Extreme Sailing Series Asia at Hong Kong - Day 2

20-24 November 2009
By Extreme Sailing Series Asia 21 Nov 2009 16:25

Read article

Photo gallery

Discuss

Email to a friend

Printer friendly

Send us an event report

Photo © Guy Nowell / OC Events

Extreme Sailing Series Asia at Hong Kong
Photo © Guy Nowell / OC Events

Extreme Sailing Series Asia at Hong Kong

BT takes the lead

Day two of racing in Victoria Harbour at the inaugural Extreme Sailing Series Asia saw the six Extreme 40s challenged in a shifty 4-12 knot wind, as they raced just metres from the shoreline on both sides of the harbour.

It was BT who controlled the fleet, taking a hat-trick of wins to head up the top of the leaderboard with 50 points. Just two points off the pace was the European Series champions, Oman Sail’s Masirah, with 48 points. Newcomers to the Extreme 40 fleet, Red Bull Extreme Sailing Team, are lying in third with 33 points.

Tan Wearn Haw, who is racing onboard the home nation’s China Team, commented: “This is the first time the Extreme 40s have arrived in Hong Kong and I feel very excited about that. We are going to Singapore soon and I feel this is a very good opportunity to show this new type of sailing to a new generation in Asia.”

The inaugural Extreme Sailing Series Asia is in Hong Kong to demonstrate the potential of bringing a full scale series, with public shoreside activities, to the region in 2010/2011. It builds on the success of the past three years of the European Series which this summer saw over 200,000 people turning out to watch the Extreme 40s as they raced in venues including Venice, Paris, Amsterdam and the home of British yachting, Cowes on the Isle of Wight.

In the afternoon, 20 local children were given the chance of a lifetime when they had the opportunity to sail onboard three of the Extreme 40s in the fleet. A group of six children stepped onboard Rumbo Almería, skippered by double Olympic gold medallist, Shirley Robertson.

“That was brilliant fun,” said Callum Gregor, aged 10. “The racing has been really exciting to watch and, before today, I thought I wanted to be a 49er sailor but now after seeing these boats, I want to skipper an Extreme 40 just like Shirley.”

The children spent an hour racing around the harbour and sailed the boats themselves, taking the helm and the winches.

“It’s great to give the young kids the chance to sail with us – I think some of them will be challenging us in the near future,” said Robertson.

Sunday will see the six Extreme 40s take part in the prestigious Around the Island Race, when a fleet of over 200 sail boats will race around Hong Kong Island. The Extreme 40s are anticipated to complete a fast circumnavigation, possibly even taking line honours and will start at 0940.

The current record in the ‘all multihulls’ class is held by Atmosphere, when it completed the circuit in two hours, 44 minutes and 37 seconds.

More Information:

• YachtsandYachting.com Extreme 40 Page

Related Articles:

 Extreme Sailing Series Asia at Muscat - Overall - 06 Feb 2010
First European champions, now Oman Sail Masirah is crowned champion of the Extreme Sailing Series Asia. This event was billed locally as ’Oman Sail versus The World’ and they came out on top in style.

 Extreme Sailing Series Asia at Muscat - Day 4 - 04 Feb 2010
Thousands gathered on the beach on the first public day of the Muscat event of the Extreme Sailing Series Asia to see the six teams race in the biggest breeze so far - not only of the Asian series but the entire 2009 European series!

 Extreme Sailing Series Asia at Muscat - Match Racing - 03 Feb 2010
Some said it couldn’t be done on more than one hull, but the six Extreme 40s here at The Wave, Muscat for the Extreme Sailing Series Asia demonstrated that match racing in multihulls is not only viable, but spectacular.

 Extreme Sailing Series Asia at Muscat - Day 1 - 01 Feb 2010
The opening day of racing at The Wave, Muscat required a touch of finesse by the sailors onboard the six Extreme 40s taking part in the final round of the Extreme Sailing Series Asia as they battled with light winds all afternoon.