Rear Commodore—Sailing

BRIDGET CHAN

Rear Commodore—Sailing This summer is much hotter than usual. Despite the impact of the COVID prevention and control measures, our Sailing Centre is still as busy as always in July and August. We have summer camps every week and yacht racing every weekend.

Due to Hong Kong’s strict quarantine policies and a recent wave of migration, there was a sharp drop in participants in this year’s Summer Saturday Series and Typhoon Series by nearly a quarter compared to last year. It appears this is not just our Club that has encountered this phenomenon. The participation of Nations Cup held by RHKYC in April also dropped from 94 boats last year to 59 boats this year, a drop of 37%! Of course, it was not ruled out that bad weather also affected the participation. But in general we are all facing the problem of losing sailors in Hong Kong.

This year marks the 25th Anniversary of the Establishment of the HKSAR. Under the facilitation of the Hong Kong Sailing Federation (HKSF), the HKSAR 25 Anniversary Sailing Cup, hosted by the three main Yacht Clubs in Hong Kong, successfully concluded at the end of June. This event attracted more than 140 entries exceeding our goal of 100, with an average of 73 sailboats showing up in each race over three consecutive weekends. On the last race day which was hosted by our Club—and was incorporated with our Typhoon Series Race 2—we had 92 boats turn out at the starting line. This is an all-time high for our Club! For this race, in consideration of boats of different racing experience, we have specially designed a safe and scenic course by sending the boats sailing around the Ninepin Islands, then back to Bluff Island and finishing at Little Palm Beach. This course was generally appreciated by most of participants. We had teams excited to tell us they did not expect to finish this course. The pre-race shore celebration and the race itself was made possible by mobilising many staff and volunteers to get involved—a huge thanks to them for all their efforts in making it happen.

Going into September and October, our Club will play host to several big sailing events: the Steering the Course – the global women’s sailing festival, Hong Kong Match Racing Nationals, Port Shelter Regatta and the 24 Hour Charity Dinghy Race.

Steering the Course – the global women’s sailing festival Last year was the first time of our Club partnered with Sailability Hong Kong to support this World Sailing initiative to help increase participation by women and girls in the sport of sailing. Last year’s event, chaired by Juliet Ashton, saw the 10day festival integrated with our ever-popular HHYC Open Dinghy Regatta in addition to a variety of activities including dinghy, kayak and paddleboard taster sessions; trips on a cruising catamaran; seminars and an inter-club ladies/girls regatta.

This year the festival will run from September 30 to 9 October. Hong Kong Match Racing Nationals (October 1, 2 and 4) and Port Shelter Regatta (October 8 and 9) will also be integrated into this festival. The main day Steering the Course – the global women’s sailing festival on Wednesday, October 5, will include running a race management training, organising a mini J/80 race, and sailing on Sailability Hong Kong’s brand new 40 Solaris keelboat Mo Han.

Ladies, girls, men and boys don’t miss this!

今個暑假比平常炎熱。雖然仍受 COVID 控管措施影響，我們的航海訓練中心在 7 月 及 8 月依舊繁忙。我們每週舉辦夏令營和每週末都有帆船賽。 由於香港嚴格的防疫政策以及最近的移民潮，今年週六夏季系列賽及颱風盃帆船 系列賽的參加者比去年減少了近四分之一。而這看來不只是我們遊艇會遇到的狀 況。今年 4 月香港遊艇會 (RHKYC) 主辦的國家杯參賽船隻也從去年的 94 艘減少至 今年的 59 艘，大幅減少了37%！當然，也不排除惡劣天氣亦對參加率產生影響。但 總括來說，我們都正面臨香港航員流失的問題。

今年是香港特別行政區成立 25 週年。在香港帆船運動總會 (HKSF) 的協助下，由香 港 3 大遊艇會主辦的香港特別行政區25周年回歸帆船賽已於六月底圓滿結束。這 項賽事吸引了超過 140 位參賽者參賽，高於我們的目標參賽數字100，連續三個週 末每場賽事平均有 73 艘船隻參賽。在最後一個比賽日，由我們的遊艇會主辦，並與 我們的颱風盃帆船系列賽 2 合併，總共有92艘船隻出現在起跑線。這是我們遊艇會 有史以來的最高紀錄！爲了這次比賽，考慮到不同船隻的參賽經驗，我們特別設計 了安全而風景優美的賽道，讓賽艇繞過九針群島，返回沙塘口山，並於小棕林海灘 結束比賽。這條賽道獲大多數參賽者的讚賞。有些團隊興奮地告訴我們，他們原以 為無法完成這條賽道。賽前的岸些慶祝活動以及賽事本身，就是動員多位職員和義 工參與才得以實現——在此感謝他們爲實現這目標所作的一切努力。

本會將於 9 月及 10 月舉辦多項大型帆船賽事，包括 Steering the Course——全球 女子帆船運動節、全港對抗賽、牛尾海帆船賽及 24 小時慈善小艇賽。

Steering the Course——全球女子帆船運動節 去年是本會與香港航能首次合作支持這項世界帆船推廣活動，以幫助婦女和女孩 參與帆船運動。去年的活動由 Juliet Ashton 主持，爲期十天的運動節與本港最受 歡迎的香沙灣公開小帆船大賽結合，除了各種活動如小帆船、獨木舟和槳板試乘體 驗； 乘坐巡航雙體船航行； 研討會和遊艇會之間的女子帆船賽。

今年的運動節將於 9 月 30 日至 10 月 9 日舉行。全港對抗賽（10 月 1 日、2 日和 4 日）和牛尾海帆船賽（10 月 8 日和 9 日）也將納入這個運動節。10 月 5 日（星期三） 舉行的 Steering the Course——全球女子帆船運動節將包括舉辦賽事管理訓練、 舉辦小型 J/80 賽艇比賽，以及乘坐香港航能全新的 40 Solaris 帆船「無限號」起 航。

男女老少切勿錯過！