Organised by the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, the HKRNVR Memorial Vase is the final of four pursuit races comprising the Top Dog Trophy Series 2012-2013. The overall winner of the series will be presented with the prize of a five day Sunsail charter, courtesy of the series sponsor, Sunsail.
Over 130 boats have entered the series overall and with just one race to go, the current leader with 6.45 points is the Isler/Taylor pairing on Mills 41 Ambush who will be looking defend their hold on the top spot from Peninsula Signal 8 and Red Kite II.
The HKRNVR Memorial Vase was first awarded to Ecstacy in 1951 and was presented to the Club by the local Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve with the proviso that « the course should take participating yachts into waters patrolled by the HKRNVR. » The HKRNVR is of course now defunct; however the trophy continues to serve as a reminder of a time when amateur sailors played a vital role in the security of Hong Kong.
Since the event’s inception, the course for the race has been adjusted to take into account Marine Department restrictions on sailing and towing boats through the congested central harbour. In keeping with the Deed of Gift, Race Officer Gareth Williams will set a course which takes the fleet out and back via the eastern approaches at Lei Yue Mun gap, his choice influenced by the prevailing wind conditions on the day.
The Top Dog Trophy Series pulls together the results from RHKYC’s quartet of pursuit races, pro-rated to a base entry of 50 boats, in order to identify Hong Kong’s top helm for the season’s series.
Going into the HKRNVR Memorial Vase, the top ten ‘Top Dog’ contenders for 2012-2013 are:
Place
Boat Name
Class
Sail No.
Skipper
Pts
1
Ambush
IRC 1
HKG2208
Taylor / Isler
6.45
2
Peninsula Signal 8
IRC 1
HKG2300
Jamie McWilliam
9.51
3
Red Kite II
IRC 2
HKG2093
Anthony Root
11.22
4
Gunga Din
Etchells
HKG1245
Nick Burns
17.67
5
Easy Tiger
Etchells
HKG884
Marty Kaye
29.19
6
Tchaikoffsky
Flying 15
HKG3981
Howard Williams
29.31
7
Sell Side Dream
IRC 1
HKG2298
Simon Powell
33.10
8
Salona 41
IRC 1
HKG2212
Simy Wong
34.71
9
Double Shot
Etchells
HKG402
Kearns / Reed
53.82
10
Krampus
IRC 1
HKG2159
Niccolo Manno
57.32