King's blessing as crews consolidate the scores... Day 3 report

by AsianYachting MultiMedia on 6 Dec 2012 The days proceedings started with a sail past the Royal Thai Navy vessels from the Third Naval Area Command at Cape Promthep, to honour HM the King of Thailand's 85th birthday. Crews lined up on their yachts chanting three cheers, doffing their caps and some even singing Happy Birthday. A parade of sail is an appropriate way for International sailors to pay homage to Thailand's royal sailing family that have supported yachting events all these years. After the sail past the boats continued out to sea to begin Race Day 3. Blessed with 12-15 knots of East North Easterly breeze all the classes got stuck into windward/leeward races.

When Frank Pong's R/P 76 Jelik gets on a roll there is no stopping them. Two first and fastest's by the narrowest of margins (42 & 20 seconds) added onto yesterdays win, cements their place at the top of the IRC 0 leaderboard. Second places for Kevin Whitcraft's GP42 Won Ma Rang and the Malaysian Armed Forces DK 47 Utarid skippered by Mohamad Razali Mansor keeps them respectively in second and third overall. After sorting out the crew work, Ben Copley's RP45 Katsu managed to score third place which leaves them in fourth overall.

The extremely competitive IRC 1 class continue to battle it out for the places and only seconds separate the leading boats as they desperately try to consolidate their rankings. Although Steve Manning's Sydney GTS 43 Walawala 2 claimed line honours in the first race, David Fuller's chartered Beneteau 44.7 Ichi Ban scraped in by one second for the handicap victory. Similarly in Race 2, it was David Ross' Ker 40 KukuKERchu taking the line this time only to be eclipsed by Bill Bremner's Mills King 40 Foxy Lady 6 for first place. Less than a minute on corrected time separated the top four places and the littlest of mistakes can make all the difference. A protest lodged by Fuller's Ichi Ban against Bremner's Foxy Lady 6 resulted in Foxy Lady 6 being disqualified. This allows Ichi Ban to close in and be tied on points for the overall lead with Foxy Lady 6. Manning's Walawala 2 trails the leaders by three points in third overall and Fred Kinmonth/Nick Burns Mills 40 EFG Bank Mandrake holds onto fourth.

The Royal Thai Navy 1 skippered by CPO.1 Wiwat Poonpat are not going to give up their IRC 2 title easily. They have rebounded with two wins by the narrowest of margins (15 & 20 seconds). Although Matt Allen's Adams 10 Ichi Ban took line honours in both races they were relegated to second places but still hold onto the overall lead by two points. Third places for Peter Dyer's Humphrys 3/4 tonner Kata Rocks and Commander Peera Sagurtam's Royal Thai Navy 2 leaves them in third and fourth place in the overall stakes.

By pointing ten degrees higher and going a knot faster Hans Rahmann's Voodoo once again blitzed the Firefly 850 Sports fleet. Five boats were recalled at the second start, allowing Roger Kingdon's Moto Inzi to take a commanding lead and never looked back. Rahmann's Voodoo managed to claw back into second place and continues to build an almost insurmountable lead to defend the title. Second and fourth for Peter Dyer's Dyer Straits holds them steady in second overall. Two third places for John Newnham's Twin Sharks elevates them to third overall after the Chinese Advanced Racing Team on Advanced faltered yesterday and could only manage two fifth places today.

Andrew Stransky's Seven Seas 50 Fantasia and Henry Kaye's Sea Cart 26 Sweet Chariot skippered by Mark Thornborrow managed to climb the order and share the wins today. Two second places for Peter Wilcox's Schionning Gforce 1500 Mojo keeps them at the top of the Multihull table but as the drop race is introduced, they are tied on 9 points with Stransky's Fantasia for the lead. Thornborrow's Sweet Chariot has shown some remarkable bursts of speed but needs to bring it all together if they are to progress beyond third overall.

Two wins today for Junichi Ishikawa's The Beaver and despite waiting for redress from yesterday, they have built up a handy lead in the one design Platu 25 class. Slow off the mark with fourth place in the first race, Scott Duncanson's Tuay Lek rebounded with second place to cling onto second overall. Up and down the order has left Toshio Furuta's Sakura in third and a gallant effort by Makiko Matsuishi's almost all Japanese girl crew on IPPAI in fourth overall.

