Crashing the Party at China Cup

Last day of racing with SF style winds! This is our day, baby!

A pretty good start thanks to david and some improved cockpit communication. Halfway up the first leg, we knew we owned this race, nicely placed around fifth and climbing. We rounded the windward mark in good position, waving at our friends from Australia.

Downwind we lost a place or two as the highly paid professionals on the other teams pulled their Jedi mind games on us like "false call for room" and "sailing faster."

We came in very tight to the leeward mark, spinnaker up as we selected from our dousing options. A few boatlengths off, as tactician Ted called for a douse and a gybe, the New Zealand boat rounded the mark ALL THE WAY around, and crossed right in front of us.

Which is her right, pretty much.

But just a beat off the pace, we were not able to avoid her and served up a portion of American T-bone to the kiwis.

No injuries. Modest damage to boats. Major damage to pride. The very gracious kiwis waved it off and carried on racing, telling us later they did not lose any places from this

We did our penalty turns, going on th a mid- fleet or so finish. Bummer. But there was one more race to show our stuff.

More to follow

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Race day three

After a great seafood dinner away from the hotel we headed back for a good night's sleep and then up for more.

Race one for today was a splmple windward leeward race and we only hit the Australians once! Since we were used to it, and it was their fault, we just kept on.

We finished poorly due to a variety of factors, chief among them being slowness.

Race two took a long time to start. The light winds gave the race committee pause, but when the wind filled in, they called for a course around a nearby island.

Our fleet is bad. Several times there were so many mis-starts that the race officer got on the radio to scold us. Then he put up the black flag, meaning if you start early you are disqualified.

That did it, and we got a good start. Our performance improved on each leg of the course, and we did not hit anybody, but we still likely finished near the back. But we had fun!

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Math is f@&king relentless

Ted is reading the instructions now. Two throwouts. That is good

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Contacting new friends in interesting places

Day two was to be a set of round-the-buoys races.  The committee completed two out of the three.  Race one got us off to a modestly good start in delightful 12 knot breezes.  We surged out toward the top of the course, taking nearly the left-most track in the hopes of best wind.  This worked out fine, and the race committee had placed an offset mark at the top of the course, making for an orderly and leisurely gybe.

Our sets went up without too much difficulty and down we went toward the bottom of the course.  But what’s that behind us?  Australians!  Yes, the Australian team has decided they want to pass us.  This cannot be, these vegemite-eating, Fosters-swilling (really fun guys actually) must not pass.  So we take them up, turning our boat (gradually and in a seaman-like manner leaving plenty of room for them to avoid us) to defend our wind.

Their spinnaker touches us “Contact,” we shout, and fly the dreaded red protest flag.  “Rule 17” they reply and fly theirs.  Whilst we squabble other boats sail by, and we all get back to racing.  Australia finished about 15 minutes before we, it seems, so good on them for that.  We ended up 18^th in that race.

Race 2.  Well, what can we say.  David called a very nice start, placing us in the front rank of racers.  Over time, however, the professionals on some of the other boats (including the Chinese Americas Cup team) managed to outpace us a bit.

Then we got to the very crowded windward mark.  Coming in on port tack (which carries a few risks anyway), we tacked to round and lost our wind, and we missed the mark.  Oh, shoot.  I mean really, shoot.

So we complete a circle to get set up to build speed to turn around and try again.  We see a gap in the boats lined up to round the mark and go to squeeze ourselves into the crowd for our second turn.  We got into the crowd alright, but the boat had stopped moving.

Thunk.  A Korean boat gently bounces off us.  Thunk, another boat does the same, turning us and them before going off to sort of bonk another.  We get bonked lightly by a third and a fourth boat.  I cannot see Brett on the other side of the jib as he fends on his side and I fend on mine.  I hear shouts which are in another language and are not clearly “Ouch my leg” or “Yahoo isn’t this fun!”  It was more the Yahoo! NOBODY WAS INJURED and there were no damages to boats.

