2007 Phuket King's Cup winners declared

by Rob Kothe & Al Constable on 8 Dec 2007 The battle for the 21st Phuket King’s Cup in the Racing Class was over in just three seconds in this morning’s race. The 2006 King’s Cup Racing Class winner, Ray Roberts’ Quantum Racing needed to convincingly ‘out sail’ Frank Pong’s Jelik to win the 2007 regatta.

At the start of this morning’s Race 7, the yachts were moving fast towards the start in 17-20 knots of wind. The hooter blasted signaling an early starter. It was Quantum Racing – three heart breaking seconds early. By the time Quantum had gone back and restarted, she was at the back of the fleet, sailing in the dirty air of her rivals. It was ‘all over, red rover.’

Meanwhile Jelik was pushing towards the left hand corner of the course, while Singaporean tactician Elaine Chua was sending Microlab Moonlight Shadow to the right.

Nick Burns’ and Fred Kinmonth’s Fortris Mandrake was buried underneath Chris Meads’ Full Metal Jacket and Stephen Reith’s Sydney 40 Foxy Lady III.

Mandrake spun right to get clear air. Quantum was playing catch up in the centre of course. It was unlikely to be a winning track but there was no use ‘playing follow the leader.’

Out on the right Microlab had bounced to a stop with a torn mainsail. There were some futile attempts to reef, but it soon became clear the regatta was over for the Chinese boat.

At the top of the course the wind had dropped to 15-16 knots. Jelik was well clear of the second boat, which should have been Fortis Mandrake, but the smaller Full Metal Jacket was on fire.

The brand new Corby 43 had designer John Corby on board, along with an experienced New Zealand crew, she was powered with a full suite of new Norths 3DL sails. During the week Full Metal Jacket had been suffering in the light conditions. Corby and Meads were already deep in discussion on how the boat could be optimized for the soft conditions that are normally found in Asia.

But what a difference a breeze makes. She was romping up the course, enjoying the building sea. Looking like she was born to be an ocean racer, she looked every inch Sydney to Hobart ready as she swept around the mark, inside the 46 and 52 footers.

To makes things worse, Foxy Lady III was only 100 metres behind Quantum Racing at the top mark and was clearly winning the race on handicap. Luck eluded Foxy Lady and she suffered a gear problem and was almost 200 metres down the course before the red logo on her spinnaker was visible.

Down the run it was surfing time for the racing fleet. Gradually Fortris Mandrake sailed though Full Metal Jacket, but it was easily the best performance of the regatta for the Corby 43. Foxy Lady III, who had been hanging in well, suffered in the second half of the race.

Frank Pong’s Jelik won both Race 7 and Race 8, cleaning up the handicap and line honours in both. The windy conditions were no problem for the Reichel Pugh 75 and her experienced crew.

In Race 7, Full Metal Jacket skippered by Chris Meads sailed her way into second place on corrected time, but was some fifteen minutes slower than Jelik crossing the finish line. Nick Burns’ and Fred Kinmonth’s Fortris Mandrake finished third.

Jelik finished well ahead of Ray Roberts’ Quantum Racing in Race 8. Quantum was second on handicap with Fortris Mandrake third.

Today’s results ensured Jelik won the King’s Cup from Ray Roberts’ DK 46 Quantum Racing with Stephen Reith’s Sydney 40 Foxy Lady 111.

A new winner emerged today in the Sportsboat class. Scott Duncanson’s Raimon Land won the regatta yesterday and chose to sit out today’s windy conditions ‘on land’. This allowed Tuay Lek with British skipper Nick Southward at the helm, to claim the handicap, line honours double from the consistent Emma Mathild XX. Japanese skipper Jiro Kusano on Team Biwako finished third in Race 7.

