Around the Island Race

WORDS: VIVIAN NGAN | IMAGES: GUY NOWELL | VIVIAN NGAN

One of Hong Kong’s biggest celebrations of sail, the Club’s annual Around the Island Race, took place on 8 November 2020. The line up boasted an impressive entry list of 227 boats from 14 classes including seven one-design classes, Sportsboats, HKPN, IRC, dinghies and beach catamarans.

ace Officer David Norton set two start lines off of the Kellett Island Clubhouse with the line closest to Kellett Island used to start the one design boats and the outer line for HKPN, IRC and beach catamarans divisions. The race course, a full 26nm circumnavigation, took the fleet around Hong Kong Island to starboard (clockwise).

The first start was at 0830hrs with the Pandoras and HKPN Monohulls setting off in a variable easterly breeze of 4 to 11kts. Thereafter, a start rolled off every five minutes until 1100hrs. The biggest yacht in the fleet was Peter Cremers’ Warwick 75 Shahtoosh while the smallest were four single handed dinghies including three RS Aeros and a foiling dinghy WASZP skipped by Adam Neveux. Last to start and new on the scene, was RHKYC Team Agiplast, sailing their one-design foiling monohull, a Persico 69F, in their debute race in Hong Kong.

Before the majority of boats could get out of the harbour, a weakening northerly breeze led to a large portion of the fleet parking up at Lei Yue Mun Gap, battling an incoming tide. As the main fleet neared Shek O, a northeasterly breeze began to strengthen; building up to 8kts. As the fleet made their way around Stanley point, it was a colourful sight to behold with hundreds of kites on the horizon.

As the fleet progressed around the island, the wind softened again around noon. With Hong Kong Island itself creating a wind shadow over the course, large wind holes developed near Ap Lei Chau. RO David Norton noted that two HKPN boats were well ahead of the main fleet and it was a tough decision as to whether or not to shorten the course. Norton said “two fast HKPN boats started relatively early and were well ahead so that limited our choices. By noon, we recorded good wind at Green Island so we made a risky decision to finish at Kellett Island so sailors could do a full circumnavigation of Hong Kong Island.”

Niccolo Manno’s Nigel Irens Trimaran 40 Carbon 3 was the first boat to cross the line back at Kellett Island at 1320hrs, followed by Sam Chan/Alex Johnston’s Nelson Marek 68 FFreefire and Shawn Kang’s Tp52 Alpha+. With so many boats of different designs and sizes on the water, it’s usually hard to predict who has won until the numbers have been crunched. Eventually, it was established that Shawn Kang’s Tp52 Alpha+ was the ATI overall winner with a corrected time of 5h 10m 03s. Tam Nguyen’s Dragon Zephyr took 2nd place only one minute and 10 seconds behind followed by Sam Chan’s Flying Fifteen Full Power in 3rd .

More than 150 boats finished ahead of the cut off time limit at 1700hrs, with the very lucky Impala Shikari being the final boat to cross the line just nine seconds before the cut off to get a full circumnavigation finish. The HKPN divisions, Dragons, Pandoras, Ruffians and RS Aero results were counted at Cyberport/Stanley gate.

Sincerest thanks go to St. James’s Place and Peroni for their continued support. It was fantastic to see St. James’s Place Partner and recent introductory scheme graduate and new Club member Jason O’Leary competing in his boat Lady Butterfly with wife Magdalena. It’s fantastic to see sponsors taking the next step and becoming active members... welcome to the Club, Jason!. The Around the Island Race requires an enormous pool of volunteers without whom we simply couldn’t run the event. The Club would like to thank the race management team of PRO David Norton, ARO Inge Strompf-Jepsen, Fiona Gregor and Lesley Anderson, Cyberport Gate RO Elberti Uiterwaal-Postma with Aidan James Slinger, Jennifer Li, Letizia Leung and Vincent Yum, Stanley Gate RO Sheila Chan with Donna Choi, Elizabeth Seymour-Jones, Suzy Rayment and Tina Over, Starter’s Box and Gun Room assistants Gina Littlefair, Guinness Siu, Joyce Kwong and Sian Wynn-Jones. The safety team was flat out from pre-start to post-finish and a huge thank you goes to Safety Officer Barry Truhol with Ah Hung, Andy Wong, Angel Olausson,Baden Wong, Carey Jack, Ernest Wong, Harris Leong, Harry Pang,Ian Hornett, Johan Olausson, Keith Man, Ken Wong,Mae Loh, Niclas Rydin, Oscar Hemberg, Paul Oen, Pooky Makinson, Rhoda Chan, Robert Rogers, Ronan Hasle, Serena Shing, Simon Frusher, Stephen Fung, Steve Wordsworth, Ting Chan, Tommy Chan, Tony Cheung, Victor Tsien and Warwick Jones.

