17th November, 2007.
Also called the Around the "Little" Island Race - held the day before the Loro Piana Around the Island Race.
race report from Erin Bowland...
7am: 12 mighty LIOCC paddlers boarded the ferry to Central, and then
taxied down to Deep Water Bay, where we jumped across the water to the
Royal HK Yacht Club on Middle Island. Very nice clubhouse on the beach
- I'm sure if we have a few more fund-raisers over the next several decades
we too can afford a multi-story clubhouse 
9am: races started. Other teams attending were the Yacht Club, HKOCC,
HKIPC, Lamma, Singapore and Team Hawaii (who, as Joost kept pointing
out, had very buff, tanned muscular torsos and insisted on getting
around shirtless. Joost thinks paddling shirtless should be a club rule
for us )
The first race was a mixed heat, with 4 teams in the heat. Our boats were:
Lantau 1 - Sandy, Lecia, Peter, Joost, Alison, Tim
Lantau 2 - Erin, Angel, Tony, Paul, Jillian, Ross
It
was difficult keeping the boats straight and lined up on the start line
as there were huge winds pulling us backwards and sideways. That, and
the fact that the start was narrow, meant some precision steering was
needed to get us out of the channel and to the first buoy. There were a
few little nudges between all teams during the course of the day, I
think!
Anyhow, the race was about 2.5km and took Lantau 1 17m45s, and
Lantau 2 19m35s, giving us 3rd and 4th place. The other 2 mixed crews
did it in 16min-something.
Then there were women's and men's
heats, and we managed to get our 6 guys to race in a men's heat as
there was one spare spot. So, again battling winds, the guys put in a
good effort, but didn't make the final.
Our Lantau 1 mixed boat made the mixed final, but so that the
ladies could get in 2 races for the day as well, we made it a women's boat (with Tim
steering). We were a certain 4th place (i.e. last!) against the 3 other
strong mixed crews, but we knew we would be!
After the races, the majority of us headed over to Cococabana
on Deep Water beach and enjoyed a really nice lunch and post-race glass
of wine.
So I think I can speak for everyone by saying that we all enjoyed the racing, and for many it was their 1st outrigger race experience, so the short distance made it a perfect first-timer's event. I had many people saying to me afterwards that they'd like to do more local races next year, so as events organiser I will endeavor to keep everyone updated on races we can participate in. And by doing the Middle Island race, we can all now see that we need to improve our strength, technique and speed to compete with other HK crews
