Around the Island 2015: nice breezes, great company

Noel, Mark, T(ristan), Andrew, Sophie, Peer, Jonno, Forse, Rosie, Stefan,
Keno,Gaz, Hamish, John. Full crew list.

Queues for the sampans.  John's photo

Mark checks the mast

Lighthorse, First 50, beats up the harbour.  John's cool photo

Hamish. John's photo (as are most of rest)

Mark hikes

Sophie Smiles

Keno Trims (Main)

Peer Trims (Jib)

Rosie trims (Kite)

Stefan, Rosie, Hamish, hang.

The lovely classic ketch Rona, that I went on back in 2012

Forse steers.  And colours (and tummy..)

The beat to Cape D'Aguilar.  Forse, Andrew, Peer, T, Sophie

Running around SE of the Island, after Cape D'Aguilar

Passing some of the earlier starters, south of Hong Kong Island

Hamish, John

T on helm

Andrew, Forse, T, coming home

Pontoon Party

Breezes 15-20 knots and no holes.  Quick, pleasant race.
Most photos above from John Jensen and Mark, with thanks.  A couple mine.
Results.  No excuses, but (!).... we didn't have working backstay, which rather limited our trimming ability.... Oh well...

China Cup 2015

A few photos grabbed from the photo site of CCIR. (Racing in the one-class First 40.7 fleet of 25 boats):

Iris, Tony, Keno, Jing.  Arriving in Daya Bay, after passage race, Day One

We're the yellow spinnaker in this gaggle

Day Two: Monti and Keno on the rail.

RHKYC Video of CCR 2015

H/t to TC, with thanks.  Click here for link (sorry, can't embed on the blog, for some reason...)

HK to Vietnam race results

Want to keep a copy of the results, in case we ever do the race again. (Last did it in 2008, on Thea)
Stevo, on Ambush, (2nd IRC 1), said:

"Some of the best sailing I have done in a while.  Saturday in particular was 18-22 knots of wind, blue sky, blue water and navigators instructions were "go fast as possible"....

Dave Witt, sailing master on Ragamuffin, the 100' maxi that took Line Honours in race-record time, said the race is "sailing's best-kept secret".  "If I had to pick one ocean race to do every year, this would be it", he adds. Hmmm, gets one thinking of 2017 (it's only biennial: sorry Dave.....):

Rockin' in the riggin'

Rags, in Hong Kong waters, raced in our China Coast Regatta, and HK-VN race

The crew of the super maxi, which has garnered an international reputation, are down-to-earth, fun-loving celebrities of the sailing world
Link to fun story here.
If you can't get it cause it's paywalled, here's the text:

China Coast 2015: a tale of three breezes

Day One: TIA = "This Is Asia".... easy, fluky breezes.
Day Two: moderate to building breezes.
Day Three: 20-30 knot breezes, lumpy seas, as the "Strong NE Monsoon" warning kicked in. A bit wild and wooly.  Some damage to boat(s) but none to Xena crew, thank Allah.
Overall results in Premier Divison: 1 Xena; 2 Moonblue 2; 3 Lighthorse.
Thanks to those who sent photos in.  Best, Forse.

Shiny bottom, 9 Oct, in contrast to....

...  the keel on day of race wash, 7 Oct

Crew Boss, Grunta, and Iris

Bowman Westie, hard at work....

Boat Manager, Noel

Day One, 9 Oct. Winners on the day.

Whooska! End Day Three: Dubes, Forse, Grunta, Iris, Trini,
Glyn, Andrew, Jules, Ken, Westie, Zoe, Peer

Ken, Andrew, Noel, Grant, Iris

Evening, Day Three, 11 Oct: Noel, Ken, Grunta, Iris

Nibblies, Kellett Island, 11 October: Westie, Trini, Noel, Ken, Grunt, Iris, Forse

Kellett.  Westie, Trini, Andrew

The requisite food fote...

Glyn, Dubes, Peer

1st in Premier Division, 11 October, Kellett Island, RHKYC.
Westie, Keno, Peer, Glyn, Iris, Grunta, Forse, Jules, Zoe, Dubes, Trini

Glyn and glass

Keno and glass

Ragamuffin 100', on practice day, 8 Oct, Hong Kong Island South.
Taken by mate, Mike, on his Island Gypsy.  Sent to Rags
crew, who put it on their Facebook.  Rags took, as expected,
Line Honours.  Also race record, of 42 hours.

A weekend on the water

The May Day long weekend: Jing and I with Inge and Strompfie, up Mirs Bay way....

