Louis Vuitton World Series- Hong Kong looks a Gift Horse in the mouth

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asian Editor on 12 Sep 2009 Sail-World's Asia Editor, Guy Nowell takes a look at his home-port's reaction to the announcement of the Louis Vuitton World Series:

Sailors around the world are delighted at the recent announcement of the new Louis Vuitton World Series. Sailors in Hong Kong are no doubt delighted that the city is still on the short list of places to host a regatta in the Series.

But it's not a done deal, yet. Not by a long way. The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club has picked up the ball, and very reasonably tried to enlist the assistance of the Hong Kong Government by applying for a HK$10m grant from the Government's 'Mega Fund', a bucket of cash set aside to help promote sporting events and Hong Kong's international image in general.

But the Hong Kong Government have as much imagination as a box of whelks, and tend to see problems before opportunities. Will they be albe to appreciate the enormous media and PR exposure that a LVWS event in Hong Kong would generate for the city?

The RHKYC has proposed that the race ‘village' be at the almost-finished Pier 10 in Central – not at the Club itself. 'We see this as an event for Hong Kong, not just for the RHKYC,' says Club Commodore Warwick Downes. Good call. 'One of the pre-requirement for applications to the Mega Fund is that the proposed event has to have the potential to draw more than 10,000 spectators.' Only 10,000? That's less than a quarter the capacity of the Hong Kong Stadium, and only 1,000 more than turned out for the East Asia Games torch relay. As long as the promotion is done well, AC class yacht racing in the natural amphitheatre of Hong Kong harbour should be able to get those sorts of numbers.

So what's the down side? Well, you'd have to close the harbour to through traffic for a few days – or part of those days. Those of us who spend a good deal of time on the harbour know the traffic well – there are the Star Cruises liners (send ‘em round the other way), the rusty coastal freighters (send ‘em round the other way), a few fuel barges (restrict them to the edge of the harbour), some gambling ships (they only move after dark), and some ferries and harbour cruises (politely point out that there are three cross-harbour tunnels and a very good MTR system, charge the tourists more for their cruise, and keep them off the race course). [NB earlier this year the Bosphorous, one of the busiest city-harbour channels in the world, was completely closed for a P1 Powerboat racing series recently. It can be done.]

So no problem there, then.

No, the problem is more likely to be inside the heads of the men in suits, the Money Mandarins with the power to say ‘yes' (or ‘no'). Ever since the HarbourFest of 2003, the event billed to resurrect Hong Kong in the eyes of the world in the aftermath of SARS, there has been a marked reluctance for anyone to stick their hand in the air and say ‘Hey! That's a really good idea, let's do it!' The result is bureaucratic constipation, and world class events wandering off to places like, well... Singapore.

There's a nice story from the last Volvo Ocean Race, which has two Ericsson execs looking down the harbour from an office in Exchange Square, when one says to the other 'What on earth are we doing in Singapore?' And don't forget, hosting a VOR stopover was one of the things that earned Singapore the rather spurious title of 'Asia's Maritime Capital' - the port that can't arrange immigration clearance for a yacht race ‘outside office hours'.

The RHKYC made their 'face-to-face' presentation to the HK Government on 08 September, and have been advised that an answer will be forthcoming 'in a few weeks'.

Strewth!

The venues of Nice and Auckland are already signed up, and Athens, Valencia, Newport, Cape Town and Abu Dhabi are jumping up and down in their seats yelling 'Me! Me! Me!', and Hong Kong is sucking their teeth and saying, 'Oooooh, dunno about that...'

This is an event that would pay enormous dividends in promoting the city (think of what the Rugby 7s has done for Hong Kong's image and reputation), and could be a precursor to visits from the Volvo Ocean Race, the World Match Race Tour, the Extreme 40 circuit and maybe an RC44 regatta.

Please, Hong Kong, don't blow the tack on this one. If you do, we'll be left floundering in someone else's wake for a long time to come.