Inaugural Eastern Asia Offshore Race - a slow start
by Vivian Ngan 29 May 20:39 AEST
29 May 2025
14 boats set off from Hong Kong's iconic Victoria Harbour in the Inaugural Eastern Asia Offshore Race, taking competitors on a 350nm journey to Tainan, the southwestern tip of Taiwan Island.
It was blowing 7 to 8kts of easterly breeze when the committee boat laid the start line in front of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club's Kellett Island clubhouse. However, when the warning signal was sounded at 1110hrs, the wind dropped significantly, resulting in a very slow start at 1120hrs, with heavy rain pouring down, soaking sailors.
Some seasoned sailors beat through the harbour in super light winds. By the time the boats approached Lei Yue Mun Gap (the narrowest part between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon), Arcturus+ and Zesst were virtually match racing their way through the channel, with Jinn, 2Easy, and Neo One following behind. Once the fleet cleared the harbour, they were met with 8 to 10kts of breeze and bigger swells, allowing the larger boats to catch up with those at the front.
This is the first Eastern Asia Offshore Race to Tainan; whoever wins Line Honours sets a race record. Having recently taken Line honours in the 2025 Volvo Hong Kong to Hainan Race, Rosario Pedicini, team manager of Solaris 60 Fenice, hopes they will be the lucky ones to lift the title. "Last time we had gusts up to 40kts and several times 30+ kts. This time is a little lower but more upwind, and there will be fewer waves. We'll probably see waves of 2 to 2.5m compared to up to 4m last time. We also have more boats and many more skilled sailors, so it will definitely be a different race."
At 1630hrs, the first IRC boat is Neo One which is sailing at around 8.6kts and had covered 33nm of their journey to Tainan. They are closely followed by Fenice also in 8.6 kts and Arcturus+ in 8.5kts.
At 1655hrs, Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club received a message from Juice which regretfully had to retire due to a diesel leak.
With a trough of low pressure moving into the racing route, sailors can expect more showers and squalls, along with 20 to 25kts of NE breeze for their first night.
Ahead of the race, Gusty skipper Mondher Latiri shared local knowledge on how to navigate safely: "Everyone was expecting southerly winds, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. This makes routing very tricky. It's certain we won't take a northerly route; we'll mainly head south, southeast, and then north-northwest afterwards. Sailing along the Taiwan shore makes it less risky. The danger is the Taiwan sea bank, which is right where the channel between Taiwan and the mainland narrows, creating a very tricky current. The sea floor varies from a few thousand metres to 10 metres, so it's a quite dangerous zone. With so much volume of water coming against the tide and the current, big waves can form. In the past, I made the mistake of taking the northerly route, thinking it was the shortest, and I always regretted it. So hopefully this time we will stay south."
Nicolas Cohen-Addad, Race Chairman, discussed the challenges of this race: "Navigation isn't so much an issue. It's more about the traffic and fishing nets. There's a lot of it - cargo vessels, fishing trawlers, drifting nets. It's more like a cat-and-mouse game than a true navigation exercise."
The Eastern Asia Offshore Race is organised by the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, in cooperation with Argo Yacht Club in Tainan, offering competitors a new and exciting offshore race destination.
Race action is being tracked by Yellowbrick Tracking here and is shown live at hktaiwanrace.com/2025-yb-tracker.