Photo's courtesy of Shelly Larkan 
Well, if you didn’t make it out on the water for this year’s DB Regatta, you should be kicking yourselves! Excuses akin to “the dog ate my homework” were coming thick and fast in the rain-filled days preceding the event, and about a third of the expected entries dropped out. Girls blouses, the lot of ‘em.
OK, there was a wee bit of rain in the morning, dramatic at times, but as soon as the gods saw that it wasn't going to phase these hardy sailors, the skies cleared for the first time in a week. Race 1 started in a blustery shower, but had to be shortened slightly in light winds later, backing E'ly. Kei Lung took Line Honours for Division A, and Xakanaxa for Division B, but it was tight and all boats looked to have a chance entering Race 2. The Race Committee thus decided to revert to 'Plan B', changing Race 2 to a cans rather than islands course, and re-laid the marks for the new wind. Info calls were made on Ch 72, by telephone (to those who would answer their mobiles) and the AYS Alpha Boat RIB was sent round to relay the message. The breeze then died completely and the fleet bobbed for a while until the gradient S'ly returned. All change! The ODM and IDM were switched by 90 degrees again, the (new) windward mark shifted slightly to the East and the AP dropped. Quick check by the Race Officer: yes the fleet are all responding - should be a tight combined start. Indeed, all went swimmingly until five minutes after the start, with the majority of the boats apparently heading for the wing mark! A quick reminder by VHF ("the windward mark IS to windward") had the desired effect, but then it became clear that a couple of other boats were not beating to round the windward mark, but to round Hei Ling Chau! They hadn't received the change message and had missed the signals in Bounty's rigging. Thankfully they twigged as the bulk of the fleet returned to round the windward mark and the race began in earnest, amazingly with no huge advantage or disadvantage to any particular boat. Fast-cat Atmosphere took line Honours for Divisions A & B, but even she was beaten to the finish by a good 5 minutes by Tom Nunan, Commodore of the LBC, sailing a near-perfect race aboard his Dart 18. And that after starting the LBC Division 10 minutes later - who says husband & wife teams don't work?! The final results were very close on points, but congratulations go to Division A and Overall winner, Richard van den Berg on his new boat Kei Lung (nee Tipsy Free). Also to Division B (and Rear End Trophy) winner Jan Neuhaeusser & crew aboard Skellum for making the best of the variable conditions, as summarised below:
Of course having Bounty as Committee Boat added a special dimension. As did the addition of a Division from LBC - boy do these cat's flip easy! We hope to see much more cooperation between the two local sailing clubs along similar lines in the future. Perhaps a late Summer trip to the Sokos...? With very many thanks to all who helped arrange and run the event. In particular: Sue, Rory, Shelly, Gabrielle, Ben and Carmen on the Race Committee, Webmaster Tom, Ian & Sam on the Seafari RIB, Edward on the AYS Alpha Boat RIB, Ah Wah on the LBC support boat, and of course to the Captain & crew of Bounty. Also to all the staff at the DB Marina Club for their assistance with the extended 'booze-cruise' prize-giving. We couldn't have done it without you. Huge thanks, also, to the many sponsors who generously provided so many of the prizes: Hemingway's, Cafe de Paris, Zaks, Sopranos, Wildfire and Pickled Pelican. Also to Hong Kong Resorts International for lending us Bounty for the day - yes, she is available for charter (an excellent party boat) and we'll be posting details later.
 DB Regatta '08 - First Overall |
 DB Regatta '08 - First LBC |
 DB Regatta '08 - First Division B |
 DB Regatta '08 - Support Boat Skippers |
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