The Nanking Plate Regatta (Press Release 1990)

On the 3rd and 4th of March next month, Singapore's Changi Sailing Club will host the 1990 Nanking Plate Regatta, sponsored by Colset Pte Ltd and Sebago Docksides.

While always a hotly contested event, this year's keelboat series will be even more exciting. The interest centres on a Maxi 77, Antipodes, owned and skipper by John Stevens. Antipodes won the keelboat class trophy for the Nanking Plate on two occasions (1987 and 1989). The challenge trophy, a fine china dinner plate 240 years old, was part of the original Nanking cargo - a considerable incentive to sail well.

The Nanking Plate Regatta is run in three divisions: keelboat, catamaran and dinghy. Inthe cats, Loke Yuen Kong is the hot favourite. No doubt in 1989 winners Martin van der Haarst and Alice Lim will be trying to make it two in a row and keep Kong out of the winner's circle.

The dinghies remain anybody's guess, with no winner having been successful more than once.

The Nanking Plate Regatta bean when treasure hunters Mike Hatcher and Max de Rham donated three china dinner plates as trophies for the Changi Sailing Club. The plates were originally cargo on the Dutch vessel Geldermalsen which foundered on a reef near Singapore in 1751. The Nanking Cargo, as the treasure came to be named, created a tidal wave of interest in the antique world during the mid 1980s. About 150,000 pieces of chine were recovered from the wreck.

For 235 years the plates remained protected from the ravages of the sea by thick coating of tea, the Geldermalsen's real cargo. When the vessel sand, the tea crates rotted away and spread over their protectice tannin coat over the china.

When the plates were raised nearly two and a half centuries later, all that was required was a quick rinse under fresh water to reveal their perfect kin-fresh finish.

When the Nanking Plate Regatta was first run in 1987, it was decided that in order to win the original plates a boat had to win the regatta on three consecutive occasions. The same applied to the catamaran and dinghy sailors. A copy of the plate would be awarded annually to the three class winners.

Changi Sailing Club regatta usually attract a large number of entries, and with the current wave of interest sailing is enjoying in Singapore, the 1990 Nanking Plate will be well supported. Programmes have been arranged for both adult and junior sailors with prizes to be awarded in the categories Keelboat, Dinghy, Catamaran. Common Passage Race (on general handicap). Topper (aged below 21) and Optimist (aged below 15).

Entries should reach the Changi Sailing Club by 1600 hours on 26th February. Details of entry fees and race programmes for the two days, (Saturday the 3rd and Sunday the 4th of March 1990) can be obtained by calling CSC.