Hong Kong to Hainan Race 2026- Fenice Takes Line Honours as Zoe’s Guard Claims IRC Overall Victory!

The Hong Kong to Hainan Race 2026 concluded successfully on 31 October, with all five boats completing the 390nm offshore passage to Sanya within just 10 hours of each other.

Johnson Yuen’s Summit 40 Zoe’s Guard crossed the finish line in Sanya at 1441hrs on Saturday. With a corrected time of 2d 7h 58m 57s, Zoe’s Guard claimed IRC Overall victory.

Ahead of the race, Johnson had predicted that the lighter conditions could play into the hands of the 40-footer: “It looks like the winds and waves will be much lighter this time than in previous years. Our 40-foot yacht is relatively small compared with the other 50- or 60-foot yachts, so we hope these conditions will give us a chance to achieve a better result.”

His prediction proved well founded, with Zoe’s Guard securing the overall win on corrected time.

Franco Cutrupia’s Solaris 60 Fenice crossed the finish line at 1012hrs on Saturday, completing the race in 1d 22h 52m 34s to claim Line Honours for the second consecutive year.

Fenice finished more than four hours ahead of Zoe’s Guard on elapsed time, but once the IRC handicaps were applied, just 33 minutes separated the two boats on corrected time, with Zoe’s Guard emerging victorious and Fenice taking 2nd IRC Overall.

Franco Cutrupia, owner of Fenice, celebrated another Line Honours victory and the team's first daylight finish in an offshore race. Reflecting on the conditions, he said: “Of the five offshore races we’ve done, this was the most straightforward, with calm seas and light winds. We would have preferred bigger waves and stronger winds, as Fenice is a heavy boat and needs those conditions. Still, the weather was very good, and we really enjoyed the race.”

Third IRC Overall went to Yiu Kwai Szeto’s Grand Soleil 50 Glory, followed by Singaporean Yi Min Lee’s J/99 Jolt in fourth.

Competing in its first Category 1 offshore race, Jolt arrived in Hong Kong with an impressive record across Southeast Asia, including victory in the Sir Thomas Lipton Challenge Trophy 2024–2025 and 1st place overall in Class 3 at the Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta.

Ahead of the race, Yi Min Lee spoke about the team’s motivation for venturing into offshore racing: “Over the past five or six years, we’ve raced extensively across Southeast Asia, but opportunities for offshore racing have been limited. That’s one of the main reasons we wanted to come to Hong Kong and take part in events such as the Hainan Race. We’re planning to keep the boat here until 2028, with the Rolex China Sea Race as our ultimate goal. Before then, we hope to take part in the Eastern Asia Offshore Race and the Hong Kong to Vietnam Race next year.”

In the PHS Division, sole entry Sunny Chai’s Grand Soleil 42 Simplicity GS crossed the finish line at 2034hrs on Saturday to take the division honours.

From the tactical opening exchanges in Victoria Harbour to the search for stronger breeze offshore and the close battle on corrected time, the Hong Kong to Hainan Race 2026 delivered another memorable 390nm passage to Sanya.