Race Week

Amongst the 11 home-grown Hong Kong teams were sailors Jamie Tsang and Mak Cheuk Wing, Mak Cheuk Wing was the winner of Hong Kong Sports Institute’s Outstanding Junior Athlete award and the first windsurfer in Hong Kong to win a medal two years in a row in the Junior Windsurfing Championship. She has now changed tack turning her hand to skiffs and racing with Jamie Tsang as a 29er crew.

Cameron Law and Christopher Lam had come into the event favorites, having just taken 1st overall at the Hong Kong 29er National Championship. However, it was dynamo female duo Emily Polson and Tiffany Mak, who had placed 2nd in the Silver Fleet at the 2022 29er World Championship in Spain, who kept their dream alive by taking 1st place overall at the inaugural Asian event, with a tidy six bullets under their belt. Chasing the girls, by a mere three points were Cameron Law and Christopher Lam, with Jayden Fung and Jack Dingemans in 3rd place.

Emily said “This regatta was pretty tricky and pretty hard – especially Day 3 – but we held together pretty well. It’s good that we have so many international boats here. The event was organised and run really well.”

Growing international participation

With 76 sailors, the Optimist Main fleet was the biggest of the regatta. There were four entries from Thailand and one from Greece and along with teams from Macau(China), Chinese Taipei, China and USA. This year saw 22 entries from Mainland China from three sailing clubs, including 14 sailors from Chenjinhao Sailing Club (a sailing training centre set up by world class Chinese sailor Chen Jinhao Horace), three sailors from China Seal Sailing School and four from Whisper of the Wind Sailing Club. Chinese Taipei Yulan Youth Academy, coached by former 2018 Hong Kong Race Week Laser Radial champion Chiang Hsiu-Chuan, sent four sailors.

At the end of nine races, Greece’s Optimist sailor Emmanouil Anastasios Vomvylas carried a massive lead of 17 points over Liu Zihan from Hong Kong, with Chinese sailor Deng Rong Sheng in 3rd place. Vomvylas said, “It wasn’t so easy because the weather here was so difficult and shifty and also the current isn’t so helpful plus the athletes here were good, so it’s very nice to win. It’s my last year in Optimists so maybe I can come back to Hong Kong Race Week in the ILCA class.”

For Optimist Intermediate fleet, Ethan Kiu from Aberdeen Boat Club came in first followed by Liu XinRan and Caleb Pang from Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. Ethan expressed his happiness about winning his first Hong Kong Race Week. “I feel proud of winning and I think I have improved a lot since the last regatta. It was good to have great competition too.”

Also sharing the Optimist course were the RS Feva’s with yet another Chinese sailor Shirley Ma and Yike Luo sailing their way to the win.

The ILCA 4 class was the second largest fleet comprising of 16 local sailors along with 10 Mainland China sailors from Vanhang Sailing Academy and Whisper of Wind Sailing Club, 4 Singaporeans, 2 Thai sailors and one each from Chinese Taipei, Macau (China) and Switzerland.

Top Singaporean sailor, Isaac Goh showed great strength from the start of the regatta, going on to lift the trophy 7 points ahead of compatriot, Josiah Tan. Thailand’s Thanapat Sircharoen came in 3rd. Goh said “I am quite satisfied with my performance, and I hope I will improve further. There are lots of different countries joining this event, bringing some very good competition. I had really a fun time with them, what a great event!”

Among the 18 entries in ILCA 6, 5 Mainland Chinese entries took part, with the sailor to watch being Ding Zhaohiu from Vanhang Sailing Academy. Sailors also represented Belgium, Chinese Taipei and Singapore. Ding Zhaohiu took 1st overall followed by Hong Kong sailor Peter Jessop and Chinese sailor Feng Ziteng Patrick. Said Ding, “The last five days of racing has been great and I had some fun moments with my friends. I just want to say thanks to my coaches, without their support, I cannot have this result. I hope to return next year.”

Tricky conditions

With the myriad of conditions over the course of the week, the opening day of racing saw 10kts of breeze building up to 14–15kts across most courses. The Po Toi course was also accompanied by a big swell running, delivering a memorable racing experience for the first day, a great opener to the inaugural 2023 29er Asian Championship.

While shifty conditions prevailed across the three racing areas for day 2 of the event, the situation posed some challenges for the race management team on the Po Toi track which hosted both the 2023 29er Asian Championship and ILCA fleets, with the race area being split into two separate windward leeward courses, allowing the ILCA class to sail on a bigger and longer course and the other for the 29er class who preferred shorter races.

Similarly, the Optimist and 2.4mR’s experienced good pressure out on the Stanley course with gusts recorded up to 23kts – topping the limit for Optimist Intermediate class. However, with great management of the course, Inge Strompf Jepsen and her team managed to get 3 races in to complete day 2 of racing.

