have started in Hong Kong as early as 1849 when colonial residents formed a boating club. Races took place on routes such as Hong Kong Island to Wai Ling Ding island (now part of Zhuhai) and back, and over to Macau.

In the 1890s, the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club was formed. If you look at the club's website (www.rhkyc.org.hk) you can download a copy of a book called Yachting in Hong Kong, written in 1905 as well as Eastern Waters, Eastern Winds, written by Gillian Chambers to mark the club's 100th anniversary in 1994.

Among the challenges of yacht racing in the early days were poor charts of some waters along the South China coast, the prospect of bad weather in the days before modern forecasting technology and the threat of pirates.

Over the years, regular races started to take place to various ports in the Philippines, Vietnam and Hainan island. The China Sea Race between Hong Kong and Subic Bay started in 1962 and has become a major event on the racing calendar.

Yacht racing is of course a global and Olympic Games sport. One of its greatest events is the America's Cup, which has a junior version called the Youth America's Cup.

And Hong Kong will be represented by a RHKYC squad at the next Youth America's Cup gathering in March 2021 in New Zealand. So good luck to my young friend Jackie Truhol and her teammates, who are training hard for that one.

Bernard Charnwut Chan is chairman of Tai Kwun Culture & Arts Co Ltd.

standard@bernardchan.com

Seeing history unfurl from amidships