It was a story of lost opportunities for Kipsen Beck’s Pornstar this week. She had another brilliant beat and rounded more than a minute ahead of Kesuke Nagamatu's Risodata, Tuay Lek and The Weasel. However she again suffered major disappointment as she threw her lead away when she could not raise her spinnaker. While the crew worked frantically Pornstar ran slowly down wind and was soon overtaken by the Platus’. It is great pity that the crew do not yet have the boat sorted as it clearly has plenty of potential.

Overall the Sportsboat regatta honours and the trophy went to Raimon Land on seven points, ahead of Emma Mathild XX (15) and Risotada (17).

The Premier Class Trophy was in doubt until the finish of today’s sixth race. Strewth, Geoff Hill’s Lyons won the race with a corrected time of 1:39:16. Peter Cremers’ Shahtoosh and Peter Churchouse’s Moonblue 2 filled the minor placings. Yasooda had a five minute buffer on the fleet when she crossed the finish line but only managed a sixth on corrected time.

Geoff Hill’s Strewth had a consistent regatta and with a drop of three and she finished with a score of nine, one point ahead of David Ross’ Frangipani Girl (10 with a drop of 8) to take the Premier class trophy. Peter Cremers’ Shahtoosh finished just one point further back on 11.

The solid breeze today suited the Lyons 49 Strewth as she sailed to victory in the Premier Class. Geoff Hill said ‘Today was our best result for the year. We have won the King’s Cup, along with the China Sea and the China Coast Hainan race. We were sailing above targets all day. We had a nice breeze 15-20… big shifts, we sailed the shifts 30-49 degrees. Mark Fullerton, from Doyle Sails was doing tactics.

‘We knew we were sailing well when we were keeping up with Moonblue 2. Frangipani Girl sailed well…just not her conditions.’

Thai skipper Jaray Tipsuk on the helm of Octopussy won IRC1, Race 7 of the series on corrected time from Jeff Davidson’s Panic and Tim Costello’s Switchblade. Panic was the fastest boat in this class on the water today with an elapsed time of 1:52:05.

Overall Panic had a great regatta and easily took the silverware from Tim Costello’s Switchblade and Jaray Tipsuk’s Octopussy.

In IRC2 Race 7, La Samudra took the handicap and line honours double from the improving Royal Thai Navy 1. Skandia (Endeavour of Whitby) finished third. Confirmed as the class winner at the end of racing yesterday, Peter Dyer and the Madam Butterfly crew did not race today.

Madam Butterfly won the class trophy from La Samundra and Royal Thai Navy 1.

Sarabande, Basil Diethelm’s Swan 44 finished ahead, on both corrected time and elapsed time, of Richard Vine’s Patrice 111 in IRC3 Race 5. Larry Emerson’s Remington finished third.

Wings, Frederick Roswold’s Serendipity 43, blotted the copybook today and finished the last race in fifth place, after four straight wins. Today’s result became their drop and Wings takes home the trophy. Sarabande finished in second place with Remington taking third.

In Sunsail Race 5, Anna was the winner of the battle for ‘Princess Supremacy’ with Athena and Arieta fillings the minor places.

Princess Anna emerged as ‘Queen of the Princesses’ and will take home the trophy. Princess Arieta finished second and Princess Sharda finished third.

Scott Jacobsen from the USA skippered Armadeus to a corrected time win in Race 5 of the series for the Bareboat class. Mont Clair (Daniel Schwalb) was second and Vienna Fun (Jack Kelly) third. Armadeus took line honours with a time of 2:22:10.

Kine Kine Fidji wins the Kings Cup trophy in the Bareboat class, from Mont Clair and Armadeus.

Henry Kaye concluded his 21st Kings Cup regatta in style today, blitzing the Firefly field in Race 7 to take the handicap and line honours double. Roger Kingdon’s Moto Inzi was second with Voodoo Child (David Hill) third.

After a bad first race of the regatta (ninth) Mamba dominated and tonight Henry Kaye will be adding another trophy to the cabinet. Moto Inzi and Voodoo Child filled the minor podium spots.

In Multihull 1 Rac