Phuket King's Cup 2010- Innovative combined fleet attracts support

by Tracey Johnstone on 26 Nov 2010 Size won’t matter in the final race of this year’s 24th Phuket King’s Cup Regatta to be held from the fourth to 11th December. It will be a case of racing the handicap to win.

The large fleet will be split into two on the final day of racing in this year’s regatta. The monohulls will be pitted against other in an innovative move to bring the boats together in a spectacular race competing for the honour of winning the IRC Combined Fleet Race trophy. The multihulls won’t miss out as they will also combine in their own fleet race for the OMR Combined Multihull Fleet Race trophy.

In the earlier years of the Cup the fleets were sent off on the Andaman Sea Race to Phi Phi Island and back. Due to the strength in numbers space at Phi Phi to accommodate all the boats was no longer possible. Race Director Simon James explained; 'we have been looking to find an alternative to this. Also, we have a lot of people with charter boats, sailing on other people’s boats and visiting us on smaller boats and they always say ‘I wish we could sail against those big boats. I am sure we could beat them.’ So this time we are giving them an opportunity.

'Previously all the boats have raced in classes with similar sized boats racing against each other. But nobody gets a chance to race against the other boats in the other classes under this format. So for the last day of the King’s Cup we are going to have a combined race, one for multihulls and one for monohulls. Everybody is out on the water, all racing against each other, against time. The boat that performs best over our specially designed course is declared the overall winner of that day.'

For the first four days of the Phuket King’s Cup Regatta the competitors will be competing in one of the more than ten classes in a maximum of eight races. The results of that racing will decide the King’s Cup. Then on Saturday 11th December they will pit their wits against the entire fleet for bragging rights of the Best IRC and Best OMR yacht accordingly.

'Everybody will be out on a specially designed course which won’t favour a particular type of boat so that everyone has an even chance. We will set everybody off in stages so we won’t have 100 boats all trying to get to across a small start line. We will start them off in phases. They will all sail the same course and based on their handicap we can work out who is the overall winner based on their performance on the water on that day.'

While some of the skippers are hesitant about the program change, others are keen to take on the challenge. .

IRC 2 Class member Team Sea Bees’s owner, Peter Dyer, described the combined fleet idea as fabulous. 'I truly believe on corrected time we will be competitive with those guys (the big racing boats) because of our light air edge. In fact, we have sailed past them on occasions, when it has been light, even the 70 footers.'

Racing class member Ray Roberts is another that is willing to give the change a chance.'Having them all start at the same time makes it more interesting on the start line and it means you have got to get a clean start. It is a large fleet and will look spectacular on the water. It just adds another tactical element to what you are trying to achieve. I don’t mind that challenge at all.'

CONTACTS
Regatta website, www.kingscup.com
Racing inquiries, email racing@kingscup.com.
General inquiries, email info@kingscup.com or t/f: +66 (0) 7627 3380.
Media inquiries, email media@kingscup.com.
Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=70268823885&ref=ts.
YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/user/phuketkingscup.: