To many it seemed impossible that a championship in Hong Kong could be realised without hitch. It was to be feared that the distance would reduce the numbers participating seriously. However 90 boats attended the Far East Championship held just before the World Championships in an attempt to discover some subtleties of the course.
The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club is well established in Hong Kong. It has a complement of 2.000 more or less active members. The "Managers" of this championship wanted everything to be perfect, and it was. Full marks all round despite the difficulty of dealing with the arrival of 90 crews from four corners of the world who it was necessary to put up, feed up and often entertain.
This is the first sporting event to be held in the British Colony. Thus it was a real state occasion covered in an astonishing manner by the local press. Front page covers large headlines in the sporting columns. The last day the "China Morning Post" announced in the headlines "Five Fight out Five
O Five" to illustrate the struggle which developed between White, Pajot, Surtees, Danielou and Bethwaite.
The Far East Championship allowed the crews to shake down, as well as the Race Committee, so there would not be any mistake in the Worlds. Bethwaite carried it off easily in front of two Australian crews, but they did hang about and there were a lot of other teams going very fast.
After two days rest for preparing the boats or for sightseeing the championship began. The first race as well as the second showed results without too many surprises. All the favourites were in the first ten. The difference in skill was visibly small. None really dominated and if conditions had remained the same (force 3/4) it is likely that the same 10 teams would have been in the leaders.
But it was not to be so. For a start the wind dropped to force 2/3 and began shifting madly. This brought about as usual some sensational changes in positions. A bit of bad luck and 50th place did not seem too bad as there were always 40 others worse off still.
After the fourth race the only crews left in the running for the first places were those with very solid nerves. Larry MARKS, LODAY, FARRANT had already seen their chances of victory disappear after two bad races.
In the 5th race the wind came back a bit and
gave DANIELOU and WHITE the possibility of coming back into the lime light before the 6th race. All the candidates for first place were very tense before the start of the last race. The wind force
4 and a very heavy swell allowed a final sort-out. On the first beat WHITE marked PAJOT but the latter with faster boat speed rounded the windward mark
as 3rd behind the English NAPIER and a Swedish team.
The first incident: on the first reach PAJOT broke his spinnaker boom and helplessly watched SURTEES, WHITE, BETHWAITE and DANIELOU sail past.
On the second reach BETHWAITE touched a competitor and was disqualified. Thus WHITE became World Champion SURTEES in second place in the last race took the position of runner up from
PAJOT. DANIELOU (who came third in the last race) did the same to FARRANT.
FARRANT for overall fifth place.
by Jean-François FOUNTAINE
COMPETITORS
Peter WHITE, the new World Champion, is very well known by the French. Winner of the 1972 La Rochelle Week, 3rd in the European Championship at Carnac, we all knew the immense talent of this sailor who works for Sea Horse Sails.
His crew John DAVIES is a solid forehand whom we have also known for some time.
Yves PAJOT sailed a magnificently steady championship. His starts, boat speed,
choice of tacks, tactics, technique were all there. The only thing, that stupid thing (stupid to the point of crying as did Yvon KERGREIS in a moment of distress) the breaking of the spinny-boom on the first broad reach of the last race. The tough, sympathetic Australian Mark BETHWAITE, with his crew Ian PITT (hot from winning the Far East Championships) ruined their chances of a win in the Worlds after a collision with J.M. FOUNTAINE which cost them their spinnaker boom as well as a disqualification in the last race.
J.M. DANIELOU and J. Ch. GILLET excelled too. Unfortunately two bad results, 38th and 22nd, took them back to 5th in the overall results. Luckily they pedalled like madmen in the other rounds. N. LODAY and Ph. CHAIGNE finished 17th. Some of you will be surprised at the very mediocre position of the best placed helms in all the world competitions in 72/73. However, what champion does not have a little fall-off in performance from time to time? In World and European 505 Championships the hat-trick has still to be attained by combining all the factors of success three times in succession.
JURY
The Protest Committee was presided over by Bill HANCOCK, President of the Hong Kong Yachting Association, with Percy CHANDLER the International President of the 505 Class with Jacques LEBRUN, one of the original
Five-O-men, Olympic Champion in 1932, twice World Champion 505, with Katsumi HIRATA, a member of the management of the Japan Yachting Association. They pronounced 21 disqualifications in six races, including false starts.
