RCSR Xena photos

Photos on Picasa, here.  Courtesy Jonno and Celine.

Below from Jonno, photos from the Rolex China Sea Race (RCSR).  You can see what a light-airs race it was.... (Crew full names here).

Subic, about 2:30 am on 20th April.
LtoR: Big Al, Noel, Forse, Jing, MC, Celine, Biggus, Stevo, Jonno

At RHKYC pre-start, 16 April.  Forse and Noel;
Jing and Wobbles; MC and Big Al
(The cranes and cement behind are part of the work
on a new under-harbour road tunnel)

Click "Read more" to see photos below the fold

Pipped in the Philippines. Xena's Rolex China Sea Race

Xena races out of Victoria Harbour, 16th April 2014.           Photo: Sina.com

Xena is now back in Hong Kong, put to bed at the RHKYC pontoon on Thursday night, 24 April at 20:30, having left Subic at 14:00 on 21 April, for a trip time of 78 hours.  

Thanks to Jonno, Noel and Lony for helping me bring her back.  And with no damage; a first. 

We used only the Storm Tri-sail and high-cut delivery jib, which worked fine and meant less strain on the rig.  Delivery winds mostly gentle to nothing on first few days and then 20+ knots and choppy confused swells 3-4 metres on the last day, with plenty of fishing boats to dodge.
Xena performed beautifully both in the race and on delivery back to Hong Kong.

Strompfie asked me to write an article on the race for the X-Yachts magazine.
DRAFT X-Y Article is below.  RCSR Crew: Please feel free to comment: either in the comments section below, or direct to me.
And also: can you send me some photos that I can add to the blog. Thanks.
Best, Forse

Pipped in the Philippines.  Xena's Rolex China Sea Race

Words (560): Peter Forsythe                                     Pictures: J. Rechten; Sina.com

If you have to get pipped into second place by 31 minutes in an offshore race, what better way than by another X Yacht?

That was the case with us on our X-55, Xena, in the recent Rolex China Sea Race, a 565 NM Category One Offshore race from Hong Kong to Subic Bay in the Philippines.

After 84 hours on the water, we needed Hong Kong’s latest Xc-50, Explorer, to come in 9 hours after us, as she rates 1.089 to our 1.205. In fact, she arrived in Subic 8 hours 35 minutes after Xena, giving a corrected time difference of 34 minutes.  Well done new Xc-50!

The Rolex China Sea Race usually starts with a breezy first day and night, as the north-east monsoon kicks in.  Out of Victoria Harbour turn half right, set a rhumb line course of 145 degrees, crack sheets and set up for a long reach on Port tack.  Then, as you approach the Philippines, it becomes a very tactical race, dealing with shifty and light breezes and attempts to avoid the notorious “Luzon hole”.  In the 2012 race, we were leading the whole fleet for 2 ½ days, including TP52s and a 90-footer.  Then we fell into the “hole” for 6 hours, zero wind, zero boat speed, floating with sails down, fishing for squid in the middle of the night.

But this time the breezes were gentle even as we headed out, making the first night the calmest any of us had done.  The winds continued gentle all the way, 3-12 knots.  Xena showed her light-wind colours, as we managed to keep moving, with boat speed above wind speed, even in zephyrs of 3-4 knots.

It was a rhumb-line race, but with the fleet being forced south of rhumb by veering winds.  One tactical call was middle of night two: do we tack back to the rhumb, or stay on Port? No, we won’t tack. We tried it last time and it didn’t pay. 

Another tactical call was approaching Subic Bay around midnight.  Do we duck inside a rock and the mainland, or leave the rock to port, north of us? We decided on the inside duck, just as the full-ish moon rose ahead to give us a clear view of the gap.  Mistake. 

From 9 knots boat speed under our North Sails' A2 spinnaker, we came to a screeching halt with zero wind and boat speeds.  A whisper of wind and we hoist the Code Zero, tack with the tide, which gives us apparent wind, and head back to the main bay. 

Meantime, we had our long-time friendly rivals Moonblue2 (a Warwick 61) right on our tail just two boat lengths behind us.  They stayed in close to shore, while we searched for wind in the bay. 

One a.m., and the land breeze kicks in, 18 knots and a race to the line, which Moonblue 2 won by minutes, giving them another win in our “on the water” competition, which now stands at 3-2 to Xena in races to the Philippines.

And so to Subic and its pretty town of Olongapo. Rum and calamansi.  Mahi-mahi, dried milk fish, prawns.  Friends met, lies told.   

