Got Wind? A Roundup of the 2018 Singapore National Sailing Championship
The Singapore National Sailing Championship 2018 came to a close after five intense days of racing. The regatta, which was held between the 6th to 10th of June, saw a slew of exciting events take place at the National Sailing Centre.
The first of these was the Passage Race – a fun race that had sailors pull out their water guns and sail standing up.
Meanwhile, both local and international Optimist teams pit themselves against one another in the Optimist Team Racing event. The Singaporeans eventually made a clean sweep of all the medals on offer.
269 sailors from six countries – Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand and Singapore – took part across 10 Fleet Racing events.
In addition to being a national ranking regatta for the local sailors, the Championship was also an 2018 Asian Games selection event for some classes, namely the Laser 4.7, RS:One and RS:X.
Although light winds and poor weather kept sailors waiting on shore for a good part of the regatta, the steady breeze in the afternoons allowed for some great racing.
While their children were competing out at sea, parents were having their fair share of fun on water too, as they competed in the in the Parents’ Race on the Hansa.
The final day also saw colourful Jongs zipping across the shoreline, in SingaporeSailing’s first ever Jong race.
Jongs are traditional boats that require no skipper and are powered purely by the wind. Jong racing used to be popular in Singapore as a community bonding activity, and so Jong enthusiasts were invited to share their love of the craft with the Championship spectators.
The Singapore Sailing Federation also launched the world’s first A.I. powered sailing chatbot to deliver real-time wind and weather readings, as well as regatta information, to sailors and parents during the Championship. During the championship, 273 chatbot users exchanged over 23,000 messages with Sammy, of which 7,000 pertained to wind / weather. Over the 5 days of the regatta, users clocked over 153,000 seconds (or 42 hours) of chat time. (Chat to Sammy at https://m.me/sammysailbot)
SingaporeSailing would also like to thank our sponsors Mulebar, SunMoon, PsLove, UFC Coconut Water, Grain and Village Hotel Katong for their generous support throughout the regatta.
Sponsor discounts
All participants can enjoy 20% off Mulebar’s tasty and healthy energy bars. Visit mulebar.sg and Check out with SAIL20 before 30 June to enjoy the discount.
Event Photographs
Photos have been provided courtesy of Allan Zhou, Sen and Donovan Ho. Parents, sailors and SingaporeSailing are granted permission to use photographs for personal, non-commercial usage only.