Waglan 11

Good winds and a fair number of boats. That's what they wanted and that's what they got on Sunday, the 9th of March 2025. Twenty keelboats showed up for Race 11 of the Waglan Series 2024-25 and, while that may not sound a lot, it is a healthy fleet in post-Covid times. A total of 24 boats have entered the 12-race series, along with 'C' designated boats that enter on a one-race basis.

Off Middle Island at 1005, the Aberdeen Boat Club's utility vessel, Shun Fung, came to a rest and race officer, Alex Johnston, sent off support staff, Sai Fuk, in a northerly direction towards Repulse Bay to lay the windward mark at 0.4 nautical miles. The ODM was laid towards Ocean Park and, by 1030, the stage was set for a good day's racing. Sai Fuk's next task was to lay a club mark in the entrance to Tai Tam Bay.

Overhead, cloud cover was 'thin' while towards the Lema Islands there were patches of blue. Around the committee boat, there were occasional white horses and the 8-knot breeze promised two lively starts for the nine IRC and ten PHS boats.

In IRC 1, there were four strong contenders – Fenice, the sleek 60-foot Solaris, Next, the Neo 430, Glenn Smith's Wild Card and the veteran J/145C, Redeye. Sadly missing were Kikukie's Dream II and Neo One. Hope they and Kingsman by Simplicity make it for the final on the 23rd of March.

Witchcraft, Zesst and Jinn were all strong contenders in the IRC's second division, while Andy Pidden's Juice could not to be over-looked. A shame about Arcturus+ not being able to make it.

A rivalry has developed between DBX2 and Skywalker in PHS A and even in the pre-start manoeuvrings, skippers Thomas Wong and Pascal Martin showed they were ready for the fight. Thanks to the considerable length of the start line, if Ti'Punch stalled (as it did in Race 9) the other nine starters would have plenty of room to take avoiding action. Strangely, Tipsy Easy, although in the area, never crossed the start line, scoring a DNS in the day's results.

On paper, PHS B featured eight entries but Boss and Ganyibei were absent. A pity as Arthur Cheng's Boss has been improving recently. Ones to watch included Generations, Easy Breezy II and Ben Chong's high-performing J/80, JeNa PaBe.

With 12 minutes to go, the RO welcomed everyone and announced the courses – Course 22 (L) for the faster boats, and Course 22 (S) for the cruisers. For navigators in IRC 1 & 2, concentration was required as their 24-nautical-mile course was fairly complex. It took in Castle Rock, a Tai Tam Club Mark, leaving Cape d'Aguilar to port, rounding Shek O Rock, Sung Kong, Waglan and Po Toi Islands, Castle Rock again, through Chesterman Gate and a finish off Round Island.

PHS A & B would pass Bluff Head, leave the Tai Tam Club Mark to starboard, round Fury Rocks, back to the Tai Tam Club Mark, Castle Rock, through the Chesterman Gate and home off Round Island – 15 nautical miles.

The management team raised the orange flag at 1050 and the countdown for the IRC fleets began with the resounding crack of a five-minute gun at 1055.

Four minutes, one minute and a gun at 1100 – nine competitive racing yachts swept across the line in a clean start. In no time they were rounding the windward mark and heading for the gap between Round Island and the Cheshire Home at Chung Hom Kok.

With no one-minute gap (like the RHKYC) between the two starting sequences, the race officer had the PHS boats away at 1105 in another clean start. It was also an unusually quiet start as the PHS divisions are known for loud calls from excited crews, and very vocal skippers!

The IRC boats were soon rounding Castle Rock and beating to the Tai Tam mark while the PHS fleet passed Stanley Bay before rounding Bluff Head. Winds were still moderate to strong, blowing 12 knots, sometimes 14 off Waglan and Po Toi Islands.

At 1245, the committee boat powered back to Round Island and laid the finish while, in the distance, DBX2 appeared and sped towards the anchored Shun Fung. Thomas Wong and crew took line honours at 13:15:29 in an elapsed time of two hours, 10 minutes and 29 seconds.

But, unfortunately, DBX2's performance was not good enough to beat Skywalker's 1st on handicap in PHS A, with Full Tilt in 3rd place. In PHS B, Generations was first boat home but ended up 3rd on handicap behind Five O One in 1st and The Rising Sun in 2nd.

There was some drama near Chesterman when Fenice, making its way to the finish, couldn't lower its kite. The big Solaris, with its high freeboard and striking maroon hull colour, did, however, manage a 2nd place in IRC 1. In 1st place was Next and in 3rd, Wild Card.

Nick Burns and crew in Witchcraft took a deserved 1st in IRC 2, ahead of Henning Mueller's Zesst and a high-performing Juice in 3rd.

Last boat home was Shun Shui at 1447. Incidentally, later in the afternoon the wind increased to 15 knots, with gusts of 19, heralding a cold front that arrived the next day.

The final of the Waglan Series 2024-25 – Race 12 – will be held on the 23rd of March 2025.