Nations’ Cup 2021

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

Often referred to as sailing’s answer to the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens, the Nations’ Cup is arguably one of the Club’s most fun events. This year, a record number of 94 boats from 19 nations (well, 20 if including the Galactic Empire!) turned out on 25 April. Not surprisingly there were 40 boats representing Hong Kong, with the second largest participating nation being England with 17 entries.

he Nations’ Cup is without doubt the most colourful event of the year with crews turning out in national dress and other fun costumes. The customary celebratory dress reached new heights this year as some boats even had decorated sails and were dressed up in flags. The allAmerican Team on board Ruffian Scallywag turned out as cheerleaders, the ladies resplendent in their team uniform complete with silver pom poms, wowed the crowd with impromptu splits stunts performed by their foredeck crew! Ruffian Hombre were dazzling, with the crew wearing handmade cheongsams with matching cloth face masks, showing off their oriental aesthetics. Skipper Cathy Lam noted “our cheongsams are made of stretch fabric therefore we could still perform our sailing functions.” Another group of all-female sailors aboard of Skellum dressed as Mulan, a symbolic female character representing courage and confidence. “Dressing as Mulan reminded us female sailors are not in any way inferior to men and we can also pursue the dream of sailing” said Kat Chan, Skellum skipper.

Receiving a warm round of applause from fellow sailors on the pontoon as she slipped her moorings, the crew of J/80 J Chi cross-dressed as Her Majesty The Queen with Royal family members; continuing the traditional fixation amongst British sailors with the British Royal family. British Flying 15 sailor Nick Atkinson even renamed his boat for the event to Coweslip UFA while dressing as Prince Philip, in tribute to the recent passing of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The Prince was a life Patron of the UK Flying Fifteen Class Association and the Flying Fifteen Coweslip – was a gift to Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip on the occasion of their marriage in 1949.

Representing the United Nations, the race management team was fully prepared for the occasion, the team dressed in Club smocks, each smock with a nautical flag printed on the back, spelling out ‘Nations’ Cup.’

Sailors were greeted with around 10kts of easterly breeze at the Club start line. Split into five starts based on their ratings, the HKPN rated entries were the first to start at 1145hrs. The Nations’ Cup is a rare opportunity each year for sailors and colleagues from the same nation to sail and race together. Race Officer Inge Strompf-Jepsen set a course that was easy to handle for teams who are not used to sailing together. The fleet was sent to Junk Bay, rounding TCS4, then back to Hung Hom, upwind back to Tai Koo Shing before heading back to the Club finish line.

Joachim Isler, skipper of Das Busch (Ambush) managed to gather 11 German sailors from various boats while retaining one regular sailor from his usual crew to form a national team – and on his birthday no less. William Wolfram also sailing in the Big Boat division, wasn’t so lucky, only managing to find one additional Finnish sailor to join him, Orca sailing very short handed for the race. There were plenty of local sailors to choose from, however James Dagge decided to represent Hong Kong as a one-man nation, sailing solo in his Mini Transat Blue One.

The youngest crew of the day was Emelie Backe, the 4-year-old joining her father Peter on board Flying 15 Flygande Faran representing their homeland Sweden. The turnout of female crew this year is also growing, the inclusion of four all-female sailing teams brightened up the event.

Race officer Inge Strompf-Jepsen was pleased with the sailing conditions, “Wind and tide were co-operating. All classes were sailing the same course which makes it more interesting. The fastest boat sailed for 1 hour 40 minutes and slowest about 4 hours, so I was very happy, as it seems all the sailors are as well judging by the mood when we came ashore.”

In the end Mark Thornburrow’s Racer X representing Hong Kong was crowned top nation for the second time in the history of the Nations’ Cup, he also snagged the most important bragging rights of having the Hong Kong flag displayed in the Main Bar until next year’s event. In second place was Ireland followed by England in third.

Nations’ Cup 2021 – Results

NAME OF BOAT SAIL NO. TYPE NATION SKIPPER/ PIC RATING START FINISH ELAPSED CORRECTED POS

Racer X Noddy Gunga Din Dynamite Dragonfly 1406 Etchells Hong Kong Mark Thornburrow 0.951 12:35:00 14:53:42 2:18:42 2:11:54 1 1393 Etchells Ireland Jamie McWilliam 0.951 12:35:00 14:55:37 2:20:37 2:13:44 2

1243 Etchells England Nick Burns 0.951 12:35:00 14:56:22 2:21:22 2:14:26 3

1339 Etchells England Richard Allen

0.951 12:35:00 14:56:37 2:21:37 2:14:41 59 Dragon Netherlands Bram van Olphen 0.824 12:20:00 15:03:52 2:43:52 2:15:02 4

Impala 1

9546 Impala Scotland Mike Burrell Les Freaks Eroi Azzurri 1428 Etchells Italy Marco Pocci 0.876 12:20:00 14:54:35 2:34:35 2:15:25 5 0.951 12:35:00 14:58:08 2:23:08 2:16:07 6

HKPN

Kyte 1292 Big Boat France Hugues de Saint Germain 1377 11:50:00 14:40:22 2:50:22 2:03:43 1

The Club would like to extend a huge thank you Peroni, Absolute, Beefeater Gin & Havana Club. It has certainly been a unique time to be a sponsor, and we really appreciate their support despite ongoing restrictions. Their continued support has enabled our events to grow and become more exceptional each year and we can’t wait to be able to celebrate each race like we used to soon. A big thank you to our ‘United Nation’s’ race management team: Race officer Inge Strompf-Jepsen, ARO Lucy Sutro and the team Bonnie Cheng, Elberti Uiterwaal-Postma, Fiona Gregor, Lindsay Lyons , Sheila Chan, Ivy Norton and safety team Barry Truhol, Steve Wordsworth and Niclas Rydin. See you next year!

The coloration topic in recycling

A big part in regeneration (recycling) is color. It is important to understand that as a consumer you probably do not think twice about buying a white pair of sneakers or T-shirt. Nowadays you may even expect or demand the items to be made from recycled material as well!

But when recycling raw materials, something we at Agiplast are all too excited about for many years, keep in mind the following; the process of recycling raw material in white or transparent is possible but the quantity of available natural colored scraps is less compared to the availability of black/ mixed colors.

So, let’s dive into the details here. When you have a selection of material ready to be recycled, often these are mixed color scraps. All the colors of the rainbow. We visualize this in a colorwheel, when you mix all the colors of the rainbow you end up with… BLACK!

A few of the many steps in regeneration; • Collection, global scale • Sorting as much as possible by color & type, near white scraps get sorted with each other to process as Natural colors. All

remaining mix. Resulting in a vast majority of black end-product. • Grinding of all scraps • Cleaning stages, in order to prepare the scraps for formulation • Demetalization, sorting metal pollution not compatible with plastic production. • Compound a good as new material for further use via injection or extrusion.

If we all understand the process better, we can allow a circular economy to thrive faster and more efficient.

Especially on Design levels this can be incorporated by using Black materials in more creative ways. Think about spotting, shining effect, bright accents! Many big brands today are developing these forward thinking approaches on colorways and use of Black in better ways. We salute them and love working with them. This is the way forward to a more circular economy.

We do our best by making sure where we can…we share this.

BLACK is the new GREEN!

Mix all the colors of the rainbow you end up with…BLACK!