen Clark Design

China's first super-yacht set for round-the-world trip

Adastra in Zhuhai, beginning sea trials.  She'll be in Hong Kong in May

Xena regular Rick's Inge was responsible for the "stylish interiors" of this massive trimaran, as in her company Jepsen Designs, mentioned in the article below the fold, from yesterday's South China Morning Post.

Photos: Rolex China Sea Race 2012 and return

Arriving back in Hong Kong, 05:30, 14th April.  Oh what a beautiful city!

Piccies below in chronological order from the start, mostly my iPhone photos, a couple from Richard ("Biggus") for which thanks with link to his photo album.  LATER: couple of photos from TC, with thanks.
LATER STILL: "How was it?" asks son, mother, et al : Well, here's the elevator version: we cracked off south of the rhumb line just outside the harbour, which strategy went fine for two days, at which point we were leading the whole fleet on corrected time.
Then, whack!-a-mole-Hole-of-holes, ended up with all sails down and drifting to Vietnam for 6 hours (others hit holes (*), but none stopped).  We lost a lot of ground 55 and more miles behind Moonblue 2, but made up some when winds came back in, then took a critical decision on evening of day three not to play catch up, but to head south again, which this time paid off with major gains to morning day 4 (it's usually a 3-day race) when we had better angles to the finish and saw MB2 on the horizon at dawn.  We played catch up with them all morning in fickle then building breezes, tossing in a couple of cunning tactical tacks and passing them around noon-ish and to the finish line an hour in front. Jubilation the order of the day at the finish, for a great resurrection, on Easter's celebration of the Resurrection...
Main weapons used: J2 (the new 3Di version) Code Zero, A1,  occasional Staysail.
As TC says in the comments "it was the full range of emotions".
So, having decided for the second year running that I'm not doing another of these races, because I just can't stand the frustration of sitting on the rail drifting wind-less, of the lottery, we will in fact line up again in 2014.  And maybe do the new Hainan Island races later in the year.
See also: Subic in 99 hours.... grr
* [Of course one could reasonably ask why we hit such a hole and not others.  Others did, just not the extent we did.  The course was patchy and localised all over, and there was no prediction as to that particular one -- perhaps on-board GRIB files may have helped, but we didn't have them, onboard, as that's beyond my nerd-factor;  we only had PredictWind, which didn't predict that one -- predict wind, not predict no-wind (heh!)....  so for us it was just part of the lottery of this race.]

EVEN LATERER:  I've put some email comments in the comment section below, with permission.  I encourage your comments here on the blog rather than email chain; that way they're always easily accessible.  

EVEN LATERER STILL:  Catherine's photo album: mostly people photos at the beginning of the race (4 April), and with some after start from the Club's Facebook page and screenshots of the race.  Thanks to Catherine.

Click on "Read More" to see the photos...[click to enlarge each]

Nunquam Deditio

Nunquam deditio...Latin for "never give up", or "never surrender".
Having had so many times that we've been behind, and not given up, then won, or improved sharply, and never more so than on the evening of day two in this race... a worthy motto.
LATER: perhaps we should add, as it's part of a standard Latin phrase, Semper Invictus (always unconquerable),  though that's surely a touch immodest....

Samui fun

Xena steams past Jing Jing

Check this out: trailer for Samui 2012, based on 2011 footage.  Xena appears three times, each as a "blink-and-you-miss-it" moment: at 0:43, 2:14 and 2:36.  In the middle one, we're trucking past the Jing Jing in yellow (above). Sure, we're lower, but my goodness we're moving past them!
Click here for vid: some lovely babes as well.....

Stargazing

TC has a killer App on his Android. You point it anywhere in the sky and it tells you the stars, constellations and planets there. We've identified all the major constellations, their major stars and the planets Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn.
Wonderful in the clear skies of the South China Sea with no moon and zero light pollution.
A must have...
[Peter, on board Xena, in South China Sea, delivery to Hong Kong]

Venus is so bright....

.... and low on the horizon, she sends Venus-beams in fine ripples across the water, to kiss our port bow.

[Peter, on board Xena, in South China Sea, delivery to Hong Kong]

Send us an email -- say Hi!

