President's Report for 2009
Time flies yet another year has passed.
Currently the whole of Hong Kong is preparing for its first Multi Sports Games - The Hong Kong 2009 East Asian Games which will be held from 5 - 13 December 2009. Although our submission to join the Games has been turned down, as part of the sports community, we wish it all the very success. Moreover, we will give our full support to our windsurfing sailors and hope that they will achieve outstanding results in the Games and earn glory for Hong Kong.
The HKSF International Open Dinghy Regatta 2009, which was held from 24 to 26 October 2009 at STA Little Palm Beach Centre, received a record entry of 104 boats with teams from the Philippines, Thailand and Taiwan. The regatta has served its purpose in elevating the standards of sailing in Hong Kong since we started organizing the event in 2003, we are pleased to see big improvement in our sailors’ performance and the prizes are not dominated by the overseas teams any more.
In October 2009, Laser Radial sailor Erica Leung Hok Yan and 470 sailors Eva Leung Yuen Wa and C. K. Cheng have represented Hong Kong in the 11th All China Games. Although they have not managed to get into the Gold Fleet, we appreciate the effort they made in this highly competitive event and hope they will continue to keep up with their good work and prepare for the next challenge.
Apart from our continued support for the development of Optimist Squad and 420 Squad, as a progression for our Optimist Squad Members who have reached the age of 15, the HKSF has expanded the squad training to the Laser Youth Squads from the beginning of this year and provided all year round training for youth sailors in Laser Radial and Laser 4.7. As with the 420 Squad, any youth sailors who are interested to join the Laser Youth Squads can apply to HKSF in writing at any time.
The random inspections of our Recognised Teaching Centres have continued. In order to enhance transparency, we have issued the HKSF Establishment Guidelines to the Centres in September 2009, listing all the criteria for becoming an HKSF centre as well as the criteria for inspection. We hope the guidelines will help the Centres improve their management as well as safety standards.
The HKSF has also run a Dinghy Instructor Training Course in October this year in which 10 new instructors have been qualified and come on stream. We are planning to organize more instructor training courses in the next few years to ensure good supply of instructors for our dinghy courses.
Keith Mowser and Cowen Chiu will attend the ISAF Annual Conference in Busan, Korea this November on our behalf.
On the IRC front, since more and more members are bringing bigger boats to Hong Kong, the load cell the HKSF has been using for weighing boats is not capable in weighing those new boats. The HKSF has thus invested considerable amount of money in acquiring a new load cell weighing system which when installed can weigh boats of up to 40 tonnes.
The HKSF has also commissioned Javacatz Limited to upgrade our website. We hope by the beginning of next year, a brand new look of our website will be available.
Our Member Clubs have continued to be an integral part of the sport of sailing and organize a number of races, such as the China Coast Regatta, San Fernando Race 2009, Uin-na-Mara Series, Round the Island Race, Typhoon Series , ABC Opening Regatta and the COA's Macau Races. Without their efforts, our sport will definitely lose its shine.
I would also like to update our members that the lawsuit with one of our members, Yung Siu Ying is still going on. Since the legal proceeding is still underway, it is not appropriate for me to elaborate further. However, as soon as the final verdict from the Court has been issued, we will issue a special notice to all the members.
Last but not least, we would like to thank our Member Clubs, especially the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, Aberdeen Boat Club, Hebe Haven Yacht Club and the Windsurfing Association of Hong Kong for their continue support and dedication. I would also like to thank my fellow Council Members for their valuable contributions and the Secretariat of HKSF for their hard work in the past year. Thank you all very much.
Karl C Kwok
President
29 October 2009