Sun Hung Kai & Co. Hong Kong Race Week 2025 - Day 2
by Vivian Ngan 15 Feb 03:23 NZDT
11-16 February 2025
Another good, albeit cold day for the second day of racing at the Sun Hung Kai & Co. Hong Kong Race Week incorporating the 2025 29er Asian Championship - although the wind was much less than expected.
The 29er race course, located northwest of Po Toi Island, had more wind compared to Day 1 but with less gusts. The day started with 10 to 14kts of breeze and a bumpy sea providing challenging conditions for the sailors. The winds finally softened to 6 to 8kts for the fourth race. Race Officer Dave Norton said, "We managed to finish eight out of the fourteen scheduled races. I've seen different forecasts some look good for Saturday and bad for Sunday. Others look bad for tomorrow and good for Sunday. We'll just see what happens."
In the 29er class, which incorporates the 2025 29er Asian Championship, the top scoreboard remained unchanged for the second day - with local sibling team Tiffany Mak & Raphael Mak still leading the American team Kevin Cason/ Holland Vierling whilst the team from Thailand, Patcharaphan Ongkaloy/Kan Kachachuen are in third.
Over at the ILCA course south west of Po Toi Island, Race Officer Elberti Uiterwaal-Postma said it was a shifty day. With the wind strength ranging from 6 to 7 kts with a maximum up to 14kts, Elberti was happy to deliver three races, each with a target duration of 40 minutes.
The leaders across the three ILCA fleets retain their spots; local Olympian Stephanie Norton and Nicholas Halliday both remain at the top of the scoreboard in the ILCA 6 and 7 respectively, with Charalampos Velianitis taking first place in the ILCA 4.
At Stanley Bay, the racing area for the 2.4mR, RS Feva, RS Tera, Optimist Intermediate and Main Fleets, there were some fluky wind conditions. With the wind swinging consistently, Race Officer Inge Strompf-Jepsen set three races for the 2.4mR, Rs Feva and RS Tera while the Optimist Main and Intermediate fleet were set two races.
The largest fleet of the event is the Optimist Main fleet with 69 competitors, with another 55 entries competing in Intermediate Fleet. In the Optimist Main Fleet, there are 16 entries from the Mainland of China representing six sailing clubs, as well as eight sailors from Thailand, two from Greece and one from Guam.
The star-studded Thailand Optimist main fleet team consists of five members who participated in 2024 Optimist Asian & Oceanian Championship held recently in Hong Kong including Thai sailor Pailin Jaroenpon who placed 12th overall.
The Greek team has given a strong performance in past editions of this event and this time it's Agis Angelopoulos and Paris Kolokotronis waving the flag for their country. Hong Kong's Margaux Nguyen-Minh will be one to watch after placing 2nd in last year's event while last year's first place winner Zihan Liu has moved up to the 29er fleet.
At the end of six races over two days, there were some changes in results in the Optimist Main Fleet. Greek sailor Agis Angelopoulos moved up to first overall and Margaux Nguyen-Minh is now in 2nd place and Chinese sailor Wenyu Cheng is in third. In the Optimist Intermediate fleet Chinese sailor Shi Teng Huang is staying comfortably in the lead.
For RS Feva, Hin Yat Yeung and Yiu Hoi Wong are still leading after the second day of racing, and for RS Tera, Wing Hei Leung was now in lead. For 2.4mR, Virgile Bertrand took another three bullets today taking the lead, 3 points ahead of Fu Yuen Wai.