Monday, 11 November 2019

Xena -- with new owners -- at China Cup

Our lovely Xena is in new hands, the family of Mark N.  And in good hands too. We’d only just done the handover, and she was off to the 13th China Cup held in Chinese waters just North-East of Hong Kong, in Shenzhen’s Daya Bay.
She was sailing under the name Zhen Ao Sailing Team A.
Xena led the pack for three days, then came the discards and she sat second, until the final race, which was the decider, and was pipped by just 30 seconds. The other way around and it would’ve been decided on count-back for a Xena win....
So a wonderful second in a big and strong fleet of 21 boats in IRC B.  (Results).  Also screenshot below.
Stevo was skipper as Mark was racing in his 60’ Beneteau. (Zhen Ao Sailing Team).
Here are some photos courtesy Stevo:
The really nice marina berths in Shenzhen




From Stevo: Steveo, Shawn, Tina, Charlie, Wei, Richard, Daguo, Sherman 
and a couple others I didn’t know well. Basically Alpha crew and Xena owner.

Soaking downwind

Stevo: at the helm

From the website (which is real crap. No boat details, no detailed results...
I guess this is Mark’s other boat, the Oceanis 60’ from the CupSite


There was also an Xp-44, Arctic Tern, registered in Xiamen...
The Shenzhen Vanke Longcheer Yacht Club
Daya Bay, Shenzhen








Wednesday, 25 September 2019

Victoria Harbour “an ideal stop” for Ocean Race

Volvo boats in harbour racing. January 2017

Volvo boats in the 2017-18 race at the old Kai Tak airport
Thanks to this government’s incompetence there’s no place for
boats in the redevelopments. Way to go Carrie!…

Veteran sailor Karl Kwok is pushing for Hong Kong to be a stopover in the 2012-22 Ocean Race (ex the Volvo Ocean race). [here]
Karl at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht ClubP
That’s his trimaran Beau Geste 

It would sure be a better choice than Qingdao or Sanya which I thought at the time were chosen by folks who naively thought there’d be commercial gains.