Yo!2 wipes Six Senses Phuket Raceweek

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 29 Jul 2008 With a scoreline of six wins from six races, the only thing Peter Ahern’s Yo!2 crew had to prove on Sunday was whether they could sail with hangovers. They can.

Making it look easy, the recently refurbished and modified Farr 40 led the way round the track for two more races, scored two more line and handicaps wins, discarded a 1st place to leave them with a score of 7 from 7, and left the racecourse.

The closing day of the 2008 Six Senses Phuket Raceweek provided a little less wind and a lot more sunshine, but nobody was complaining on either count. Thailand Elite Switchblade broke her boom vang yesterday, and Mike Downard wasn’t too unhappy about the enforced ‘rest’ – 'It was very hard work for the last three days!'. Some classes were already decided, and some more were finalised after just one race on Sunday, but the continuing breeze meant that for IRC 1, IRC 2 and the Firefly 850s one more race – number 8 – was in order. It just seemed a waste to not to sail in the plum-perfect conditions.

RO Simon James sent the divisions away on the first race up into Ao Chalong Bay and back, with extra legs thrown in between the Port Channel Marker and a mark near the Evason resort. Ben Copeley’s brand new Swan 42 Katsu made the pace for the first part of the race, but the Yo!2 crew proved that they have strength in depth – and real sailors’ constitutions – and ‘came back’ to claim once again both Line and Handicap honours. Ruby Tuesday, who has won this division before, had to be content with 3rd place overall.

In IRC 2 Jeff Davison and the Madame Butterfly crew also had to settle for bridesmaid’s honours. The boat is substantially optimised for a racing in about 7kts of breeze, and this was one regatta that produced rather more. Two first places on the last day were not sufficient to dilute the performance of the Danish crew on Phoenix (Niels Degenkolw) who beat them 9-11 including five first places. It was a pedigree crew, too, including North sailmakers and lady match racers from the top drawer, and a great win for an X ¾-tonner against the former World Champion 1-tonner.

The closest battle was in the Firefly 850 class. Three boats OCS in the first race (they all went back) opened up the betting a bit, and division leader Peter Dyer (SEA Property) ended up with a 5th place. After two races, and before a drop, Mamba (Henry Kaye) was holding the title, but throwing away 5 to Mamba’s 3 gave them equal points – with SEA Property having scored the last first on therefore taking it on countback. Henry Kaye’s consolation was in taking the Firefly of the Year trophy calculated on the results of five regattas.

Phuket Raceweek, now Six Senses Phuket Raceweek, has grown from 16 boats in 2004 to 45 this year – that’s the sort of growth that most regattas would envy. And at the same time, the quality of the fleet has improved. Simon James is to be congratulated on a job well done as Principal Race Officer. The 'keep it all in one place' philosophy for the off-water activities is tried and tested, and still works very well. And as far as the location itself is concerned, anyone who pretends not to like the Evason Resort will be hard pushed to find a better or more generous host sponsor. The new layout of the ‘Into the Beach’ venue was a major improvement in view of the substantially increased number of competitors. Whether a bigger fleet can be handled – or is desirable – is something that regatta organisers IMAGEasia will have to ask themselves.