On October 21, 2016, the Pacific Cup of International Sailing Regatta was launched in Beijing by Mr. Zhai Mo, board member of the China Institute of Navigation (CIN) and concurrently Chinese Navigation Ambassador. The first event is expected to be held in the winter of 2018 and supported by CIN.
According to the introduction of pre-competition press conference, this event’s starting point and destination are Shanghai (China) and Los Angeles (U.S.A.) respectively, which is a non-stop sailing about 6000 nautical miles in total. What’s more, in this event, boats made in China will be used for competition and many world-class professional yachtsmen will also take part in the match. Meanwhile, only traditional methods and tools like the star drawing operation can be used for navigation in this event and any electronic equipment is prohibited. The race will be held in the Pacific Ocean in the season of the strongest wind, which will pose great challenges to the fleet.
In the press conference, Zhai Mo said that he had prepared this race for a decade, and hoped the Pacific Cup of International Sailing Regatta would become the top yacht race created by Chinese independently. During his single global navigation, Zhai Mo investigated the ocean currents, wind strength, weather and astronomical phenomena. Then he had a discussion with the foreign and domestic sailing experts. It was agreed that the Pacific Ocean has a vast area and involves over 30 countries, which offers excellent racing conditions. At present there is no international sailing race across the whole Pacific Ocean. Therefore, this sailing regatta will fill in the gaps.