In stark contrast, day 3 racing saw lighter wind, testing the sailors’ ability in all-round conditions. Race Officer Brenda Davies at the Po Toi area commented “The wind god was kind today” as the ILCA class had some very close racing on a much calmer sea with an average 7 to 8 kts north easterly breeze.

Under grey sky and a spot of rain, the breeze didn’t play ball and completely shut down for the last day of competition. All race management teams tried in vain to find some wind however after a few hours of having the sailors wait patiently on the water at the various race areas of Po Toi and Stanley Bay, the N over A flag was eventually hoisted, signaling that racing was abandoned for all fleets except the Optimist Green Fleet who managed to get in two races in Deep Water Bay.

The next generation of sailors

As part of the commitment to our sport, Sun Hung Kai & Co. Hong Kong Race Week offers the developmental program of Green Fleet. Green Fleet is sailed on a dedicated racecourse allowing organisers to be very flexible and run a specialised training-oriented race program. Sailors are actively encouraged on the racecourse with advice and tips on how to improve their performance so they can move into the main fleets in the coming year.

2023 saw the first-time inclusion of a youth Green Fleet in the Fusion and Pico Green fleets, run by Race Officer Paul Kan, seeing 16 young sailors join. Finishing a first ever regatta experience, Fusion fleet sailor Wong Tsz Lung, from the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club’s own community outreach program, Sail To Change, said “I learnt a lot from racing with other Sail To Change teammates and other competitors and I definitely would like to join next year.”

27 young sailors participated in their first ever regatta in the Optimist Green Fleet. Nine year old Mainland China sailor Wang Qian’ai was the most consistent out on the course. Wang said, “I am very happy, I hope I could have noticed the wind shift and wind direction and I hope I could also win in higher rank of Optimist racing in the future.”

Embracing inclusivity

As an all-inclusive event, Sun Hung Kai & Co. Hong Kong Race Week embraces and supports the inclusion of the 2.4mR class which is sailed by both able and disability sailors. There were 7 entries in 2.4 mR class – among them six para sailors from Sailability Hong Kong, including Sylvia Leung making her debut in her first Sun Hung Kai & Co. Hong Kong Race Week. “I have participated in several local regattas, but here at southern side, we have different racing conditions compared to our home base in Shelter Cove. It’s more physically challenging to attend four days of racing plus a practice race, but we learn more in a weeklong regatta.”

Foo Yuen Wai had been racing in Race Week since the first edition in 2015. Foo mentioned as the regatta had been on pause due to Covid restrictions for a few years affecting training, he’s treasuring this opportunity to sail in this international event to equip himself for stronger sailing conditions at future overseas regattas. Foo Yuen Wai took 5 bullets in total putting him ahead of Virgile Bertrand, taking his 3rd championship crown at Sun Hung Kai & Co. Hong Kong Race Week.

Sailability Hong Kong sent their new flagship vessel Mohan, a 40’ sailing yacht along to the event this year as a spectator vessel, enabling them to showcase the sport of yachting and opportunities available to the wider community of people who endure a disability. With various groups of disability passengers aboard over 2 days of racing, the passengers were treated to viewing the racing and enjoyed the inspiration that comes from watching the competing Sailability sailors, each of whom had some form of disability.

Sustainability Matters

Sun Hung Kai & Co. Hong Kong Race Week aims to achieve Clean Regatta status for the Sailors for the Sea program. This year targeting a Platinum level Clean Regatta, the Sun Hung Kai & Co. Hong Kong Race Week Green Team set about making sure the event was run in the highest sustainable manner.

Along with the elimination of single use water bottles, full use of electronic entry and race management system via an Online Notice Board portal – to name a few practices, the event also additionally shared a special movie screening of A Plastic Ocean on the 12 January in the lead up to the regatta. Attending Marine Biologist Thea Bradford and A Plastic Ocean Foundation representative Jasmine Siu shared with sailors and club members insight on how the influx of plastic and other waste is affecting the health and biodiversity of the Ocean, giving some great tips along the way on how everyone can do their part to save the health of our oceans.

The HKRW Green Team also joined forces with RHKYC Sustainability Team and local Hong Kong NGO Hong Kong Shark Foundation to host a beach clean-up at Middle Island Beach, two weeks prior to the regatta in preparation for the sailors. Along with an educational environmental awareness talk hosted by NGO A Plastic Free Sea with our Green Fleet sailors, the younger generation are being made aware of how our actions are impacting the environment.

Out on course, the full impact of sustainability and ocean trash was seen firsthand. On day 1 of racing, the Chinese Taipei Coach boat spotted a distressed dolphin entangled and struggling in a discarded fishing net. RHKYC member Ricky Lai also on board, managed to cut the net free, seeing the dolphin safely swim free. A mere day after the heroic dolphin save, more ghost nets were recovered on the racecourse off Po Toi. Our volunteers actively participating in the protection of our wildlife and ocean health.