Hainan Race

The 15th edition of the Hong Kong to Hainan Race got underway on the 29th of October 2026, with five boats taking on the 390-nautical-mile offshore passage from Hong Kong to Sanya.

This year’s fleet featured four Hong Kong entries: defending champion Franco Cutrupia’s Solaris 60 Fenice, Johnson Yuen’s Summit 40, Zoe’s Guard, Sunny Chai’s Grand Soleil 42, Simplicity GS, and Yiu Kwai Szeto’s Grand Soleil 50, Glory. They were joined by the race’s sole international entry, Singaporean Yi Min Lee’s J/99, Jolt, bringing together a diverse fleet of experienced offshore campaigners and newcomers to the race.

Three boats – Glory, Simplicity GS and Jolt – were making their Category 1 offshore racing debuts. Jolt arrived in Hong Kong with an impressive record across Southeast Asia, including victory in the Sir Thomas Lipton Challenge Trophy 2024-25 and 1st overall in Class 3 at the Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta.

Before the race, Yi Min Lee shared the team’s excitement about stepping into offshore competition: “This will be our first offshore race as a team, so we’re incredibly excited. The level of competition and sailing in Hong Kong is very high, and we see this as a great opportunity to challenge ourselves and learn. For this first race, our goal is simple: sail safely, complete the course, and gain valuable offshore experience. Once we’ve built that foundation, we can start thinking about results.”

Fenice, winner of both Line Honours and IRC Overall in the 2025 edition, returned as defending champion. Ahead of the start, however, team manager Rosario Pedicini and skipper Fabio Brunazzi remained cautious about their chances of repeating last year’s success. “We don’t know because the conditions are different this year, and there are some boats with much lower ratings than ours. Fenice is a heavier boat, so we perform better in stronger conditions. We will do our best.”

Johnson Yuen, one of Hong Kong’s most active offshore sailors in recent years, returned to the race aboard a new and larger platform, the Summit 40, Zoe’s Guard. Ahead of the race, Johnson predicted that the lighter conditions could play into the hands of the 40-footer: “It looks like the winds and waves will be much lighter this time than in previous years. Our boat is relatively small compared with the other 50- or 60-foot yachts, so we hope these conditions will give us a chance to achieve a better result.”

Half an hour before the start, a north-easterly breeze of 5 to 7 knots was blowing across Victoria Harbour. But, as the start approached, the breeze eased to just 2-5 knots, setting the stage for a cautious and tactical opening to the race.

All five boats made a clean getaway at 1120. Zoe’s Guard, starting on port, soon found a strong patch of breeze closer to Hong Kong Island and made good progress upwind.

As the fleet approached North Point, the breeze strengthened to around 10 knots, with Zoe’s Guard still leading through Lei Yue Mun. Then came Fenice followed by Simplicity GS, Jolt and Glory.

Compared with the 2025 edition, the boats experienced lighter winds and calmer seas this year. Once clear of Hong Kong’s sheltered waters on the first night, east to east-north-easterly winds of around 15 to 20 knots, with stronger gusts, provided good offshore sailing conditions before the breeze gradually eased on the second day.

All five boats sailed south of the rhumb line in search of a better angle to fly their kites, accepting the trade-off of sailing more miles for higher speeds.

The lighter conditions ultimately played a significant role in shaping the final results, particularly the battle between Fenice and Zoe’s Guard.

The race concluded successfully on the 31st of October, with all five boats completing the distance within just 10 hours of each other. Fenice was first across the finish line, arriving at 1012 on Saturday after completing the course in 1 day, 22 hours, 52 minutes and 34 seconds – Line Honours for the second consecutive year.

Owner Franco Cutrupia, reflecting on the conditions, said: “Of the five offshore races we’ve done, this was the most straightforward, with calm seas and light winds. We would have preferred bigger waves and stronger winds, as Fenice is a heavy boat and needs those conditions. Still, the weather was very good, and we really enjoyed the race.”

Just over four hours later, Zoe’s Guard crossed the finish line at 1441. With a corrected time of 2 days, 7 hours, 58 minutes and 57 seconds, Johnson Yuen claimed IRC Overall victory, proving his pre-race prediction about the lighter conditions to be well founded.

Although Fenice had finished more than four hours ahead of Zoe’s Guard on elapsed time, once the IRC handicaps were applied, just 33 minutes separated the two boats on corrected time, with Zoe’s Guard emerging victorious and Fenice taking 2nd IRC Overall. 3rd IRC Overall went  to Yiu Kwai Szeto’s Glory with Jolt finishing 4th.

For Jolt, completing its first Category 1 offshore race marked another step in the team’s longer-term offshore ambitions. Yi Min Lee explained ahead of the race: “We’re planning to keep the boat in Hong Kong until 2028, with the Rolex China Sea Race as our ultimate goal. Before then, we hope to take part in the Eastern Asia Offshore Race and the Hong Kong to Vietnam Race next year.”

In the PHS Division, Sunny Chai’s Simplicity GS crossed the finish line at 2034 to take the division honours.