HKSAR 25th Anniversary Sailing Cup @ Hebe Haven Yacht Club

The third and final race of the HKSAR 25th Anniversary Sailing Cup was hosted by the Hebe Haven Yacht Club on Saturday, the 25th of June 2022.

Glorious sailing conditions saw 92 boats excited to enjoy the blue skies and a steady 11-knot south-southwester breeze. The course saw the various fleets beating out to the South Nine Pins across to East Nine Pins followed by a run to Bluff, a reach to Table before finishing at Little Palm Beach, a total of 15 nautical miles.

Organised by the Hong Kong Sailing Federation the HKSAR 25th Anniversary Sailing Cup comprised three races organised by the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club (Saturday 11 June 2022), the Aberdeen Boat Club (Sunday 19 June 2022), and the Hebe Haven Yacht Club (Saturday 25 June 2022).

HKSAR 25th Anniversary Sailing Cup Results

HKPN Handicap System (70 Entries)
1: HKG201 – Minnie the Moocher (18.21)
2: HKG2569 – Triple A (21.75)
3: HKG2092 – Pepper and Salt (25.90)

IRC/HKATI Handicap System (23 Entries)
1: HKG2559 – Juice (21.3)
2: HKG2283 – Freefire (22.9)
3: HKG696 – Team Victory (36.8)

More photos, by Takumi Photography, can be found here

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images: Pandaman, Takumi photography

Stephanie Norton Makes History

Congratulation to local sailor Stephanie Norton who in finishing third at Mussanah Open Championships in Oman made HK Sailing history by qualifying in the Laser Radial class for the Tokyo Olympics!

Norton is the first female dinghy sailor from Hong Kong to reach the Olympics via a competitive route since stricter qualification rules were implemented after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Photo RHKYC/Guy Nowell

Eight Bells: Bertie de Speville

Bertrand de Speville, 78 years, passed away March 30 after a long battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife Carol and children Guy and Clare.

Bertie was a key figure in sailing in Hong Kong in the late 1980s and 1990s. He was president of the Hong Kong Yachting Association (HKYA, now the Hong Kong Sailing Federation) from 1992-1995 and was largely responsible for creating the organizational structure in use today.

He was manager of the Hong Kong Olympic sailing teams which went to Seoul 1988, and Atlanta 1996, where HK windsurfer Lee Lai San won Hong Kong’s first and only gold medal in Olympic history.

Bertie was an active and popular International Judge and Umpire, officiating at many major sailing events, including the Olympic Games and America’s Cup. His quick legal mind was always effective in resolving rules questions, at ISAF (World Sailing) or at local regattas. He retired from Umpiring, and then from Judging some years ago, but returned to Hong Kong to serve as a jury member at the Flying Fifteen Worlds in 2013.

Bertie’s original family home was in Mauritius and he spent time in Africa and the UK before coming to Hong Kong to work in the Solicitor General’s office, becoming Solicitor General in 1991. In 1993, he was appointed as the head of the Independent Commission Against Corruption which he led until the handover after which he retired to the UK. He continued working in the anti-corruption area, providing advice to countries in Eastern Europe and Africa, in spite of his illness.

He sailed keenly in England, team racing with the ’Castaways’ while at London University. He arrived in Hong Kong with a red wooden Flying Fifteen, which did not survive the climate for long, but soon his new FF ‘Fflocci’ was regularly showing the fleet how to do it!

His common sense, good humour, and friendly personality will be dearly missed.

International Cruise and Yachting Festival

The first International Cruise and Yachting Festival in Hong Kong is scheduled to be held from 22-25 November in Victoria Harbour. The festival aims to bring together global cruise and yacht brands and boats in an event that features Cruising and Yachting, Maritime Lifestyle, Marine and Leisure Tourism, as well as Education and Employment.

The ICYF also hopes to promote public understanding of Hong Kong’s waters and the sustainable development of the industry in the south China region.

International Cruise and Yachting Festival
Date:
 22-25 November, 2018
Venue: Victoria Harbour, China Merchants Wharf (Kennedy Town)
Tickets: free

Team Scallywag Arrive in Itajaí

Scallywag finally pulled up to the dock at the bustling Itajaí Race Village at mid-afternoon on Thursday, completing its delivery trip from the west coast of Chile.

The boat made landfall in Chile after retiring from Leg 7 following the death of crew member John Fisher who was lost overboard in the Southern Ocean, with a delivery crew taking on the task of getting the boat to Itajaí.

Now the team is in a race against time to be ready for the Leg 8 to Newport, Rhode Island on Sunday afternoon.

Neil Cox, the Head of the Boatyard, says he has his full team ready to work around the clock to get Scallywag on the start line, but he cautions that certain processes can’t be shortcut.

