Sun Hung Kai & Co Around the Island Race 2021

Sun Hung Kai & Co. Around

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

Hong Kong’s largest annual celebration of sail, the Sun Hung Kai & Co. Around the Island Race, started in picture perfect conditions on 14 November. 228 boats from 14 classes including seven one-design classes, sportsboats, HKPN, IRC, dinghies and beach catamarans lined up for the 26nm circumnavigation of Hong Kong Island under a beautiful blue sky.

Race Officer David Norton set two start lines off Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club’s Kellett Island Clubhouse, with the line closest to Kellett Island used for starting the day boats and the outside line for the cruisers, racer and beach catamaran divisions.

The first start was at 0830hrs with the Pandoras, HKPN Monohulls and Multihull Cruisers setting off in a northeasterly breeze of around 8 to10kts. By the completion of the 21 start sequences, the breeze had built up to 15kts, ideal conditions for the final start of the quickest yachts, the Fast Fleet 3, consisting of three TP52s and Trimaran 40 Carbon 3 set off at 1100hrs.

Showcasing a breathtaking sight from either land, sea or sky, members of the public gathered at the newly opened East Coast Park precinct to catch a glimpse of this amazing spectacle of sail. The steady breeze in the harbour enabled the fleet to sail effortlessly through Lei Yue Mun gap and enjoy a fresh 15kts north easterly breeze by Shek O and Stanley, where hundreds of colourful spinnakers could be seen highlighting the horizon.

A softening breeze by noon saw the fleet slow up and compress as they approached the notoriously low breeze section of the course between Ap Lei Chau and Cyberport. With 6kts of breeze making for slow progress through the Cyberport Gate, the fleet made for the final turning mark into the harbour and on to the finish.

Joachim Isler and Andrew Taylor’s Mills 41 Ambush was the first boat to cross the line back at Kellett Island at 1341hrs, followed by Tiffany & Jeremy Koo’s Ker 42 Custom Seawolf 2 and Helmuth Hennig and

the Island Race 2021

David Kong’s Mills 41 Quest. Brian Tsang’s Hobie 16 Curry crossed the finishing line in 8th Place, with the first Class boat to finish being Frank Van Kempen’s Etchells King of the Pin.

Line Honours and ATI 2nd overall winner, Joachim Isler and Andrew Taylor, co-skippers of Ambush described it as one of the best years in terms of wind conditions for the Around the Island Race. “It’s our first Line Honours for the ATIR. We almost didn’t stop at all save for some 40-odd seconds which is a big difference from last years’ experience. We benefitted by using our Code 0 down past Shek O and our crew did a great job changing from the Code 0 to spinnaker. Ambush had a great run from Lei Yue Mun to Cape D’Aguilar and also from Cape D’Aguilar to Ap Lei Chau and we had a good battle with Seawolf 2 all the way at the south side.”

Race Officer Dave Norton echoed similar sentiments, agreeing that this had been one of the best Around the Island Races for many years: “almost 95% of the fleet finished the full circumnavigation and there were boats from each of the classes finishing before 1600hrs, so the great conditions made it an easy decision for the Race Management team to run the full circumnavigation. It was a splendid day with beautiful weather, except the strong tide at the last leg in the Harbour approaching the finishing line. Even though we didn’t quite hit the race record set in 2013, it was a fantastic day!”

This year ATI overall winner prize was taken by female helmsman Janet Lau on board Dexter II. Dexter II was the 16th boat crossing KI finishing line, they took the ATI overall grand prize with a corrected time or 4h31m28s, just 90 seconds ahead of Ambush. Janet Lau said she was thrilled to win as a ‘lady helm’ boat. “The weather conditions were fantastic and suitable for us; we basically had the momentum during the whole course this year. Although we had our game plan before the start, coping with the wind direction and strength changes during the race was crucial. The critical leg was from Ap Lei Chau to Sandy Bay and then Green Island. The wind dropped and started to swing forth and back (as usual). We had repeatedly interchanged between the spinnaker and jib to keep us in the breeze and advance. Thanks to my highly adaptable crews! Staying on the Kowloon side until we reached the lay line was a key add-on to closing the gap between the boats at the front and us. I have to say, we were lucky to have things worked out smoothly!”

Patrick Pender took ATIR 3rd Overall in only the second regatta with his new boat VX One Serendipity. When asked what the magic was to their good performance, Patrick said “In essence there are no secrets to the results – the conditions have definitely favoured the boat so far. I don’t think there is any real magic it comes down to planning and preparation. “I’ve been away from racing for almost 3 years and as a team, we try very hard to stick to discipline, to the process of

preparation, having a strategy that we think we can execute and being disciplined to stick to the plan.”

Patrick gives a lot of credit for the results to his crew, Dion Houghton, Nathan Pender and Andy Service adding “we are improving every time we go out and molding together as a great crew”.

