Sailing into history - Damrongsak Vongtim

by Kendra Norton on 7 Jun 2008 A national hero, Damrongsak Vongtim and his family prove that succeeding internationally in sailing is possible for the youth of Thailand.One might expect Damrongsak Vongtim to be the competitive, determined man he has proven himself to be on the water throughout the years. However, the sailor and part-time mango farmer has a much humbler side, often overlooked when talking about the sailing legend.

Damrongsak, born in Rayong on June 2, 1970, moved to Sattahip in 1973 where his father, Vinai Vongtim, a former Topcat world champion, has lived since he first joined the Thai Navy in 1968. Damrongsak and his three younger siblings, Wandee, Sakda and Kisara, grew up around the Sattahip Naval Base and have each become admirable sailors. Their father, the current coach of the Thai national team, taught them to sail in Optimists and has remained their coach throughout their lives.

'My father guided me, like a friend.' says Damrongsak. 'He let me find my own way.'

A former fisherman, Vinai would take Damrongsak on the boat with him where he learned to read clouds, currents and the wind - one of Damrongsak's trademark skills. Throughout his life, Vinai has been a mentor, a coach and a role model to his son, something Damrongsak hopes to be for his own six-year-old son Saran, who lives with his wife Pornpan on their farm in Chacheong-sao.

In 1977 the Junior Sailing Squadron of Thailand (JSST) was born. Damrongsak thought it looked like fun, joined, trained in Optimists and then went on to compete internationally.

The person who gave Damrongsak his first international break was Al Chandler, a former commodore of the Royal Varuna Yacht Club (RVYC) in Pattaya, who met Damrongsak when the Sattahip team came to the RVYC.

He signed Damrongsak up for the 1983 Optimist World Championships, held in Kingston, Canada, and was also the team manager. Damrongsak placed 15th, earning him the highest placing an Asian had ever received (since then, a Chinese sailor has won). Yet, it wasn't only the prize that Damrongsak enjoyed. Damrongsak remembers with fondness going up with his team to train for two weeks at Chandler's family cottage in Lake Tahoe, in the US, before the event. 'The boys had no trouble with the cold water,' says Chandler. 'Once in Kingston, though, I recall them having trouble with the food. They brought along rice that they'd cook in their rooms at night.'

Damrongsak jokes, 'I remember not sleeping much because a lot of Canadian girls were coming in and out of our room because the Thai team was very friendly. My room was about four metres square and had 20 people inside it at a time, having pillow fights.'

Apart from Optimists, Damrongsak has sailed a range of boats including Laser 2s, OK Dinghies, Cadets, Fireballs, 420s, 470s, and many others.

'His talent is translated to every type of boat he sails,' says Peter Cummins, a member of RVYC and a journalist who has written about Damrongsak several times over the past years. Hobie 16s, the type of boat Damrongsak currently sails, and in which he was placed 9th in at last year's Worlds in Fiji, weren't very popular in Thailand until Chandler introduced them, bringing over his own from California in 1972. It wasn't until 1992, when the RVYC asked the Yacht Racing Association of Thailand (YRAT) if they had any Hobie 16 sailors that Damrongsak was first asked to try a Hobie 16. David Race, the RVYC's former Commodore, lent his boat to Damrongsak and his then-crew, Praserdsak Moonprasert, so they could represent the YRAT. Together they won two Hobie National Championships and competed in the Hobie Nacra division in 1992, 1996 and 2006. Damrongsak recalls not liking Hobie 16s at first, and stopped sailing them for five or six years. He moved on to 420s, a two-person monohull dinghy he enjoys, and competed in the 2002 Asian Games in their class, placing second. He later came back to Hobie 16s, the boat he now dominates with and will continue to sail, he thinks, for the rest of his career.

Damrongsak has travelled the globe to compete, generally sponsored by the Thai government. 'There is no 'best place' to sail,' he says. 'Every place is different and each has good and bad points.'

Despite all of these travels, though, Damrongsak's best sailing memory happened not far from home. The Fireball Worlds 2002, held in Hua Hin, was Damrongsak's proudest and fondest sailing moment. Having never sailed a Fireball before, he entered and placed 4th. Once again, proof of Damrongsak's extreme talent.

Over the years, the Vongtim family has been known for producing some of Thailand's top sailors. Wandee, 29, has been racing 420s and 470s since her first regatta at the 18th SEA Games. Nowadays she's focusing on 470s due to an age limit on 420 racing. Her brothers, Damrongsak, 38, Sakda, 28, and Kisara, 25, have all taken to Hobie 16s. Damrongsak and Sakda have made an almost unbeatable pair in the past, coming 9th together at the recent Hobie Worlds in Fiji in October 2007. Sakda is currently teaching at a sailing school in Phuket, so Kisara, second best skipper in all of Asia behind his brothers, will crew for Damrongsak in the coming races instead of skippering his own boat. Besides being a full-time sailor and part-time mango farmer, Damrongsak coaches the Thai national team and occasionally beginners. He also teaches health education at the Sattahip Naval Base, and obviously enjoys his teaching very much. 'I like teaching a lot because with my students, ranging from seven to 50, I can be serious or funny,' says Damrongsak.

As for his future in sailing, Damrongsak will race at the European Championship in Copenhagen in September, the Asian Hobie Championships in October and possibly the next Hobie Cat Worlds held in Puerto Rico.

'Preparing for races like these takes time and work with the boat. You need to understand what it needs from you and what you need from it to work well. Sometimes I'll ask my father how a boat should feel when you're sailing it,' explains Damrongsak. 'Every day we have an hour of fitness training to stay in shape. Also teamwork and practice is very important. For my first Hobie race in 1992 I must have practised about 10,000 tacks. Whenever I sail or race, I check the weather and currents. The Fiji Worlds in 2006 was hard because the wind was light, so studying the weather was difficult.'

As for the amount of sailing he does, Damrongsak says that before events he trains for four to six hours a day, six days a week. 'When I'm racing my heart is always thinking about when I need to do this and that,' explains Damrongsak. 'I'm always thinking about not making mistakes. My father told me that everyone makes mistakes, but the sailor who makes the least mistakes wins. You have to motivate yourself and concentrate on your sailing, not everybody else's.'

When asked about the 2008 Olympics, Damrongsak explains that there is no Thai sailing team going to China because qualifying is so expensive. Although there will be no Thai team, Rut Subniran, a representative of the YRAT, will be officiating. By the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Damrongsak hopes there will be a Hobie 16 class and a team from Thailand.

It's a lifestyle that he seems to have been born for. 'I never wanted to be anything else. It's less exciting as it was at the beginning but I'm proud when I win and of where I am.'

Like his father, Damrongsak has become a sailing legend. Getting to the top is tough, but staying there is probably more difficult. 'There will always be pressure to be the best,' he notes, 'but when my foot touches the water everything else just disappears.'