Faster than a speeding Ferret- Thai Platu Open

by Kevin Scott on 22 Mar 2009 Scott Duncanson skippered The Ferret to victory in last weekend's Thailand Platu Open Championship. This was the first of a series of four events comprising this year's Raimon Land One Design Platu Championship. This series is fast becoming THE regional series for all top yachtsmen to take part in, and the quality of the entrants is rapidly increasing as word spreads.

11 identical Platu yachts took part, and the quality of the entrants was very high. Rolf Heemskerk, a Dutchman from Malaysia, is the current National Platu champion and Nils Rasmilovic is a world class Etchells sailor. Also, the Malaysian Navy sent over a strong team as did the Singapore Management University. The rest of the teams were local entries including three all-Thai crews.

There were four races on Saturday, and changeable winds kept the tacticians very busy. As predicted, racing was close and at the finish of the first race Scott Duncanson beat Rolf Heemskerk by one second, with Nils Razmilovic third. In the second race it was another close finish between these three boats but this time Rolf Heemskerk beat Scott Duncanson by half a boat length.

In the third race Scott Duncanson was excluded for crossing the start line early and gave away his second place to the young guns from Singapore University with Christopher Lim skippering. Third was Khun Ithinai helming his Pine Pacific sponsored Platu starting to get his boat up to speed.
In the fourth race Rolf Heemskerk again showed why he is the current Thai National champion as he beat Nils Razmilovic, with Scott Duncanson third after he had been held up on the lay line by a back marker. At the end of day one Rolf was in a comfortable lead with Nils second and the SMU youth team third.

But on day two Scott Duncanson skippering “The Ferret” came out to show why he won this event last year as he claimed two wins and a close second in very strong winds and lumpy seas. Race five produced some very close “match” racing between the two champions, swapping tack for tack in a very technical battle for almost the whole race. This allowed the Singapore youth team to score a well deserved victory with Scott Duncanson second and Rolf Heemskerk a very close third. The sixth race was won by Scott Duncanson leaving Rolf Heemskerk and Nils Razmilovic to do the close match racing with their spinnakers up and Nils getting over the line one second before Rolf.

After 6 races and going into the last race, Rolf Heemskerk was leading Scott Duncanson by one point only. It was all to play for now between these two champions. But disaster for Rolf at the start when he crossed the line early and had to turn back and restart. This let the fleet get away and although he got back to finish fifth, Scotty Duncason took the last race and therefore the Championship for the second year in a row, by just one point.

The winds were strong and the racing fast and furious. The Singaporeans showed that it does not take 20 years experience to have a chance of winning by coming third overall, and the Malaysian Navy team, although new to this area, put up a good fight to take fifth. Nils Razmilovic had never sailed this type of boat before and showed his talents by coming fourth overall. Magic Dragon, Steve Dover was not so lucky as the strong winds brought down his mast and ended his racing for the weekend.

Watch out for the next race in the series, The Top of The Gulf Regatta in Pattaya 30 April-4th May.

Results
Thailand Platu Open Championship 14/15th March 2009

1 The Ferret Scott Duncanson 10 points
2 The Stingray Rolf Heemskirk 11
3 The Fox Christopher Lim 18
4 Yachtpro Nils Razmilovic 18
5 The Weasel Mohamed Rozali 33
6 Emma Morten Jackobsen 36
7 Gulf Charters Ray Waldron 39
8 Pine Pacific Ithinai Yingsiri 40
9 Platu 122 Pote Suyasin 43
10 Magic Dragon Steve Dover 58
11 Puma Kobayashi 62