“We have the entire Boatyard workforce dedicated to working on that boat,” Cox said. “We’ve also kept suppliers on site to help us with certain tasks.

“Following the Southern Ocean legs, we’re giving the rigs a thorough check with the help of Southern Spars. Any carbon work that has to be done takes a certain amount of time to ‘cook’ and that process can’t be shortened.

“Our goal within the boatyard is to get through the mandated service work that each boat goes through in this stopover and to complete any other repairs within the time it takes to get the rig ready. If everything goes well, they’ll be on the start line on Sunday, but we are at the point now where every hour counts.”

For the Scallywag crew, the race against the clock has seen an outpouring of goodwill from their competitors who are lending a hand, where necessary, to help them get to the start.

Some of the other teams have offered to help us pull our mast out,” said sailor Trystan Seal. “So the support we’re getting is petty impressive. It’s a tight timeline for us to get to the start, but everyone is on our side and trying to help us as much as possible.”

“It’s amazing how much help we’ve been offered by the other teams,” said Annemeike Bes. “It’s a great feeling that so many people are supporting us.

“We’re in a race and we’re competitive and we all want to win, but at times like this it’s more like a family taking care of each other, and that’s awesome.”

Additional reporting: Volvo Ocean Race
Images: Jeremie Lecaudey/Volvo Ocean Race

Mapfre Leads Volvo Fleet Out of Auckland

It was a spectacular start to Leg 7 of the Volvo Ocean Race. The sun was out, the wind near 20 knots as the fleet left Auckland for Brazil in beautiful sailing conditions.

The Kiwi spectator armada consisted of foiling kite-boards, windsurfers, stand-up paddleboards, kayaks, dinghies, as well as hundreds of power and sail boats, along with the former Whitbread Round the World Race winner, Steinlager 2.

It was MAPFRE, the overall race leader, who made the best start to lead the fleet around a loop of the Waitematā Harbour and out into the Hauraki Gulf, with Dongfeng, Team Brunel and Turn the Tide on Plastic in close and giving chase.

Watch a replay of the start here

In a return to the heritage of the event, Leg 7 of the Volvo Ocean Race will take the teams on a 7,600 nautical mile journey into the Southern Ocean, and around the iconic Cape Horn, before returning to the Atlantic Ocean towards the finish in Itajaí, Brazil.

“100% of the sailors that have done this leg have at one moment said it is too hard or too tough,” said Charles Caudrelier, the skipper of Dongfeng Race Team. “But when you pass Cape Horn you have a huge feeling of pride that you have faced your fears.”

“We’re going into one of the more gruelling legs of the race,” added Brunel’s Peter Burling, a hero in New Zealand for bringing the America’s Cup home last summer.

“The biggest challenge is the endurance aspect, having to keep the intensity high through some very difficult conditions… It’s going to be pretty tough for any of us Kiwis to leave here, but we’re all pretty excited to get into it.”

The initial Ice Exclusion Zone will allow the teams to sail as far south as 59-degrees south latitude, well into the ‘Furious Fifties’, where wind and waves circle the planet unimpeded by land, allowing them to build to fearsome levels. It will be very cold that far south, and the routing will take the fleet to the most remote part of the world, Point Nemo, where the international space station is closer than any point of land.

There is a balance to be struck on this leg, between pushing the crew and equipment hard in the quest for victory, and ensuring the team is able to finish the leg at all.

“This is a part of the world where sometimes you have to forget about the race and just take care of the people and the boat,” noted Caudrelier. “It’s a special place, sailing in the South – the sea is bigger, the wind is stronger, so you need to be mindful.”

The teams are getting straight into it – after leaving the final turning mark, the forecast is for an upwind slog into a 30-knot easterly as they aim to clear the Coromandel Peninsula and then the East Cape of New Zealand, before turning south in search of the low pressure systems that will power them towards Cape Horn, some 11 days away.

“It’s going to be upwind and bumpy until East Cape,” said Vestas 11th Hour Racing navigator Simon Fisher. His team is returning to the race after retiring from Leg 4 and missing the leg into Auckland while repairing damage to their hull.

“Going around Cape Horn represents a real milestone in the race. It’s a big thing to get around the Horn and it’s a moment of celebration for everyone on board as it means the end of the Southern Ocean and back to the relative safety of the South Atlantic.

“But by no means is it a moment to relax as some of the biggest challenges of this leg can be found between Cape Horn and the finish in Itajaí.”

The initial ETA for the finish in Itajaí, Brazil is between April 4th and 6th.

Additional reporting and images: Volvo Ocean Race, Ainhoa Sanchez, Jesus Renedo