Oneberry Ambassadors’ Cup (20th Ed)
2019 marks the 20th Anniversary for CSC’s Premier Sailing-Social Event – the Ambassadors’ Cup. We celebrate 2 decades of Bringing the World Together, through sailing. The brainchild of H. E. Tony Siddique, this event gathers all the Ambassadors in Singapore at a beautiful location for a day of sailing and revelry ? an event unique to Changi Sailing Club and possibly Asia.
H.E. James Sinclair, Ambassador of Chile once again presides over the event, and together with the Organizing Committee spared no effort to orchestrate a phenomenal celebration of international friendship through the wonderful sport of sailing.
Racing
This year we see a total of 51 boats spread over 4 classes participating, with the largest being new entrants Intrigue of Stornoway, a beautiful Warwick 60 sailing yacht. She hosted the Ambassador of Columbia and his entourage, one of the 36 Embassies and 25 Ambassadors who joined the Skippers and Crew of the Keelboats to make up the Ambassadors (25) & Non-Ambassadors Divisions (11).
A light south-easterly breeze greeted sailors on the start line, together with a strengthening outgoing tide brought all 51 boats on a smooth beat to North Angler. Winds were shifty throughout the afternoon, putting sailors through a stern test of tactics and skills. The Race Committee decided to shorten the course at North Angler, a decision welcomed by most due to the strong tides and unpredictable winds. An added benefit of finishing early for Rugby fans was the live screening of the RWC Finals at the Apres Sail drinks, the perfect commencement of the evening festivities.
In the Ambassadors’ Division, Red Rum clinch Line Honours and overall 3rd on handicap, together with H.E. Patrick Bourne of Ireland. Despite the Archambault 40’s significant lead, it was not enough to beat H.E. Agustin Garcia-Lopez Loaeza of Mexico Invictus on corrected time, whose performance once again awards her with 2nd place, making it 2 runner-up finishes in a row. This year Invictus was paired with the Mexican Ambassador, H.E. Agustin Garcia-Lopez Loaeza and family. Under the new helmsmanship of Thomas Reckefuss, Born in Fire sailed very well to clinch victory in the Ambassadors’ Division. The X99 became the 20th winner of this prestigious event, together with H.E. Jun Yamazaki, Ambassador of Japan.
Despite achieving a good start to lead the fleet initially, Just A J‘s campaign in the Non-Ambassadors Division was short-lived, surviving a dismasting on the way to North Angler. Thankfully no one was hurt, and the skipper and crew from NTU Sailing Club managed to return to the moorings safely. All 13 boats were quite spaced out, with the main body of 5 to 6 boats battling it out in the middle of the fleet. Skybird had a good lead, and eventually took 1st place 9 minutes ahead of the next boat, Rachel 1. When the numbers were crunched, Skybird stayed on top with only 3 minutes separating them. Rachel 1 was hosting delegates from the embassy of Timor Leste, and were excited to share the news of their good performance with their guests. Leslie Fung’s Todak 2 and the delegates from Qatar completed the podium in 3rd, an excellent result for the Hanse 315.
Starting together with the Non-Ambassadors Division were the 2 Cruising Catamarans – Firefly and Katrianne. Katrianne clawed back from a bad start to catch up with 3-time winners Firefly, and managed to keep within sighting distance of the defending champions all the way to North Angler. Their never-give-up attitude and hard work paid off, scoring victory by 1 min & 40secs on corrected time, much to the delight of Skipper Gary Matthews.
The Trimarans showed up in full force, with 27 hulls on the start line. Buay Kaola sailed a fantastic race with Scott McCook at the helm, eventually taking both line honours and victory on corrected time. With only 10 minutes separating the 2nd and 8th boat, it was a close fight for the chasing fleet, as Team Cicak emerged the best of the rest, securing 2nd place 48 seconds ahead of Witblits on handicap. Being the only boat representing the Beach Catamarans did not stop Jeremy Perrier and his 2 kids from having a blast, both on water and on shore. Very Bad Influence was in good spirits throughout the day, and we enjoyed the good vibes from the trio!
Party On!
After the sailors witnessed the tragic game (For the English Fans) that was the Rugby World Cup Finals, it was not long before NationOne began to rock the evening with popular songs and cool beats, getting sailors grooving on the dance floor in no time. This paired with a skillful dance set from the colourful Samba Dancers gave the evening a very South American flair, and brought the energy to the dance floor!
The Prize Giving & Closing Ceremony of the 20th Ambassadors’ Cup was graced by Guest of Honour, Mr Kon Yin Tong, Chairman of Sport Singapore.?We would like to take this opportunity to thank the following sponsors:
Title Sponsor: Oneberry Technologies
Gold Sponsor: Chong Lee Leong Seng / Yanmar
Supporting Sponsors:
Cosmosteel
Kaefer Prostar
VCT Wineries (Casillero Del Diablo)
Asia Pacific Breweries (Tiger Beer)
The Luxury Network + Diplomatic Council
Last but not least, BIG thank you to all sailors for celebrating the Ambassadors’ Cup’s 20th Anniversary with us! Special thanks to the visiting yachts for sailing from Clubs and Marinas across the island to participate, we hope you had an enjoyable race and party.
Once again from all of us at CSC, thank you for joining us in Bringing the World Together.
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