Hong Kong Etchells

Jamie McWilliam reports from within the 'growling wolfpack with a hangover'...

It is generally the case, in this mad and crazy world where the only true Law is Murphy’s Law, that when the Hong Kong Etchells fleet turn out en masse for a race – the weather goes away. Flat calms, steaming rainstorms, or even Typhoon Signal 3, these are the standard. And yet it is indeed nice to know that for once, last Saturday to be precise, Murphy had a savage hangover and stayed in bed and when the fleet of 21 Etchells appeared on the startline in their favourite “growling wolfpack with a hangover” formation there was a solid 12 knot Easterly and the sun was beating down. Mad!

There were several stars guesting at the helm of various weapons on the day, and off the club line three of these – Adam Mowser in Wanchai Belle, Tim Yourieff in Lickety Split and Warwick Downes on the inventively named “ COB” – made the running. Warwick nailed the pin, obviously putting into practice the lessons from his starting lecture earlier in the season, and the other two took off at pace from up towards the club end. There was much confusion and concern at the sound of an individual recall, although on this occasion the spanner was thrown into the works by Mark Yeadon on Diva returning from an over-ambitious pre-race examination of the first beat who had got caught downtide and couldn’t get back in time. Unfortunately Easy Tiger and Heather thought they were the guilty ones and went back but it was not them!

At Hung Hom the three leaders were neck and neck while the remainder of the fleet felt a near-orgasmic sense of release as the dirty air the muppets had suffered for the first 10 minutes of the race gave way to an opportunity for open water and personalized tactics. Whew! As usual there were mixed theories about the way up to Shau Kei Wan, but the popular route seemed to be middle right while playing the shifts – a luxury afforded the fleet by the presence of a strong fair tide - and Warwick got them seriously spot on all the way up, only Lickety Split managing to stay in touch and eventually catching the last lefty perfectly to round in a close second. Behind them it was a bunfight for the bronze, with Wanchai Belle just holding off a spectacularly-charging Sailbad The Sinner, Quest, and the Phoenix-like Paddington Green.

It looked, to be honest like the run was going to be a bit bloody dull as the breeze was a solid 12-15 at this stage and there didn’t seem a lot of options… Your reporter, along with several others including the leaders in COB, thought he was doing sensationally by catching puff after puff and sliding deeper and deeper down the middle, driving well too leeward of the pack ahead, while other “fools” – in standard Etchells camaraderie terms – failed to do the same and in fact appeared to heat it up into the island shore. Pah! Seeya later.

No kidding! While the picture looked rosy for 2/3 of the run, when the island-huggers gybed out just after the North Point Ferry Piers they were GONE. Insane. Like the wily gang in Gunga Din who had rounded in 9th and emerged a distant dream away in about 4th… Crikey. Lickety Split had got it most right and rounded Dock Buoy with a solid lead, which they protected neatly up the slightly more shifty beat, always seeming to be on the lifted tack – as leaders often do – and benefitting from the experienced hand on the helm of Tim “Pay attention Dave” Yourieff. Fred Kinmonth on Quest recovered from some spins at the bottom mark – one of which was directly in the face of the Belle, earning Fred his first Cowboy Trophy points of the season – to sail a cracking second half and get up into the medals, and the eagerly-anticipated slow but painful bleed back down the fleet of Sailbad The Sinner and Paddington Green completely failed to materialise as the boys maintained – nay improved – their position up the front with some excellent pace and smarts.

Off down the run it wasn’t like “which side will we go?” was looking like the final question on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and in fact the only unusual thing was watching boats running 10 degrees by the lee in their efforts to hug the shore. Several boats nearly plugged themselves into the side of a moored dredging barge in their eagerness… But it was the right way to go, and no places really changed, until the fleet gybed out onto starboard and headed for the bottom mark. At this moment, several things happened. One, a tug and barge towing combo appeared, moving at standard medium pace out of the western harbour, forcing the fleet a little high. Two, another tug and barge towing combo was noticed for the first time moving at about 2 knots above Etchells pace, heading west out of Lam Tin directly across the rhumbline for the bottom mark. Three, the massive blue cruise liner which had been casually sitting parked in Kowloon Bay decided this was the time to up anchor and head across the rhumbline too.

Holy Bejeezus! Never seen anything like it. And of course, with the constant threat of eviction from harbour racing hanging over the fleet’s head because of safety concerns, the entire race was going to be thrown open again as all the top ten except the leader were only crossing by about 5~10 lengths, substantially less than the Sailing Instruction for harbour safety which allows for a moving exclusion zone two of the BIGGER boat’s lengths ahead of any commercial vessel. But no, in true HK Etchells fleet style – or at least, the true style of some of the members, 2 thru 6 sailed clean across the bows of all five vessels. Did you wonder where that massive horn sound was coming from lads? Full Cowboy Trophy points for all concerned.

So the last beat afforded Lickety Split the pleasant opportunity to watch the battle for second, which Quest finally won from COB with Paddington Green getting the Leather Medal.

A cracking day, with over 70 people out racing. The crack on the dock afterwards was mighty – great effort Tim/Dave/Clem shipping in drinks for the planet – and I am sure we can look forward to similar massive turnouts over the rest of the season.

Next weekend is China Coast Regatta, not for Etchells, but we will be watching with great anticipation to see if (as usual) the Etchells fleet will scoop all the pots on their part-time big boat steeds.