Vincenzo Onorato’s Cookson 50 Mascalzone Latino sailed into Nha Trang last night at 18hrs 46mins 31secs to take the win in IRC Racer 0 and IRC Racer overall – the Italian boat was a cool 2h 49m 55s ahead of Joachim Isler and Drew Taylor’s Ambush which placed second in IRC Racer overall.
Mascalzone Latino owner Vincenzo Onorato commented on the Race on arrival, “It's the very first time we have joined the Volvo Hong Kong to Vietnam Race. It was amazing because we did the Race in 53h 26m 31s and we did around 770nm actual distance sailed – unbelievable!
“The only 'low' of the race was to just keep drinking water; there was no beer on board. The biggest high – we had a top speed of 30 knots; unbelievable.”
The Mills 41 Ambush won IRC Racer 1 Division after an epic run in which she punched above her weight, staying up with the 50 footers for most of the Race and clocking an impressive elapsed time of 61h 27m 59s.
Third in IRC Racer Overall and second in IRC Racer 0 is Hong Kong’s FreeFire, a TP52 owned Sam Chan, with a corrected time of 78h 27m 30s.
The IRC Racer 2 fleet – which started 25 hours before the IRC Racer 0 and 1 divisions – began arriving in Nha Trang last night. Russian entry, Alexander Vodovatov’s First 40 CR No Applause, arrived at 20h 04m 46s – shortly before Nick Southward’s J-109 Whiskey Jack at 21h 27m 33s. Whiskey Jack won division with an elapsed time of 83h 19m 14s.
Nick Southward said “It was a great race. It was really fantastic, especially the last day where we had a 'bucking bronco' ride down the coast of Vietnam, where we really were going very fast.
“We had a top speed of 18kts which is actually Whiskey Jack’s top speed ever. The introduction of staggered starts was a great move because it meant that we arrived at the same time as the big boats.
“The only low point of the race was when we wrapped our A4 around the forestay in the worst possible wrap you could imagine; hourglass top and bottom. We were really low for about an hour while we figured out how to unwrap it, but we eventually we did and it was great that it was still in one piece.”
The remaining boats are expected to arrive within the next 24 hours.
Full results will be available at: www.chinacoastraceweek.com/
