Phuket King’s Cup 2015 – Sunshine and Sparkles

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 8 Dec 2015 This is how it’s meant to be: never mind what the weather forecast says, you going to be on the start line anyway, right? Today the 29th edition of the Phuket King’s Cup opened with 15kts of breeze, blue blue skies and a racecourse drenched in tropical sunshine. Slap on the hat and slop on some extra sunscreen. Roll up the shorts and get your knees brown. Vintage stuff indeed.

First of all there was the Sail Past in honour of His Majesty King Bhumiphol Adulyadej of Thailand – last Saturday was his birthday, and a sail past with the Royal Thai Navy taking the salute from the entire King’s Cup fleet (right down to the Oppies and Lasers), has become something of a tradition over the years. This year it was HTMS Klaeng on station at 0855, dressed overall, as the crews of 168 boats doffed their hats, cheered, waved, saluted (or all four) and paid respects. This is a pretty classy way to start a regatta, and we don’t know of any other sailing event at which it happens. Three cheers for His Majesty!

Meanwhile, the Race Officers on course Marie G (Racing Classes) and course Seraph (Cruising Classes) were also getting ready. With plenty of wind to work with, the Racing divisions went off on a 2-mile-leg windward-leeward, and the Cruisers set off on a variety of islands courses taking in Koh Bon, Koh Aeo and Koh Hi. For the diminutive Corsair Pulse 600s in the Performance Multihull division this turned out to be a testing 24-miler. They’ll be sleeping well tonight. The breeze held for the duration, building to a max of 18kts, and all classes went the full distance. Definitely no short courses today.

Team Premier Oi! (Hannes Waimer) opened the IRC 0 series with a win over Sarab Jeet Singh’s Windsikher, and Kodo (TP52, Ben Copley) retired with a gear problem. For the second race, and with the breeze still pumping, PRO Ross Chisholm pulled out the longest course in the book and sent the big boats all the way up to the Safe Water Mark near Cape Panwa, some 27nm. Beat, reach, beat, run, beat, and plenty of room for the Jelik to make the most of a 76ft waterline – which she did, and won the race. Windsikher scored two steady seconds to top the leaderboard after the first day. Kodo snapped the top couple of feet off the top of her mast which puts her out of the running for the rest of the regatta.

Duncan Hine’s canting-keeler Alive was actually first round the track on the second race, but had trouble finding the finish line. This gave rise to a request for redress, but the Jury ruled that “Finish approx. 340? from Gate 1” (it was actually 335?) as noted in the SIs was sufficiently accurate, and the request was denied. The PRO reported seeing Alive pass the finish line “about 200 yards away” which begs the question – whatever happened to the Mk 1 Eyeball navigation system? Did everyone on deck have their eyes shut? What was the naviguesser actually looking at on his tablet? And why didn’t he look out of the window? Search me.

PKC Chairman Kevin Whitcraft’s Wan Ma Rang scored 3 and 1 to lead the IRC 1 division at the end of the day. Cedric Rimaud’s beautifully-presented Classic 6m, Selma, broke her backstay and retired hurt, and in the Firefly class - in which every boat has won this regatta at one time or other – Hans Rahmann’s Voodoo blitzed the course for an easy win while Neil Ayre’s Advanced Racing also retired with damage.

It was a glorious day to start a regatta, and the wilting violets who thought the courses were too long should be ashamed of themselves. All divisions went the full distance, in good breeze, and there were no shortened courses. Tomorrow’s forecast – more of the same. Bring it on!

Long live the King!

Short Results (full results can be found at www.kingscup.com)

IRC 0
1. Windsikher 2, 2 (4)
2. Jelik 4, 1 (5)
3. Team Premier Oi! 1, 4 (5)
IRC 1
1. Wan Ma Rang 3, 1 (4)
2. Rerefine 1, 4 (5)
3. EFG Mandrake 4, 2 (6)
IRC 2
1. Jessandra II 2, 1 (3)
2. Karasu 1, 2 (3)
3. Fujin 3, 3 (6)

Premier
1. Pine Pacific 1 (1)
2. Audeamus 2 (2)
3. Raincloud 3 (3)
Bareboat Charter
1. Alexa 1 (1)
2. Uhuru 2 (2)
3. Malee 3 (3)
Open Charter
1. Popeye 1 (1)
2. Big Boy Sailing Team 2 (2)
3. Venture 3 (3)
Modern Classic
1. Farrgo Express 1 (1)
2. Thai Navy 1 2 (2)
3. Piccolo 3 (3)

Cruising
1. Lady Bubbly 1 (1)
2. Mustang Sally 2 (2)
3. Slipstream 3 (3)
Multihull Racing
1. Wow 1 (1)
2. Hurricane 2 (2)
3. Java 3 (3)

Multihull Cruising
1. Minnie 1 (1)
2. Star Fruit 2 (2)
3. Angel 3 (3)
Firefly 850
1. Voodoo 1 (1)
2. Twin Sharks 2 (2)
3. Moto Inzi 3 (3)
Performance Multihull
1. Sudu 4 1 (1)
2. H3O 2 (2)
3. Sudu 3 3 (3)

PS. Tomorrow we will be on the lookout for the most intriguingly-named boat in the regatta, 'Arabella's Naked Dad'.