The first race of 10th Tsing Ma Regatta, on 28th April 2007, got off to a very good start with a fresh easterly breeze and 15 entries. Read on to see how it all played out...

Race 2

Most boats crossed the start, which had been set up properly, spot-on. A fresh easterly and a favorable current left very few tactical options except to stay in the middle where the favorable  current  was strongest but where the traffic was.

Apologies for the length of this write-up (broken down in two parts), but what a cracking weekend – the story deserves to be told! Are you sitting comfortably…?

Sunday’s Race 2 – The Return to Discovery Bay

Bullets that had rocked the boats much of the night had eased by the 0930 skippers briefing, as had the forecast – down from F6-7 to a warm and fuzzy ENE F4-5. Actual winds at Waglan Island were only 10-15 kts.

This fun event was also coined the “Impromptu Pursuit Race”, since it was thrown together at the last minute by Nik von der Lühe, ably supported by Nigel Easterbrook. Great to see keen volunteers stepping forward to join the Race Committee...

After only 3 days in the planning, Sunday 17 September’s impromptu pursuit race to Stanley turned out to be a great day. We ended up with 15 boats (10 racing) and 50+ for lunch at Wildfire in Stanley, followed by a visit to the HK Maritime Museum (recommended) and the usual Stanley market shopping.

This new event, sponsored by and routing around Hong Kong Disneyland, went off without a hitch - right up to the Black Rain Storm warning, and the black rain storm that immediately preceded it!

What a great weekend. Successful too, given the two main aims:  1. Have a fun race down there to overnight in the Soko’s, and 2. Draw attention to possible ruin of these beautiful islands...

What a great weekend. We were promised a strong monsoon and that’s what we got - well, most of the time. Race Chairman, Jim Fernie asked at the race briefing for assistance composing the race report, requesting "a narrative from the back of the fleet". Well, Fate was obviously listening, and decided to punish such hubris with a hole with Wizard‘s name on it. Thus follows a perspective of TMR9 ‘from the back of the fleet’…

Our thanks, once again to all the Race Committee, including John Karas and crew aboard Committee Boat Trakka, and Bevin Brakespeare and crew aboard Safety Boat Outsider, for all their efforts organising this year’s Tsing Ma Regatta. Our appreciation, also, to our hosts at the DBMC and GCYCC and to our many sponsors, listed below, for their generous support of the event.