Sun Hung Kai & Co. Hong Kong Race Week 2025 - Day 1
by Vivian Ngan 14 Feb 00:39 NZDT
11-16 February 2025
The first day of Sun Hung Kai & Co. Hong Kong Race Week 2025 started with fair wind across three race tracks located in Repulse Bay, Stanley Bay and Po Toi.
For 2025 29er Asian Championship, Race Officer Dave Norton set the course outside Beaufort Channel, north of Castle Rock. Dave said" the day started with 7 to 8kts and the wind keeps on building up 10kts gusting up to 18kts, we had four good racing so far and it averaged out to be exactly spot on the target for 30 minutes. It was a really good day. "
19 boats participated in the third edition of the 29er Asian Championship, including the sole entry from the USA, Kevin Cason and Holland Vierling and the sole entry from Thailand, Patcharaphan Ongkaloy and Kan Kachachuen. Among the 17 home-grown Hong Kong, China teams, defending champion Tiffany Mak has now teamed up with younger brother Raphael and the sister and brother duo finished 1st overall in the recent Hong Kong 29er National Championship. They are racing against their rival teammates in Cameron Law / Christopher Lam and Louis Polson / Ethan Kiu.
At the end of the day, Tiffany Mak and Raphael Mak took three bullets staying comfortably in the lead, 7 points ahead of the Americans. The Thai sailors took 3rd place after count back.
The ILCA race area was located near Po Toi and Race Officer Elberti Uiterwaal Postma was happy about the conditions "the first few races were a little bit short, but I only saw happy faces and everybody said they loved the course. When the wind built up to 17kts, I decided to increase the course length for the last race. It was a good day."
All ILCA classes finished four races; one race ahead of the schedule. Charalampos Velianitis took 1st place in the ILCA 4, while Stephanie Norton came 1st in the ILCA 6 and Nicholas Halliday took four bullets staying strong in the ILCA 7.
At Stanley Bay, racing was delayed sequence half hour the 2.4mR, RS Feva, Optimist Intermediate and Main Fleets finished their first day of racing in 9 to 12kts of north easterly breeze.
Inge Strompf-Jepsen, Race Officer at Stanley Bay reported that "it was a bit tricky at Stanley Bay as the wind bended at Stanley but at the end we found steady wind at some locations to lay the course. We were one race ahead and looking good for tomorrow "
Thailand sailor Palin Jaroenpon came away with two bullets in the Optimist Main Fleet leading Chinese sailor Wenyu Cheng and Margaux Nguyen-Minh is in 3rd place. For the Optimist Intermediate fleet, Chinese sailor Shi Teng Huang was in 1st place at the end of Day 1.
In the RS Feva fleet, defending champion Hin Yat Yeung and Yiu Hoi Wong are leading after the first day, and 2.4mR, parasailor Fu Yuen Wai is in the lead in his fleet.
This year the RS Tera is the new addition to race week and 15 sailors from Hong Kong Schools Sailing Association and RHKYC Sharks team joined in this division. Alexandre Petton joined in Optimist Green fleet and his is looking forward to gain more racing experience in his second race week.
Sharks coach Patrick Chung explained how the RS Tera could nurture young sailors interest "RS Tera is a modern design boat compared to Optimist as some sailors found Optimist difficult to rig up and RS Tera are more simple and could go on to water quicker. It was regarded as a stepping stone for sailors to move up to higher performance team such as ILCA or RS Feva as well." Cheuk Ting Liu was in 1st place after day 1.
This year there are two green fleets - Fusion and Optimist. Fusion started racing on Wednesday and today wrapped up two days of racing. Seven students from Tsinglan School came all the way from Dongguan to Hong Kong to join in their first ever regatta - they have only been learning sailing for a few months. Their coach Sam said "Hong Kong has a good sailing culture and there are no regattas in China targeting beginners so I am bringing my sailors to Hong Kong Race Week to experience racing before moving to more advanced classes."
The winner was So Tin Chi from RHKYC's Sail to Change program. He said "Today is windy compared to yesterday but I am so happy to have won in my first regatta. I did try my best and put what my coach Kevin taught, the knowledge about change of wind direction and how to start into practise. I love it and I hope I can join again next year."
More information at hongkongraceweek.com