St. James’s Place 7th Harbour Regatta

WORDS:GARY MEACHAM | IMAGES: PANDA MAN

The St James Place 7th Harbour Regatta was held on Sunday 19 March in the harbour off Kellett Island. This event is a hybrid of fine rowing and coastal rowing, so it is a very unique event. It was a windy, chilly, miserable overcast day that presented the event with challenging conditions, which some crews had never experienced before. The whole day was brightened up and given a warm feel due to the standard of racing that we saw from the competing crews.

The event which took place on a 650m course saw the crews racing away from Kellett Island towards the Wanchai Star Ferry, making racing turns around two buoys before racing back to the start/finish line at Kellett Island. The event saw 72 crews taking part in 58, twoboat races between 0800hrs and 1700hrs. Of these crews, seven were from Mainland China, with the remainder being Hong Kong based. Despite the challenging conditions, thanks to everyone taking part, the whole event ran pretty well to time. This number of crews sees us running to our capacity with the event in its current format.

In the morning racing we saw eight races with verdicts of less than 10 seconds, including two of one second and one of two seconds. It is quite unusual to see so many close races in this event. The highlight of the morning racing was when in Race 3, William Vanbergen of RHKYC capsized his single scull and before anyone could react to the situation, he was back in the boat and racing, but unfortunately could not recover the deficit. Mention should also go to a young lady from EDU Hong Kong who found the conditions incredibly difficult, but she persevered and eventually managed to finish the course safely.

In the afternoon sessions, we saw another six races with verdicts inside of 10 seconds with two of these races being declared as one second. In the late afternoon, we saw 14 finals being raced, with five wins for RHKYC, three wins for Lantau Boat Club, two wins for YDP, two wins for City U Alumni, 1 win for a Poly U / City U composite crew and one win for Lok Tsui Rowing Club. The crews that competed in the Finals returned to the Boating Area to the sound of bagpipes which all added to the atmosphere of the event.

In the evening there was a Harbour Regatta Dinner held on the Main Law. This was mainly attended by the visiting crews from Mainland China, who found the whole event very different and despite the weather, incredibly enjoyable. They are already looking forwards to next year’s event.

Finally, I would like to remind everyone that these events would never happen and be successful without the many volunteers who assist on the day. Without mentioning any individuals, I would like to thank all the people who were volunteers in the lead up to the event and on the day.