[ OOCL 5th Asia Pacific Championship Set to Start ]

Yachts Arrive in Hong Kong

With just one week to go, preparations are well underway for the
OOCL 5th Asia Pacific Championship, the second leg in the OOCL World S
eries which culminates in the OOCL World Championship Hong Kong 1997.
From November 9-16, the current top three Etchells sailers in the worl
d-Adam Gosling(sixth in the 1995 OOCL Asia Pacific Championship, Judd
Smith (fourth in last year’s event) and Peter Conde- and John beruran
d of America’s Cup fame are competing against Hong Kong’s best for t
he OOCL Asia Pacific Championship title.
Seventeen boats have enterd: 10 from Hong Kong, three from Australia,
one from the U.K. and three U.S. teams to provide some top sailing tal
ent.
Overseas competitors’ boats started arriving in Hong Kong last week.
World number one, Adam Gosling’s “Yes” was delivered by OOCL from t
he UK to the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club and was followed shortly by Jo
nhn Bertrand’s boat which came up from Melbourne, Australia. These tw
o yachts and the other overseas and local entries will soon be ready f
or the championship as crews start arriving at the end of this week. t
he first day of racing will be a practice race on Sunday, November 10.
Sailed over a three year period, the first event in the Series was the
OOCL 5th Asia Pacific Championship sailed off Clearwater Ray, Hong K
ong in November, 1995. the second event, the OOCL 5th Asia Pacific Cha
mpionship, taken place this November in the waters south of Lamma Isla
nd, Hong Kong. Followed by two races next year- the OOCL China Nationa
l Championship 1997 in October and the OOCL World Championship in Nov
ember, 1997, the skipper with the highest accumulative points over the
four regatta series will win the OOCL World Series Cup.
Sponsored by global container transportation company OOCL, who is ship
ping all overseas competitors’s yachts for redd, OOCL sees the OOCL W
orld Series as a historic event which spans the transition of Hong Kon
g to the 1997 hand-over. It is a momentous occasion and presents the o
ppotunity to bring yachting of world class standards to both Hong Kong
and China as the first world championship sailing event to be held in
the PRC.