Ladies Helm

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

Originally held a few days before International Women’s Day, Ladies Helm was postponed to 29 May due to the pandemic situation. 54 lady helms competed in the waters of Victoria Harbour across a fleet comprising of nine classes including Big Boats, Dragons, Etchells, Flying Fifteens, Impalas, J/80s, Pandoras, Ruffians and Sportsboats.

Ladies Helm aims to encourage more women to not only participate in sailing but to take on the role of helm. The event also encourages female sailors of all experience levels to take part, with no restrictions on the rest of the crew’s gender or in fact gender ratio, the only requirement being that the helm must be female.

Each class of boat were originally set two races. The first race of the day started in a mild south-westerly breeze with soaring temperature. The long course fleets (Big Boats, J/80s, Sportsboats, Etchells and Impalas) were sent on southerly course which sailed 2.5 to 2 laps between Tin Hau and Kowloon Bay while all the short course boats sailed 1.5-1

laps between Tin Hau and Kowloon Bay. Unfortunately, the wind dropped significantly at the end of start sequence and the fleets parked up at North Point and Hung Hom under a baking hot sun, leading the Race Officer to shorten the course at Kowloon Bay. The wind completely died out during the start sequence for Race 2, and Race Officer David Norton announced, “No more racing, please go home and find your way to main bar.”, receiving applause from the sailors. David said of the racing “…there were challenging conditions today with a huge tide. We started in 6-8kts with gust up to 12kts, but it was very patchy and very light around PWD, so it was a real challenging race, it would have been a lot easier if the wind was more stable.”

Big Boat 1st place – Alpha+ – Emily Randall Dragon 1st place – Davinloong – Jessica Chan

Dragon 2nd place – Zephyr – Alix Nguyen Etchells 1st place – Racer X2 – Bo Lee

Flying Fifteens 1st place – Niffty – Edith Fernandez Impalas 1st place – Rainbow Chaser – Myra Kwok

J/80 1st place – Footloose – Kandice Ng Pandoras 1st place – Pasisana – Yan Law

Ruffians 1st place – Victory 9 – Bonnie Cheng Sportsboats 1st place – Phoenix – Kit Tong

The youngest ladies helm in the entire race was 7-year-old Optimist sailor Alix Nguyen, competing her first yacht race on board Dragon Zephyr with her Dad, Tam. She said she felt a bit nervous and excited to helm and race on a much bigger boat. Ahead of racing Alix said “Dad, you are listening to me today” to which he replied “yes, just today”. Alix took second place in the Dragon fleet.

Alix’s sister Margaux also took second place in last year Ladies Helm in the Dragon fleet, their proud father Tam is keen on nurturing both of his daughters to yacht race, he said “I want to bring them to try something different from Optimist sailing, now that they can understand how sailing works, it could be exciting to sail with spinnaker and with crews. They are now really enjoying sailing, I don’t even have to ask them to come, so they are motivated to sail with us. Next year I am trying to take both daughters to race on Dragon together.”

April Yam, skipper of Impala Also Can, had been sailing as foredeck crew for 6 years, she was helming this year with the help of a group of experienced sailors. “I think female sailors give more attention to detail and that can benefit the whole team.” April said, glad to see more female participating in sailing. “I can see increasing numbers of female sailors, in both dinghies and class boats”.

Congratulations to all the female helms taking part in the race with particular mention of the winning helms – Tina Yu and Emily Randall on Alpha+ taking the Big Boats, Jessica Chan, Davinloong, in the Dragon fleet, Bo Lee, Racer X2, for the Etchells, Edith Fernandez, Niffty, for the Flying Fifteens, Myra Kwok, Rainbow Chaser, on the Impalas, Kandice Ng, Footloose for J/80s, Yan Law, Pasisana, for the Pandoras, and Bonnie Cheng, Victory 9, for the Ruffians and Kit Tong, Phoenix for the Sportsboats.

Ladies Helm 2022 – Results

Big Boat Alpha+ Tina Yu/Emily Randall Dragon Davinloong Jessica Chan Etchelles Racer X2 Bo Lee Flying 15 Niffty Edith Fernandez Impala Rainbow Chaser Myra Kwok J/80 Footloose Kandice Ng Pandora Pasisana Yan Law Ruffian Victory 9 Bonnie Cheng Sportsboat Phoenix Kit Tong

With thanks to our volunteers including Race Office David Norton, ARO Elberti Uiterwaal-Postma and their team of Andrew Chan, Andrea Fraser, Bill Wong, Jason Lam, Larry Salibra, Rebecca Chen. On the safety team: Niclas Rydin and Paul Oen. As we continue to empower women in the sport of sailing through events like Ladies Helm, we must say a huge thank you to our sponsors and partners for their support. Thank you to our supporting sponsors, St James’s Place and One Global Property Services who continue to be valued and loyal supporters to the event. We are also grateful to our Partner Peroni, who keep the event fun and enjoyable with after-race drinks.

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