China Team gain new figurehead

Influential Hong Kong-based yachtsman Frank Pong comes on board at Honorary Chairman

Frank Pong, former Commodore of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club and owner/skipper of some of the most magnificent racing boats in Asia, has joined China Team as Honorary Chairman.

You have become increasingly involved this year in the activities of the China Team and today you are its Honorary Chairman. How did you come into contact with the team?

FP: I had known Luc [Gelleseau] many years ago when they came to Hong Kong sailing as the Corum Team, and when the China Team asked me to join in a match racing weekend in March 2006 in the Hong Kong in the style of the America's Cup, I jumped at the chance as I had not done any match racing before. I was happy to use my two 75 footers, one for myself and my crew, and the other for the China Team. The Team had been selecting Mainland sailors to weave them into the fabrics of the AC training and racing and I was happy to be of some assistance.

I am getting more involved with the China Team with a great deal of hesitation, not because they are at the bottom of the ladder at the moment, which is not a bad place to start, as you can only go up. I am afraid of the demand of my own time into my own sailing activities.

Wang Chaoyung asked me to take on this role when we were in Qingdao in September and it was right that I should support him and the Team at this time.


You are considered to be one of the most important figures in world sailing today, how did this sport become a passion for you?

FP: In China, possibly. Sailing and sailboat racing is a captivating sport. It is something that one can start from very young and can go into it for as long as one wishes. In different levels of active requirements of course. It is both a sport and a pastime that is equally enjoyable. I was on a sailing dinghy for the first time on a beach in Malaysia in 1975, and felt there and then that this was the sport I wanted to play for as long as I could. After I came back to Hong Kong, I bought a second hand Enterprise dinghy, enrolled in sailing lessons and off I went.


You want to develop sailing in China. How are you going to go about doing this? What are your objectives?

FP: Under the guidance of the Chinese Yachting Association, dinghy and windsurf sailing have been underway for decades but bigger boats have not been much looked at until now. I don’t think it is something I had wished upon my sailing friends in China. I am responding to their wish to get into this sport.

There is now financial capability and as the country becomes more affluent , leisure time activities are becoming a bigger part of life. Now, the sport of sailing is viewed by people in China just the same way as elsewhere before, or even now, that it is something for the rich.Yes, and no, just like anything else, you can have a big and expensive limousine, or you can make do just as well with a small car or you can rent one off the beach !

At the present time, there is no doubt the sorely missing part in sailing in China is the knowledge and a pool of people who can just go onto a 35 footer and sail with competence. Hence there is a great deal of need for big boat sail training. I have met many enthusiastic friends coming from all parts of the world who have expressed their keenness to assist by starting sailing academies and this is something that would be much welcomed. There is one problem, though, and that is the language barrier. Not all Chinese persons who wish to learn to sail share a common language with those who wish to spare their time to teach them.

I suppose that is why I have found myself and my crew in a position to help in the conveyance of the basic elements of bigger boat handling and racing.

I have no set goals, just to be able to help as many as we can to get going is all we are wanting to do.

I had no wish to win the Americas Cup, but now that I have been given this position, I will try and help the China Team in the ways I can.But to represent the Team, and China, in this arena of Americas Cup is a great honour for me.

It would be unreasonable to expect our Team to win next year in Valencia. But this brave initiative has sparked off lots of others in China who would otherwise have been too shy to try.

I suppose if the China Team helps to sets off once again the spirit of adventure in our people, it will have done more than it dared to dream to achieve, at this time and for this time.

To read our more wide reaching interview with Frank Pong - click here