Commodore’s Message To paraphrase Baron Pierre de Coubertin, what is important is to participate. And participate she will! During last month’s Mussanah Open Champs in Oman, Stephanie Norton finished third in the Laser Radial Class and in doing so secured a spot for Hong Kong in the Tokyo Olympics!
Commodore Denis Martinet
會長孟憲庭
Let’s us not forget proud parents David and Ivy Norton, who must be thrilled to bits. I know for a fact that the Cuvee du Commodore was flowing hard in the Sailing office! Understandably the Club is equally proud – and so we should be. It does raise however the question of what, if anything, can we do more as a Club to nurture, encourage and develop competitive sailing. There has been a number of recent initiatives, most notably our foray with RHKYC Team Agiplast, initially for the Youth America’s cup, which morphed into a new event the Liberty Bitcoin Cup! These opening efforts will need to be reviewed to ensure we develop a vision and structure adapted to support this and other endeavours going forward. Moreover whilst youth sailing is important on a number of levels, we should not forget, as was recently pointed out, that excellence should be pursued at every level. The quality of any Club is foremost recognised by the eminence of all its sailors, rowers and paddlers. And as May coincides with the end of our sailing calendar, it should leave us some time to ponder and plan. May is also our HSBC Expat Spring Regatta on 22 and 23 May, followed shortly thereafter by the much welcome and popular St. James’s Place Sunset Series which runs for 12 consecutive Friday’s throughout the summer starting on 4 June. We expect the record of 60 odd boats on the water to be broken! On the rowing front, congratulations to all those who competed in the 5th Harbour Regatta back on Sunday 11 April. The event was an incredible success and I would like to offer my thanks to all those sailing, rowing and paddle sport members who volunteered and made this event possible. There were even some great recordings made of boats rowing at night in the harbour! On to more prosaic matters, a final reminder that the Club’s 2021 Electoral General Meeting will take place on Thursday, 10 June at 1830hrs in the Compass Room. There are eight posts on General Committee for which elections are necessary –Rear Commodore (Club), Rear Commodore (Sailing), Honorary Treasurer and Rowing Captain and four General Committee positions. You will have received from the Nominating Committee a list of candidates it is putting forward. Making abstraction of the Officers, who by and large are well known to you, as chairman of the Nominating Committee (NomCom), I would like to draw your attention to the two candidates for General Committee. Our main objective this year has been to search for youthfulness, diversity and personal contribution. Youthfulness to present a more dynamic and progressive outlook in keeping with our changing environment and membership trends; diversity to achieve wider representation in our elected bodies and personal contribution as a mark of active and selfless participation in the Club’s core sporting activities. These are qualities that NomCom have found in abundance in both Stephanie Tovoli and Anthony Ngai. Accordingly the Nominating Committee is pleased to put them forward for your kind support. On a final note, we have been informed that restrictions placed on our facilities could be eased concurrently with an increase in both staff and members’ vaccination. Although this remains very much a personal decision, we are having an internal drive to encourage our staff to get vaccinated, wat the same time most if not all of your General Committee has now gone or is going through the process! As with Henri IV who is believed to have said “Paris is worth a mass” then a return to normalcy might be worth a little prick! Meanwhile have fun on and off the water!
MAY 2021 AHOY! |
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The Bridge
This is an incredible achievement for Stephanie. Through her dedication and hard work, Stephanie has become an incredible ambassador and role model for sailing, for Hong Kong and for youth sailors generally! Her qualification also helps secure sailing’s status as an elite sport in Hong Kong which is crucial to the development of elite sailors. I would be remiss in failing to acknowledge the other members of the Hong Kong sailing team who were extremely close to also qualifying – 49er sailors Akira Sakai and Russell Aylsworth (silver), Nancy Highfield in the Radials finished 7th overall and her sister Molly Highfield with Sandy Choi as crew finished 2nd also winning silver in the 49er FX class. Nicholas Bezy also put in a really strong performance in the most competitive Laser Standard class. These achievements are also a significant feather in the cap of the Hong Kong Sports Institute and their Director for Performance, Jamie Boag.
