Bart’s Bash 2016 by Sailability (HK)

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 20 Sep 2016 It seemed like a perfect fit, with the event in Hong Kong being run by Sailability (HK) and Bart’s Bash this year raising money for disabled sailing. Hebe Haven Yacht Club kindly hosted the event, and so it was that at 12.00 hrs RO Dave Norton and ARO Josef Roels nipped smartly through a race briefing – class flag up, P up (no, the P is on the other end of the pole, that’s better…), P down, class flag down. You know the sort of thing.

Seven 2.4mR single-handers, two Optimists, and three Access 303s sailing two-up, making a total of 15 sailors out on the water in glorious September Hong Kong sunshine with 6-8 kts to play with. There was a small hiatus when the wind swung almost perfectly from NE to SW in a matter of minutes, but it was before the first start – move the pin to the other side of the Committee Boat, and off we go.

If you’ve never sailed in Hong Kong’s Port Shelter, then you’ve missed out. This is not skyscraper territory, this is mountains-and-countryside department, the part of Hong Kong that the visitors (still) haven’t discovered, and it provides some of the very best sailing on offer, not forgetting the scenery.

The afternoon’s sailing consisted of three short, sharp, triangle courses, and by the third one the RO had got the recipe just right, sending the 2.4mRs round twice and the Oppies and Access 303s just once, and everyone finishing together.

It was a properly ‘mixed’ regatta, with both able-bodied and disabled sailors competing in the 2.4mR and Access 303 classes. Full results can be found on the Bart’s Bash website www.bartsbash.com

It was great afternoon out on the water for all concerned, and then everyone repaired to the HHYC Garden Bar for liquid refreshment, the prizegiving, and a barbeque.

Sailability (HK) would like to thank HHYC for hosting the event and the use of the premises, Holman Fenwick Willan for sponsoring the event and the post-regatta barbeque, Carlsberg for the beer (without which a Hong Kong regatta cannot function) and the assorted coterie of officials, volunteers and helpers who all made it happen.

Sailing has attracted a great deal of attention at the recent Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, in part because of the extremely high level of competition, and in part because sailing is not on the list for the next Paralympics in Tokyo in 2020. This year’s three classes were stuffed to the gunn’ls with top sailing talent from former America’s Cup competitors to Whitbread racers. Rick Dodson, a member of the NZL team that finished fourth in the three-man Sonar class, said “We have to lift parasailing above the ‘Sailing for the Disabled’ level, to where you are considered to be a proper yachtsman.” Interestingly, the 2.4mR class is the only international class that holds a World Championship that involves both women and men, and able-bodied and ‘disabled’ sailors. You want ‘inclusive’? That’s inclusive.