China Cup Int Regatta 2010 hits a speed bump... in the garage

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 29 Oct 2010 The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club was a-hummin’ and a-buzzin’ this evening, with all the crews in town – many of them overseas – for the opening cocktails and the skippers’ briefing for tomorrow’s passage race from Hong Kong to Longcheer, Daya Bay, Shenzhen, the opening event of the CCIR.

But the buzz turned to a stunned silence as RHKYC Marine Services Manager Roger Eastham stood up to make the rather unexpected announcement that the first race of what some refer to as ‘China’s signature yachting event’ was cancelled.

'Acting on information received from the Hong Kong Marine Dept, and in order to comply with local marine regulations, it has been decided – very reluctantly – that the race from Hong Kong to Longcheer tomorrow will not take place.' The racing fleet will now make its way to Daya Bay, and the Race Officer will try to slot an extra race into the Saturday-Sunday-Monday programme to make up for the lost opening race.

To say that this came as a surprise to the assembled sailors would be a substantial understatement. You could have heard a crisp land on the Tai Ping shag pile.

Hong Kong regulations require that any Hong Kong registered ‘pleasure vessel’ has to be under the command of a holder of a ‘Hong Kong Marine Department Pleasure Vessel Operator Certificate of Competency’. There are exceptions – dinghies, vessels under a certain size or without engines etc – but the bottom line is that Hong Kong vessels need a licenced Hong Kong skipper. Many (most) of the boats chartered to China Cup participants by CCIR management would not be able comply with that regulation. And a quick poll of Hong Kong domestic entries says that there is a good number there, too, that would not pass muster.

There are exceptions. Vessels not registered in Hong Kong don’t count (but all the Beneteau 40.7s owned by the CCIR and chartered to overseas participants in the CCIR are registered in Hong Kong). Vessels that have cleared out of (or not yet cleared in to) Hong Kong are not usually asked to comply. Imagine a non-HK delivery skipper (without the relevant licence) bringing an HK-registered boat home: theoretically he would have to stop at Hong Kong territorial waters. Traditionally, it is ‘a custom more honour'd in the breach than the observance’ (Hamlet, in case you’d forgotten). But the letter of the law says…

The RHKYC received a call at 1030 hrs this morning ‘reminding’ them of the regulation. ‘We explored any number of possibilities', said a representative of RHKYC Race Management. 'But with the Simpson Marine Passage Race starting at 1000 hrs tomorrow morning, it was too late to start finding licensed skippers for all the visiting crews.’ The RHKYC examined the possibility of starting the race outside Hong Kong territorial waters, and looked at running a short race – approx 8nm – inside Chinese waters into Longcheer. But the alternatives were all entirely impractical – a 20nm upwind motoring session to get to an 8nm race would not appeal to many (and would be very difficult to marshal when everyone arrived in the starting area at substantially different times) and setting a start line to the south of Hong Kong (in 45m of water), and watching the fleet sail straight back into Hong Kong waters – and, quite possibly, the waiting arms of the Traffic Wardens aka HK Marine Dept - along the rhumb line to Daya Bay was deemed not to be a good idea either.

After all that, there was still plenty of hummin’ and buzzin’, but in a different key. Those reading this outside Asia should not underestimate the importance of ‘loss of face’, and CCIR is definitely suffering from it at the moment. There’s enough scrambled egg flying around Hong Kong tonight to make breakfast for the whole of the People’s Liberation Army.

But where to point the finger? The RHKYC and the CCIR were both running under the ‘boat cleared out’ understanding. Really, no problem there. And the Hong Kong Marine Dept would probably rather not have been reminded of this little bywater in the regulations. Li Quan Hai, Vice President of the China Yachting Association, was reported to be ‘unimpressed’ and David Zhong, CEO of CCIR Management Co was equally nonplussed. It would be very easy to deduce that someone has deliberately tried to ‘spike’ the China Cup, but…

Anyhow, tomorrow will be a delivery trip to Longcheer for the racing fleets, where sailors have been promised an Opening Ceremony of impressive proportions, complete with lots of speeches from people in suits. Sail-World Asia will be reporting from the side deck of a J/109, Whiskey Jack. Watch this space.