Phuket Kings Cup - Better than the Brochure

by Rob Kothe and Jaroonroj 'Knot' Satitkasem on 4 Dec 2008 The reason that racing starts so early each morning is because around noon the breeze often eases away. But not so far at the 22nd annual Phuket Kings Cup.

Yesterday there were booming breezes. Today the fleet sailed in 10 to 15 knot breezes well into the afternoon, with the Racing fleet sailing three races and all the other classes completing two races with the exception of the Classic and Sunsail classes who sailed their second race in the series.

Organising Committee President Kevin Whitcraft commented 'the wind did not do a Phuket and die out at midday. Hopefully the same conditions will hold for the next few days.’

In the Racing Class, Ray Roberts' DK46 Quantum Racing now leads the regatta despite a slow start yesterday. Today she recovered with a third and two wins.

In second place overall is defending Champion Frank Pong's RP75 Jelik. Neil Pryde's Welbourn Custom2 Hi Fi is third, while yesterday’s race winner, Paul Winkelmann's TP52 Island Fling is now fourth.

In this Grand Prix fleet there is plenty of adrenaline. In the first of today’s races four of the fleet—Quantum Racing, Island Fling, Fortris Mandrake and Hi Fi—all crossed the line early, while only Jelik had a clean start. The last boats back onto the course were Island Fling and Quantum.

Jelik won on IRC handicap, Island Fling came second and Ray Roberts' DK46 Quantum Racing was third.

The second race of the day was blown out when it was discovered that the top mark was incorrectly placed.

Things became better for the Roberts’ team as they won the third race on handicap, ahead of Hi Fi and Nick Burns's Farr-Mills 51 Fortis Mandrake.

In the fourth race the handicap placings were Quantum Racing, Jelik, and Hi Fi.

In the IRC 1 Class, Matt Allen's Beneteau First 44.7, Ichi Ban, is dominating after winning all three races.

She did it tough in the second race of the series. Octopussy and Switchblade were over early and the Ichi Ban crew thought she was over and went back un-necessarily but she still sailed away for a win.

Ichi Ban is stacked with sailing talent, she has won two regattas in two appearances and she'd be expensive to bet against her in Phuket .

Rob Bottomley's Beneteau First 47.7 Sailplane has been bridesmaid in all three races too. Ben Copley's Swan CS42 Katsu is third overall.

In the IRC 2 series, Navy Cadet Pontap Sukudom’s Royal Thai Navy2 has three bullets.

Gould and Cusack's Frers 42 Di Hard are in second place overall, followed by Royal Thai Navy I in third place,

In the Premier Class Race, David Ross' Swan 53 Macquarie-Frangipani Girl holds the lead after two good races against Peter Cremers' Warwick 55 Shahtoosh and Somov Vyachteslav's Beneteau 53f5 Ocean Agassy.

Dr. Ian Nicholson's Dubois Intrigue took line honours in race two and three, ahead of Shahtoosh and Ocean Agassy.

In the second race Shahtoosh won on handicap, followed by Macquarie-Frangipani Girl and Ocean Agassy.

However in the third race it was Macquarie-Frangipani Girl winning ahead of Ocean Agassy and Shahtoosh on corrected time.

In the wet and wild Sport Boat Race Class, Scott Duncanson's Phuket 8 Raimon Land The Heights leads after winning both races today. In second place overall is Kenchi Takahashi's Platu 25 Motor Net, who won yesterday and came second place in both races today.

Ray Waldron's Phuket 8 Vino is third, followed by Morten Jakobsen's Platu 25 Emma Mathilde Ji-Zip in fourth.

Achim Griese's Princess Anna is leading the Sunsail One Design Class series after winning the first two races. In second place is Jakob Handte's Princess Isabella, ahead of Nick Rose's Princess Christina, who is in third.

Jan Kisteit's Bavaria 34 Cruiser, Little Eva, now holds first place overall in the Bareboat Charter Class with Toru Inoue's Feeling in second place. Daniel Schwalb's Bavaria Montclair (Fei Mao) is third.

In the Firefly 850 Class, Peter Dyer's Sea Property leads the series. In second place is Henry Kaye's Seahorse Interiors-Mamba, with Hans Rahmann's Voodoo Child in third.

The Firefly’s had a tough but very fast day yesterday. . Designer Mark Pescott reported that they not only recorded top speeds of 23-24 knots and maintained steady 20's throughout, but that they were also lead changes half a dozen times.

Today, Mamba won the first race and Moto Inzi won the second race, back to her best after a horror day one.

Racing is very tight in this Thai multihull class as demonstrated in the first race today when Seahorse Interiors-Mamba beat Sea Property by only 16 seconds.

In race three, Roger Kingdom's Sport Moto Inzi was back on song after winning against Sea Property and Seahorse Interiors-Mamba.

Radab Kanjanavanit's F-9A SEAMICO Cedar Swan is the leader of Multihull 1 Class ahead of Neil Ayre's Corsair Hotel Travel Shanghai Baby who won race two today. In third place is Bob Brindley's Whitehaven X Catriot.

Radab commented today ‘We are leading the series, but it might be luck. The Corsairs are tough to beat. Miss Saigon looks very fast and she will be tough to beat and Shanghai Baby will be up there.

Yesterday was quite scary, we’d never reefed the main before, but we did when it gusted to 30 knots. Shanghai came up to us, but we went away from her like a Ferrari passing a lorry.’

In the Ocean Rover Class Race, Krasnoperov Oleg's Beneteau Oceanis 423 Thalassa leads from Chapus Marc's Contraste 44 Zorba. Charles Hay's Jeanneau SO45DS Symstery is third.

James Stoll's Schooner's Argo holds the lead in Classic Division after two wins. Second overall is Paul Brunning's timber classic Dondang Sarang and third is Roger Foley’s Tradition.

Full results at http://www.kingscup.com/2008results/series_results.htm