RHKYC's Top Dog Trophy Series 2024-2025 kicks off with Lipton Trophy 2024
by Vivian Ngan 4 Nov 03:16 PST
2 November 2024
Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club's Top Dog Trophy Series 2024-2025 kicked off on 2 November with the first of four constituent events, the Lipton Trophy pursuit race, which saw 62 boats set off at staggered start times according to their RHKATI rating.
Different from normal yacht racing, a pursuit race sees competing boats given staggered starting times determined by their handicap. The slowest boats start first, with the faster boats starting afterwards in pursuit. In theory, if all the boats are sailed equally well, all boats should finish at the same time.
The Etchells class was the largest participating fleet, with 15 boats on the line, including King of the Pin, whose owner David Salembier was having his wedding reception at the Club after racing.
With the northerly breeze being blocked by Kowloon Peninsula, the wind gods were not especially generous, and it was a tricky day even for the seasoned harbour sailors, with a strong tide and light breeze oscillating from 1kts up to 15kts, ranging from 015 degrees to 100 degrees.
Racing saw competitors beating eastwards up the harbour, rounding a mark off Tai Koo Shing, and then hoisting their kites to head back up to Hung Hom—a tactical race with competitors seeking low current patches while trying to stay in maximum breeze. The 2.5 lap windward-leeward course saw a spreader mark at the bottom, keeping the fleets separated in the busy conditions.
Ruffian Victory 9 was holding off the faster classes until the third rounding of Tai Koo Shing; however, two Cape 31s, which started last, just had enough runway to catch the smaller boats. Race Officer Inge Strompf-Jepsen made a good call to shorten the course at Tai Koo Shing exceptionally close to the target finish time. Cape 31 Capitano took the gun just 40 seconds shy of the optimum target time at 1630hrs, followed a minute later by another Cape 31, Out of Africa, in 2nd place. VX One Serendipity took 3rd place with Ruffian Victory 9 finally holding off 4th place.
The Top Dog Trophy Series consists of four races. The other three events that make up the Top Dog series are the HKRNVR Memorial Vase on 11 January 2025, the Sun Hung Kai & Co. Around the Island Race, which is rescheduled to 18 January 2025, and the Tomes Cup on 3 May 2025.