Hollywood Boulevard wins by a street

by Bruce Maxwell on 22 Nov 2003 Ray Roberts swept to his second successive Southeast Asian Regatta title in six months with a masterful performance aboard Hollywood Boulevard in the final inshore of Malaysia’s Raja Muda event in Langkawi.

The accomplished Australian skipper, who had already taken the Koh Samui Regatta in the Gulf of Thailand in May, held a slender one point lead going into the final day. Roberts then sailed his Farr 52 superbly to leave all rivals well in his wake.

This is the first event of the new Omega Asian Yachting Circuit, which continues with the King’s Cup in Thailand early December, the Singapore Straits Regatta in January, and the Hong Kong to Manila, China Sea Race in April. Follow up points for Peter Ahern’s Yo! and Kiwi sailmaker Neil Pryde’s Hi Fidelity will carry through to the next series in two weeks.

Yo! surprisingly fell apart in the Langkawi inshores, that are meant to be her favorite and favored racing, while the official Malaysian Youth Sailing Squad on Panic acquitted themselves very well, rising through the ranks to second overall in a series reduced to six races.

In Premier Cruising Class, Darwin yacht Australian Maid, a regular at the Raja Muda Regatta, never looked like losing. Although there were a few grumbles about whether or not her interior fit out really qualified her for this very up market division. New Zealand built and Hong Kong based Shahtoosh was next, followed by Malaysia’s Yendys.

Pelangi, that means Rainbow in Malay, had won all three overnight passage races in Cruising Class, so she merely had to coast in the inshores to confirm her victory over Muzbnuts and Vela.

Finally, in the Classics, the win seemed to go to a relatively fast finishing Chalupa from German owned Green Sleeves and the Navy’s Dondang Sayang.