On the Northern course, Richard Dobbs Swan 68 Titania of Cowes continues on their winning ways, scoring four bullets in a row and well on the way to defending the Premier Cruising title. Huff and puff as hard as they can but Thailand's Ithinai Yingsiri X-55 Pine-Pacific came within 29 seconds of beating Titania and Peter Forsythe & Jing Lee's X-55 Xena needed a little under two minutes to beat them but had to settle for second place. By trading second and third places leaves Yingsiri's Pine-Pacific in second and Xena in third overall.

The cream always rises to the top and is no different in the 23 yacht Bareboat Charter Class. Ruskie Kirill Sakhattzev's First 47.7 Sail Plane and Aussie Graeme Sheldon's Hanse 400e Agility International scored one win each to keep them in first and second spot overall. After a slow start to the regatta, Mikhail Beloborodov's Tonicola 2 closed with second and third places to take over third spot in the pointscore. A couple of fourth places for Nikiforov Evgenii's SunOdyssey 32i Sarawadee has them drifting back into fourth overall.

Although Bo Sondergaard's S&S 47 Patrice III chartered by Barry Cunningham is still under protest for measurement violations they managed to squeeze in two wins today and take over the lead in the Modern Classic Class. Peter Wood's Commanche 42 Windstar and Nick Band's Tartan 48 Emerald Blue traded second and third places to respectively hold onto second and third overall.

Much to the dissatisfaction of the Cruising Class entrants, William Lo's Hanse 545 No Name has won all three races since joining from the Premier Cruising Class. Two second places for Jack Christensen's Bavaria 49 Linda keeps them on top of the pointscore for the time being but will need to improve to stop the rapidly advancing No Name. Two third places for Thailand's Patinyakorn Buranrom on Sansiri surrenders second overall to No Name and drops them down to third spot.

Simon Morris Sirius 1935 continues to churn the waters and as the only competitor in the Classic Class is ensured of taking the gong.

Layday tomorrow and racing continues on Friday with Race Day 4.

Windsurfing and dinghy's draw to a close
The Phuket King's Cup Regatta windsurfing event came to a close today with three races (7, 8 and 9) back-to-back of Kata Beach. Strong winds gusting to 22knots delivered an exciting finale to what has been a great windsurfing series.

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Hong Kong’s Chun Leung Michael Cheng showed his class to be crowned overall winner and winner of the Phantom 295 Men Class, with Natthaphong Phonoppharat (THA) second overall, followed by Hei Man Chan (HKG), Gabriel Brettell (HKG), Ek Boonsawad (THA) and Pornanan Payungkasem. Congratulations to Chun Leung Michael Cheng and all other riders who came from around the world to join the windsurfing event.

Phantom 295 Men Class
Chun Leung Michael Cheng came first in all three races on the day and is the winner of the Phantom 295 Men Class, with Natthaphong Phonoppharat (THA) the first runner-up and Gabriel Brettell (HKG) the second runner-up.

Phantom 295 Women Class
Spain’s Marina Alabau Neira, who narrowly led after the sixth race, did not complete the seventh race resulting in her finishing behind Hong Kong's Hei Man Chan. Hei Man Chan (HKG) is hence the winner in the Phantom 295 Women Class, followed by Marina Alabau Neira (ESP) and Siriporn Kaewduang-Ngam (THA). Congratulations to Hei Man Chan for some fantastic sailing.

Phantom 295 Youth Men Class
The final day also saw some exciting races in the Phantom 295 Youth Men Class, with Marcos Guedez from Martinique emerging as the winner. Thailand's Sirichai Phusiri came second and Robert York from the UK finished third.

Phantom 295 Youth Women Class
Emma Labourne from the UK had an excellent final day, scoring first in all three races. Despite three wins, Labourne finished third overall with Blanca Alabau Neira (ESP) in first, and Oda Skaug from Norway, second. The Thai Youth Women sailors competed hard, but could not complete all the races in the challenging conditions.

The International Dinghy Classes also concluded today, with Thai sailors winning across the board. Pongsapat Poomyam won the Optimist Boys, while Kamonchanook Klahan was the Optimist Girls winner. Laser victory went to Kamolwan Chanyim, while Akapoj Kankaew finished first in the Topper contest.

For more info and results, visit www.kingscup.com.