Royal Langkawi International Regatta 2016 – Phew! What a scorcher!
by Guy Nowell, Sail-World.com on 16 Jan 2016
Face off. Millennium Racing, Oi! Royal Langkawi International Regatta 2016. Guy Nowell
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0930 and not a breath of wind anywhere in Bass Harbour. The Russians (MegaZip) went swimming, and the Ulumulu chapter of the Foredeck Union held their AGM on the bowsprit. Someone sagely observed that “there’s never any wind while there’s cloud on the top of Gunung Raya.” Reports of breeze on the Western Course (south out of the harbour and turn west towards Telaga) came and then faded. After two and a half hours on the grill a promise of breeze in the northeast channel, and it was up with the L flag and ‘follow me’ to a spot at the north end of the harbour, and a course was set up at 120? with the windward mark just in front of the RLYC marina.
There are shallows. Alive quickly discovered that she had 0.2m under the keel at the pin end of the start line, and when the race started also found that she couldn’t go any distance to the left (too shallow) or to the right (ditto), so sailed up the middle making more tacks than usual. Once again we heard that it was “a rather short racecourse for us – the foredeckies were doing drops while the back end of the boat was still involved in a hoist.”
Boat of the moment was Millennium Racing, with Steve McConachy celebrating a birthday on board. Starting the day in second overall by just one point, “we really wanted to finish today ahead,” said Macca, and they started with a first place to Alive’s third. However, a narrow beam, a skinny wetted surface area and a light bulb work very well in light air, and Alive took off like the proverbial, finishing the second race in just 46m and beating Millennium Racing into second by three minutes corrected. Final score after eight races: Alive 12, Millennium 13. And with Oi! on 14 there’s everything to play for tomorrow.
IRC 1 completed two short, sharp windward-leewards, with Fujin holding a 6-point lead over Uranus at the end of the day. Two for IRC 2, and Mata Hari holds the weather gauge over Phoenix, going into the last day two points in front.
The 4-5 knots on offer was just right for Platus, and Team SMU scored another first before dropping the ball in the second race. Team RLYC were quick to pounce, scoring 2,1 and ending the day just one point behind SMU. Another good finale to watch out for tiomorrow.
Manta Blu gallantly excused herself from racing in the Multihull division, taking onboard guests on a scenic cruise instead, and allowing the rest of the division to race. “It would have been painfully slow,” said Tunku Soraya, “so we thought that stepping aside and letting the faster boats get on with it was the right thing to do.” Bob McIntyre’s shiny new Allegro with designer Alan Carwardine on board at last chalked up a victory over David Liddell’s Wow, and then Liddell magnanimously radioed in saying that “we don’t mind if there isn’t a second race.” So we all went home.
All racing for Club, White Sail, and Ocean Rover classes was abandoned.
Today was a Race Officer’s worst nightmare. With Fanny Adams controlling Kuah Harbour, reported reports came in from both northeast and southwest along the lines of, “we have some breeze – oh, its gone again…” Relevant marks and gates were laid all the way up to Telaga in anticipation on a Western Course (and all praise to the mark-laying teams who laid them, waited, and took them up again after a long, hot, and frustrating wait. In the end all that was needed were a start pin, two windward marks and a finish, mere yards from the RLYC marina.
It was hot, damn hot, as we have heard someone say before. Hot and windless is doubly hot. It’s the penultimate day of the regatta, some of the classes are open for reshuffling, and the RO has to Do Something. Compliments, therefore, to Mr James (and the sunbroiled sailors) for having the patience to wait long enough, and congratulations to Alive for keeping an effective eye on the depth sounder. Tomorrow sees three of the four racing divisions (including the Sportsboats) up for grabs. As long as there is wind, or at least as much hot air as was being generated in Charlie’s this afternoon. You know what I mean.
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