Race Officer, Chris Hammond spins the fleet a second time after his first crack at regatta organisation a year ago. Read up on why the DB Regatta is fast becoming one of the DBYC’s prime events...
Race Officers Report - DB Regatta, 19th June 2010
It was a great day for our DB Regatta this year. For those of you who have competed in this event before you may have noticed it was scheduled a little earlier in the year than usual. This was a gamble, to find better conditions than last year and it seemed to pay off - this time at least. We all enjoyed a fantastic sunny day with a constant F4 W-SSW'ly breeze and the 16 nm course, although a little short for the largest yachts, suited the majority of our fleet well.
It was rewarding to see that the advice given in the brief about hitting the line some time between 1200 and 1200:05 was well received and we ended up with a busy start with no-one having to go around again. Although the actual Starting Line was probably a little wider than usual, it was arranged so as to give everyone a clean run, with no need to jostle too much.
However, we still heard the inevitable screaming at the start, directed towards the ever faithful Epic from our ‘visiting’ French yacht, Accanito, calling Epic up, despite having all the space in the world. Epic held steady for a few seconds' exchange of fire, then Accanito was past and all was well again. Xena then came plowing through the pack passing the start line about 10 seconds after the gun and never looked back; she got out in front and stayed there for the entire course.
Now it was time to start the Lantau Boat Club at 1230. This all went fairly well but it seemed most of them thought the start line was between the Committee Boat and the IDM as they went shooting past our stern at alarming speed.
The race around Peng Chau was not a one-horse race, and it was apparent we still had a battle on our hands when the fleet came into view again from Committee Boat, Allegro and we could see Xena being hotly pursued by Miss Salona II and Kei Lung. Kermit seemed a little slow around the first loop but managed to find her wind and powered off towards Datum Rock for the second rounding. Kolwezi was also doing very well placed at #4 in the pack. It was good to see Authority enjoying the conditions back in the pack, taking the family for a sail around the islands off Discovery Bay and not fussing with a spinnaker. The boats then went out of sight from our vantage point until they reappeared on the spinnaker run home from Hei Ling Chau.
Placings from the first rounding of Peng Chau had remained fairly constant and it seemed handicaps would play an important role in the race once again, but the sight of the fleet approaching with spinnakers flying was simply fantastic and we could feel the excitement even though we were not in amongst it.
On handicap the final results for the podium positions were as follows:
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Division B |
Lantau Boat Club | ||||||||||||||||||
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Very important to this regatta, is not only our DBYC members who turn up and compete at our events, but also the support we get from our community around Discovery Bay. This year's race was no exception and I would like to thank our very generous sponsors once again, who included:
Discovery Bay Marina Club, who provided us with venue, medals, engraving, and berthing. The Marina Club has always been very willing to help with this event whenever asked, for which we are very grateful.
Lifestyle Homes - Roenel Turner, who without hesitation donated some fantastic champagne when she found out about our regatta one evening at the ‘pub’. Thanks Roenel.
Koh Tom Yums - Greg Walker. Other wise known as 'The Thai place', they were also very generous donating wine and vouchers for the lucky winners at their restaurant.
Zaks - Andy Smith, who also donated a voucher for the lucky winners. Andy was also a sponsor of our regatta last year and we were very pleased when he offered to help with prizes once again.
I would also like to thank Ian Cusack, who generously allowed the Club to use his speed boat as safety boat, and Andy Kung who gave up his day racing to drive it! Andy, as usual, also did a lot of work behind the scenes. Thanks go to my wife, Jacqui who, as you all know, keeps me company on the Committee Boat all day and helps with the starts, time keeping, and everything else I leave to the last minute. Thanks Princess <3.
I would like to add, that although this was only Jacqui's and my second attempt at organizing a race, we once again throughly enjoyed it. Sure, we would have loved to be sailing, but without the event organisers, there would be no races! Everyone had a great day and it was very rewarding to hear all the positive feedback from you, the members. I recommend the experience to all of you, as it is a lot of fun organizing an event for your club.
See you on the water at our next regatta!
Chris Hammond
Race Officer & Organiser
Discovery Bay Regatta 2010
* Click here for lots more pics of the DB Regatta 2010 in the photo gallery...