RHKYC 'WELCOME
Reg MAYNARD, President of the Royal
Hong Kong YC – a Five-O-Fiver known by the French – prepared a good welcome for the competitors of the
World Championship and he chose in taking Eric LOCKEYEAR, a good
coordinator, and Paul COLINET as organisor, a nice French sailor who showed himself an able coordinator of accomodation, receptions, dinners etc. The competitors, as soon as they arrived, found all their hosts at the Yacht Club ready to lead them to hospitable villas and comfortable rooms. All the competitors were delighted with their accomodation in charming and spacious flats often with a view over the bay or the open sea and they were always spoilt by their hosts. So much kindness, friendliness and generosity left us confounded and we shall never forget the two weeks we spent in Hong Kong which leave us with the best memory of our new friends and their magnificent reception born of joyful dedication and natural good humour.
RACES ORGANISATION
The organisation of the competition was exemplary thanks to Bill JEFFREY, the chairman of the Race Committee, who had prepared the whole thing down to the last detail.
The boat park was in a pretty situation on beach of Repulse Bay on the south side of Hong Kong island. The beach was a narrow band of fine sand lined with magnificent great flowering trees. Each 505 had its own solid cradle made especially for the championship. There was as much fresh water for washing down the boats as could be desired. The sun was strong with an agreeable temperature in the shade of
26C. The sea was 22C. Launching was easy and the sail to the starting line 112 miles away, very pleasant. We raced in a sea dotted with pretty little rock islands crossed by the wakes of enormous fishing and trading junks. However, on the course itself 2 miles in diameter,
not a junk was to be seen. Fast lookout launches turned back both junks and spectator craft.
The Committee boat, an impressive looking mine sweeper was always on station well before the start and they were made every day at midday on the dot. Doug PARSONS handled the race, phlegmatic and firm he had warned the competitors at the briefing that he would disqualify without fail all those who were over the line at the start. Pointing his finger at the competitors he proclaimed : "if you cut the line you will be seen". In fact he caught a few with
his wary eye and two video cameras trained on the line.
The teams from all the countries, 18 in all, had an escourt launch with supporters victuals and spare sails. The marks of the course were indicated by spinnakers hoisted on the masts of two large yachts. The races lasted about 3 hours over a distance of about 27 miles including tacking. (2 triangles and one sausage)
The WC in Hong Kong in November has throughout the season been the target for
the Swedish 505 sailors. Sweden's biggest international success in the class so
far is the brothers Christer and Per Båth European Championship title, won in
Copenhagen in 1971. Stefan Sjöström and Reine Andersson were also very close to
winning the Worlds in California that year, but were beaten on the finish line.
At the Worlds in Finland in 1972 there was no Swedish top rank, but just over
three Swedish boats among the top ten.
The Swedish World Cup team came after the tough qualification regattas to get
the following appearance.
4316 Göran Eckeström / Jan Calvert, Gothenburg
3106 Roy Wedin / Göran Petersson, Gothenburg
3316 Stefan Sjöström / Göran Andersson, Gothenburg
3858 Karl-Erik Nilsson / Göran Källfelt, Gothenburg
3924 Stefan Eriksson / Sven Karlsson, Gothenburg
3991 Ulf Andersson / Stefan Lundqvist, Stockholm
4178 Ray Larsson / Bengt Magnusson, Marstrand
The departure took place from Torslanda on November 9 with return on December 2.
The flight, which took 16 hours, went directly over the Soviet and Vietnam to
Hong Kong. At the Kai-Tak airport, we were met by representatives of the
arranging Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, who provided transport to the clubhouse in
central Hong Kong, where our boats had previously arrived, completely undamaged.
The clubhouse, located on a promontory inside the harbor area, turned out to be
a large elegant flag-lined white building containing, in addition to customary
expedition rooms and the like, bar, restaurant, terrace, squash hall, sauna,
bowling alleys, etc., all served by a variety of white-clad bending Chinese.
Something for
GKSS
to think about...
The accommodation had been arranged with the members of the Yacht Club. Thus,
all Swedes lived freely with different European families, all of whom showed a
great interest in sailing and an indescribable hospitality. All in all, a huge
spirit of service characterized all the club's members and officials.
