Hong Kong sailors are hoping to make waves at this year's National Games, as they chase the city's first-ever medal in the competition which started on Monday in Guangdong province.

The SAR is fielding eight athletes at four sailing competitions at the Guangdong Ocean Sports Training Centre in Shanwei, about 100km northeast of Hong Kong.

Veteran Nicholas Halliday and teenager Peter Jessop will vie for glory in the men's single dinghy – ILCA 7 – while the duo of Stephanie Norton and Nancy Highfield will represent the SAR in the women's single dinghy, ILCA 6.

In team races, Russell Aylsworth and Akira Sakai will partner again in the men's skiff 49er class, while Mak Hiu-tung and Emily Polson are competing in the women's 49erFX.

With the exception of Halliday, all of them are making their National Games debut.

The 26-year-old, who finished 24th at the Paris Olympics last year, spoke of the urge to make progress.

"Last time was my first time doing the National Games, so I was kind of going into it just fresh, and it was a new competition for me, but this time we wanted to do a little bit better," he said.

Halliday says the sailors arrived in Shanwei a few days early to acclimatise to the conditions.

"We have to go a little bit earlier because every place has different conditions and different sets of waves so we're going to go a little bit earlier, sail a little bit on the course to just prepare for that," he explained.

"The windsurfers are over there already. They told me that it's big waves, so that's all I know. But it sounds like good fun."

Another medal hopeful, Stephanie Norton, said she was very excited to be competing alongside her teammates.

Norton is entering the Games as one of the favourites, having won silver at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou.

The 25-year-old has never sailed in Shanwei, but believes the conditions there are comparable to Hong Kong.

"We've just been doing a lot of training on the water, we just did a block in the UK where it was quite windy, and here we're just doing some physical training in the lead-up to try and be in the best shape possible when the regatta starts," she said.

"We haven't competed there before, so I'm not exactly sure what is going on, but I hear from other people that it'll be probably a place with big waves and strong winds.

"So in Hong Kong, if we go out of the bay, we can have similar conditions. So we've been doing a bit of sailing there to prepare. I'm quite excited."

The sailing competitions run until the 30th of this month.