A Beneteau First 36 skippered by Richard Allen, Group General Manager of Simpson Marine, has joined the line-up for the third Beneteau Cup, taking the line-up for the October 28 event to 18 boats. 

Mike Simpson, founder and Managing Director of Simpson Marine, a Beneteau dealer since 1985, will captain his Oceanis 46.1 Freedom at the annual event, which is organised by Beneteau Asia-Pacific and Simpson Marine with Aberdeen Boat Club.

A week ahead of the one-day event, the fleet of 18 boats confirmed to compete included defending champion Alfred Lau and Castor Kong’s Easy Breezy II, a Beneteau First 41S5 sailboat built over three decades ago.

Other returning boats include John Berry’s Oceanis 43 Five O One, Robert Cook’s First 405 Ichiban, Ming Lou’s Oceanis 40 Coral Harbour, May Lau’s Oceanis 35.1 La Folia and Fukushima Kunihiro’s First 265 Water Rabbit.

Held over two days for the first two editions, the Beneteau Cup will be held over just one day this year. The provisional schedule includes racing starting from Middle Island at 10.30am and finishing mid-afternoon before boats return to Middle Island.

Welcome drinks start at 4.00pm followed by speeches at 5.00pm, a buffet dinner at 5.30pm, awards ceremony at 6.30pm, with the evening entertainment stretching until 10.00pm.

The event’s main partners include China Mobile, Aon, ePropulsion, Peters & May and Raymarine, while there are 17 award partners. 

As with the first edition in May 2021, the event is supporting Splash, a charitable foundation teaching under-resourced communities how to swim. Splash works with domestic workers, children from low-income families, and youngsters with special needs.

www.beneteaucuphk.com

www.simpsonmarine.com