Alive breaks mark in Rolex CSR; Black Baza takes line honors

MANILA, Philippines – Philip Turner’s RP 66 Alive broke a 16-year-old record on the way to the Line Honors but settled for runner-up behind Anthony Root and Steve Manning’s Ker42 Black Baza  in the handicp race in the  Rolex China Sea Race 2016 that started in Hong Kong Wednesday and ended off Subic Bay late Friday.

Australian vessel Alive covered the race from the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club to Subic in 47 hours, 31 minutes, 08 seconds, obliterating by 11 minutes, 59 seconds the old mark posted by Beau Geste in 2011.

But Alive fell short in the IRC overall stakes as Black Baza, a boat with 1.226 rating that reached home in 60:10:47, posted a corrected time of 73:46:49. Alive (1.582 rating) clocked 75:10.:30 for second, followed by William Liu’s A40RC Seawolf (corrected time of 76:01:34).

The sea race, held every two years since 1962,  is the longest in Asia and has gained in prestige with the support of Rolex since 1972.

Lone Philippine entry, Ernesto Echauz and Stephen Tan’s TP52 Standard Insurance Centennial, wound up 11th out of 26 boats that finished the race.

Centennial, which has a crew of 15 – with more than half of it members of the national team – reached the finish at 57:56:59 and had a corrected time of 78:20:53.

Twelve-man Alive faced stiff competition with Raphael Blots’ Banuls 60 Catamaran MACH2, which made impressive gains through the middle stretch of the race.

Just 200nm from the start, though, Alive decided to peel off south to stay off the coast and set up a more westerly approach to Subic Bay, leaving MACH2 to take an inside line. The tactics paid off as Alive benefited first from the mid-morning sea breeze kicking in whereas MACH2 sat in the dreaded Luzon hole for five hours and made slow progress.

“The race was fairly good for us. We managed to stay ahead of the bad weather, which I gather some of the smaller boats are having. It’s a good way to go sailing. Several times last night we commented how great it was – we were doing 17 to 18 knots under a full moon. They say ‘start well, finish well’ … well we finished well!” said Stacey Jackson after Alive reached home Friday afternoon.

Arriving early Saturday, nine-man Black Baza caught up with Alive on corrected time.

“We were coming in hot all the way, which was unexpected … we probably played the middle a little bit to the south and then we had good breeze so we managed to come straight in to the coast without having to do too much fancy work,” crew member Wade Morgan said.