Hong Kong Etchells

Jamie McWilliam takes us through the first race of the series in his very own style of writing

After a summer of intensive training, massively detailed boat preparation, and international travel to secure critical "match fitness" before entering the world-class gladitorial arena that is the Hong Kong Etchells Fleet, finally the great day arrived. The minor players (Magics, etc) had provided a suitable support act the weekend before, but now the crowd noise dropped to a murmur as the curtain rose, before growing to a deafening ROAR as the fleet cast off and emerged from the Typhoon Shelter...

Except for the fact that there wasn't a breath of wind, and the hungry pack bobbed around like bath toys under the circling TV camera choppers, frustration mounting with every minute. However, finally a little breeze filled down from Kowloon Bay and the sleek weapons leaped forward to the starting area. A Northerly is always a nightmare breeze in the Harbour, and although it normally turns into an Easterly, this time there was to be no such relief and the course of Dock-Tai Koo Shing (3 laps) looked like being a less-than-thrilling experience. But on a day like this, nothing was going to take away from the desire to compete, so when the starting sequence commenced, the pack moved into its usual combative manouvres. At the gun, 1046 Mango Jam took the leeward (but ahead) boat end, with 1235 Gunga Din next best up to weather, followed closely by 1133 Wanchai Belle and 1047 Marianne II. Fetching off to the East, trimming was of the essence as the breeze swung back and forth through 20 degrees and up and down from 3 to 8 knots. Mango Jam chose a Southerly route, while the others held rhumb line or slightly above. Gunga Din showed the benefits of their intensive Cork Week training regime by trimming their way into a solid early lead, which was multiplied when a roving tramp steamer took a hard left across the nose of the Belle and Marianne II (no respect for the fairer sex from HK shipping...) and anchored, parking the Belle and allowing Marianne II over the top. The rest of the pack closed up behind, but nobody could get past the front 4. At TKS, Gunga Din tacked round in first and set a wrap (quickly recovered) spi, which forced them to sail down on the Southerly route. Marianne II did the same, and got rolled swiftly by Mango Jam and the Belle (eventually they lost 9 places from this hoist!), who chose the high and higher courses respectively. The Belle got a bit of new puff first to creep over Mango Jam, and by the time the anchored ships had been circumnavigated, these two almost got to Gunga Din, but not quite... not quite....

Rounding Dock Buoy the fleet was hugely spread out and although Gunga Din rounded first, the Belle came round a bit tighter and heated hard to get over a line of floating sheds (Ruffians, Pandoras), while Gunga Din got a little stuck below them. Mango Jam also got over the top, and these two moved off into the lead. It is a mark of the racing in the fleet that even on a 1.5-mile fetch, nerves continue to jangle and concentration remains at 100% as the boat less than a length behind seeks to sneak an advantage... But on arrival within 100yds of TKS, the breeze lifted and died almost completely, allowing the pack to close right up on the leaders. 787 3x11 and 938 The Answer Is, having chosen the low route, came screaming into this mark and nearly sailed round the entire pack, but the Belle, with alternative crewwork (driver on bow etc) got the chute set just in time and pulled away to round clear of Mango Jam and 3x11. Whew!

The leg back to Dock was a real nailbiter, with the breeze almost broad enough for a chute, and some people set... Mango Jam in particular did a beauty and closed right up on the Belle who only just managed to get a hoist round the forestay (great steering Del) and keep their nose in front. 3x11 was also close, as was 29 Heather who approached the mark HOT from the Southerly route and nipped in for water and an early bid for the Cowboy Trophy inside Mango Jam. Marianne II, continuing a Lazarus-like recovery from their spinnaker catastrophe at the first mark, also got right back into the battle, rounding 5th.

By now it was coming clear that the defensive route was rhumb line or North, while the risky but progressive route was South. Up the "beat" to TKS, Mango Jam again tried the Southerly route they had used to well on the first leg, and made outstanding progress only to be thwarted in the last quarter when the breeze filled slightly from the North-East. Heather had closed right up to the Belle in the lead, and the leader was extremely relieved to get round the buoy and away down tide before the light-air harbour masters got past. Down the leg to Dock not a lot happened, and with the clock approaching 5pm and the breeze dying, the race officer wisely (we thought...) shortened at Dock. The Belle got the first bullet of the season, thus providing bowman Phil Winter with an enviable "1 race, 1 win" record in Etchells, and giving Del Kaddatz (a relative veteran with 1 previous race) no excuse to not repeat the activity that led to her savage hangover. Heather took the Silver, with Marianne II a remarkable bronze from Mango Jam and a fast-closing Gunga Din. Many of the usual contenders were deep.

There were 4 nominations for the first round of the much-coveted Cowboy Trophy for the most shocking on-the-water misbehaviour, being last year's easy winners 884 Easy Tiger for their usual mark barging antics (allegedly), 29 Heather for taking a leaf out of the 884 barging book (allegedly), 606 Malpractice for deciding that if the bow fits then the boat does (allegedly), and the runaway winner 788 Marianne, instantly destroying the legend that the Swiss are naturally peace-loving souls by ramming two Sonatas and not doing any turns. Congratulations lads, the Vatican Guard awaits.

So the Opening Regatta is next weekend, undoubtedly we shall see the arrival of Senors Kinmonth, Badenach, Parry, Theil and Sayer, the only no-shows in race 1. Obviously keeping their powder dry. It is in fact rumoured that they had collectively rented a suite on the top floor of the hotel on the corner of TST East and observed the entire race in the style of James Bond and Jill Masterson in Goldfinger. But where's OddJob?

	Boat	Crew	Pts
1	Wanchai Belle	McWilliam/Kaddatz/Winter	0.75
2	Heather	Mowser/Hill/Tunkey	2
3	Marianne II	Berland	3
4	Mango Jam	Day/Downes/Stonhams	4
5	Gunga Din	Burns/Abbott/Williams	5
6	Marianne	Martinet/Chapatte/Defline	6
7	The Answer Is...	Whitehead/Macaulay/Breen	7
8	3 x 11	Jimmy Farquhar	8
9	Easy Tiger	Kaye/Watson/Norton	9
10	Diva	Yeadon/Savage/Knight	10
11	Lickety Split	Hill/Yourieff/Maynard	11
12	Zulu	Botsford/Scott/Beattie/Knox	12
13	Malpractice	Smith/McCool	13
14	Sailbad the Sinner	Fleming/Nieto/Ellis/Fung	14
15	Wild At Heart	Dudok Van Heel	15
16	Nikopol	Fabre/Cohen-Addad	DNF(17)