Wait for Explorer….  Result: X-Yachts First and Second in Premier IRC Division, Rolex China Sea Race.  Well done, XY!

Another Subic under the belt and the next one to look forward to, searching for a second win, our record to Philippines now being one win and three seconds.  Ducks in a row,  we need another bullet….

Peter Forsythe

26^th April 2014

In a box out-take:

Xena Crew: Regulars: Peter “Forse” Forsythe and Jing Lee (Owners); Steve “Stevo” Trebitsch (Crew Boss);  Ben “TC” Harding (Navigation); Michael “MC” Dangar (Main); Richard “Biggus” Hawkins (Radio Op); Noel Gabutin (Mid-Mast). Newbies: Alan “Big Al” Reid (Trim assist); Joe Bottomley (Bow); Jonathan “Jonno” Rechten (Mast); Celine “Wobbles”  Shao (Sina.com embed and Trim Assist); Robert Bottomley.

Pete Churchouse on the China Sea Race

Moonblue 2, leaves Victoria Harbour, CSR 2012

Pete Churchouse, owner/skipper of Moonblue 2, one of the boats in our Premier Division writes about the race on our Club's Facebook page, here.  For those of you who don't Like Facebook, here's the text:
Rolex China Sea Race - starts Wednesday 16 April

Owner/Skipper Peter Churchouse has had Moonblue 2, a Custom Warwick 64 ft since new in 2000. His crew of two women and ten men are from New Zealand, Australia, Denmark, the United Kingdom, the Philippines and France. The crew that are flying in for the Race are Doug Flynn (Australia), Brian Wade (New Zealand), David Baker (Australia) and Greg Conley (France). Moonblue 2 has done every Rolex China Sea Race since 2002 (save for 2010 when she was being repainted) and personally, Peter has at least 12 under his belt.

Timing is everything it seems. Pete is hoping to avoid “the bloody awful holes at the mouth of Subic Bay which kill the boats that get there between 1600 and 1700hrs as the inshore wind dies.

Outside boats carry the wind for 30 miles and we all end up at the same place, having been miles ahead. You sit at the mouth of the bay as the sea breeze dies inshore, and the land breeze does not kick in until about 2200hrs - so that’s five to six hours of sitting there going nowhere while the slower boats are still enjoying the breeze up the coast all the way to the mouth of the bay, just in time to pick up the evening land breeze! If you are a super fast racing boat, you get to the mouth of the bay during the day, when there is plenty of wind, but for the ‘faster’ cruising boats like Moonblue 2, we get there just as the wind dies. It’s a fact of life that we have to live with going to that destination.

Pete says that “possibly the best parts of this Race are the evenings after Day 1, when the typical configuration is spinnaker up, modest winds, flattish seas and a beautiful full moon that comes up at about 2100hrs on the port bow, and goes down behind the stern over the course of the night - and huge ‘Pixie’ pies baked beans, pots of coffee and lashings of Branston Pickle and brown sauce. The teapot and sundown is also keenly awaited!”

Apart from looking forward to some great fishing, Pete is planning on doing well in the Race and enjoying the tactical challenges that come with it. “With all the ‘racing’ boats masquerading as ‘cruising’ boats, it is difficult for genuine ‘furniture’ boats to do well under IRC. In fact it is almost a waste of time thinking that you can do well in Premier Cruising Division in such genuine cruising boats given the increasingly racing configuration of some of the boats that slip into this division these days - or older racing boats that decide they are now cruising boats.” says Peter, adding that “everyone that is a racing boat in sheep’s clothing is Moonblue 2’s greatest competition, I like to race against genuine similar ‘furniture’ boats - unfortunately that is increasingly not the case”.

Pete continues to join offshore races despite what he describes as a “yachting bureaucracy making these events more difficult to do” by “adding increasing levels of regulatory and administrative encumbrances to the sport.” He’s dreading the the possibility of “a new raft of rules that need to be complied with next time, adding further additional layers of reasons not to participate.” Let’s hope so too Pete, we would love to see you on the start line every time!

Back to the Race that Pete is taking part in - Pete says “there are all these folks that think the Hobart Race is the ‘biggie’ for sailors and yes it is a classic hard race for sure. But this Rolex China Sea Race takes sailors much further offshore and well out of range of airborne help in the event of a disaster. Hence a need to be well-prepared. I have had guys on board who have done literally double-digit Hobart races and get as sick as a dog on this Race given a very uncomfortable quartering sea on the first day out typically. It is not quite the benign tropical paradise that some people might imagine.”