Shawn Kang, helmsman of Alpha + ATI overall winner

We are so happy to win ATI overall! It’s never easy to win such kind of a race with over 200 different boats sailing together – you have to sail well and be very lucky. It was so close for us just beating Tam’s Dragon by one minute after correction. We were very lucky to start with a good puff and the best part for me was passing Lei Yue Mun Gup – at that moment the wind was very light and ‘confused’ and there were so many boats stopped there. We managed to just keep moving slowly through a very narrow channel and caught up with most other boats that started earlier.

The biggest challenge was the wind forecast which had indicated anywhere from 5 to 18kts and very changeable. That made it hard for the competitors but also for Race Management so I would like to say a big thank you to the organisers, volunteers, sponsors, competitors and all our crew! Thanks all, looking forward for the race of next year.

Tam Nguyen , helmsman of Zephyr, ATI overall 2nd place and Dragon class winner What were your key moves that helped you win this race?

The key spots where you can traditionally make gains or losses are at Lei Yue Mun, Cyber Port and the return into Harbour before the finish. And this year was no exception! In these light conditions you always need a bit of luck to get it right and we had a good share of it! It was key to get out of the Harbour as soon as possible before the tidal current started to get stronger and we focused on getting fast where we saw pressure even if that meant crossing from one side to the other, sometimes ignoring VMG or current. This is where we made huge gains on our Dragon fleet. From then on, it became more of a race for the overall ranking. Cyberport was a reset where we saw most of the large boats coming from behind while we had no wind. On the other hand, the TPs also then gave us good indication where pressure was or wasn’t after they passed us. When we arrived in the Harbour, the current was very strong and we made gains against much larger boats by staying protected from the current and crossing the channel only when we had good pressure.

What’s your advice to other competitors to help get around quicker?

• Stay focused! It’s probably the most challenging thing on a race that takes six to eight hours! In hindsight, I probably could have helmed better in some parts of the course and saved that one minute which separated us from 1st Overall, TP52 Alpha+. • More importantly, having a great team who understand the boat is key: Michi Valenti and Henri Bassaler are excellent sailors and made sure we kept moving all the time in the challenging conditions. • Crew weight position is extremely important even if the Dragon is a very heavy boat. We kept moving crew depending on heel angle or feeling on the helm

What was the best milestone moment for you?

The finish! After six hours sitting on the rail of a Dragon I was not sure which of my butt or my head was the sorest.

How do you rate defending your title in next year’s Race?

Always a challenge, but will definitely try!

Sam Chan, helmsman of Full Power ATI overall 3rd place and F15 class winner

• if you are not the first class to start, look forward to see the boats ahead to decide where the wind is or is not. • keep moving in the light by cracking off. • avoid wind shadows

What’s your advice to other competitors to help get around quicker?

Same as above!

What was the best milestone moment for you?

The brief moment of planning and surfing.

How do you rate defending your title in next year’s Race?

I had won overall in this race in 2012 and still enjoy competing every year with all of the other boats. I sometimes participate in this race on my big boat Freefire as well.

Jack Ng, helmsman of No One Else HKPN winner

There is no hidden agenda as long as you wouldn’t give up. Chances are always around you from the time you cross the start line. Cooperation with your crew is important a you need teamwork for yacht racing and everyone always wishes their boats to keep moving all the way.

I suppose for Impala 1 and the 11-strong Impala Fleet, the start was the milestone moment. The wind was well North, so it was a port tack start which is tricky, and I’m sure that the tide was flooding, although the ebb was not supposed to finish for an hour. The two Impalas that got away first eventually finished more than one hour ahead of the third-placed finisher – helped naturally by getting through Lei Yue Mun while there was still a little wind, and with a little bit of luck to avoid most of the ‘holes’ on the South side of the Island.

