White horses - whitecaps and little sheep

by Rob Kothe on 25 May 2005 On a glassy morning off Chaweng Beach the sailors lolled under the palm trees, waiting for breeze after an official postponement.

Some of the sore heads slept while the breeze gradually appeared.

At 10.00am, the AP flag came down and the sailors took to the zap cats and ribs ferrying them out to the row of moored boats.

It seemed almost like a Le Mans start, as the engines fired and the fleet set out for the breeze line a few miles offshore.

As the committee vessel leading the charge approached the darker water patches, it seemed to move like a mirage. Twice the fleet prepared to start, only to have the zephyrs fade. Twice the start line was moved towards the mirage, then at 11.36am - a start - at last.

A steady six knots from the south-east arrived and Frank Pong’s Jelik, so cruelly robbed of victory by the fickle finger of fate yesterday morning, boomed away from the line.

As she swept past Hin Ang Wang six miles to the south, the breeze had increased to nine knots. Another three miles on and with her spinnaker being hoist at Ko Mat Sum, it was almost 13 knots.

Then as the breeze lifted more, suddenly there were small white horses, also called white caps, or as the New Zealanders say - little sheep.

A sailor's breeze at last on the Gulf of Thailand.

One last hurdle though, for most of bigger boats. While they ran up the course with a southerly, the finish boat was sitting in a northerly breeze. At the front of the fleet, Jelik suddenly bore away 90 degrees, did a quick kite drop and a beat the last two hundred metres.

Behind her, Ffree Fire sailed wide, hoping to avoid the soft patch, but sailed into 0.00.

Behind her came Hocux Pocux 2 and Moonblue 2, but by the time the multi-coloured Ffree Fire hull was moving again, she was at the bottom of the handicap list.

There were a lot of happy faces as crews came ashore, but probably the biggest smile came from Principal Race Officer, David Brookes, who earlier in the morning was concerned that the breeze would not come in.

Everyone was back at the beach by 4:29pm, just in time for the 4.30pm kick off for the Australian Rugby League State of Origin match on television.

On provisional handicap it was a win for Peter Churchouse's Moonblue 2, ahead of Jelik, third was Hocux Pocux 2, then the series leader Umlumulu; sitting with a comfortable buffer on the rest of the fleet overalll.

RProvisional results:

IRC 1

1. Moonblue 2 - Peter Churchouse HKG

2. Jelik - Frank Pong HKG

3. Hocux Pocux 2 - Marcel Liedts HKG

4. Ulumulu - Ray Roberts MAL

5. Yo - Toby O'Connel MAL

6. Ffree Fire - Sam Chan HKG


Fastest Time - Jelik

In the IRC Division 2, Bill Bremner's Sydney 36, Foxy Lady, with an eighth and three bullets, is proving to be the light wind performer of note.

IRC 2

1. Foxy Lady - Bill Bremner SIN

2. Foreign Xchange 2 - David Pollard THA

3. Magic Roundabout - Saranya Makinson THA

4. Buzz 8 - John Vause THA

5. Happy Endings - Jonathon Mahoney SIN

6. Pink Pussy Cat - David Bell THA

7. Image Asia Attitude 8 - Mark Horward THA

8. Princess Anna - Karl Stechmann AUS

9. Princess Sharda - Tony Hearder AUS

10. Princess Arietta - Hans Sommer AUS

11. Princess Athena - George Snow AUS

12. Image Asia Constanza - Grenville Fordham THA
13. Geronimo - Visanu Lohitkoopt HKG

Fastest Time - Foxy Lady

In the Multihull division, the battle between the two Radical 8000's continues. Today it was the French team on Coco China House who won the battle.

Multihull

1. Coco China House - Pierre Foesans FRA

2. Coco Blues - Kim Thomas AUS

3. Cedar Swan - Radab Kanjanavit THA

4. Vivace - Francesco Brancaccio ITA

5. Gnome - David Hill IRL

6. Sonic - Kirati Asakul THA

7. Nok Talay - Martin Peters GBR

Fastest Time - China House