Phukets King Cups 2016 – “Absolutely Fabulous”
by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 6 Dec 2016
Thor. Phuket King's Cup 2016. Guy Nowell / Phuket King's Cup
Ok, so Eddie and Patsy weren’t here in Phuket today, but if they had been…
A wise yachtie photographer once told me that “you need three things for good yacht racing photos – wind, waves, and sunshine. You can get away with two out of three, but when there’s only one, you may as well stay in the bar.” Today we had it all, in spades. With a continuing strong airstream from the east, and air being sucked into a developing storm in the Bay of Bengal, today’s racing conditions were precious close to perfect. Skippering Mandrake III, Nick Burns described the day as “absolutely fabulous.” Maybe his judgement was coloured by 1, 2 finishes today, but there were a great many happy-looking sailors walking back up the beach this afternoon.
Racing classes (IRC 0, IRC 1, Premier Cruising, Platus, and all the multihulls except MH Cruising) got a short, sharp, windward-leeward race to open the proceedings, followed by an islands course up through the inside of Koh Aeo and Koh Hi and back down the seaward side. The remaining divisions (IRC 2, Cruising, MH Cruising, Open and Bareboat Charter) went straight into shorter versions of the same courses.
There was 18+ knots on offer across all the courses, and one report of 30 knots. Wind against tide in the early part of the day made for a bumpy ride going north east towards the top of Koh Aeo, and a big spinnaker slide back to the Koh Kaeo Noi gate, followed by a reach to the finish off Nai Harn. Vintage stuff, indeed. Regatta Director Simon James said afterwards, “It’s a while since we have got all the divisions round a ‘long’ islands course. Nobody ran out of breeze, or time, and the finish boat was kept very busy taking the times of lots of boats finishing in tight groups.”
The opening race on Course Area A was marred by a port/starboard argument which left H3O Multihull Solutions impaled in the port side of Black Baza – given the size of a Pulse 600’s diminutive sprit that may sound unlikely, but it happened. Black Baza retired with a hole in her topsides, went to The Room requesting redress, and was awarded first place for the race on the basis that she was substantially in the lead at the time. Unable to compete in the second race of the day, she was then awarded (for that race) ‘average points for all races between the start of the regatta and the end of racing on Friday’, which means that the IRC 1 results sheet is going to be a moving target for the next three days of racing (Thursday is scheduled as a Lay day).
For the record: Henry Kaye’s Seacart 30, Thor, did her level best to get airborne today. How about some foils? The beautiful S&S 65, King’s Legend, pushes more water than anyone else on the race course (and looks good in the process). John Newnham’s Firefly 650 Twin Sharks recorded a personal best of 27 knots of boatspeed. Kingsman (Shkurin Nikolay) discovered that spinnakers do not make good upwind sails. Nasdrovje! Khun Radab Kanchanavit’s elderly Farrier F-9A sustained injuries in the choppy seas and retired hurt. The Multihull Cruisers don’t understand what a ‘downwind start’ entails, and all cruising cats are slower than their owners will ever admit.
And: just to prove that IRC is a properly workable system, all boats in IRC 1 finished in under 90 seconds on corrected time – pole and sprit alike. Similarly, in the second (long) race, finish times all corrected out inside 12 minutes after three hours of racing.
If there was ever a ‘Celebration of Sailing’ at a regatta in Asia, today was it. Once again we extend our sympathies to the people of Thailand on their recent bereavement, but truly believe that today His Late Majesty King Rama IX was watching, and thinking ‘that’s My regatta; that’s My King’s Cup.” In short, it was Absolutely Fabulous.
Standing by on 72.
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Short Results (Full Results can be found at www.kingscup.com)
IRC 0
1. THA72 1,1,1,1 (4)
2. Team Hollywood 2,2,2,2 (8)
IRC 1
1. Karasu 1,1,3,4 (9)
2. Mandrake III 3,5,1,2 (11)
3. Yes! Jessandra II 2,2,4,3 (11)
IRC 2
1. Senga 1,1,3,1 (6)
2. Farrgo Express 2,2,1,2 (7)
3. Judy 4,3,2,3 (12)
Pemier
1. Shahtoosh 2,1,1 (4)
2. Pine-Pacific 1,2,2 (5)
3. Zuhal 3,3,4 (10)
Firefly 850 Sport
1. Twin Sharks 1,1,1,1 (4)
2. Voodoo 2,2,2,2 (8)
3. Mil Grace/Frog 4,3,5,4 (16)
Pulse 600
1. Java Yachting 2,1,2 (5)
2. Hanuman XXXIII 3,3,1 (7)
3. H3O Multihull Solutions 1,2,(RET 6) (9)
Platu
1. Royal Thai Navy 1 1,1,1 (3)
2. SIA Absolute OD 4,2,3 (9)
3. The Wolf 5,3,2 (10)
Multihull Racing
1. Thor 3,1,2,2 (8)
2. Rapido 2,7,1,1 (11)
3. Phantom V 5,4,3,3 (15)
Multihull Cruising
1. Ying Yang 1,2,2,1 (6)
2. Minnie 2,1,1,2 (6)
3. D&P 3,3,3,4 (13)
Open Charter
1. Popeye 1,1,1,1 (4)
2. Kata Rocks Venture 2,2,2,3 (9)
3. Jing Jing 3,3,4,2 (12)
Bareboat Charter
1. Snapdagon 2,1,1,3 (7)
2. Kata Rocks 2 (Escape) 1,2,4,5 (12)
3. Kingsman 5,3,8,2 (18)
Cruising
1. Asia Pacific Atom 2,1,1,2 (6)
2. Thalassa 1,3,2,1 (7)
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