We calculated that we owed about 14 penalty turns and dropped out of the race.  Later, we were told that two would have been fine, but we’d have ended up in the mid 20s anyway.  Discretion, valor, etc.

On skippers orders, I dropped by the Aussie boat to make peace about the protests.  They were all about peace.  We sat on the boat for quite a while sharing stories and I even got to lead an “Aussie  Aussie  Aussie  Oi Oi OI” chant!

Day one of the regatta: The Passage Race

It’s good to get the issues out of the way early, and our engine overheating on the way to the start line was, I assumed, to be our only issue.  RHKYC and the organizers had been more than overwhelmingly welcoming and provided a good place to prepare and practice for the race, as we had done for the coupla days before, but nothing can overcome sucking up some harbor junk into the intake.

We throttled way back, put up the sail and got to the start in plenty of time.  Presumably the bag/shirt/fish that had been overheating the engine is gone.

Our start was good and we surged forward toward, uh, somewhere, vaguely defined by a gps point.  The first mark was “a windward mark if set.”  Um, okay, where and how far to windward and was it set?  No answer to any of these, so we followed the fleet leaders while scanning the horizon for this mythical mark.  Finally, we gave up on it and played a fun game of “which rock is basalt island?”

That was the other mark.  Again, the fleet leaders helped us out here.

At the end of a warm 6-hour race, mostly on starboard, to weather (except for a frustrating 15 minutes in a wind hole) we found ourselves drag-racing against a Russian boat for the finish.  Team Nord is very good.  We enjoyed the close competition, though they got away from us when we split tacks and they got the better wind.  A Chinese boat snuck in too, and we ended up about 12^th out of 29.  Still, not too bad.

A long long ride to the hotel, and our cheering section was there to cheer us, and then off to the event celebration!

Second day of racing. Race one went ok. Race two was a cf and we dnfd

Long long race. We think we arw in top thirs

Practice Makes, um...

After a haul-out and scrub, and rigging the many things on the punch-list from the day before, we went out for a final pre-race practice.

Probably a good thing we did.

Lost the Spinnaker Halyard due to an overly eager shackle release. So Brett got another trip up the mast. We finally got the Asymm gybes working. The cockpit crew thinks they finally got the foredeck to do what was needed. The foredeck crew thinks the cockpit finally listened to the chant of "turn the boat, turn the boat"

Back at the dock, we clean up and fix a few more things, and then scurry off to shower and enjoy the hospitality on floor 31 and then at the RHKYC for a rather loud but sincere program of singing and greetings and cheery greetings between teams.

Tomorrow, we go for blood. Oh sure, blood at five miles an hour, but blood nonetheless. Forecast is for about 12 knots on the nose, so this will not be so much of a spinnaker race today.

Look for us in Daya Bay!

In Hong Kong. Got Boat

We got to Hong Kong last night and took the new MTR railway from the airport to Central, where we caught a cab to the Excelsior.  Now, we spent Noelle's birthday there about 14 years ago, so we remember it.

It's aged a bit, but still a good place to be.  Very close to the yacht club.  A late night toasting Timothy's birthday and then to bed, to collect the boat.

The boat is a good Beneteau 40.7.  Sails are sound and it's been well kept.  9am (ish) we met at the boat to rig this and that and get the feel of it before heading out, threading our way through the crowded harbor to some clearer water for spinnaker work and tacks.  We saw many of our competitors, with friendly waves, also practicing.

The asymmetrical sail is kind of new to us, and we have not mastered the gybe of it.  But we shall try.  And try again, as it will likely be a key sail for the first race day.

Back to the dock at 2 (ish) for a debrief and enjoyment of the wonderful Royal Hong Kong YC.  Some of the spousies are going out on a sail.  Noelle and I are out with friend Kenneth Lau and so passed on that.

