After 24 hours of racing, Geoff Hill’s Smith 72’ Antipodes is leading the fleet, around 20nm shy of virtual mark three of the revised San Fernando Course, having covered just under 200nm. While the Yellowbrick ‘Leaderboard’ predicts Hill taking line honours at around 1000hrs tomorrow, two hours ahead of Ray Roberts’ TP52, OneSails Racing, the projections are based on recent VMG (velocity made good) of around 7 to 8kts and makes no allowance for what may come in the next 24 hours.
Roberts is around 5nm behind Hill on the water, but look a little further back and the new McConaghy built Mills 41 Ambush is just 26nm behind the TP52, also producing a recent VMG of over 7kts, and currently projected to finish second overall under IRC handicap. The reported breeze where the lead boats are currently racing is around 13kts southerly, however the further north the fleet goes, the weaker the breeze gets, with only around 7kts showing outside Hong Kong and around 10-12kts for the majority of the fleet.
In IRC Racer 2, Whiskey Jack is currently leading on paper, while Xena is holding on to a commanding advantage in IRC Premier. In the Cruiser division, Ex Libris has come to the fore, while Vega is progressing steadily around 10nm behind the bulk of the fleet with an ETA of Sunday morning.
Yellowbrick Tracking can be followed at http://www.rhkyc.org.hk/sfrtracking.aspx
