A mother and daughter success story, an Italian architect who fulfilled her dream in Hong Kong, a former para pistol shooter who switched sports, and a women with muscular dystrophy who was able to pilot a boat on her own – these are among the participants in The Capital Company Women’s Sailing Festival in Hong Kong, which starts this weekend at the Hebe Haven Yacht Club,
Local and overseas enthusiasts will come together for 10 days of water sports, seminars, training, fun and regattas. Organised by the Hebe Haven Yacht Club and Sailability Hong Kong, the festival is aimed at celebrating women in sailing, with organisers hoping to encourage more girls and women to take up the sport.
Angel Leung On-ki and Sylvia Leung Chuk-yun, who are part of the Sailability programme, and Yani Lam Yan-yan and Italian Mirna Zordan are among the women who are expected to play prominent roles during the festival. Here are their stories:
Poignant story of mother and daughter has Yani Lam going from ‘zero to hero’
Yani Lam didn’t like sailing initially. She only took up the sport to prove something to her daughter, a special education needs (SEN) student who was falling behind in her studies and was just starting her own sailing journey. More than four years later, Lam is a qualified dinghy and powerboat instructor and her daughter, See-sun, is excelling at academics and has earned a sports scholarship at a prominent secondary school. Her story is described as “zero to hero” in the sailing community.
Lam realised See-sun was struggling as a SEN student in a normal school and encouraged her to take up a sport. She wanted to look “outside the box” so decided on sailing. After an encouraging start, See-sun started to struggle and was on the verge of giving up. Lam had been hospitalised several times and felt that See-sun may perceive her as weak. So she set up a challenge for her daughter.
“I wanted to tell my daughter that if she persists she will get there,” Lam said. “At that point, she may have had the impression that I was a weak lady. I said if I can pass the level three sailing course, to show her it can be done, then she should not give up. I would give her the choice.
“I wanted to show her she might get somewhere. I started sailing to walk with her. If I just drop her at sailing and pick her up, I would never understand what she goes through.”
Lam not only passed her level three sailing course she also qualified as a powerboat instructor, one of the few local women to earn the qualification in Hong Kong. She is also a dinghy instructor, a race instructor for a children’s cancer foundation and an instructor with the Scallywag school programme.
Since then, Lam has become the main sailor in the family while See-sun, while still interested in the sport, is more involved in her studies. The mother and daughter team have registered to compete in the regatta at the Women’s Sailing Festival.
Before she laid down a sailing challenge to See-sun, Lam helped to set up a support group for parents of SEN children. She said it started with around 10 families and has now grown into a 300-strong NGO.
“I realised that sailing can actually help a lot of kids, not limited to SEN,” she said. “They are locked in the classroom and in some kind of mindset and bringing them out to experience nature would be beneficial for them.
“We have a slogan in sailing, ‘saltwater cures everything’, that’s my belief. Having that belief allowed my daughter and myself to keep on sailing, volunteering and helped me to not only pass level three but become a sailing instructor.”
Italian architect and academic makes most of Hong Kong’s ‘incredible’ waters
Mirna Zordan grew up in two Italian cities famous for their proximity to water. Valpolicella is a wine region close to Lake Garda, while Venice is built on the water. However, it wasn’t until she arrived in Hong Kong that she was able to fulfil a long-held dream to learn sailing. An architect and academic with City University of Hong Kong, she moved to the city three years ago and started to learn how to sail last year through the Hebe Haven Yacht Club, which is hosting this month’s Women’s Sailing Festival.
“I always wanted to sail because water has always been close to me,” Zordan said. “But I never had the chance for various reasons. Last year I said to myself that I really want to start so I started looking for opportunities. Hong Kong has incredible access to water and very good opportunities for sailing. So I found Hebe Haven and did my HKSF level one and two dinghy courses.
“That was just the beginning, so I’m trying to get as much experience as I can because I really love it and it has become a very important part of my life,” added Zordan, who will take part in the festival’s Open Dinghy Regatta double-handed race. “It will be my first race in the dinghy double-handed so I’m really excited and looking forward to it.”
She makes comparisons between her passion for sailing and architecture, and is inspired by fellow Italian architect Renzo Piano, whose projects include the Centre Pompidou in Paris and Osaka Kansai Airport. Piano shares a love for sailing which he says, like architecture, is about suspension. “Suspension, and also balance, these are two things that are part of our lives,” Zordan said.
She said it was difficult to describe the sensation when she was out on the water, knowing that she was responsible for moving an object through her sailing skills. She said she was welcomed by the sailing community in Hong Kong and that has played a major part in enhancing her love for the sport.
