Happy Go; Photo: Rolex / Andrea Francolini

Owned by Nie Hua and skippered by Jono Rankine, the TP52 Happy Go became the first yacht to win the Rolex China Sea Race ‘double’ of line honours and IRC Overall since Neil Pryde’s HiFi in 2010.

A year after making its Rolex China Sea Race debut, Happy Go beat Ernesto Echauz’s Standard Insurance Centennial V – a Reichel/Pugh 75 that won line honours last year – by just five minutes to win line honours in the 565nm epic after arriving in Subic Bay at 5.20am on March 30.

With a corrected time of 2 days 18 hours 0 minutes 53 seconds, Happy Go was confirmed as the IRC Overall winner once none of the other IRC boats competing could beat her time. William Liu’s Seawolf claimed second in IRC Overall, while Happy Go, Seawolf and Standard Insurance Centennial V came first, second and third respectively in IRC Racer 0.

Brahim Drissi, General Manager of Rolex Philippines, with Happy Go owner Nie Hua

Nie Hua celebrated with his crew and his wife and kids as he lifted both the China Sea Trophy and Sunday Telegraph Trophy at the prizegiving ceremony, where he was also presented with two Rolex timepieces for winning both line honours and IRC Overall.

“We made a lot of preparations ahead of the race, but getting line honours and the IRC Overall title is completely beyond my expectations,” the Happy Go owner said. “I’d like to give a huge applause to the crew. I’m absolutely thrilled and so thankful. We had a great team. Although we had some language barriers, we operated well, so a big thank you to the team.”

Happy Go, a TP52

After shaving more than 20 hours off Happy Go’s elapsed time from 2023, Rankine was also full of praise for the crew, which included Australian Luke Payne, who sails for Denmark in SailGP.

“I’m very proud of how the team came together,” said Hong Kong-based Rankine. “It’s a relatively new team and everyone did a fantastic job and there were no egos on the boat, and everyone was helping each other and doing a really good job. It was really satisfying to see.”

Rankine outlined how the line honours tussle became a two-boat battle, with the TP52 and 75ft Reichel/Pugh exchanging the lead on multiple occasions since leaving Hong Kong.

“The battle with Centennial V was close the whole race,” he said. “We were aware of them the whole way. We were always checking to see who was close to the finish line and at the end we could see them right the way through, firstly on AIS and seeing their lights at night.”

Standard Insurance Centennial V, a Reichel/Pugh 75

“It was exciting and there were a few lead changes. One moment they were ahead, another moment we were ahead and then the next moment we were sitting in a wind hole and not moving, and they were ghosting past us. Yeah, it was exciting and a fun way to win the race.”

The skipper also confirmed that one of the biggest tactical decisions was made ahead of the race when they dropped four people from the line-up to reduce the crew to nine, with the aim of lightening the boat ahead of expected light winds. “We were expecting the race to be a lot longer but we knew it was going to be light winds and not super demanding so we knew we could handle it with nine people.”

Brahim Drissi with ‘Judes’ Echauz, owner of Standard Insurance Centennial V

After Standard Insurance Centennial V arrived in Subic Bay, Echauz visited Happy Go to congratulate the winners on their victory after what he described as the “most exciting Rolex China Sea Race I’ve ever experienced”.

“It was so exciting from the start on the first day and all the way up to the finish,” said ‘Judes’, one of Asia’s most successful big-boat skippers. “Happy Go did very well. What was so nice was that we were competing with each other, especially on the last day up to the end. I’m very proud of my team.”

Held since 1962, the Rolex China Sea Race is organised by the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. Rolex has been a partner of the Club since 2007 and title sponsor of its flagship race since 2008.
www.rolexchinasearace.com