More soon

On to Hong Kong

Minor setback. Cathay pacific confiscates co2 cartridge from vest. Can buy replacement in hk. Most likely

A fantastic week ends and now we head for the airport Wheee time tfly

Great wall. Rain cleared out the smog

We are in the "no admittance" area

Fwd: Little Piggies go to Market

"OOh, let's go to this market I found in the guidebook," exclaimed Noelle.

"Coo-ee,"  "Too right"  and "Pip-pip" exclaim us all, unconsciously channeling Jeremy Howard William's classic Three Men in a Boat, and unaware of the tragic irony of the similarity.

So we walked.  We walked through the wonderful pedestrian mall off WangFuJing with its many trappings of modern Asia.  We walked past an interesting side lane.  Went in.  It was a wonderfully authentic and charming market, with creepy foodstuffs (live scorpion on a stick?) interesting handicrafts, and more.  But it was not the one in the book, so we walked on.  And on.  And on.

To the gates of the Forbidden City (through a very windy route that took us into the most wonderful garden you can imagine).  There was something going on.  The City was packed.  We bore away toward Tian An Men square to try to meet up with Monica. 
Meet us at the big red ball, we said.  Yeah, no.  She went to the ball, but then went to the blue awnings to wait and was somehow UNABLE to pick us out of the two million people in the area.

Okay, we leave Monica to her own affairs (We leave Tom to find her) and continue on shank's mare toward this distant market.  Distant.  Distant.  Really quite far.  Noelle picked this destination, or should I say DISTination?

We walk past yesterdays peking duck restaurant, past a house, and then about a thousand others.  At about 12:00 (we started at 9) we arrive, we think, at the target market.  Yes, this seems like it.  Pretty shabby on the outside, as is par for the course, but lively.  We're the only roundeyes there, which suggests an interesting experience.  Eden buys candied tangerines on a stick (no scorpions for her).

We get a text from tom and monica "This place is great!!! Meet us at the pedestrian bridge"

We loop over to the bridge.  No Tom.  No Monica.  Guess what.  We are at different markets.  T&M are at the famous Liulichang market.  Well crap, that's a better one.  We hoof it over there and meet up.  Members of our group are now starving, their ivory complexions ruddy with exertion and their gentle fawn-like eyes clouded with fatigue.  We nip into the first tea/snack house we see and order.  Everything.  Twice.  We hope they were amused.  Monica bought a bunch of artisan teas.  Oh wait, that's a surprise. 

Monica's friends:  act surprised, okay?

Sated, we plunged deeper into the area, ending up passing through a rather long hutong (traditional area of considerably restrained economic development and infrastructure.  Pride of ownership, hard working, but not a lotta wealth)

We emerge from the Hutong, grab a cab, and return at 4pm to rooms to collapse.

Later, all gather at hotel restaurant (Jing) for okay food and perhaps the worst service we have encountered at any establishment in China.  But some of the best peking duck. so whaddya gonna do?

Okay, off to face the day

Still trying to post

Google ain't in China.  Blogspot is google.  Blogspot aint in China.

On the other hand, the Forbidden City was as cool as ever.  Boy are my feet tired.

A darned close thing. Almost missed our 7 am flight. Still not sure about the luggage

Team Photo

Here we are! All dressed up and ready to go

Practice Day Today

Mexicans, Peels, Oh yeah, we are gonna do all the spinnaker joy today.

Wind predicted to be 12 knots from the SW, so that should be perfect. Yes, I said Perfect.

Nothing can possibly go wronng.

We are now set up to post by phone and email. Beats sailing.

Ni Hao

So, Timothy says, "Wanna race in China?"
Well, yeah.
It's the China Cup International Regatta. Put on by the government of China, and featuring a fleet of Beneteau 40.7's. That's the same boat Timothy and team have been racing, so it all makes sense, in a twisted sort of way.
The racing starts in late October, with a rally/race from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, and then several days of 'round the buoys racing in Da Ya bay.
How cool is that? Race all day, shop the electronics superstores by night!

Some of us are doing side trips before or after, with Beijing being a popular first stop. Practice and crew shoot tomorrow, so more details then.