“There are a combination of reasons of why I fell in love with the sport,” she said. “First of all, sailing is like flying, with the sails like wings. It is also sport and it is a release, gives you a break and is very good for mental health and your psychological well-being. Also your contact with nature is incredible, you are right in the middle of it and you need to learn to coexist with nature because if you don’t, you can’t sail.
“I was amazed that the concepts of suspension and balance are very strong in sailing, as in architecture, and life. It has a lot to do with physics. Just the feeling of being out there is amazing. You never stop learning in trying to deal with situations in nature and external conditions.”
Ex-Para Games pistol shooter enjoys boost of confidence after changing sports
Sylvia Leung Chuk-yun represented Hong Kong at the 2014 Asian Paralympic Games in Incheon, South Korea, competing in the women’s 10-metre air pistol competition. It was during that competition that she befriended members of the Hong Kong sailing squad and she felt drawn to the sport. She started to take lessons and signed up for the annual 24-hour Sailing Charity Race at Pak Sha Wan Yacht Club.
With support from Sailability Hong Kong, Leung continued her journey on the water and is now a member of the Hong Kong para sailing team. Taking part in a 2.4mR one-person keelboat race was a breakthrough for Leung, who started to gain more confidence in her abilities. She has since won the 303 Solo Sailing organised by Pak Sha Wan and is determined to improve her skills.
“I knew that I had to work harder so that I could make it to the international level,” she wrote in the Hebe Haven Yacht Club’s official magazine. “I can swim, but at the same time, I fear the vast ocean. I used to be terrified of how blustery it was around Sham Wan and Ocean Park, and I also found 2.4mR quite hard to handle.
“To step out of my comfort zone, I did make efforts in various aspects. I decided to participate in the 2.4mR competition held in multiple bay regions, so I plucked up the courage and joined regional competitions. After all these challenging journeys, I came to realise that if we have faith in ourselves, we can overcome anything that seems impossible.
“We sailed the boat from Pak Sha Wan to Sham Wan and other southern bays to compete in the race. I thought I would not make it. Winning the 303 Solo Sailing was a huge confidence boost. I will devote all my attention to practice and improve my skills and go beyond my limit.”
Leung said she was grateful to Sailability and her support team for helping her thrive on the water. “The journey from sailing for leisure to professional competitions was surprisingly smooth.
“Thanks to the big family at Sailability, giving me precious opportunities to be part of it. With careful guidance from my coach and my teammates’ encouragement, I have acquired knowledge in various aspects.
“Although there was an occasional obstacle, it soon became a driving force, and my love for sailing gradually became a weekly event.”
Angel’s body is empowered again as she finds new lease of life aboard a boat
Angel Leung On-ki suffered a fall in 2002 that initially was put down to clumsiness. But reality soon set in. Just like her father and brother, she was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy.
Many people who suffer from the disease are able to function via medication. But she knows she is not one of them. Gradually, her body functions shut down until she was unable to fully make use of her hands. In an article for Sailability Hong Kong – an organisation that provides sailing opportunities to minorities – she wrote: “When my legs are gone, I live on the wheelchair or crutches; when my body stiffens, I rely on my eyes to explore the world; when my right hand is numb, I take up my daily living with my left; but now, am I losing my final bit of autonomy?”
On January 18, 2020, her life changed when she discovered sailing through Sailability Hong Kong’s co-founder Kay Rawbone. She was eventually able to steer a boat by herself with her husband, Anthony, on board. Leung continues with her story.
“Friends are all surprised when I announced that, ‘I will be sailing on a boat’. With my feeble limbs, let alone standing, am I able to do it? Childhood memories come back to me, it is inseparable from the sea, dating back to the ‘boatpeople’ origins of my parents and grandmother.
“Kay [Rawbone] told me a few stories of disabled athletes … even though I am restricted in movement, I am more blessed than most others as my eyes can still see, my hands can still work and my legs can still stand. I may not be able to handle a lot of things, but I make the effort to try, to experience and leave no regrets to life.
“How is my body doing tomorrow? Am I going to lose another movement? Not even the doctor can tell, let alone myself, so I choose to treasure the present moment, live a full life every day, with the faith that, ‘as there is life, there is hope’. I participate as it’s the last, and the best memories will be saved in my mind.
“Inevitably there are ups and downs in everyday life, doubt looms from time to time, what’s the point for this life? I question myself numerous times if I should keep going. The sailing experience, with the guidance of the coach, proves once again a disabled body is not a non-functional body; with the assistance of others, I can still achieve and excel. My body is once again empowered, with positivity. Each sailing will lift the expectation of the next, another chance to live out a beautiful life.”