Send us an email at peter.forsythe@itracvms.com (no attachments). We'd appreciate hearing from you, as we make our way back to Hong Kong on the delivery of Xena from the China Sea Race.
We're on our way back to Hong Kong on Xena, at 18 43 North and 117 00 East. That's pretty much smack bang in the middle of the South China Sea, just a little past half-way from Subic to Hong Kong.
Five other boats are going back at the same time and we're maintaining a radio sked at 19:03 each day. For the record, they are: Ambush, Darling, Diamond Queen, Kam Loong, Talking Head and Ambush coordinating the skeds.
We've been motoring for most of the way: no winds, glassy seas, hot sun. Doing 7 knots. And taking turns steering, because the autopilot's on the blink yet again -- we've been in email touch with the Raymarine guys in Hong Kong by email, but all the things they said to test came out ok, so there's nothing more we can do. Ditto air conditioning is not working , so it's stifling in here at the chart table. Other minor issues: the roller furler not working, got stuck half way and had to send Noel up the mast who reports that the jib foil is broken at the top: so that's now the bottom and now the top of the foil that have failed in recent months. And the generator, as usual, playing up, needing impeller replacing.
But enough of that...
We had a "flip-flop" overboard (FOB) situation, TC's going over the side as he was checking the jib stowage,, so we made that our swim stop just now. The water a beautiful blue and warm, 2,100 m depth. All the lads went in, cooled off and showered.
TC and I have been talking about everything under the sun.. and stars: the universe, rockets, satellites, code-breaking, books, religion, atheism, (read Anne Druyan, the late Carl Sagan's wife on atheism and the universe) Hong Kong, US & UK politics, boats planes & helicopters, man overboard (MOB) procedures and... wine women and song. Stars have been the best and most I've seen, not just all the main ones, but also the myriad tiny pinpricks between: what Sagan called the "billions and billions"....
We're a touch short of food. And maybe we'll run short of subjects to discuss. So before we wistfully turn to conversations on cannibalism, do write, to divert us....
Cheers from the boyz on Xena.
(TC, Noel, Lony and me, PF)

Subic in 99 hours... grrr...

From Regattanews.com.  Arriving in Subic.  Moonblue 2 in background... [hi-res]

The previous three posts below were from onboard Xena.  I had another two posts from onboard which seem not to have made it through. Now I'm at the Subic Bay Yacht Club coffee shop, blogging this.

The last of them, from onboard, said "we are chasing Moonblue 2"...
The first sked on Day One had us doing well down the course and ditto for the skeds on Day two. Indeed on  Day Two, we were leading the whole fleet on corrected time.
Then came the hole.  All yachts this year hit a hole or soft air.  But none hit the mother of all holes that we did: one that had us with all sails lowered as we drifted in the current: three times no less: all sails down for a total of six hours, night drifting, sail-less, spotlight fishing for squid off the back.
Result: on Day Three we were 55 miles back from our division, having been first in the whole fleet, the day before.  That hurts.
When we got our sked on the evening of Day Two, we saw that we were still playing catch-up, so the choice was to continue chasing, or to make a radical move south, to get some separation from our division and hope to get some better angles into Subic.
And that's we decided to do: the radical move south.  A brilliant tactical call by Stevo and TC,
On the morning of Day Three we'd made some major gains -- doing double the distance of our competition in 14 hours -- pointing straight at Subic.
On the dawn on Day Four, we saw a sail on the horizon in front of us.  Moonblue 2, we thought, in our division.  And so the chase began.  Winds were light to almost zero.  At times with zero boat speed, we had the crew out on the leeward rail (if "leeward" means anything in zero air.  More like where the wind was trying to come from). Combination of leaning out and current, gave us some apparent wind and some boat speed to make gains on Moonblue.  The wind freshened, and we made steady gains, until we could see the whites of their eyes.  Steady gains brought us right up behind them, a gust of fresh air and we tacked away to get inside them and the finish, another beauty from Stevo and TC, till we were clear in front and covering their moves to the finish line.
Fresh breezes to the north point of the bay into Subic, now covering Moonblue behind us, change to Code Zero, then to A1 Spinnaker.  Wind knocks took us into a bay, could have been embayed, but managed to just lift out round the point, when the wind headed, and shift to J2 jib.  Tack tack tack to the finish an hour or so in front of Moonblue 2 and first across the line in our division.  That meant a definite second on corrected, perhaps first, depending on the finish time of Clove Hitch. They came in about four hours later, for a win on corrected.
The cheers we had at the finish was for a remarkable comeback after losing six hours and many miles in the hole of holes.
Easter Sunday is a day or resurrection and we felt we'd been resurrected.  Tremendous feeling of accomplishment in the crew.
Strompfy, who's done 22 of these races, said that this was the worst and most unusual in terms of the wind.  Last time we did it in 76 hours, so this time a full 23 hours more...
Many times, sitting on the rail, I swore to myself that I'd never do this race again. There's just too much chance of the slow and frustrating times outweighing the fine sailing ones.
But one forgets the bad times and recalls the good. Zipping Code Zero reaches.  Cracking runs under spinnaker in the moonlight, Venus and Jupiter gleaming bright in the west. The pleasure of fine teamwork; of hunting down the foe.
So, who knows...

TC's nightmares

It's 2 am and we're sitting in a hole, all sails down, as they're only slowing us from making any movement from the current. The Rolex pennant sits limp at the backstay.
TC comes up and says he's just had a nighmare.
"What, that Strompfy was spooning you?" says Stevo.
"Better than forking you" says another..
Or perhaps it's just the nightmare of bobbing in the South China Sea, in a race to Subic, but making more way to Vietnam.
And nothing to be done...

