One Global Lipton Trophy 2021

With perfect sailing conditions, 67 boats turned out for the One Global Lipton Trophy on 20 November, the second event of the Top Dog Trophy Series 2020-2021. With 12 to 15kts of easterly wind bestowed on Victoria Harbour, the regular Race Officer team of Gareth and Di Williams opted for a Club line start, allowing members to watch the start sequence at Kellett Island Clubhouse.

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

Pursuit races work on each boat or Class of boats being given a different start time based on their handicap, which in a perfect race would result in all boats finishing at around the same target time of 1630hrs. The first start was at 1400hrs for the Pandoras and the last boat to start was TP52 Phoenix at 1514hrs. The fleet was sent to start outside Kellett Island, a long beat up to Shau Kei Wan, then sailed 2 laps between Shau Kei Wan and Hung Hom and 2 laps between Shau Kei Wan and North Point before finishing at Kowloon Bay. As the day progressed, the wind dropped to around 10kts, prompting RO Gareth Williams to shorten the course at E2 near North Point very close to the target finish time. Pandora Windfall was holding off the faster classes until near the end of the race, before being overtaken by VX One Serendipity just 30m from the finish line. Patrick Pender’s Serendipity crossed at 1627hrs, with Windfall crossing in 2nd Place just 28 seconds behind. Dragon Davidloong squeezed into third place beating Ruffian Buster by only 5 seconds.

2021

Winner of Lipton Trophy, Patrick Pender’s new VX One Serendipity, arrived in HK the week before the Opening Regatta, Autumn Regatta, and has had a successful start to its campaign winning its first 2 races “out of the box”. An unfortunate retirement in the third race cost them the regatta but since then Serendipity has won the Port Shelter Regatta in the Sportsboat Class and the Twinning Series sailed out of Shelter Cove.

Top Dog series, but as we all know there are 2 more races in the series and a lot can happen in that time.

Patrick Pender shared his key of success for Lipton Trophy, “we planned to head out early before the race, check the boat’s tuning, formulate our strategy for the race. Going into the race we knew that the windier conditions favoured us and again the crew performed very well ensuring that we executed our plan, which turned out well and we were able to finish first, overtaking Davidloong and Windfall on the last leg to take the win. “

The One Global Lipton Trophy is the second of four events that make up the Top Dog Trophy Series 2021-2022. The first event was last weekend’s Sun Hung Kai & Co. Around the Island Race and the next two pursuit races are the One Global HKRNVR Memorial Vase on the 15 January 2022, and the One Global Tomes Cup on 30 April 2022.

One Global Lipton Trophy 2021 – Top 10

BOAT NAME

Serendipity Windfall

Davinloong Buster

Racer X

SAIL NO. CLASS SKIPPER FINISH TIME POSITION

346 Vx One Patrick Pender 16:27:55 1

516 Pandora Tom Ho 16:28:23 2

46 Dragon Lowell Chang 16:29:28 3 517 Ruffian Nicolas Bryan 16:29:33 4 1406 Etchells Mark Thornburrow 16:29:58 5

Taxi

Xanadu 1047 Impala Kent Kan 16:30:31 6

1221 Impala Wilfred Ma 16:30:36 7 Phyloong II 50 Dragon Phyllis Chang 16:30:40 8 Les Freaks Sont Chic 1428 Etchells Marco Pocci 16:31:23 9 Noddy 1393 Etchells Jamie McWilliam 16:31:30 10

With perfect sailing conditions, we welcomed back One Global, title sponsor of the Lipton Trophy. The first of three pursuit races, we would like to share our greatest thanks to long time sponsor One Global, who not only title the Pursuit Race series, but also support many of our other races. We would also like to say a big thank you to Peroni, who continue to keep our sailors happy with after race refreshments. We look forward to seeing them both again at the next race, the One Global HKRNVR Memorial Vase on 15 January 2022! The club would like to thank the fabulous volunteers who ran the racing on the day, Race Officer Gareth Williams and his capable team of assistants: Cherry Graham, Damien Massingham, Dawn Allen, Di Williams, Jacky Lam, Victor Tsien, Victor Yung and the safety team of Niclas Rydin and Philip Lee.

The Sailing Journey behind

Title Sponsor Around the Island Race of 2021

Hong Kong’s biggest sailing extravaganza, “Around The Island Race” was a huge success this year, with 228 boats participating under a picture-perfect conditions. SUN HUNG KAI & CO. LTD. was this year’s ATIR title sponsor. Sun Hung Kai & Co. is a leader in alternative investing headquartered in Hong Kong. Since its establishment in 1969, the group has owned and operated market-leading platforms in financial services. Sailing is a sport particularly relevant to the company because they believe that competitive sailing reflects and espouses the company’s ethos – “Endure. Adapt. Excel”. The Sun Hung Kai Scallywag Race Team, Hong Kong’s professional off-shore sailing team won the homecoming leg of the Volvo Ocean Race 17-18, one of the toughest sailing challenges in the world. Unfortunately, due to the disruptions resulting from the ongoing Covid-19 situation, the Scallywag team was unable to participate in this year’s ATIR, we look forward to having them back to racing as soon as travel restrictions and logistic delays ease.

