The 9th Country Garden Cup Round Hainan Regatta came to a successful conclusion on April 1, 2018. The event has become a premier sailing race in China following several stages of expansion since 2010, and is now ready to break out onto the world stage.

Eight classes in total, in addition to IRC1-6, Round Hainan Regatta 2018 (short as RHN 2018)added OP Class for teenagers and Beneteau Casual Class ,it provides a great chance for all kinds of sailing enthusiasts.

Shantou Noahs team with their TP52, participate the regatta for the first time. Due to the appropriate wind weather conditions during the offshore race from Haikou to Sanya, speed up to16-17 knots with beam wind. After the 25h2min10s sailing, Shantou Noahs broke the record of Haikou-Sanya offshore race.

There is a team called Double Dutch, with only two crew member which is the minimum crew members required of Round Hainan Regatta. Skipper Martin, it was the sixth time for him to participate the regatta, tried to increase the level of challenge. Their fleet, a converted Ten33, designed for SOLO ocean sailing, the GPS is connected with autopilot. “If it is permitted, I want to challenge sailing SOLO round Hainan ”, said Martin.

In IRC6, after a terrific and powerful racing, the Best Friend team and Shanghai Morning Star team, the same fleet Bavaria Cruiser 37, and of course the same IRC handicap. The two teams were split by an incredible 46 seconds.

The Nanbianhai Team attracted much attention as it is the first local team consisting of Tankas, or boat people, an ethnic minority in Southern China, that participated in the competition.

Though 9 years development, RHN 2018 become more and more international. Country Garden Phoenix Universal Team, won the “the Best International Team ” award at the prize-giving ceremony, attracted all crew from eight  countries and regions with six different mother tongue, skipper Mattias Berger from Austria, keyboard Cristina from Romania , bow man Paul from England and experienced sailor Ye sir from Guangzhou, China. In order to let everybody can communicate smoothly, complete all work on board, the skipper to let international crew members learning Chinese pronunciation especially for sailing vocabulary.