The dreaded "shutdown"

Well, here it is, the no-wind time... we've been sitting at zero boat speed for the last hour.... drifting to Subic thanks to favourable current, at half a knot. At this rate it'll take till Christmas to get there...
Wind not expected to pick up until tomorrow night, so it'll be a long night and a longer day....
We've taken the mainsail down to the first reef, simply to stop it flapping round, harming itself and banging on the backstay.
Nice dinner though - beef bourguignon (courtesy of Arlene).
TTFN
PF, onboard Xena

Day One

We're trucking along in a secure and undisclosed location, 10 knots of breeze doing around 8knots boat speed and pointing straight to Subic. Dinner for day two is being made by yours truly, while rest of crew, in late afternoon sunlight, is busy trimming this and tweaking that, in the undending battle to make her go even faster. It can't be "set and forget", says Stevo.
We headed off yesterday noon, with a freesh breeze from the East, which had the fleet looking good for the Rolex cameras and the helicopters. Beating out the harbour, one little hole around Lei Mun Gap, which we managed to sneak through and steal a bit of a march on some of our division, then out past Shek O Rock, Waglan Island and into the clear sea. Decent breeze to the mid teens for most of the day, easing over night had us throw a tack in to Starboard, but quickly tack back to Port as it didn't work out too well... By morning the breeze had veered south so we tacked again to Starboard, into a freshening breeze in the teens, were lifted by it as it continued to clock south, till we've been pointing to Subic for most of the day. Starboard to Subic, yikes, it should never happen in the NE monsoon: unsual weather.... must be global warming! (heh...)
Questions now are what to do about the rest of the fleet, which are sitting somewhat North and to the East of us. When and how to cover them, so that we're between the competition and the finish has been the subject of discussion for much of the day. For now we keep going where we're going: to another secure and undisclosed location somewhat down the line to Subic some 400 miles away...
Cheers to friends and relative of Xena!
Peter and the Crew of the Warrior Princess.

************

UPDATE (14/4):  As I wrote the above, we were lying first in the whole fleet, which we did not know at the time....

Race Day

UPDATE: "Summary… Looks like a tough race with headwinds then very light winds. Not much real good sailing" (CW)

*******

Well, it's 05:30 Hong Kong time and I'm sitting here at the computer waiting for the final Commander's Weather forecast.  Sadly the breezes seem pretty light and getting lighter.  Last few weeks the NE monsoon has been pretty steady and strong, with predicted race times of just over two days, but now it's evanescing (or "abating" according to the fellow from the Hong Kong Observatory at last night's Skipper's Briefing), with a huge hole down the track, which means a hot and slow race.  Let's hope all the forecasts are wrong...
That aside, we're all set.  Xena was hauled out yesterday afternoon for a final race wash and she looks great, Noel having done a great job of getting her ready and through the scrutineering.
Watch the race progress on the Yellowbrick tracker which is here.
Also, I'm hoping -- technology allowing -- to post some updates from onboard -- which will be text only.  Please don't be tempted to send email to us onboard, as that could be construed as "outside assistance", which is banned by the rules!  Just comment on the blogsite if you wish, as we can't see that on the water.
Cheers from Discovery Bay!
Peter

CSR crewmate Pit, from South Africa, last met on the Cape to Cairo jaunt
In our backyard, Discovery Bay

At the Yacht Club yesterday.  Xena in the middle background, behind
Sell Side Dream, in orange.  Australian Maid front left.

Pit with Xena yesterday

Marcus our Weimaraner is a Xena crewmate
see him modelling our crew hat on right. Here with a
crested bulbul, stunned from flying into our
window.  Bulbul flew off a few minutes later...

From today's South China Morning Post.
Note mention of "our" Strompfie...

26 boats to celebrate 50th year of China Sea Race

Genuine Risk expected to win premier event - a 565 nautical mile dash to Subic Bay - in record time

Alvin Sallay Updated on Apr 03, 2012

The spirit of yachting is alive and kicking in the city with 26 boats set to take the rum line from Hong Kong to Subic Bay in the Philippines tomorrow to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Rolex China Sea Race. Organisers said yesterday that new maxi Genuine Risk, owned by Geoff Hill, had a genuine chance of breaking the record for the dash to Subic Bay, established in 2000 by Karl Kwok's Beau Geste. "I believe Genuine Risk can do it this year. Last year, Neil Pryde and HiFi came close, but this 90-footer is almost twice the size of HiFi and is in with a realistic chance of setting a new course record," race chairman Richard Strompf said.

"G" at the RC44 Worlds

From Magnus re the J2:
Great to hear it is doing the trick.
And re photo below:
Here is a shot of the G Unit at the latest RC regatta (they won on Katusha)

"G": pretty in Red... See Stevo comments below.  The Tactician is Russel Coutts

Tracking the Rolex China Sea Race

The tracking facility will be live just before the race.  Go to the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club's Rolex China Sea Race website and look for the link on the "latest additions" on the 4th April.
I also plan to post short text-only entries to this Xena blog during the race (technology permitting...) so check back here from time to time.
Please don't send me any emails to the boat during the race, as that's against the rules.  It's "read only" for duration of the race.