With no wind for the final day of the Sun Hung Kai & Co. Hong Kong Race Week 2025, the championships were awarded in accordance to yesterday's results.
In the 29er class, which incorporated the 2025 29er Asian Championship, the top scoreboard remained unchanged since the first day – with local sibling team Tiffany Mak /Raphael Mak wrapping up the event 7 points ahead of American team Kevin Cason/Holland Vierling who came all the way from San Diego. The team from Thailand, Patcharaphan Ongkaloy/Kan Kachachuen came in third with 38 points.
After three days of racing, Hong Kong, China Olympian Nicholas Halliday ended up 5 points ahead of Peter Jessop in the ILCA 7. In the star-studded ILCA6 class after nine races, fellow Hong Kong, China Olympian Stephanie Norton won the division 5 points ahead of her teammate Nancy Highfield with Japanese sailor Nana Funazawa in third.
The third-largest participating fleet this year was the ILCA 4 with 50 sailors – local sailor Charalampos Velianitis dominated the fleet with 6 wins out of 9, while Thailand sailor Torn Rattana took second place followed by local sailor Zixi Huang.
Taking the win in the biggest fleet of the regatta was Greek sailor Agis Angelopoulos, beating Margaux Nguyen-Minh of Aberdeen Boat Club in Hong Kong and third was Mainland of China sailor Wenyu Cheng from Hainan Haidian School.
In the Optimist Intermediate fleet Mainland of China sailor Shi Teng Huang from Chenjinhao Race Team came first among 55 entries competing in the Intermediate Fleet, with local sailor Wenbo Yan (HHYC) in second place and another Chinese sailor Zeren Xiong from Whisper of the Wind Sports Club in third.
Defending champion Hin Yat Yeung and Yiu Hoi Wong took first place in the 11-strong RS Fevas and second place went to Liu Yuexin /Yu Yinya followed by Steven Huang /Henry Zou both from Vanhang Sailing.
RS Tera is a new division in Hong Kong Race Week and local sailor Cheuk Ting Liu from Hong Kong Schools Sailing Association took the top spot with teammate Wing Hei Leung coming in second place. In the 2.4mR, Virgile Bertrand was crowned the champion, 3 points ahead of defending champion Fu Yuen Wai.
There was a big fleet of 25 entries in the Optimist Green Fleet where young sailors get to have their first ever racing experience in a regatta and which included 14 young sailors from the Mainland of China. Chinese sailor Yang Meng from Whisper of the Wind Sports Club took the win.
Principal Race Officer Barry Truhol summed up the regatta : "This is the biggest year for race week we've had with 286 boats and we have a bit of everything. We had some really exciting racing, it's been cold, it's been really windy, it's been hot, there's been no wind, but it's been a really, really fun event."
The prizegiving ceremony was held after racing at Middle Island. Organising such a big event requires a lot of resources and volunteers who devote their time and passion. Adrian Pang, Commodore of Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, co-organiser of this event, expressed his gratitude to all 140 volunteers for making all the magic happen! Adrian also thanked Peter Davies for contributing 11 years as the Chairman of Hong Kong Race Week. “From its humble beginnings in 2014 of 108 entries to now a major regional and international event of 286 entries this year. Peter we thank you very much for your tireless dedication to Hong Kong Race Week”
Hong Kong Race Week Race Chairman Peter Davies being asked if he could imagine Hong Kong Race Week growing to this scale, he replied “I don't think you imagine you just do because it's something you're passionate about and you believe in. So you just go and people gradually get the idea and more and more people mobilise around it. The objective of race week when we set it up was to create an international event on our doorstep that Hong Kong sailors could get a taste of what it's like if they went to a big international event and get inspire them to take the sailing to a higher level. We had a lot of big entries from the Mainland of China come down here and it's their first taste of sailing outside of the Mainland.”
In all, a record number of 317 sailors from 12 countries and regions from Canada, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong (China), Italy, Greece, Guam, Japan, Mainland China, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, and the USA participated in a wonderful week of racing. See you next year!
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