From the clubhouse it was about a half hour drive to Repulse Bay, a wide sandy
beach on the south side of Hong Kong Island where the sailing base was. The
boats were neatly lined up on the lagoon-shaped sandy beach, guarded by Chinese
police. As this was in the middle of winter, the most crowded beach was
completely empty and could be used alone for sailing. The locals gazed in
surprise at these sailors who bathed when the water temperature was below 30°C.
The course lay out in the Chinese lake a short hour sailing from Repulse Bay,
partly on Chinese territorial waters. However, we did not know the last until
afterwards. All the time, a north-northeast monsoon wind varying between 1 and 6
m/s, except for the last day when it was more than 12 m/s. The strong tidal
current and the open sea off the coast created waves waves of impressive size
which for us were difficult-to-master. In addition, the waves never came in the
direction of the wind but usually from the sea side, but were crossed by smaller
waves in the direction of the wind.
When the wind force exceeded 10 m/s, the waves became so high, about 7m, that
there was practically no wind down in the wave valley while it blew very hard at
the top. These conditions required a special technique, as it turned out that we
could not fully learn to master.
To remedy this, all Swedes, as well as other participants except some Englishmen,
entered the Far East Championship with 5 races just before the Worlds. In these
races, which went on the WC race area, Australians proved to be quite superior
with Olympic sailor Mark Bethwaite as winners with the series 1-1-1-6-DNS, before
father and son Bob and Geoff Kyrwood, and on third place
Terry Kyrwood. Ulf
Andersson/Stefan Lundqvist was the best Swedish team with a 7th place followed by Karl-Erik Nilsson/Göran
Källfelt on
10th and Stefan Sjöström/Göran Andersson on 16th.
These successes made Bethwaite quickly one of
the favorites in the World Cup with 89 boats lined up. The burden of favoritism
was also borne by Nicolas Loday, France, World Champion 1972 and European
Champion 1973,
Larry
Marks, England, World Champion 1969 and 1970, Derek Farrant,
World Champion 1965 and 1971, American Champion Dennis Surtees and Frenchman
Yves Pajot, who were less than 1 point from Kiel 1968 World Cup title and who
also won a silver medal in Flying Dutchman class at the 1972 Olympic sailing in
Kiel.
Race 1 started without any premature start in 3-4 m/s wind strength. All starts
were shoot by video camera which gave the Race Commitee immediately the
possibility to gain clarity in case someone made a premature start. It was
probably for this reason along with very perfect starting lines that only a
total of three restarts needed to be resorted to throughout the World Cup. The
course was a very long Hellerup track, ie an Olympic course with double reaches.
First boat at the finish came promising sailor and long-time sailmaker from
Felixstowe, Peter White, before American Brauch and veteran Derek Farrant.
Surtees, Marks and Loday remained among the top ten. Best Swedish team was
Nilsson/Källfelt in 17th place with Sjöström/Andersson shortly after. Eckeström/Calvert
had to withdraw due to rudder failure in a good position. Today's surprise was
South African Brian Downham in 4th place. It would later prove that, although
hitherto unknown, he was a very skilled sailor with several consistent top
finishes.
The second race, as far as the external conditions were concerned, became the
first fairly similar. Marks won certainly, after having the lead almost from the
start, before the Americans Surtees and Brauch. Sjöström/Andersson finished 11th
and Wedin/Petersson as 23rd. In total, Brauch now led before White, who finished
8th in the second race. Marks on third. Downham was disqualified for a premature
start.
In the third race, Bethwaite showed class and won by far ahead of Marks and
White. Wedin/Petersson, who throughout the race had good contact with the
leaders, fell on the final beat down to 13th place. Stefan Eriksson finishes on
17th place. The title defender Loday was disqualified for failing to give room
during rounding of the bottom mark. In general, the Regatta Jury was extremely
attentive and the control at each mark was meticulous. All of the sailors
themselves unlawful rule violations infallibly led to protest from the Regatta
Jury. In this spirit there was also a careful and intensive sampling of the
boats and their equipment upon arrival at the beach. Eventually, however,
everyone learned what equipment was required.
In the 4th race, new names showed up at the top. The lead switched during the
entire sailing between different boats. After two beats, the Finn Rouhiainen led
ahead of Pajot and Wedin/Petersson. At the last reach, the very bald Englishman
John Locke forced himself past the Swedes and took up the hunt for the Finns.
