Go Strait to Singapore...

by Event Media/RSYS on 13 Jan 2006 There’s a full 29 boats lining up for next week’s Singapore Straits Regatta, including Neil Pryde’s Hi Fi, the Burns/Kinmonth combo Mandrake, and Drumstick with owner Robbie Knight back on the helm.

At the smaller end of the scale Division A will also take in Jonathan Mahoney’s Happy Endings (Mumm 30) and Keith Dunn on Lunchcutter 2 (Mount Gay 30) which should make for some interesting moments on the start line.

This year the Organising Club for the SSR is Raffles Marina’ and the racing will therefore start out to the west of Singapore, with the first race bringing the fleet to the Republic of Singapore Yacht Club, and the second taking them across the Singapore Strait to Riau Yacht Club at Nongsa Point, Batam (Indonesia).

Phil Blake, Marina Manager at Raffles, says ‘we are expecting some
intense competition between the A-division boats both in Singapore, and the blustery waters off Indonesia's Riau Islands.’

Biggest entry so far is the 13-boat fleet for racing Division B, featuring Jeremy Muller’s Sydney 32, long-time Singapore campaigner Gordon Maxted on his Young 840 Shoon Fung Too, and a collection of J-24s comprising the ‘short stuff’. The J-24s will also be racing as a one-design division.

The 2006 edition of the SSR features teams from Hong Kong, Singapore,
Indonesia, and the Philippines. After sailing in the waters off Nongsa Point and Turi Beach the racing programme will bring the competitors back to Singapore for a first-ever visit to the new Singapore Armed Forces Yacht Club at the east end of the island.

The final prizegiving event will be held on the 22 January at Indochine's Forbidden City Restaurant, at Clarke Quay.

The Singapore Straits Regatta brings full circle an Asian yacht racing circuit that includes the Darwin to Bali Race, Malaysia's Raja Muda International Regatta, Thailand's Phuket King's Cup, Hong Kong's China Sea Series, and the Philippine's President's Cup. Each of these regattas have evolved their own identity over the years, and are draws in the own right, with their own following. Even so, the triumvirate consisting of the Singapore Straits Regatta, Raja Muda International Regatta, and the Phuket King's Cup, have pulled together collectively in an effort to establish a contiguous regatta circuit - the Perpetual Cup Series - to further boost Asian sailing, and in the process give sailors a more compelling reason to participate in this troika of events.

Inaugurated in 1997, the Series raises the profile of the Asian sailing circuit, with the lowest scoring contender of the combined regattas bestowed with the prestigious Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy. Discovered in the vaults of the historic Republic of Singapore Yacht Club (its history dates back to 1826), the trophy had not been raced for some 20 years. On hearing of the inception of the Perpetual Series, the Committee of the RSYS dusted off this priceless trophy, and donated it to the cause of regional sailing.

Current leader on points for this year’s Lipton Trophy is also the current defender – Neil Pryde. After a win at the Raja Muda and a second place at the King’s Cup, Hi Fi leads the placing with three points to Mandrake’s score of five.