Successful first day

Nautica Autumn Regatta underway at Royal Hong Kong YC

After an opening ceremony / fashion show that show-cased the best of Nautica's autumn collection and culminated in Joe Ma Tak Chung and Sonjia Kwok Sin Lei sailing on the waters of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour, 82 boats celebrated glorious conditions as they started Race 1 of the Nautica Autumn Regatta.

Having endured a week of unusually high pollution and listless conditions, the haze had disappeared, the threatened showers had failed to materialise and the breeze had obligingly filled in to a constant Easterly blowing between 9 and 13 knots. After checking out wind and tide conditions on the water, the Race Officer, Drew Taylor, selected a Club start, thus allowing spectators on the terrace at Kellett Island an unobstructed view of the early action.

First to start was the Cruiser class, with a turnout of 5 IRC and 7 HKPN entrants - not unreasonable considering that many of Hong Kong's cruisers are crewed by sailors from the Class fleets. Among the IRC entries was Denis Ma's Trip 40, Rampage, carrying not only the sponsor's spinnaker, but also the Managing Director of Nautica China and Hong Kong, Josh Perlman.

Etchells, as usual, were the largest and most combative fleet on the start line with 16 enthusiastic crews. Mark Thornburrow, fresh from his 20th place finish in the Etchells Worlds in Mooloolaba, helmed Fred Kinmonth's Quest to first place.

In the Sportsboat fleet YK Szeto's Mumm 30 Tornado led for most of the race closely followed by Joachim Isler's Magic 25, Hotwired, however as Hotwired dropped off the pace, Steve Bourne sneaked Merlin into top spot for the M25's. On handicap, Gideon Mowser's Laser SB3, Sky's The Limit took the first place overall.

The Race Officer managed to finish all entrants by 1630hrs and, unusually, with no protests to be heard, all participants were free to join the great post-race buzz in the bar.

Race 1 - First Place
Cruiser IRC - Jaywalker - Paul Bankowski
Cruiser HKPN - Rhapsody - Emily Chan
Dragon - Fai Chi - Karl Grebstad
Etchells - Quest - Mark Thornburrow
Flying Fifteen - Ffolly - Martin Heath
Impala - Ling Yuan - H Wong
Pandora - Panache - Raymond Ng
Ruffian - Shaviut - Ambrose Lo
Sonata - Chopstix - George Strome
Sportsboat - Sky's The Limit - Gideon Mowser
(Magic 25 - Merlin - Steve Bourne)