Ker 46 Zannekin wins China Coast Regatta

 It’s another win for Noosa’s Jason Rowed who last weekend competed on Zannekin in the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club’s Volvo China Coast Regatta.

Rowed, who races as crew boss and on-board coach for the Ker 46, said the team have won this regatta three years running.“It is very satisfying after coaching them up from club level to regatta winning level competitors,” Rowed said.The event started with nerves all round as the fleet waited out the tail-end of tropical cyclone Haima.“The weather was certainly different with a typhoon one day and sunshine and light winds the next.“We would have loved more wind, but the typhoon sucked the normal monsoon system away,” Rowed added.The consequent soft winds for the six-race regatta suited the Zannekin team which took out IRC Racer 0 division handicap honours.

Zannekin, winner of IRC Racing 0. Volvo China Coast Regatta 2016.

Rowed is already back in race mode, competing with Hero in the five-day China Cup before heading back to Australia to race with the MC38, Hooligan in the Sydney Summer Championship on November 5 and 6.

In another part of Asia Stacey Jackson has reunited with her old Team Leagues Race team for this week’s Busan Cup Women’s International Match Race in Korea.They are placed fourth in 12-team event.It’s been a year since Jackson, with skipper Katie Spithill, has focused on match racing.Jackson has been concentrating on her job as boat captain for the 66-foot Alive and trying to master a foiling Moth while Spithill has had her hands full with family life, work, marathons as well as Moths.Last year this Australian team finished second to France’s Anne-Claire Le Berre.“This is our annual match racing event,” Jackson said.“It’s actually the first time ever we are sailing with the same crew. All five of us are returning and in the same positions on the boat.“Hopefully that will be our secret to success.

”Back on Australian soil, Buderim’s Rod Jones has finally got his hands on his new MC31 which the coffee-obsessed  skipper has christened Macchiato.Their first official sail will be a training session on Sydney Harbour tomorrow followed by the Balmain Regatta on Sunday.As there isn’t an active MC31 class in Australia as yet, Jones said he plans to use Macchiato for “pretty much be a hit and giggle twilight boat” on Sydney Harbour while his team focuses on their Melges 20 program.

END

Windward – Sailing News

26 October 2016

By Tracey Johnstone

PHOTO

Caption – The Zannekin team heading towards their third Volvo China Coast Regatta win.

Credit – RHKYVC / Guy Nowell