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.

Preceded by an evening’s Rules & Tactics refresher, a day of ’drag-racing‘ was arranged along similar lines to the Sail Training Weekend in 2003. Drag-racing is a form of live training, where the boats complete a normal start and beat to finish at a windward mark, then the fleet returns to the start to repeat as desired. It’s a fun, but very effective way of improving your crew’s confidence and ability at the start.

Looks like the pukka Hong Kong sailing season has arrived! Marvelous sailing weather - and we made the most of it on Sunday. Clear air, a great breeze and lovely temps graced the MOB (Man Overboard) Relay Race and subsequent beach BBQ at Sunshine Island.

Yet another great day on the water in glorious conditions. Clear, sunny, even a testing little wind change at about 1300, from weak gradient to sea breeze - all the ingredients for a fun (racing) cruise-to-lunch. A staggered start was used, in the style of a Pursuit Race, to keep the start simple and have the boats arrive off Cheung Chau together for the run ashore.

WWF’s ‘A Day for Dolphins’ dawned dark and foreboding, much as the doomsayers had been predicting all week. The task of getting 30 boats to stations all around Lantau Island had always been a daunting one. Dr Lindsay Porter of the World Wildlife Fund led a huge effort in preparation, organising volunteers and coordinating boats with help from Discovery Bay Yacht Club and Gold Coast Marina. The event was sponsored by Sino Group, hosts also to that evening’s dinner, with over 150 people raining down on the Gold Coast marina Club at the end of the day.

Sickness and broken boats turned the day into quite a low-key event, with only six starters (and seven finishers), but what a cracking day for a Southerly monsoon sail!

Well, with the lovely sunny weather, the experts predicted a battle between the Northerly gradient wind and a developing sea breeze - and that’s what we got!

I think we might have been quite lucky enjoying as much breeze as we did over the weekend! In any case, another successful event with more entrants (19) and sponsors, and bigger parties than ever before. The word is definitely getting around that this is a great, fun weekend, with some interesting racing to be had too.

In order to blow away the cobwebs after the Club AGM, a few boats turned out the next day, suitably armed with water-bombs and water-pistols, for the Eightsome Reel pursuit race.