Eastern inspiration

We speak to Frank Pong about his boats and racing in southeast Asia

An unexpected visitor to Skandia Cowes Week this year was Hong Kong-based yachtsman Frank Pong. Having written about Pong for years without ever having met him we were expecting a conservative, small, tight-lipped besuited businessman type. Instead we are faced with a fit looking 6ft tall highly tanned 60 year old with a dazzling smile who is perhaps the most generous, self-depracating person we have ever met. We are won over instantly. To give some indication of our subject's means, more than 50 years ago Pong's family set up what is still Hong Kong's only steel rolling mill, Shiu Wing Steel Ltd.

Well known on the international yachting circuit for his boats such as Maiden Hong Kong, the 'ultimate' fast offshore monohull and his new Juan Kouyoumdjian designed TP 52 Mui Mui that has yet to rate as a TP 52, Pong is in Cowes en route to the US at the invitation of Juan K to sail on board ABN AMRO One. Nothing is to be read into this such as 'Hong Kong businessman launches Volvo campaign' - it is merely of academic interest to Pong to see how another fast canting keel boat operates in anger and the opportunity to meet skipper Mike Sanderson.

"I have never been to Cowes or sailed here, so I look forward to it," Pong told us prior to his sail. "The cold water worries me!"

Thinking back - while Pong at one time owned a Farr 40 we can't remember the last time we read about him sailing outside of Hong Kong or southeast Asia. "I have a lot of European and American friends in sailing and 'they say why don’t you come and do this and that - famous races? There is a lot of tradition in sailing and these classic races are to be respected. Having said that if anyone were to join our events in southeast Asia where you can sail in 30deg and 12 knots and a clear blue sky and you come back and can see your anchor in 40ft of water, then you can either swim ashore or walk along the powdery beach on to the hotel lawn and then enjoy a drink there... So why would I be in a hurry to go elsewhere? Having said that I am in Cowes and I am enjoying the ambience just as much," says Pong by way of explanation. Outside as we speak what sounds like a military band is thundering its way down Cowes HIgh Street.

If there is a message to come out of our encounter it is that Pong wishes to push the regatta circuit not just in Hong Kong and China but in the whole of southeast Asia.

To the outside world Pong comes across as one of the most enigmatic people within our sport. While we Anglo Saxons are used to the regimented idea of owner x buying boat y and then optimising it to the nth degree and filling it with a heavy weight professional crew to carry out objective z, this is exactly not how Pong operates. Maiden Hong Kong is potentially the world's fastest monohull having all the go-faster technology - canting keel, wingmast, deck spreaders, water ballast in her wings, etc. Why isn't she out there breaking records, taking part in races?



"I can sail it exactly the way I intended: to go fast," defends Pong. "It was never meant to be raced in short races. It is big and clumsy and you can’t get out of the way. Even sailing a 75 footer already says to me that other people - even motor boats crossing our path - never expect us to come so fast. When big boats get mixed up with the little boats in a hazard, it is always the fault of the big boat - they shouldn’t have been there in the first place. You should always be prepared to get out of the way of another little boat because you are a big guy."

Pong gives the impression that the Maiden Hong Kong project may be longer in gestation than sailing pundits were expecting - but he will get there at some point... What seems most important to Pong's enjoyment of sailing is that he steers and has his regular full time crew on board with him. Despite French veteran trimaran sailor Laurent Bourgnon being brought in early on to sort the boat out, one gets the impression he and his crew are still coming to terms what is almost certainly one of the world's largest and most complex sailing machines - creating a ground breaking vessel with the designer and builder is one thing, but once launched sailing a big, big beast like this and ironing out its quirks is quite another.

Perhaps the creative side of a project like this interests you - we put it to Pong. "I have been accused that I do more of that than the actual sailing. With Maiden Hong Kong perhaps it is true."

Also at present in the equivalent of the 'pending' tray, is Pong's TP 52 Mui Mui. Again a design by Juan Kouyoumdjian, the boat was outlawed by the TP 52 class. According her designer this was because of its semi-rigid backstay (read more about this here). While there are shortly going to be three TP 52s in Hong Kong, it seems most likely Mui Mui will optimised to race IRC in the short term at least (her bulb was designed with a pocket into which extra lead can be added).



Part of the reason for these projects being on hold is that Pong simply has so many boats. In fact he owns more big race boats than perhaps any owner we have met. "I have to admit that what I have at the moment is overwhelming," he says when we tease him about what his next boat might be. " I have too many to attend to at the same time. I am lucky that I have a hard working full time crew who sail with me and as a result I am able to maintain them and their upkeep, but even then we can’t have them all working at the same time. Some need a bit more work..."

