Swiss Re YMC Alma Mater Race 2022

WORDS: VIVIAN NGAN | IMAGES: PANDA MAN (TAKUMI PHOTOGRAPHY) | 小四哥

The second edition of the Swiss Re YMC Alma Mater Race, organised by Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club’s Young Members Committee, took place on 18 December in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, with a record breaking 62 entries. The Alma Mater Race is a race for fun much like the Club’s Nations’ Cup, however instead of going out in teams representing a country or nation, on this occasion teams are formed based on their affiliated schools – be it a local university, international school, secondary school or vocational institution etc., as long as at least half the sailors have the same affiliation. Many sailors turned up fully decked out in team uniforms, waving college flags ready to do battle on the water to claim victory.

espite the extremely chilly weather (with the HKO reporting it was the coldest day of the year to date) and a strong monsoon signal in force, 55 of the 62 boats still turned up to the start line. Nine boats represented Hong Kong University with teams representing the Faculties of Architecture, Medicine and Dentistry, Hornell Hall and Ricci Hall. HKU Dentistry joined their first Alma Mater Race. Skipper Alfred Lau said “We are a bunch of Hong Kong dentists. Originally, we have friends and partners sailing to start with, afterwards most of us start to learn and enjoy sailing. We have set up a dentist sailing club and we organise sailing events and gatherings. We have entered as a group of local dentists to promote this sport to our fellow dentists and to promote dentistry to the public, while enjoying the fun race.”

A group of Riccians joined their second Alma Mater Race and this time as they had more crew they sailed on a Big Boat rather than a Dragon. Skipper Charles Law said it was his friends from Ricci Hall who are enthusiastic

Swiss Re YMC Alma Mater Race 2022

sailors they had invited him to sail in January 2019 and he started to love sailing too! “We treasure the spirit of Ricci Hall. That’s why my sailing boat is named ‘Riccian’”. said Charles.

The second largest participating academic association was Wan Yan College with seven entries, Team Wah Yan consisted of over thirty alumni sailors from both Wah Yan colleges (Hong Kong and Kowloon), Pun U Association Wah Yan Primary School and a retired teacher. The team included AmaZe and DEA II as well as Modesty Blaise which is a Cheoy Lee Pedrick 36, a real classic boat owned by a retired teacher, plus a few class boats. Their objective was to gather alumni and support students who have an interest in sailing.

The Alma Mater Race has become a driving force to encourage the younger generation to start sailing. Current students from the two colleges joined their alumni sailors in the race and Team Wah Yan also

established a Wah Yan Sailor Scholarship – pledging to sponsor five students from each of the Wah Yan Colleges to attend Level 1 and 2 Basic Sailing Skills training every year for at least three years. Team Wah Yan said “it’s a small give-back to our alma mater and a token to support students who have an interest in sailing and aspire to improve their physique and collaborations with each other.”

This event also attracted some alumni from academic institutions further afield including Yokohama National University, University of Newcastle, University of Exeter, McGill University, Simon Fraser University, Glion Institute of Higher Education Switzerland, University of Tokyo and University of Cambridge. Competitors set out under a stunning blue sky and a northerly breeze of 8 to 10kts within the harbour area. The boats were given staggered starts at 15-minute intervals with the HKPN divisions starting first and the fastest IRC boats starting last. Race Officers Mark Dowding and Ian Fleming elected to choose a course that took the fleet from a Club start line, through Lei Yue Mun Gap and round Junk Bay Mark. Once the fleet exited the gap, there were greeted with 18kts of breeze near Junk bay – thus truly experiencing the strength of monsoon. After passing marks in the Harbour, the boats sailed back to a Club finish line.

The Race Officers said “We were glad to see that the concerns about the forecasted conditions earlier in the week did not deter the many crews that took part. They were rewarded with the best weather that we could have hoped for and they obviously enjoyed the event.”

Under RHKATI, VX One, Probably the Best University (University of Exeter) helmed by Dion Houghton took the win for the second year, followed by Full Power (University of Manchester) skippered by Sam Chan and then HKSYU Sociology’s Windfall skippered by Tom Ho. In the HKPN division, Lam Chak Sum’s Voyages 58, representing Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, took the win with another DC 29 Voyages 55 from Hong Kong Sea School (Skippered by Mason Lai) in 2nd place and The Farr Side from Glion Institute of Higher Education Switzerland (skippered by Alex Cheung) in 3rd Place.

Swiss Re Alma Mater Race 2022 RHKATI

ACADEMIC INSTITUTE BOAT NAME SAIL NUM

University of Exeter University of Manchester HKSYU Sociology Probably The Best University HKG346 Full Power HKG4038

Windfall C516

HKPN

Hang Seng University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Sea School

Voyages 58 Voyages 55 Glion Institute of Higher Education Switzerland The Farr Side 58 55 HKG254

SKIPPER

Houghton / Boote Sam Chan Tom Ho

Lam Chak Sum Lai Hing Yuen Mason Alex Cheung

POSITION

1 2 3

1 2 3

The Club would like to extend a huge thank you to Swiss Re, title sponsor of YMC Alma Mater Race and Peroni, partner of the event. Their continued support greatly adds to the ongoing success and enjoyment for all our sailors at this event. We are grateful for their ongoing support. The Club could not have put on such a successful and safe event without our dedicated volunteers – a big shout out to Race Management team of RO Ian Fleming and Mark Dowding, ARO Justin Yeung, Gloria Fan, Jon Bluhdorn, Marina Hoyle, Stephen Leung, Sunny Yip, Walter Tsui and safety team of Barry Trohol and Brett Rohrsheim.