24-hour charity dinghy race

Over Halloween, most people decide to go out and trick or treat or party with their friends. This year however, 32 students from FIS decided otherwise. The Hebe Haven Yacht Club has been organising a 24-hour charity dinghy race since 2002, and this year again two boats represented FIS. People came early to Hebe Haven and our school’s tent was quickly set up with a huge French flag and many blue-white-red decorations. At 2pm, the start gun went and 28 boats divided in 5 categories rushed to take a good position. The aim was to complete the most laps of a 1.1 nautical mile square course, and teams were racing to win their own division as well as the overall place. The wind was steady throughout the afternoon and already some teams were slowly pulling ahead. Every 2 hours, our sailors on the water came back to the pontoon to switch crew, sometimes resulting in some strange acrobatic moves as people leapt out or in of the boats. As night started falling, things got quieter as the carnival that had been going on during the daytime closed down. The only people left where the few unfortunates ones that had been selected to do the night shifts, or the few crazy ones that had thought it would be fun waking up at 2am to go sailing. Every thing changed though for two hours as the Rugby World Cup final started, bringing back some life to the event. Sports have the power to get people together at anytime or any place just to enjoy watching people try their best at what they love most. At around 2.15am, things started to look grim as the wind completely dropped. The only thing making boats move was the current, which thankfully was pushing our boats in the right direction until the wind picked up again. As the sun broke out, the Pico, the smaller of our two boats, was in second place, not far from first and with a comfortable lead in front of third. The RS Feva however was in third place and only two laps ahead of fourth. There was no room for error, and the race was now really starting if we wanted a podium finish. Knowing that the team behind was Renaissance College pushed us further not let them overtake us. Things can happen very quickly when sailing, and the race is not won until you cross the finish line. For the next four hours, we were racing back and forth from our base camp to the TV scoreboard, seeing if we were still ahead. It was a huge relief when the end gun went off at 2pm on Sunday. The carnival had opened again, people from around Sai Kung and Clearwater Bay had come to see what was going on, but it didn’t fell like the previous day to us. FIS finished 2nd in the Pico class and 3rd with the RS Feva. This was the best any other school had done, and a fantastic achievement considering the fact that FIS doesn’t have a real sailing team, but rather sailors in FIS that get together during regattas. At the end, everyone was exhausted, without having slept much for the past 36 hours, but it was all worth it when we received our medals and trophies. The sailors raised 40 000HKD that were sent to 5 local charities, 10 000HKD of those coming straight from the school itself. Next on the calendar is the Interschool Regatta at Middle Island in March, and where we hope FIS will be able defend its title as one of Hong Kong’s top international school sailing team. Clément Francony, Year 12
​You will find more photos in the gallery

---