We took the opportunity and connected with the skipper of the Sun Hung Kai Scallywag crew, Mr. David Witt.

Editor: What yacht races have you done in and around Hong Kong?

David: Over the past 10 years, I’ve been lucky enough to compete and win line honours in the Rolex China Sea Race, a couple of times. Once with Ragamuffin, once with Genuine Risk. Hong Kong to Vietnam Race, managed to win it in the Ragamuffin 90, the Ragamuffin 100, and break the record. And also in the Scallywag trimaran, which we broke the multihull record. We’ve been lucky enough to win and break the record in the Hong Kong to Hainan Race, as well. And we’re looking forward to competing with the trimaran in the Sun Hung Kai & Co. Around Island Race 2022.

Editor: You famously won the leg into Hong Kong during the Volvo Ocean Race – how was that being a local Hong Kong team?

Sun Hung Kai & Co

David: To date, it’s the highlight of my sailing career. It was a highlight of being a Hong Kong resident and the amount of satisfaction it gave all the people that backed us, when we were told they shouldn’t, was immensely gratifying. It still feels like it was yesterday. Editor: You’re involved with the Sun Hung Kai Scallywag Foundation. How was coaching the kids recently? David: The Sun Hung Kai Scallywag Foundation was something we announced during the Volvo when we won the leg into Hong Kong. It’s taken a little while, but now that it’s fully up and running despite the pandemic, we’ve had over 800 kids through the course since 2019. I’ve been down there when I was in Hong Kong. It’s great to see kids that normally wouldn’t get an opportunity to compete in sailing or learn sailing get an opportunity. Recently, we’ve now just appointed a foundation coordinator, and that’s going to be a big drive through the next few years to push the foundation, and stay tuned because there’ll be more news to come.

Inspired by Sun Hung Kai Scallywag Race Team’s achievements over the past few years, the Sun Hung Kai & Co. Foundation (SHK’s charitable platform to support caring and sustainable community) partnered with Sailability, and established the Sun Hung Kai Scallywag Foundation in 2019, with the objective of building a sailing legacy in Hong Kong, and supporting youth development through the sport. Their goal is to raise awareness and make sailing accessible to everyone whilst changing lives. Here we reached out to Mrs. Kay Rawbone, founder of Sailability. Editor: What is Sailability? Kay: Co-founded in 2009 by my husband Mike Rawbone and myself, Sailability is a not-for-profit charity looking to enrich the lives of many within our community by ‘making sailing accessible to EVERYONE’, irrespective of their ability, age, gender, ethnicity or status. What we provide is more than sailing and we change lives. Editor: Why Sailing? Kay: Sailing is one of the few inclusive sports, in which able bodied sailors, disabled sailors and those with other life challenges can take part on equal terms. we believe that sailing increases self-confidence, independence, responsibility, and self-esteem whilst learning and having fun. Editor: How do supporters like Sun Hung Kai Scallywag Foundation make a difference? Kay: Through Sun Hung Kai Scallywag Foundation’s support, for instance, they have sponsored the expenses of sailing courses and have also provided us with additional safe, easy to sail dinghies and an additional safety boat. This has enabled us to run additional regular sailing programs, providing opportunities to many under-represented youth groups, from all walks of life, to learn to sail. Since the inception of the program, the foundation has supported 800 individuals from the under-represented youth of Hong Kong to enjoy 120 days out on the water learning to sail. Why not come to see it for yourself – you will be amazed. During summer and the mid-term break this year, Sun Hung Kai Scallywag Foundation also organised several sailing camps for the public under its “One-for-One Charitable Scheme”, where the children can learn sailing and self-sufficiency while getting their sailing certifications. Money raised from each participant supports another underprivileged youth. The sailing camps have been a huge success, and due to popular demand, the Foundation has organised another one over the last Christmas period. If you are interested in the sailing camps or wish to support the Sun Hung Kai Scallywag Foundation and Sailability, please contact them at info@shkcofoundation.com. This year, it has been a meaningful collaboration between Sun Hung Kai & Co and the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club; both striving to raise the passion and awareness of sailing in Hong Kong. It is assuring to learn the company has confirmed plans to continue to be the title sponsor of ATIR, one of the biggest inshore events in Hong Kong, for the next several few years.

ABOUT SUN HUNG KAI & CO.

Sun Hung Kai & Co. Limited (SEHK: 86) (“SHK & Co.”, together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”) is a leader in alternative investing headquartered in Hong Kong. Since its establishment in 1969, the Group has owned and operated market-leading platforms in Financial Services. The Group invests across public markets, alternatives and real assets and has an established track record of generating long-term risk adjusted returns for its shareholders. Most recently, SHK & Co has extended its strategy to incubate, accelerate and support emerging asset managers in the Asian region. SHK & Co is also the major shareholder of a leading Consumer Finance firm, United Asia Finance Limited. The Group currently holds about HK$48 billion in total assets as at 30 June 2021. For more information about SHK & Co., please visit www.shkco.com. Follow the Scallywag Team on social media:

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