Inge, Strompfie, Forse, on way up.  Nice breeze, speeds to 10 knots...

Strompfie at the wheel, having just passed this unidentified red steel ketch.

Jing enjoying the fine weather.  At least, not too much rain...

Xena snuggled into Double Haven, Mirs Bay.  From near the restaurant

Colour study: Wong Shek Pier.
Green Island and Tap Mun behind the Danbuoy (the yellow thing...).

Sharp Peak, peaks out, from Wong Shek Pier.
Both Strompfie and Jing have climbed it.

Relax on autopilot on the way back to HK.

Duk Ling, back on the water just recently.  Hong Kong's
last sail-driven junk

Jing's Sydney-based colleague sends her this, from the other morning
in Sydney Harbour, from the UBS building.

Chinese Sailors Come a Long Way in the Volvo Ocean Race

Members of the Dongfeng team racing last year. The Chinese crew members in
this year’s Volvo Ocean Race have quickly overcome their lack of experience. CreditYann Riou/Dongfeng Race Team, via Volvo Ocean Race

NEWPORT, R.I. — The Chinese team in the Volvo Ocean Race could not have performed worse during a trial run in September, less than a month before the actual race began.

With France’s top ocean racers training the crew, the Dongfeng Race Team watched a $15,000 sail slide overboard and a Chinese crew member cling to a halyard as he met the same fate, the line shredding his palms, only to be rescued along with the sail.

“The French guys were getting loads of grief,” said Mark Turner, one of the Chinese team’s managers, at a stopover here last week. “The other teams, everyone, thought we were irrelevant.”

But Dongfeng, whose crew includes members who had never slept on a sailboat or spoken English before February 2014, arrived in Newport on Thursday as the victor of the race’s sixth leg, which started in Itajaí, Brazil, on April 19. It was the second leg the team has won in the nine-leg race around the world, which covers 11 ports and about 39,000 nautical miles.

Read the rest.....

San Fernando 2015: Maysak Makes Mean

The Course: from the Club Facebook

Typhoon Maysak meant we couldn't go to San Fernando, so the Sailing Office sent us on an Category 1 offshore course of about 360 miles, around virtual marks to the south of Hong Kong (at left), which the club called "Not the San Fernando Race".
A predominantly light winds race, Force 1-4, with occasional 6, which I characterised as "a mix of frustrating and exhilarating". To which someone said "that's pretty much the description of any offshore race", to which I say "True 'dat".
We had a couple of times where boat speed was 0.0 knots.
But we also had a great first night under A2 spinnaker with winds up to 25 knots, boat doing 12-13 knots (top score was AK with a burst of 13.7 knots), and a nice morning reach, winds 15-18 knots and steady boat speed over 10 knots.
We won our IRC Premier Cruising division, and came 4th overall.  Great crew work and camaraderie.  No major damage, save a blown A1 kite on the last afternoon, quickly retrieved.
Some photos, with various thanks to Angel, TC, Jonno, Ken and Guy (Club Facebook photos here):

Pontoon, RHKYC, 1 April.  TC, Mark, Jonno, AK, Ken, Forse, Dan, Noel, Kiwi

Pre start: watch that sheet!  Kiwi, Forse, Noel, TC, Jonno, Ken, Dan, Mark, AK

Light winds past Waglan Island.  And Jonno's cool shades...

More light winds driftin'... Noel, Kiwi, AK, TC, Shifty, Ken

Kiwi and AK on helm, light winds racing....

Kiwi on the job

Noel and TC check the AIS as Kiwi trims: plenty of shipping on the course...

TC, Mark, Dan (aka "Shifty")

The two old buggers: Ken and Forse

Arriving back in the Emerald city of Hong Kong, evening, 3 April

Canapes on the boat, 3 April, RHKYC pontoon

Dan, Ken, TC, Forse, Jonno, Mark, AK, Kiwi

Prize giving, RHKYC 4 April.  Pixie, Forse, TC, Kiwi, Dan, Ken, Mark.
(photo-bombed by the man in blue...)

[PS: some folks were asking about the name "Xena"; where did it come from.  Here's a post on that]

Dongfeng wins Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race

China boat, Dongfeng, arrives in Sanya, Hainan Island, China
winning Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean race.

There's a report in the South China Morning Post, here (needs registration, but not money).
More details on the Volvo Ocean Race site, here.

Vestas Wind

From here.

I certainly empathise with Chris Nicholson, of Team Vestas Wind, which ran aground on a reef of Stage 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race.
Yachting World. 
The New Yorker.