Phuket King’s Cup 2014, day 2 – great sunbathing weather, then breeze

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 3 Dec 2014 Everyone ready to go at 0900h, but very much a case of 'hurry up and wait'. Glass calm all around, and limp APs on both committee boats. The cruising and charter boats on Course Bravo amused themselves with a bit of sunbathing, some swimming, and even lining up to have their photo taken. And we waited.

A couple of patches of breeze put in an appearance, but then lost interest and went away. The RO toyed with the idea of sending everyone back to shore, but decided that it would take too long to get them all back again. And we waited.

After two hours that seemed like half an eternity, the camera boat cruised across from Course B to Course A, as much to get some air across the deck as anything else, but when we got to the racing classes they were still hiding under boom awnings and doing sterling imitations of salamanders prostrate on a rock. And still we waited.

The RO went into sequence when a promising patch of breeze arrived, but it was short-lived, and the AP went up again. Phew. But all good things come to those who wait, and at 1200h some real wind appeared from a few points south of east, and actually stayed. Off went all the IRC divisions and the multihulls on windward-leeward courses, and off went the Premier Cruisers for a perfunctory trip round just one island (Koh Kaeo Noi) and back.

All the w/l classes completed in just over an hour, and then the RO got everyone going again as fast as possible. In fact, it was perfectly good steady breeze, if a bit on the light side, and once again it was a one-hour race, by-and-large. Neil Pryde’s HiFi was very happy sailing in the light conditions, and after five races has shared all the first and second places with Beau Geste (Karl Kwok). ‘Traffic’ in the first race of the day 'may have cost us a win', said Pryde. 'With six classes on the same race track, there was bound to be plenty of disturbed air across the course, but that’s what is there and that’s what we had to cope with.' Beau Geste leads HiFi by one point after two days. Island Fling (Paul Winkelmann) took two straight bullets in IRC1, as did TBG-Team Premier (Hannes Waimer) in IRC 2 and Foreign Affair (Greg Reynolds) in IRC 3.

It took a little longer to get things under way over on Course Bravo, but all classes completed a geometric course. Forecast for tomorrow remains soft.

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Full results are at www.kingscup.com