Hunt bags crown, Nguyen takes HK trophy at 2012 HK Dragon Championship

by Koko Mueller on 27 Nov 2012 [Sorry, this content could not be displayed] The 2012 Hong Kong Dragon Championship witnessed perhaps the most dominant performance in years as Cowes Royal Yacht Squadron’s Chris Hunt came first in six of seven races to bag the crown in this coveted event in the Asian sailing circuit. Tam Nguyen collected enough points to nab his second straight Hongkong title while Lowell Chang captured the Corinthian Trophy.


The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club hosted the Hong Kong Dragon Championship over the weekend with a record 18 boats competing for the title. A number of international Dragon champions flew to Hong Kong for the event including current world champion and owner of Petticrows Tim Tavinor (GBR208), North Sail Dragon expert Theis Palm (HKG55), Fritz Sails owner Werner Fritz (HKG51), Chris Hunt from the Cowes Royal Yacht Squadron (GBR208), Etchells European Champion Nils Razmilovic (HKG50), ex International Dragon Association Chairman Thomas Olrog (SWE364) and Christiane Hugelman (HKG26) from the Hamburg Dragon fleet.

Ahead of the Championship, 8 boats were practicing on Friday at Lamma (South of Hong Kong Island) and 4 boats had a full day of training with Theis Palm from North Sails. 40 of the competitors also gathered together on Friday evening at Kellet Island for a session on Dragon Tuning and Trimming with Theis Palm and Tim Tavinor from Petticrows.

Saturday started with a good 15 knots established easterly breeze providing the perfect conditions for the Dragons. However, contrary to normal Lamma conditions, the breeze was very shifty and the challenge was to anticipate those shifts while progressing through the chops. Chris Hunt, Tim Tavinor and Oliver Merz achieved this perfectly on their Petticrows GBR208 specially shipped to Hong Kong for the event. They won 3 of the 4 Saturday races and came second on the race they did not win, right after Tam Nguyen (HKG55). With Chris Hunt (GBR208) clearly ahead after the first day of racing, the focus shifted to the battle for the HK Champion title (first Hong Kong boat) with Phyllis Chang (HKG50) ahead of Tam Nguyen (HKG55) by only one point after the first day (but one point behind including discard). Karl Grebstad (HKG51) was also closely behind and could win the title if Phyllis and Tam made a mistake on Sunday. With 22 knots blowing on Sunday morning at the start of the first Sunday race, any mistake could be 'fatal'!

[Sorry, this content could not be displayed]HKG50 and HKG55 sailed closed together but with Tam ahead of Phyllis on Sunday first race (2nd and third respectively) and on the second race (3rd and fifth), Phyllis nice second place just ahead of Tam in the final race was not enough for her to beat him. On the overall results, Chris Hunt (GBR208) came first, Tam Nguyen (HKG55) second (and takes the HK Champion title for the second year in a row), Phyllis Chang (HKG50) third and Karl Grebstad (HKG51) fourth.

There was also another big competition going on within the 12 Corinthians - boats with no professionals on board. It started quite tight between Thomas Olrog (SWE364) and Lowell Chang (HKG46). But Thomas broke his mast on the third race on Saturday and had to miss two races out of the 7. This left Lowell Chang (HK46) with a convincing Corinthian win ahead of Marc Castagnet (HKG1) and Simon Chan (HKG8). There was also some close racing in the middle of the fleet between Andreas Brechbul (HKG20), Frederic Roumier (HKG40), Sytske Kimman (all women boat HKG26 + a pigeon which decided to stay inside the boat for the whole event!) and Dan Lindwall (HKG37).

[Sorry, this content could not be displayed] The fleet had a fantastic weekend on the water with great wind conditions (12-15 knots on Saturday and 22 knots for the first race on Sunday ending up at 12 knots in the afternoon). Thanks to the strong support from our sponsors Central Oceans, Slam, Northrop and Johnson and Links International, the time back in the club at Middle Island was also much enjoyable and all the competitors could appreciate the camaraderie of the HK and international Dragon class with dinners organized on both days. The winners of each category received Slam vouchers and Champagne. Winner Chris Hunt (GBR208) kindly decided to give his prizes to the youth Dragon sailors of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club.

Tim Tavinor, head of Petticrows and current Dragon World Champion commented: 'Overall its been a very competitve regatta and it has been a pleasure to be here. I certainly hope in the not too distant future that the Worlds can be hosted here, it is a fantastic venue.'

				Race 1-7	Race 1-7
				Total	Total
Sail Nber	Boat Name	Helm		One Discard	Rank
GBR 208	Frank	Chris Hunt		7	1
HKG 55	Zephyr	Tam Nguyen		14	2
HKG 50	Phyloong II	Phyllis Chang		18	3
HKG 51	Fei Mei	Karl Grebstad		20	4
HKG 46	Davinloong	Lowell Chang		33	5
HKG 1	Celines	Marc Castagnet		39	6
HKG 8	Kamloong	Simon Chan		43	7
HKG 12	Eaux Vives	Joseph Chu		46	8
SWE 364	Wyuna - HKG25	Thomas Olrog		48	9
HKG 26	Arrow	Sytske Kimman		62	10
HKG 40	Maiden Hong Kong	Frederic Roumier		68	11
HKG 37	Fei Chi	Dan Lindwall		78	12
HKG 54	Donna	CC Lu		78	12
HKG 20	Moonraker II	Andreas Brechbul		79	14
HKG 47	Hung Tai	David Poon		80	15
HKG 38	Phyloong	Marc Saint Laurent		97	16
HKG 551	HKG21 - Puff	Peter Baer		102	17
HKG 41	Shiva	Virgile Simon Bertrand		102	18
HKG 31	Nattigheid	Bram van Olphen		114	19
				Total	Total
				One Discard	Rank
HKG 46	Davinloong	Lowell Chang		10	1
HKG 1	Celines	Marc Castagnet		16	2
HKG 8	Kamloong	Simon Chan		17	3
SWE 364	Wyuna - HKG25	Thomas Olrog		24	4
HKG 26	Arrow	Sytske Kimman		30	5
HKG 40	Maiden Hong Kong	Frederic Roumier		37	6
HKG 37	Fei Chi	Dan Lindwall		45	7
HKG 20	Moonraker II	Andreas Brechbul		47	8
HKG 54	Donna	CC Lu		47	8
HKG 38	Phyloong	Marc Saint Laurent		61	10
HKG 41	Shiva	Virgile Simon Bertrand		66	11
HKG 551	HKG21 - Puff	Peter Baer		68	12
HKG 31	Nattigheid	Bram van Olphen		78	13