Sail-World.com : Phuket King’s Cup race day four; anything can happen
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Phuket King’s Cup race day four; anything can happen |
Today is the second last day of racing in the 23rd Phuket King’s Cup with the international crews coming back onto the water after a day of relaxation and race strategy review.
Overnight many of the top crews have been doing their numbers, working out where they need to finish to hold a top three place, which boats could knock them off and how they should race the course on this critical day.
It depends on which weather forecast they read and trust as to how the crews are planning their assault on the day’s race. The consensus seems to be an easterly, but after that there is no consensus on the wind strength with anything from eight to 18 knots being forecast for the early morning race.
The racing divisions will be sent off on one long course race of about 28 nautical miles. The cruiser/racers will also be sent off a long course of about 20 nautical miles. Both PRO Jerry Rollins and RO Ross Chisholm are expecting the breeze to soften to about 10 to 12 knots early on in the racing
The first race start is scheduled for 0905 hours.
The overall leader in the Racing class is Neil Pryde’s Hi-Fi on seven points after discarding his fourth place in windward/leeward race two. The pressure is still on this team with Chris Mead’s Full Metal Jacket improving from their first day’s performance of 1-6-7 to achieve a second place in the coastal race on day two and then a second and first in the two windward/leeward races on day three. Back in equal third place overall is Frank Pong’s Jelik II and Nick Burns’s EFG Bank Mandrake.
“Tomorrow will be quite difficult for us as in the long races Frank normally extends; it’s their waterline length. We have a better chance of beating Frank on the windward/leewards, however we did beat Frank on the last long race, so we can do it again. Keep the fingers crossed. We won’t be able to touch first and second. Chris Meads is sailing incredibly well and Neil Pryde is unbeatable in these regattas at the moment,” Burns said last night after returning from a Lay Day game of golf at Red Montain.
Mandrake may find the racing more difficult today according to King’s Cup and senior IRC Measurer, Malcolm Runnalls. His presence on board the boat today he said is likely to be an extra handicap for Mandrake. Burns promises to put his sailing friend of 20 years on the grinder. Also joining the Mandrake team onboard today will be team sponsor, EFG Bank’s Richard Piliero, who with his limited sailing experience is likely to find the very serious racing on Mandrake a great experience.
In the Premier division it is Anthony Hasting’s Baby Tonga-Hideaways Club holding a two point lead ahead of Robert Tanner’s Shahtoosh with another two points to Jon Wardill’s Australian Maid. Hastings has missed the first part of the regatta with business commitments keeping him away. Arriving last night from Kuala Lumpur, Hastings was straight into a crew briefing.
“Every day I have been speaking to Fraser (Johnston) and Barry Eage our helmsman. I am on the helm tomorrow and hopefully I will be able to keep it together. They have put me into a position where I can lose it; it is a worrying position to be in.
“We have been told the wind is going to strengthen so we have been getting the number three fixed tonight which we blew out in the Raja Muda,” Hastings said on his arrival into Phuket last night.
Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Commodore Matt Allen and his Ichi Ban team are in a commanding IRC1 division lead after winning all their six races. But second and third places are still up for grabs between Peter Wintle’s Koull Baby, Ben Copley’s Katsu and Yasuo Nanamori’s Switchblade; all with only two points between them.
Peter Dyer said the battle for first place in IRC2 will be between his Team Bentley and CPO Wiwat Poonpat’s Royal Thai Navy 1.
“We have a two point cushion at the moment. Definitely the challenge will be with the Thai Navy. The Chief Petty who runs the boat has won the event six times and they sail it very, very well. So they are always a threat. We didn’t have a great day yesterday (race day three). We went the wrong way in race two. We went the wrong way several times up the beat. We were first off the start line and then we had to repair some damage and we ended up with a fifth. But that has let him in.
“I think both boats are very competently managed and I don’t think we can look for a huge error on either part. I think it is more likely to be the conditions,” Dyer said.
The Bareboat Charter division is currently being led by Terry McLaughlin’s Princess Sharda, just one point ahead of Mike Crisp’s Venture. After missing race two on Wednesday, Crisp will no doubt be looking for two great long race results to climb back up to first place. Back in equal third place and only a few points behind Venture are Fidgi and Princess Anna.
In the Modern Classic division Peter Wood’s Windstar has a commanding lead with four wins from four races. In second place is Nick Band’s Emerald Blue on six points.
The nine-boat Cruising division is led by Bob Ashman’s Simba with five points. As this division has only completed three races there is no drop calculated.
Firefly 850s division leader Twin Sharks, skipped by Brent Gribble, has only one point difference between his team and Hans Rahman’s Voodoo after Twin Sharks was penalised for a race infringement in race five of the regatta.
Multihull Racing is the third division in this year’s regatta where one boat has a commanding lead over her rivals. Henry Kaye/Fergus Wilmer’s Thor has on the board six wins from six races. So this leaves Radab Kanjanavanit’s Seamico Cedar Swan and David Liddell’s Miss Saigon to do battle for second place.
In the Multihull Cruising division Timothy Robins’s Nipper sits comfortably at the top as does Classics division leader, Rene Tiemessen’s Alondra.
Event website - http://www.kingscup.com/
by Tracey Johnstone
11:17 PM Thu 3 Dec 2009 GMT
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