One Global HKRNVR Memorial Vase with a Prizegiving!

With the ushering in of the new year, the 2023 One Global HKRNVR Memorial Vase was held on Saturday 7 January – this year finally offering up sailors the long-awaited opportunity to celebrate not only this historic race with great competition on the water, but also the resumption of prizegiving presentations returning after the long protracted Covid days. Sailors gathered at the Main Lawn in celebration, lifting the trophy right after the race.

boats turned out on Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour to compete in the event which is held in honour of the Hong Kong Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (HKRNVR); a defense force originally formed by members of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. The trophy was gifted in memory of all HKRNVR amateur sailors who engaged in regular patrol duties around the waters of Hong Kong to help ensure its security. The Deed of Gift contains the proviso that the race should take competitors into those waters once patrolled by the HKRNVR.

The day began with 8kts of easterly breeze at the start line area of Hung Hom. Race Officer Gareth Williams opted for a course of 8.1nm, sending the fleet upwind through Li Yue Mun gap, rounding TCS4 before returning into the eastern end of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, to satisfy the requirement of the HKRNVR Deed of Gift.

The objective of a pursuit race is to start the fastest boats last and then watch them catch the slower fleets. By the time the last two yachts – both TP52s had started, the first boat Pandora Solstice was making her way around the top mark at TCS4. The wind softened to 2kts in the Junk Bay area, consolidating the gap between the fleet, however after 20 minutes the breeze picked up again sending the fleet downwind into the harbour. Given the light conditions, Williams elected to shorten the course at Kowloon Bay.

Congratulations go to Mike Burrell and his crew aboard Impala 1 who chased down the leading group of Pandoras and Ruffians on the return leg to finish first. Ruffian Victory 9 finished only

17 seconds behind to take second place and Flying Fifteen French Fries took third.

The race was followed by the long-awaited return to prizegiving after a long hiatus dating back to late February 2020. Supported by title sponsor One Global and partner Peroni, Gareth Williams presented the top three prizes to Impala 1 (Mike Burrell), Victory 9 (Wan Kit Kot) and French Fries (Jun Komatsu) and the prizes for first Big Boat, first Inshore Keelboat and first Day Boat to Capitano (Andrew Taylor/ Denis Martinet), Taxi (Dennis Chien) and Kerfuffle (Carlyon Knight-Evans) respectively.

The One Global HKRNVR Memorial Vase is the third constituent event of the Top Dog Trophy Series which is designed to identify the most successful boat competing across various courses and conditions. Mike Burrell‘s Impala 1 is leading with a massive 18 points ahead of Henry Wong’s J80 Footloose. The final winner will be determined after the final event of the series, the One Global Tomes Cup will be run on 29 April.

The Club would like to thank the fabulous volunteers who ran the racing on the day, Race Officer Gareth Williams, ARO Sean Taylor,

Victor Tsien and his team of ever skillful assistants Carter Wong, Dawn Allen, Jacky Lam, Jennifer Kozel, Victor Yung, Victoria Elegant and safety team of Niclas Rydin and Peter Duigan.

After nearly 3 long years, we were thrilled to be able to host a prizegiving post-race. We must say a huge thank you to our Title Sponsor One Global Property Services and Partner Peroni, who through it all, maintained their support to the Club and our event. We truly appreciate their ongoing partnership with us and look forward to many more spectacular events together.