The beat to the finish was very exciting with several boats in close combat. The
Finns managed to keep ahead of Locke and Pajot. Australians Kyrwood and Downham,
who made a long tack towards land came up with the tide and sailed past
Wedin/Petersson, who finishes 6th. The best Swedish effort so far.
Andersson/Lundqvist finished 11th. Sjöström/Andersson was too early in the start
and became disqualified. After four races, White led before Pajot and Bethwaite.
Farrant was fourth. Best Swedish crew overall was Wedin/Petersson in 13th place.
The second to last race became a real tricky race. Weak alternating winds, tides
and remaining waves made the sailing very unpredictable. At the top mark
Andersson/Lundqvist led with Sjöström/Andersson among the top ten. During the
reach, a large Russian tank passed right through the racing fleet while the wind
practically died out. The wind then came weakly from another direction, which
meant that those who did not then have got around the top mark became hopelessly
after. Among these were White and Marks. Dangerously close to the maximum time,
Australian Kyrwood passed the finish line as winner before Frenchman Haegli and
Rob Napier, England. Bethwaite was fifth. Other top boats either received very
poor placements or were scored DNF. Before the final and decisive race, the
position, with one race away calculated, was very even.
1. White 35.7 p
2. Pajot 38.2
3. Bethwaite 41.0
4. Farrant 49.2
5. Surtees 51.4
15. Wedin/Petersson
Nearly ten boats had a reasonable chance of winning the Worlds. Never has a WC
in 505 been so even in the final. If the external conditions in the past were
largely excellent, it would be worse on the last day. Wind between 12-15 m/s and
very high waves. Many boats crashed or had to retire. After a perfect start
Sjöström/Andersson with the goal of becoming the best Swedes, rounded in a clear
lead at the top mark. However, the conditions were difficult also for these
recognized skilled sailors and they had to let go of five boats before the
finish. Bethwaite was already disqualified at the start and shortly thereafter
Pajot retired. Surtees, White and Farrant, but not Marks, were among the top ten
after the second beat. Ahead of the exciting final beat, Napier, England, was
closely followed by Surtees, USA, and Danielou, France. White was here in ninth
position. If Surtees win, White must come in at least as ninth to win. Surtees
struggled fantastically, but Napier went very fast and kept the distance until
the finish. Since White managed to finish as seventh, the thing was clear. Peter
White and John Davies, England, had won the World Cup in 1973. Surtees finished
second overall, 0.3 points ahead of Pajot.
Final results
1. White, England
2. Surtees, USA
3. Pajot, France
4. Bethwaite, Australia
5. Danielou, France
6. Farrant, England
The closing party with the awards ceremony at the Hong Kong Hilton Hotel
completely followed the lines of this perfect arrangement. This World
Championship was the first WC of all categories ever been raced in Hong Kong, so
a lot of money and staff had been invested in these competitions. Excellent
sailing waters, perfect arrangements, huge resources and a very interesting city
make Hong Kong a given alternative for new big regattas. Unfortunately, it is
associated with great costs to get a boat and crew there.
For 1974, the eyes are directed towards Sweden and Marstrand, where the GKSS and
the Swedish 505 Association will host the World Championship during 10-19th of
August. The championship at home give hopes that we will encourage the Swedish
sailors to extra training sessions and to compete at several regattas before the
Worlds start. Sweden has several times achieved great success in 505, but the
really big success – a WC title – is still missing. What would be better than a
Swedish world champion in Marstrand 1974?
This photo taken in 1973, shows John Davies on the left,
Peter White on the right and beteen them is Simon Wakeford, another Felixstowe
Ferry Sailing Club member, who took part in the 1973 championship and crewed in
the winning boat of the last race. Incidentlly, the winner of that race was Rob
Napier, who has since moved to the area and joined the Felixstowe Ferry Sailing
Club.
It is worth recalling the 1973 championship which in the
words of Bob Fisher, the well known international yachtsman and journalist,
"must have been one of the most open series in the history of the class". With
only the last race to be sailed, any one of a dozen people could have taken the
title.
By finishing 7th in the last race Peter and John took the
title by 5.7 points in a fleet of 90 boats. The win could be attributed to Peter
and Johns consistency in such a large fleet when they won the first race, came
eighth in the second, third in the third, tenth in the fourth, seventh in the
final race and discarded a retirement in the fifth race.
The championship will also be remembered for the sea
conditions where there was inevitably a big swell accompanied by winds at times
of up to 20 knots.