“In the Around the Island Race, we had a clear strategy to exit the harbour, get across to Shek O, through the Beaufort Channel and on to Stanley. We were coming off a huge high from a very fast sail through Beaufort channel and unfortunately, we got caught in the hole in Pok Fu Lam, which proved costly. Going into the harbour we didn’t get it quite right and the bigger boats, including Ambush and Dexter II sailed a very good beat to take the top two places on corrected. Congratulations to both teams!”

This year Lazy Piggy was definitely not the laziest boat in this race, they were leading the whole fleet crossing Stanley gate and Cyberport gate until being overtaken by other IRC boats on their way to Green Island, eventually Lazy Piggy took the 1st overall in HKPN division. Germaine Lam, crew of Lazy Piggy mentioned their key move was the

Clean Regatta

IMAGES: BENNY WONG AND ASTON LAW Sun Hung Kai & Co. Around the Island Race 2021 is a designated Clean Regatta by Sailors for the Sea. Thank you to all our dedicated sailors who used recyclable water-bottles, cups and containers at this event. We are well on our way towards ultimately eliminating the use of single-use plastic water bottles in Hong Kong.

intensive tacks for the early lead, “Our captain Jimmy made some great calls, worked out how to get through Victoria Harbour with 10+ short and intense tacks, which really worked well for us. Our crew also focused hard, tried their best to be as quick, smooth and as efficient as possible with each tack. Everyone’s effort helped gaining momentum and speed, and as we approached Lei Yu Mun we soon built up something of a lead, whilst the rest of the fleet was rather condensed behind.

Germaine further noted, “unfortunately we struggled a bit with wind as we arrived Ap Lei Chau/Cyberport and that’s when some of the bigger boats from IRC went ahead of us. However things went back normal as we made our turn outside Green Island. Overall Lazy Piggy sailed well, the boat went well, the crew work was phenomenal, most importantly our captain was impressed!”

The smallest boats this year were four single-handed dinghies which included one Laser Standard sailed by Dad Giles Surman and three RS Aero 7 sailed by his sons Felix and Otto and the defending RS Aero 7 champion Stefan Lecher. Giles is no stranger to Around the Island Race since he joined the circumnavigation 10 times in dinghies, but this time it was an obvious competition between this proud dad and his young and energetic 16 and 18 year old boys for the bragging rights at the dinner table at home. “The boys cannot wait to beat me, we have Stefan to join us and we are all trying to beat each other, but for tiny boat like this, if we could sail around the island still surviving in one piece, that’s a victory!” said Giles ahead of the race. Finally Otto Surman crossed the finishing line 1min33s ahead of his dad taking the prize of Fastest Dinghy Elapsed and RS Aero 7 winner but Giles won his bragging rights with handicap.

Janet Lau and Patrick Pender both expressed gratitude to the Club and sponsors, Janet Lau noted, “We are lucky to have Sun Hung Kai & Co., the supportive title sponsor of the event, let us have a fun event. RHKYC hosts the annual biggest inshore event and has supported local sailors for decades.” Patrick Pender added “I would like to thank the crew, sponsors, and importantly the race management team and all of the volunteers. There are many many people who gave up their time to be part of the race management team in Around The Island Race, the organisation from the briefing to the race itself was first class and very well managed – appearing seamless. It is only possible due to the hard work of many, which I know all of us, as participants are very thankful for.”

It was an incredible day out for the Sun Hung Kai & Co. Around the Island Race, with a rainbow display visible all around Hong Kong Island throughout the day! We would like to extend a huge thank you to our Naming Sponsor Sun Hung Kai & Co, who have come on board as title sponsor of the event for the next 3 years. We would also like to extend our sincerest thank you to returning Supporting Sponsor St James’s Place, as well as partners Maui Jim and Peroni. Our events continue to get bigger and better with the support from our loyal sponsors, and we look forward to welcoming them again!

Sun Hung Kai & Co. Around the Island Race requires an enormous pool of volunteers without whom it could not take place – the Club would like to thank the race management team of PRO David Norton and ARO Inge Strompf-Jepsen with Bonnie Cheng and Fiona Gregor, Cyberport Gate RO Elberti Uiterwaal-Postma with Anna Gates, Mariken van Ommeren, Stella Hui and Victor Yung, Stanley Gate RO Sara Houghton with Caroline Haseke, Damien Massingham, Peter Boczar and Tina Over, Starter’s Box and Inner Line RO Ian Fleming and his shore assistants Adrienne Walder, Gina Littlefair and Tina Atkinson. The safety team was flat out from pre-start to post-finish and a huge thank you goes to Safety Officer Barry Truhol with Andy Wong, Anurag Grover, Baden Wong, Calle Krokstäde, Charlie Streeter, Clayton Yu, Dominick Hardoon, Ernest Wong, Gigi Shui, Howie Suen, Hung Gor, Keith Man, Ken Tsang, Niclas Rydin, Oscar Hemberg, Patrick Sheriff, Paul Oen, Philip Lee, Rimmy Cheng, Robert Rogers, Sophie Colfer, Steve Wordsworth, Sukrit Dewan, Tommy Chan, Tony Price, Victor Tsien and William Fung.