Ulleung-do, South Korea – Thirty-seven entries with sailors from 13 nations have just completed the Korea Cup International Yacht Race. Entries in this event were divided into two divisions - ORC and OPEN – with 12 in the first group and 25 in the second. In total there were more than 260 competitors from New Zealand, Singapore, England, Switzerland, USA, Germany, France, Finland, Ireland, Russia, China, Australia, and South Korea.
Initially it was planned to run two offshore races - first from Pohang City to Ulleungdo Island (110 nm), and the second from Dokdo Island to Ulleungdo (50 nm). But during the registration process organizers of the event informed participants another short sponsor's race would be sailed in Pohang Bay. The opening ceremony of the event was organized by the Korea Sailing Federation and the mayor of Pohang City as a great festival. Among the honorable guests of the regatta was ISAF vice-president Teo Ping Low from Singapore.
Weather for the races started fine, but then degraded into rain and blustery conditions, with the whole of the first race sailed off the wind. The first yacht to finish on Ulleungdo 14 hours after the start was Time Machine, a Grand Soleil 42 from Russia, but using ORC Club scoring the corrected time victory in this group went to Fantasy, a YOK 40 from Russia. In the OPEN class the winner was LT-T12 from Daebul University in Mokpo, Korea.
To start a second race at 1000 all yachts had to make a night voyage to Dokdo Island. The waves in the starting area for this race were about 3 meters high, and the wind grew stronger, forcing the majority of yachts to reduce sails. And again the first to cross the finishing line in the ORC Club group was Time Machine, with Baby Uminoko, a First 40.7 from Russia, as the corrected time winner.
Trophies at the Korea Cup were awarded for each race, without scoring for an overall winner.
Evgeny Khromchenko,
Member International Jury Korea Cup