The secret of Impala 1’s success is of course the purported 300 years of sailing experience shared by the six crew... well, perhaps not entirely true, but not far off... and we were assisted by one crew whose hangover prevented him from turning up, helping us negotiate the light conditions !

And the other secrets? Six hours of total concentration, tactical discussion, and luck, luck, luck... and of course the thought of our first cold beer for the whole day after we crossed the finishing line...

We will be back next year, with 306 years of sailing experience!

Jasper ten Berge, helmsman of Jammin J/80 winner

With the 15 one design J/80s participating this year we had the 0905hrs start on the inner line. Many boats took off in the starts before us, then heading upwind out of the harbour. The benefit of having boats in front is that they can be a wind indicator but with that also comes the challenge they are actually blocking that wind and they have to be passed. J/80 Javelin nailed the start in our class with a daring port pin start which paid off, the chase was on.

Our strategy with the building tide was to get out of the harbour as fast as possible, then again, our strategy would have been the same with tide in the back, as fast as possible. We had two of the Club’s Shark sailors onboard – homegrown talent from Middle Island. With the Around Middle Island Race under their belt from the day before and they were sharp and ready and on wind watch. Their calls for the gusts and shifts out of the harbour was critical to our flying start. If there was a secret to calling the wind in the harbour, many with much more hours out there would be far better sources for that secret. We managed to come out 2nd absolute boat after the bigboat FFreefire who then quickly set-off on the horizon. Behind us the wind seemed to die out virtually closing the harbour exit for some time. With the first Flying Fifteen and first Dragon we were off to Cap D’Aguilar in a nice swell from the typhoon that passed the days before.

Our next milestone moment was around Aberdeen. In the North-Easterly this area is known as ‘the doldrums of Hong Kong’. Many can tell you all about the windholes and parking spots out there. We learned the lesson from ATIR veterans and last year’s deserved J/80 class winners Footloose to stay inside close to shore where all logic says to stay outside away from the buildings and landmasses. With some challenge to our patience here and there we managed to round green Island club mark for the beat back to the finish and the Kellet Island Bar.

Sailing the ATIR offers many analogies on life’s lessons and many open doors to kick-in, which are happily shared; You can’t adjust the wind you can adjust your sails, be in the place where you want to be, don’t let someone else cover your breeze, never chase someone else’s wind before you get there it will be gone, look ahead to where the breeze is coming from as that’s the next place where you will be and finally always keep moving forward and never look back.

1. What were your key moves that helped you win this race?

During a race like this we won by understanding the tidal current at Lei Yue Mun. (Understanding tides are important, it can overpower your ability to sail better in a light wind and heavy current condition.) After the start at club line at 0830hrs, Solstice aimed at sailing and passing Lei Yue Mun before the high tide coming in at 0930hrs. She tried to stay in the middle of the channel going upwind with the favourable current underneath with the belief that this will help power up the boat. Solstice reached Lei Yue Mun a little bit late at 0945hrs and she had fought against the high tide at Lei Yue Mun for 45 minutes until she could pass through Lei Yue Mun at 1030hrs. This was already better than some Pandoras which left Lei Yue Mun just before noon.

2. Advice to other competitors to help get around the island quicker: crew/sails/tactics

There seems not any golden rule here. I can only say that boats should always keep momentum at open sea particularly in the southern part of the island where light wind usually prevailed. This can be done by maintaining the shape of the sails using the weight of the crew to heel the boat to leeward a little.

3. The best milestone moment in this race.

The best milestone to win this race was after Solstice passed the Green Island mark at the western waterfront of the harbour where the tide was in full ebb running from the eastern harbour. While much of the fleet elected for the center/starboard side of the harbour where the current was stronger, Solstice had observed the wind had filled in more on the port side. So she took advantage of the higher wind with slightly less tide flow nearer the West Kowloon waterfront. This tactic helped her keep up with the faster boats like the big boats and the Impalas and reached Tsim Sha Tsui faster than other boats.

4. How do you rate defending your title in next year’s race?

More good luck.