When it comes to competing Pong has recently been found at the helm of his Reichel Pugh pocket maxi Jelik, formerly Roy Disney's pre-maxZ86 Pyewacket. However he has also acquired Jelik's sistership the former Chance/ Nokia Enigma, now called Boracay.

With the help of Juan K modifcations are in the process of being carried out on both boats - Jelik has a new keel, bulb and rudder, while Boroacay is getting the same treatment, but also a new mast and her trim is being changed. Jelik's 'asymmetric' performance (ie she is better on one tack than the other) is also being sorted out. "The speed difference between the two tacks was too big to be a little mistake here or there," says Pong. "So after quite a bit of work and getting different people to look at it, we found the keel was twisted by 0.3 of a degree. So fixing that and putting a new bulb in has increased the boat speed overall." There was some conjecture over whether this keel twist was a deliberate feature to optimise her for the Transpac.

"The boat is now livelier," continues Pong of how the boat has performed since, but he warns: "If anyone finds their boat has very asymmetric speed and has looked at the rig and everything else I am told by a designer that a few 10ths of a millemetre will affect it, a millimetre or two you can feel it, and 4mm you can’t fail to notice the speed differential. Anyone who has a halfway decent boat and is thinking of building a new one because it is no longer competitive I would say go to someone who is knowledgable and innovative enough and put a new keel, bulb and rudder on at a fraction of the price - you could well have a substantial improvement in the boat and it could be even more satisfying than building a new boat."

So why does he need two of these boats? Obviously they help with sail testing, but Pong has more philanthropic reasons. Over the course of this year he has been helping China Team with their match race practice, first in a session in Hong Kong in March and followed up next month with another in Qingdao with more to come in the future. While Pong is not backing China Team he has effectively loaned them a boat in exchange for some coaching for his team. "We learn so much from them. It is huge, even though they are struggling on the [America's Cup] ladder they are good people and we learn from them. What we thought was pressure is nowhere near and as a result we pushed ourselves a lot harder. So I think I am the one who got the better deal. We have 12 good teachers on the other boat teaching us how to do things several levels up from us."

While Pong prefers to sail with his regular crew from the Philippines and Malaysia, he often hires in coaches and these have included Roy Heiner, Peter Morton, Laurence Reid and Chris Hunt.

Pong's large flotilla is also to help promote racing in his region. Someone showing an interest and a slight budget stands a good chance of being able to charter one of his boats, and he has in the past given boats to local sailing federations to help encourage local participation. The Chinese Sailing Federation for example were given Pong's Castro-designed Whitbread 40 while another of his boats, a 40ft Imp derivative Pong owned for 15 years ultimately ended up being sold to an owner in Taiwan. "So the first offshore Taiwan boat and the first offshore China boat were designed by Tony and commissioned by me!" says Pong showing a rare glimpse of pride.

Since the days when the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club's China Sea Race to the Phillipines and the Phuket King's Cup were the only prominent events on the Asia racing calendar, many newer events have sprung or are in the process of springing to prominence all over southeast Asia. The RHYC now run a biennial race to Vietnam as well as the San Fernando Race. Thailand now has the Ko Samui Regatta, Phuket Race Week and Top of the Gulf regatta, Malaysia has the Royal Langkawi International Regatta, Raja Muda (now on the RORC calendar) and the high profile Monsoon Cup match racing (part of the Match Race World Tour). Singapore has the Singapore Straits Regattas and the Royal Singapore Yacht Club Regatta. Further afield in the Philippines have the President's Cup and Manila to Boracay Race.

Pong believes that we can expect to see yacht racing in China develop at a rapid rate in the near future. "For the last 600 years since the Ming dynasty, China has been very xenophobic and now the present government are encouraging people to take to the water again," says Pong. With this in mind they have recently introduced a National Watersports Day to be held every July. Then there is of course the sailing side of the Beijing Games to be held in Qingdao and China's first involvement in the America's Cup. "The people - they have done golf and things like that. They want to do something challenging, like big boat sailing - China is coming out to play on the water again," states Pong. Prior to the Ming dynasty China was a powerful seafaring nation and there is strong evidence to suggest that it was their Admiral Zheng He who in the 15th century was first to sail around the world, some 100 years before Magellan and 150 years before Drake. (Read the Snake's account of this here).

As a result various are being considered in China including from Hong Kong to Qingdao as a feeder race to the Olympics in Qingdao in 2008 and one of their most enthusiastic entrants - whichever of his boats he is sailing by then - will be Frank Pong.