Posting the most important – and impressive – result in several years, the Liechtenstein Princely Navy comes second in the Gold Cup of the Stanley Warm Up Races.

The Stanley Warm Up Races used to be a casual early season race, but they have developed into a highly competitive event with over a hundred teams participating in various divisions. As usual, the Navy entered the Men’s Division (39 teams) but the Admiralty also decided to enter its ‘core crew’ into the small boat races (12 teams) which was introduced this year for the first time.

The drawback of this multi-front battle was that our first standard boat heat and small boat heat were scheduled right after each other. Thus, having established our prominent base on the beach (keep the sponsors happy!), we warmed-up for back-to-back heats over the 250 meter race course. Conditions were windy and choppy, hence CRO Barnaby’s advice was for a strong core, solidly locked positions and high recovery strokes in order to keep the boat as steady as possible.

Bracing against wind and waves, we headed out to the starting pontoon against some old and new rivals, including Windrider, the Japanese Club, Stanley Mates and a team from Guangzhou. Paddling back into the starting pontoon required some real effort, with the wind and waves pushing us towards the shore. We thought about hoisting a sail for the race and forget about the annoyingly hard paddling.

After some minor adjustments at the starting line the race was off. We executed our newly developed LiechtenFast start (TOP SECRET and way too complex to explain here) and transitioned into a rapid-fire chug piece. As so often this season, it was a two-boat race – Liechtenstein vs. China (Guangzhou to be specific). And while they clearly had a more potent launch sequence and were significantly ahead after the start, we clawed back meter for meter. You could sense the panic in their ship as the Navy charged them to the line. In the end, they’ve only managed to stay ahead by nine hundredth of a second, finishing in 55.75 seconds versus our 55.84.

Although times of different races are an unreliable comparative indicator, ours was the fourth fastest time of the first round. HK West Fire Services had managed a 55.31 and SMUGz a 55.56. The latter came as a bit of a surprise, given their less than stellar performance over 500m.

With the standard heat done and dusted, our ‘core crew’ (our fittest guys with the highest training attendance, who had hard earned their seat on the small boat) had to immediately jump ship. Given the rubbish weather, the small boats were reduced to eight men, and hence our LiechtenEight headed into battle once more. And what a magnificent eight they were – literally crushing the competition by a full boat length. With the bow pointing skywards at the start, they took off like a speedboat, thrusting forward with immense power and speed. Despite being clearly ahead and potentially slightly fatigued from the first heat (although none of them would ever admit as much) they kept up the speed all the way through, finishing in 1:08.44. The second place boat was five seconds (!) behind and third over seven second down. That’s what we call naval domination!

Soon after the weather deteriorated significantly with rain, thunder and lightning putting the even on hold for a while.

A few hours later and we were getting ready for the semi finals of the standard boats and the final of the small boats. And yet again, our heats were back-to-back in Race 42 and 43.

In the standard boats, we were up against the Royal X-Men, UBS, Castle Peak Power Station, the Firemen, Lee Kum Kee, ARUP and a Chinese-name only team (always dangerous). Being sponsored by LGT Bank, beating giant UBS is always a priority but the real risks were more likely the Fire Services and some of the other Chinese teams. With the water now much calmer, we planned on a standard race piece, which we executed well and finished second in 58.63 with the Fire Services literally on fire and winning it in 57.19. UBS crawled home in fifth in 1:02.62.

As soon as we hit the beach, the ‘core crew’ immediately had to jump into the small boat and head for the starting line where the remaining boats were already lined up. With an exhausting semi final just completed and almost zero recovery time, the LiechtenTen looked sluggish off the line. They also almost made contact with the Hang Wai team in the next lane, which went on to win in 1:06.65. Guangzhou was second in 1:08 and the Navy third in 1:09.69. It was a good effort, but obviously too hard under the circumstances.

Anyway, the priority was on the standard boats where we were now in the Gold Cup Final against a police team, the firemen, Towngas, SMUGz and the Sea School Old Boys. Draining every last drop of Red Bull, power gel and those lovely magic muffins we psyched up for the final. Having obviously again had too much Red Bull, the Admiral spurned the team on to display some raw aggression, especially at the start which had been our weak spot so far. There was some confusion at the loading of the boats and the Navy was the last to head out to the start – but who cares, it matters who comes BACK first!

With total focus on the boat, we executed what was not only the best heat of this season, but possibly of several years. A lot of things we trained hard for weeks and months were coming together perfectly. With CRO Barnaby executing an honest start (despite many Sailors wishing to freddy it) we went through our race piece with precision, power and controlled aggression. As is always the case in these races, it is hard to say what was going on around us since we are all trained to keep the “heads in our boat”. But at least in our boat the heads were up, breathing and thinking. We threw in a POWER UP call at 30 and dug in deeper. FORTY – FIFTY – SIXTY, LET’S GO! I barely had the breath to shout the calls, but they are important. At fifty or sixty I had nothing more to give in my upper body, but Barnaby’s voice was in my head, telling me to use my legs! And I did, kicking the boat like never before. Every other Sailor must have similarly deployed every muscle, every ounce of physical strength and last drop of mental stamina to carry us across the line. As so often, it was impossible to see what’s what, except some thumbs up from the helmsman who looked impressed by what he’d just witnessed.

Cut a long story short, the Navy finished in second place behind the Sea School Old Boys. It was a fantastic result, possibly our best since winning the B Cup in Stanley in 2008 and it earned us a lot of respect on the beach. It obviously also bodes well for the Stanley Championships in a month time.