Race Conditions and Skipper thoughts- Race 9: Sailing City – Qingdao Cup

11 March 2024

The Zhuhai stopover has drawn to a close, with teams spending time exploring the city and surrounds, and preparing for some tough races ahead. With final briefings now complete, the focus is now fully geared to Race 9: Sailing City – Qingdao Cup.

This 9-day race will cover around 1,340 nautical miles and will be one of the more challenging races on the circumnavigation. The teams will have to navigate oil and gas platforms, busy shipping channels as well as strong ocean currents, especially as it sails up the east coast of Taiwan. The currents combined with the headwinds forecast will bring some steep and harsh sea states, making it an upwind, obstacle-filled race to the end.

It's a short race, but there are bonus points up for grabs with an Ocean Sprint and Scoring Gate, both of which are positioned fairly early in the race route.

Deputy Race Director Dale Smyth reported on the race ahead: “The skippers certainly have a pretty interesting race ahead of them!”

Here's what the Skippers and AQPs had to say ahead of Race 9: Sailing City – Qingdao Cup...

Philip Quinn, Skipper Qingdao: “How do you look forward to the conditions we have ahead? Ha ha! We just have to deal with it, navigate the fishing fleets and the current.

“I’m excited to be heading to our home port. I’ve heard about the welcome there that awaits us. Apparently, it’s going to be the biggest welcome of the whole circumnavigation. It’ll be quite the moment going into Qingdao on the Qingdao boat.”

Henry Hallatt, AQP Qingdao: “These aren’t conditions we can prepare for! We’ll just deal with them each day by being vigilant and careful. Fishing fleets, really thick fog, and it looks like we are going to have quite changeable weather, lots of beating up wind, some reaching and hopefully some downwind too at the end."

Ryan Gibson, Skipper Dare To Lead: “There is going to be a lot of traffic on this race, but we have a good team and I’m just looking forward to the race ahead. We have good momentum on this boat – so we can’t wait to get back sailing again.”

Charlie Warhurst, AQP Dare To Lead: “The key to this race is keeping everyone safe in the conditions we might get. I’m looking forward to sailing a clean race.”

Max Rivers, Skipper Our Isles and Oceans: “During the ten days we’ll have at sea we will certainly be keeping up crew morale through the tricky parts – when it starts to get cold, that’s particularly important.

“We need to make sure we are working for each other and not against. That we are working solidly as a team and putting in the effort, so we have a really efficient race, and we are not wasting energy unnecessarily.

“In terms of the fishing vessels we just need to keep a really good look out – do as much avoiding action as possible – do it early, do it obviously and make it as clean as possible”

Tom Newsom, AQP on Our Isles and Oceans: “The low visibility makes it slightly disorientating – which is something to consider for the race to come, with the fog and how we deal with our bearings. We have a great crew who are good at starts and finishes. They’ve got a lot of energy – there is certainly another gear we have found in our crew, which particularly showed coming into Vietnam in the final 24 hours.”

David Hartshorn, Skipper Bekezela: “For us, this is a slightly better shorter race. Really short races aren’t our forte, but we are looking at over a week. That's helpful. Quite a lot of it is upwind and our boat quite likes upwind sailing, so the big challenge will be once we get north of Taiwan and into that fog and the fishing fleets – that will be like nothing we have ever seen.

“It’ll probably cause Maisie and I a bit of stress in the nav station. We’ve got new crew and it’s a great opportunity to bed in the new guys before ‘The Big One’ - the race across the North Pacific from Qingdao to Seattle.”

Image: Skipper briefing for Race 9

Ineke Van Der Weijden, Skipper Perseverance: “This is definitely going to be a short but challenging race. There are many obstacles on this one, with fishing fleets at the forefront of my mind. But also, the Kuroshio current and the fog. It’s going to be a mostly upwind leg which will be tough on the crew.”

Joss Creswell, AQP Perseverance: “This is going to be a tough and cold race as we are finally out of the tropics and equator area. It’s also a time where we have the on boarding of new crew, introducing them to the team and our dynamics. We have had a really wonderful crew – so want to keep that vibe and prowess as we battle upwind towards Qingdao.”

James Finney, Skipper Zhuhai: “We obviously want to win every race and it will be good fun to get back on the water again after our stop in the city. There will be lots of traffic out there in the form of ships and fishing boats, and then we will face a very strong current up the eastern side of Taiwan, where we can expect some pretty difficult waves. They’ll be tough headwinds too which means for slow and challenging progress.”

Mike Davies, AQP Zhuhai: “I’m now looking forward to sailing in the area as we leave for Qingdao.

“I think the new crew are feeling a little bit nervous. But it’s a good ten-day race to refamiliarize themselves with the boat, along with the skills learnt in training. The race is also a good chance to get used of below deck life too including cooking in the galley, and sleeping in the bunks – so they are ready for the next 30-day race.”

Nano Anita Bernardez, Skipper Yacht Club Punta del Este: “We are feeling strong. The last race we were sailing and performing well, and in the last minute the podium was taken away, so we are going to use the inside power we have been building. We have our crew changeover here which brings a new energy. I am looking forward to getting them ready very quickly and race very hard.”

Angus Whitehead, AQP Yacht Club Punta del Este: “It’s going to be a really good race. We have a great platform to build on and improve our performance. We know the areas we need to improve on and so it’s just a case of actioning them now. The fishing fleets are always fun – giving you something to focus on.”

Dan Bodey, Skipper UNICEF: “It’s going to be an interesting upwind race with some strong currents and cold weather!”

Laura Hampton, AQP UNICEF: “This is a really big crew changeover for us, with ten crew joining us on this race. But they are strong with a lot of returners, and all are ready for the challenge, not only to Qingdao but also the ultimate North Pacific race.”

Mike Miller, Skipper of PSP Logistics: “The potential for the current on the outside of Taiwan and the really difficult sea state that it causes is definitely a cause to be vigilant. It’s going to be a pretty aggressive upfront, even before we get into the current, so there is potential for seasickness on board. It's going to be a tough introduction for our new leggers, so hopefully will be ready for all the conditions they’ll face in the North Pacific crossing ahead.”

Lottie Wade, AQP PSP Logistics: “The fishing vessels were intense on the race from Ha Long Bay to here (Zhuhai) and looking at the AIS it’s going to get a lot worse. It can look nerve-wracking but as long as we adhere to the rules, we’ll be all good.”

Hannah Brewis, Skipper Washington, DC: “It’s definitely a tough race. We’ve had some shorter races and some nice downwind racing recently, so we haven’t done big upwind conditions for a while. New crew might find this challenging at first, but we’ll get into it. There’s lots of things to look out for and it’s definitely difficult tactically, but that’s what makes it fun. There will be lots of opportunities for gains and losses so the racing will be great.”

Ella Hebron, AQP Washington, DC: “I have a natural apprehension about the race ahead, as there is a lot to come with the fishing fleet and the current and tricky wind conditions. There’s also a new crew to introduce into the team which is exciting.”

Bob Beggs, Skipper Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam: “I still use a screen shot of from the 2017-18 edition when I’m teaching students about AIS (automatic identification system) and fishing boats. Today I was reminded about that quite clearly during our Skipper Brief and the photo our Race Director used to show the fishing vessels we will be facing.

“Cameron and I get on very well having sailed together before. There are also some of my crew on board who I also taught back during their training. So even though it’s a new team for me, there are familiar faces. I’m looking forward to sailing with Cam and I hope we work it out well together.”