24th SEA Games - day three
by Dave Moxey, RSYC on 11 Dec 2007
Thailand leading Gapurna Malaysia at the end of Race 6, 24th SEA Games 2007 Dave Moxey, RSYC
The forecast was for more wind, but again the gods played their own game with the teams on the water. Race 5 started in 9 – 11 knots of wind, with Singapore and Philippines getting into the first start line hustle of the day, all boats however started cleanly and headed off to the windward mark.
At the top mark Thailand were the first round, with Singapore (16 sec), Gapurna Malaysia (41 sec) and the Philippines (76 sec) following behind the leader. With spinnakers up, the fleet split with Singapore and the Philippines taking the right and Thailand / Gapurna Malaysia on the left.
Arriving at the leeward mark there was no change in the rounding order, although all the boats behind Thailand had made ground on both the lead boat and each other during the downwind leg of the course. Back up to the windward mark, with Singapore going left and the other three nations going up the right hand/middle tracks.
Mark number 3, the second rounding of the windward mark, produced no changes in the order, although Gapurna Malaysia had dropped back a little from the leader, with Singapore just a mere 3 seconds behind. Off on the final leg of the race, and again a split fleet, Thailand went left, the other three nations right, with Gaapurna Malaysia trying to fend off the attacks of Singapore and the Philippines trying to make up ground.
The finish was very close. Thailand sailed a great race to finish 36 seconds clear of Gapurna Malaysia in 2nd place, and they in turn had managed to open up their lead on Singapore to 9 seconds. Singapore lost their battle with a really fast Philippines boat downwind, who made up their 26 top mark deficit, beating Singapore by a mere 5 seconds on the line.
The fleet are very evenly matched on the water. Thailand seem to be revelling in the light wind conditions and now have 4 first places to their credit.
Race 6 got under way promptly and again Singapore and the Philippines got themselves into a dogfight on the line. All boats started cleanly and it was off up the track again to the windward mark. Singapore chose to go left up the beat, with Thailand, Gapurna Gapurna Malaysia and Philippines going right.
The order did not change at the windward mark, with the boats rounding in the order Thailand, Gapurna Malaysia, Singapore and Philippines, with Malaysia 11 seconds behind the leader. Spinnakers up and off down to the leeward mark, with the boats all within 40 seconds of each other.
Again Singapore and Philippines broke right, with Gapurna Malaysia staying close to Thailand, trying to get that elusive first place. At the leeward mark it was still Thailand in front, but the gap had shortened to just 6 seconds. On the other side of the course the Philippines had swapped places with Singapore, but at the mark they had just 2 seconds between them.
Back to windward, with Gapurna Malaysia dogging the heels of Thailand, trying to find the way through, and Singapore put in a short leg to the left then came back to the right to follow the fleet up to the top mark.
The shifty conditions from the day before had now become the order of the day, and the teams all played the shifts to their best advantage up the windward leg. Thailand again making the best of the light airs, opening up the gap on Malaysia to 30 seconds, with Philippines (108 seconds) and Singapore (112 seconds) in 3rd and 4th places
Downwind the fleet again split left and right. Gapurna Malaysia chose to stay with the lead boat and pushed very hard to catch the Thais. Singapore and Philippines had decided their race was for 3rd and 4th places, went right and had their own dogfight all the way down the leg to the finish.
At the line, it was Thailand first, 12 seconds in front of Gapurna Malaysia, with a huge match racing style luffing battle between Singapore and Philippines right up to the line making for one of the most exciting finishes we had seen so far. Singapore kept pushing the Philippines boat out, but eventually the Philippines slipped off the hook and made a dash for the line, crossing marginally in front of Singapore to take the 3rd place in the race.
These four nations’ young sailors are all very well matched on the water, they are sailing very competitively and the overall results (below) show how tight the competition is.
The teams have a well deserved rest day tomorrow (Tuesday) and restart their final 3 days of competition on Wednesday afternoon.
OVERALL RESULTS (after 6 races)
1st Thailand 12 pts
2nd Gapurna Malaysia 15 pts
3rd Singapore 16 pts
4th Philippines 18 pts
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