Outriggers participate on Four Peak Sailing Regatta in Hong Kong

Every year in January the Aberdeen Boat Club (ABC) in Hong Kong holds the FOUR PEAK RACE, which actually is a Sailing Regatta and there are only three other races the like world-wide.

The boats have to sail a certain course that includes four landing points across the Hong Kong region where two crew members have to get off the boat and run up and down a mountain on time. Usually to finish the course takes anything between 1.5 and 2 days.

The Hong Kong Island Paddle Club (HKIPC), - always good enough to find some new challenges -, thought last year (2006) that this also would be a nice thing to participate in with Outrigger Canoes. Arrangements where made together with the ABC to practically check it out by making a test run and then possibly appointing the rules for an Outrigger class. It was hoped to attract other paddle teams for future races.

The Canoe course is a shorter one than that one for the sailing boats and only includes the climbing of three peaks. Six-Men boats are used, attended by support boats. On open sea paddlers are allowed to be changed, so that the whole paddle crew can have more than six paddlers. However, the boat needs to be paddled to the landing points with the runners on board. After finishing the running, the runners must board the canoe again and paddle for at least another ten minutes before an exchange can happen.

As a result from the last years testing, HKIPC raced this year again as the only paddle club but now with two boats, one Ladies team and one Mens team.

The Ladies had in total 11 women involved: Elizabeth Cooper, Julie Devine, Cheryl Fender, "Messan" Makino Kiyomi, Jo Jones, Martha Levine, Emily Mabbott, Wendy Mabbott, Sally Stevenson, Sharon Tudela and Lara Wozniak.

The Mens team comprised 9 paddlers: Mark Pollard, Chris Pennicott, Lee (Puss) Mussi, Bunno Arends, John Arvanitis, Des Mabbott, Antonio Zapien, Derek Callow and Matt Flynn.

For the readers with a little local knowledge, the race started near Tai Tam on January 27th, 2007 at 11:00 am and was heading to Sai Kung with Ma On Shan to climb. From Sai Kung, passing Tai Tam to Repulse Bay (Violet Hill) and then crossing over the East lamma Channel to the runners being challenged by Mt. Stenhouse on Lamma Island. The Finish Line was located at the entrance to Deep Water Bay between Middle Island and Ocean Park.

The Ladies team needed 15 hours and 14 minutes to complete this about 60 KM water-distance course. How the Men where doing is best described by words of Des Mabbott:

"With winds forecast for force 4 -5 in a north to northeasterly direction with temperatures forecast to range between 11 to 16 C, the boys were a little apprehensive about the race knowing that for the first section from Tai Tam to Sai Kung would be all up wind. The sunshine lifted the spirits and the temperature and the paddling kept the bodies warm. The use of a rubber dinghy to transfer relief paddlers into the canoe rather than doing water changes in 17 C water was also a master stroke so paddlers didn't need to get wet This was expertly coordinated by James and great driving skills from the sponsoring Saffron Cruises, junk skipper, Garry, ensured no one ended up in the drink. (there were a couple of near misses though)

Puss steered the canoe up to Sai Kung where the first two runners, Des and Derek, raced up Ma On Shan (702m) enjoying the warmth of the sun on the run whilst the rest of the crew enjoyed a rest on board eating their lunch in the sunshine in anticipation of an exciting prospect of paddling down wind to come.

So it proved. Once the runners returned and were back on board, and with Mark at the helm of the canoe, the crew took off and rocketed all the way to Repulse bay in 3hours 19mins.The sun went down as we passed Cape D'Aguilar and the temperature started to plummet. The cold weather gear appeared in earnest. All agreed it was warmer in the canoe than on the boat.

However the constant support, and provision of hot drinks and food by Lee Wong and Jeanette was very welcome and kept us going. Another rest with more food at Repulse Bay was enjoyed by the crew whilst Puss and Bunno scaled the heights of Violet Hill (435m). Once this run was completed, the end was coming into sight. Next came a wind assisted paddle across the East Lamma Channel (about 40 minutes) with a brief pause in the middle to wait while a gargantuan container ship steamed by, to arrive in Rocky Bay to drop our last two runners, John and Antonio to scramble up Mount Stenhouse (353m).

Once returned safely on board with the mental and physical scars of the climb evident, the crew with added vigour set off for the finish line between Ocean Park and Middle lsland and although the wind was rising and doing its best to dampen our spirits the thought of a hot shower at the VRC spurred us on. Again another brief interlude to wait for another ship coming into Hong Kong ( do they ever stop?) in the centre of the channel was followed by a shout from James we were on target to beat last years time. The final 10 mins were a sprint and we did it. We were faster than last year by 3 minutes.

The overall time for completion was 12 hours and 7 mins. A good time and one that enabled us to get to bed at a reasonable time and didn't that bed feel comfortable.

HKIPC started life as a dragon boat and we love racing in those boats but too much of a good thing can make the paddler stale. What a great way this was to enjoy other activities which we all believed would help us in our up and coming dragon boat season.

Did we beat the yachts? Well it wasn't a competition in that regard. We took a shorter course whilst the yachts went further to sea to make the most of some monsoon winds. Comparing times made no sense.

Nonetheless it was still good to come across the line first!"

Let's hope to see some other teams joining in for this race. It would be nice to some competition here.

Henning Wiekhorst

PS: Later we will upload an album to the Photo Galleries and some video footage to the Cinema