| Hi Fi repeats line honours win |
| By the Rolex Media Team. |
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Photos by Daniel Forster for Rolex.
Edited by Peter Andrews. |
| April 4, 2010. |
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| Neil Pryde’s Welbourne 52, Hi Fi was a familiar sight leading the fleet again and taking the Line Honours victory, crossing the finish line off Subic Bay, Philippines at 07:36:11 local time. Hi Fi’s elapsed time of 67 hours, 26 minutes shaved close to four hours off their previous record, set in the 2008 race. This is a new benchmark for the Rolex China Sea Race harbour start, a change in 2008 to allow for the start off the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club in Victoria Harbour. Hi Fi also won the IRC Racing A division overall on corrected time. |
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Neil Pryde's Welbourne 52 Custom Hi Fi, crossing the Subic Bay finish line
to take Line Honours in the Rolex China Sea Race 2010.
Photo © Daniel Forster / Rolex.
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At a dockside presentation at the Subic Bay Yacht Club, owner skipper Neil Pryde was presented with a Rolex Yacht-Master timepiece for his Line Honours win. He was the Line Honours winner in the 2008 edition as well.
"We had a game plan which we stuck to pretty well and that’s the way it played out," Pryde recounted Hi Fi’s race. "We put the boat in the right place, at the right time, and got the right wind angles and that was it." |
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John de Luna from Rolex Philippines presents a Rolex Yacht-Master to Line
Honours winner Neil Pryde, owner and skipper of Hi
Fi, after his arrival
in Subic Bay, completing the Rolex China Sea Race 2010.
Photo © Daniel Forster / Rolex.
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"We were always concerned about Evolution Racing, the TP 52, as the boat to beat and we got a big gap on them the first night. We just split apart and we lost them. We sailed a lot lower course out of Hong Kong, and we got into clear air and they sailed high. Later in the night, he sailed away from us in a very divergent course and we weren’t sure what he was up to, and we lost him, and after that we were on our own."
"We’ve got to pay tribute to Will Oxley, who’s our navigator, he nailed it right on, he had every wind angle spot on, it was just perfect," Pryde added.
Getting closer to the the Philippine coast, conditions started to change for Pryde and his crew.
"We were a bit nervous last night, we got down to 2 to 3 knots of boat speed, but we never actually stopped. As it started to die, and the new breeze filled in off the land, we were away again. We never had more than 20 to 22 knots, it was never really windy, but we were fully pressured up because of the angles we were sailing, the boat was really trucking." |
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Neil Pryde's Welbourne 52 Custom Hi Fi, arrives in Subic Bay, Philippines,
to take Line Honours in the Rolex China Sea Race 2010.
Photo © Daniel Forster / Rolex.
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Pryde is ever the experimenter. He essentially rebuilt Hi Fi in 2007 by cutting the deck off and building a totally new hull, keel and rudder. Since then, it seems he can’t help himself and he’s been at it again, as Pryde continued.
"We have a new keel, new rudder, new rig, new cabin top. I get a kick out of that actually. If I could sell it, I would sell it and start all over again with another one. That’s part of the fun of it all."
Hi Fi’s navigator, Will Oxley is a veteran of the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race as back-up navigator for Puma Sailing and it was his first time competing in the Rolex China Sea Race. But having done a lot a research on the course for the Volvo Race, he was not unfamiliar with the area. However, he didn’t have all of the electronic amenities that many Volvo and offshore sailors take for granted now. |
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Neil Pryde's Welbourne 52 Custom Hi Fi approaches the Subic Bay finish
line to take Line Honours in the Rolex China Sea Race 2010.
Photo © Daniel Forster / Rolex.
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"We only had an Irridium phone, so afraid I’m used to being spoiled and having access to a whole lot of information, said Oxley."
"This time the gribs (weather files) were okay for the first little while. I could get the grib to be correct if I added 140 per cent of the wind, made it three hours earlier and rotated it 40 per cent, so I didn’t pay much attention to them. But using the general understanding of what the weather was doing, we just tried to position ourselves; particularly with this large landmass, to anticipate the breeze shifting in the afternoon as it typically does and then the land breeze filling in. Luckily, we managed to get that correct and so that made a big difference in terms of being able to position ourselves." |
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Neil Pryde at the helm of his Welbourne 52 Custom Hi
Fi, as they arrive
at the Subic Bay finish line to take Line Honours in the Rolex China
Sea Race 2010.
Photo © Daniel Forster / Rolex.
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Rolex China Sea Races are won and lost as boats approach the Philippine coastline and that was not lost onboard Hi Fi. Oxley described the conditions as they approached the Philippine coast, and explained what they did to to make best of the situation.
"As we came to the coast, the breeze came into the north and it was about 12 knots. And as it got dark, the thermal breeze goes so it rotated back into the northeast and we, without gybing or anything, just rotated around and changed down through the sails. We thought we could afford to go further in, since we thought it was going to go into the east a bit further. But then we got a position report for Evolution. They were outside of us and so the only thing that could go wrong was that we could get caught inshore with no wind. So we bore away a bit, even though we realized that probably meant we were going to be on the wind to finish, but it protected us. That’s the way it panned out, so we were very pleased." |
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Neil Pryde's Welbourne 52 Custom Hi Fi approaches the Subic Bay finish
line to take Line Honours in the Rolex China Sea Race 2010.
Photo © Daniel Forster / Rolex.
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"We knew if we could get in before like 10:00, then we had a good chance of finishing in the land breeze rather than ending up in the sea breeze transition. That’s going to be quite tricky this afternoon. And hopefully we’ve managed to get our time on boats like Subic and Ambush. Apart from being able to come in a little closer last night, which might have given us an extra half hour, we didn’t lose any time on the race track, so that was great."
Oxley was quick to praise the crew and owner Neil Pryde.
"The crew work is exemplary, so it made it easy, and Kos did a great job of calling the tactics. It was just fantastic to see how passionate Neil is and he was up all night and drove all night. Once he could smell the finish line, there was nothing to stop him, and he’s a fantastic driver. It’s really nice to see someone so passionate about their sailing and so actively involved and enjoying it." |
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Neil Pryde's Welbourne 52 Custom Hi Fi, arrives in Subic Bay, Philippines,
to take Line Honours in the Rolex China Sea Race 2010.
Photo © Daniel Forster / Rolex.
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| Next to finish were the two Australian TP52’s. Ray Roberts’ Evolution Racing, crossing the line four hours behind Hi Fi at 9:39:48, followed by Strewth at 12:40:33. Ffreefire 52 is due at 16:30, while the rest of the fleet is expected to arrive through the night and into tomorrow. On Monday night, there will be an informal dockside presentation for the 1st to 3rd place finishers, in each division and the official Rolex China Sea Race prizegiving will be held on Wednesday, April 14th at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club back at Kellet Island in Hong Kong |
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John de Luna from Rolex Philippines presents a Rolex Yacht-Master to Line
Honours winner Neil Pryde, owner and skipper of Hi
Fi as his crew look
on, after their arrival in Subic Bay, completing the Rolex China Sea
Race 2010.
Photo © Daniel Forster / Rolex.
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This year is the 25th edition of the Rolex China Sea Race, which was first run in 1962, and has been held every two years since then.
For more information about the Rolex China Sea Race 2010, including results, please visit www.rhkyc.org.hk/rolexchinasearace.htm. |
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| Outimage and
Rolex © 2010 |
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