Ffree Fire won the South China Morning Post trophy after being the first boat to cross the finishing line in the San Fernando Race, but skipper Sam Chan was left ruing the fickle winds off the coast of the Philippines which cost him the chance to break his existing record for monohulls.
'Ffree Fire was just over two hours outside their existing record,' said Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club spokesperson Lindsay Lyons yesterday.
'They were on course to breaking their record but the winds died as they approached San Fernando and they were left waiting for about three to four hours before it picked up again.
'At 8am Ffree Fire was 53 nautical miles away from San Fernando and its boat speed was just over nine knots. At that rate, there estimated time of finish was to be around 1.30pm and that would have meant a new record,' said Lyons. 'But unfortunately the conditions changed.'
The old record for monohulls was established by Ffree Fire in 2001 in a time of 49 hours, 59 minutes and 12 seconds. But yesterday, Ffree Fire could only manage a time of 52:06:02.
Marcel Liedt's Hocux Pocux II and Fred Minmonth's Mandrake were lying in second and third place respectively at the last radio report yesterday.
'Due to the lack of winds near the coast of the Philippines, the estimated times of all boats could change. We expect the last boat which is expected to be Koon Woon, to finish the race by mid-day on Monday,' said Lyons.