Borneo IYC 2006 - Labuan-Miri Race

by Guy Nowell, Sail World Asia on 7 Sep 2006 The Labuan-Miri passage race in the Borneo International Yachting Challenge takes the fleet from the Federal Territory (island) of Labuan, just off the coast of Sabah, 110 nm southwest down the Borneo coast to Miri in Sarawak.

It’s almost a straight-line coastal race through the offshore oilfields of the Sultanate of Brunei, and the record for the trip was set last year Troy Yaw’s Ulumulu in a time of just on 13 hours.

With Ulumulu currently away in Australia, the field was wide open for this year’s field to have a crack at the time.

Starting in Labuan Harbour under grey and blustery skies, the 19-strong fleet trucked off in 14 knots of breeze, reaching out of the harbour towards the Brunei coast.

Colin Craig’s Simonis 50 Déjà Vu led the charge, with Neil Langley’s Crystal Blues (Ganley 50) in hot pursuit. Christopher Antolak’s Moca (Brewer 34) and Jon Stonham’s Tui Tai (Tayana 47) were also at the front of the pack and enjoying the fresh conditions.

But as the fleet passed the Muara headland at the northern tip of Brunei, ready to crack off southwest for the finish line, the wind began to drop.

Boats further offshore found themselves in contrary current, with Jon Stonham’s Tui Tai apparently tacking through more than 130 degrees to get back towards the shore. One by one boats resorted to the iron headsail.

The Labuan-Miri passge race is more of a rally than a race, and motoring is allowed. Results are calculated by adding ‘declared motoring time x 1.5’ on to a boat's total elapsed time, before applying TCF. This smacks of one of those annoying maths problems about filling a sieve with water using only a teaspoon, except in this case you don’t know the size of the sieve.

All through the evening the wind continued to drop, and on into the night too, and more and more boats took the motoring option. At least one boat later reported gong back towards Labuan – slowly – and everyone had the calculators out to see how much (or little) boatspeed justified turning on the engine.

First in to Miri Marina at 0705 hrs on Wednesday morning was Alister Boyle’s Largo Star, with a declared motoring time of 15 hours out of a total 20 hours ‘sailing’. Largo Star was greeted by substantial interest from the local press and tv stations, and eventually placed third in the Cruising B division.

At the other end of the scale the last boat home was Déjà Vu, having bit the bullet and sailed all the way in a little under 34 hours with only a main and a staysail after sustaining damage her No 1 at the beginning of the race.

Boats straggled in all day, with their times being recorded by RO Jerry Rollin from his air-conditioned eyrie in the Park City Everly Hotel. One of the last to arrive, appropriately enough, was Wally Smith’s Hunter H37C Patience.

Winner of the Cruising B division was Neil Langford on Crystal Blues (Ganley 50). 'She’s a steel boat, and was originally built for a trip to Antarctica, so she’s not light. We knew we weren’t going to be competitive in the light stuff, so motoring had to be the option. Getting it ‘just right’ was very nice,’ said Langford. Crystal Blues took first place by 1.5 hours on corrected time.

Chris Antolak’s Moca (Brewer 34) repeated her opening-race success to take another first place, with Ron Fitzpatrick’s Adams 12, Columbus, only 40 minutes back.

The IRC Racing (Cruising A) division saw a close match between the only two entrants. The division does not allow motoring, so it was a long race for both Kay Wilson’s S&S 36 Ambil Angin and the Beneteau 32S5 Sarawak Sea Horse skippered by Johanis Dahaklay. Sea Horse came home only 28 minutes behind Ambil Angin at 1930 hrs on Wednesday evening to take first place.

Results
Race 3
IRC Racing (Cruising A)
1 Sarawak Sea Horse Johanis Dahaklay
2 Ambil Angin Kay Wilson

Race 2
Cruising B
1 Crystal Blues Neil Langford
2 Déjà Vu Colin Craig
3 Largo Star Alister Boyle
4 Pemburu Laut David Foulkes
5 Tui Tai Jon Stonham
6 Bogart Paul Caine
7 Wanderlust Mick Limdenberg
8 Reflections 4 Colin Woods

Cruising C
1 Moca Christopher Antolak
2 Columbus Ron Fitzpatrick
3 Strong Legs David and Cathy Scott
4 Augusta Karl Amundsen
5 Do Be Do Alf Jaselius

Classic
1 Reeflections 2 Ian Glover
2 Patience Wally Smith
3 Bandoola Christopher Chin