Round Hainan Regatta - Day 2
by Pierre Orphanidis 22 Mar 2014 16:23 GMT
21-28 March 2014
Vatti take lead but Dongfeng 2 hot on their heels
For the second day in a row, Sanya delivered champagne sailing conditions for the 45-strong fleet of the Round Hainan Regatta. The northeasterly breeze blew between 15 and 22 knots, and the South China Sea kept the crews on their toes with a short chop.
With at least three races that scored points now completed, the overall leaderboards in the five divisions are becoming clearer, especially among the competitive IRC-B2 that attracts the top professional international sailors.
Vatti, with Malcolm Page calling tactics, won both of the day's races but Brian Thompson and his Chinese crew were close behind. Races have an average duration of one hour, for the leading three boats, and Vatti had a lead, in corrected time, of just 24, 60 and 31 seconds, over Dongfeng 2. Malcolm Page explained: "As a team we progressed again. We had some more lessons of course, a couple of bad spinnaker drops but I think that as a team we improved again today. In what regards the breeze, there were a bit few more consistent right shifts. There were a few as well yesterday but didn't last very long. However, we still played more left than right."
Vatti holds a paper thin one-point lead over Dongfeng 2, making the leaderboard of the IRC-B1 division wide open.
In the Soto 27 one-design fleet, Asia's top match racers marched on, unbeatable. GMGE / Koo Racing Team, crewed by Malaysian siblings Jeremy and Tiffany Koo, Singapore's Maximilan Soh and Chinese female sailor Si Liang, sits comfortably at the top of the overall leaderboard. With six victories in six races they have an ample cushion for the final day.
In the Beneteau Oceanis 40 fleet, the all-Russian crew on the Wanning-sponsored boat extended their lead after winning both races. They now sit at the top with a three-point advantage over the second-placed, all-Russian Sanya boat.
Microlab, skippered by Huabing Wang, stretched their leadership in the IRC-A division while Ubox and Hainan Airlines Dream Team lead, respectively, the IRC-B1 and Fareast 26 divisions.
The Round Hainan Regatta will come to an end for the one-design Soto 27 and Fareast 26 classes after three more in-port races are held on Sunday, followed by the prize-giving ceremony in the afternoon.
The IRC B divisions will hold an 8.5nm coastal race that will see them start off Sanya Serenity Marina, head west, round the Dongdaimao (East) island on Sanya bay, before heading back to the finish line off the marina.
A more difficult difficult day awaits the IRC A and Beneteau Oceanis 40's as they will embark on the first half of the proper offshore part of the regatta. They will also start off Sanya Serenity Marina, head west in order to round Hainan island clockwise and finish in the island's capital, Haikou. The length of this first part is approximately 350 nautical miles and the leading boats are expected to finish on Tuesday morning.
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