You can't have too much of a good thing- Six Senses Phuket Raceweek

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 26 Jul 2009 The palm trees were awake and waving before 0800 hrs this morning, and the view from the breakfast terrace at the Evason Resort was nothing short of glorious. Blue sky, sunshine, breeze – heck, putting away the camera and going sailing seemed like a great idea. But that would have made this report a little tricky to write…

Racing started on schedule at 1000 hrs, with Racing division sent off on a 25-mile trip ‘out east’ to Koh Maithon and back. The race started in 10 knots of breeze from the west, and after a short beat to Koh Bon it was 'spinnakers up' to pass outside Koh Hae and then run down to Maithon. By the time the division got back to the start/finish line, the wind was blowing a steady 15 kts, with occasional 17s in the puffs.

Hi Fi was first home in 2 hrs 52 min, followed by Ray Roberts’ Evolution Sails and then Yo!2.

But after the number-crunching it was first place to Evolution by an 8-second squeak from Yo!2. 'It started out as a plain race,' said Evolution tactician Steve McConaghy, 'until we had to find a way through half of Thailand’s fishing fleet on the other side of Koh Maithon – that was pretty challenging! On the return beat we got inside a right shift coming up to Koh Lon, tacked, and almost laid the finish line.'

He went on to acknowledge a great performance from Peter Ahern and the crew on Yo!2, who 'sailed an absolute blinder – they hung on to us, and there was just no way we could get rid of them. I think we were lucky to have them by all of 8 seconds in the final accounts.'

As soon as the class were all finished, RO Simon James went into sequence for a three-leg windward leeward. 'That was highly tactical,' said McConaghy. 'With the breeze still coming from the west, over the land, it was very shifty and gusty. Sailing downwind against two knots of tide was painful - and it felt like very hard work coming straight after the long first race!' 8 seconds was obviously the magic number today as once again it was the winning margin for the race – with this time honours going to Hi Fi in front of Evolution Sails.

After drops, Evolution now leads Hi Fi by 6 points to 9, with two races on the closing day of the regatta tomorrow.

While the Racing division was checking out the island scenery, the remaining classes were sailing laps up and down Ao Chalong Bay, and then came back to the waters in front of the Evason for a windward-leeward race. It was steady and light breeze for the most part, with occasional puffs to make things a little more interesting, and all conducted under the watchful and serene gaze of Phuket’s ‘Big Buddha’ up on the hill behind Ao Chalong.

Skandia Endeavour of Whitby (Stu Williamson) had another flash of brilliance in the afternoon, becoming the only boat in the division to score two wins. 'The sail drive leg is still wobbling and clunking,' said Williamson, 'but we are still within striking distance of a win, and will be very disappointed if we don’t get on the podium. Expect us to come out fighting tomorrow!'

The closest results of all the classes at this regatta are in IRC 1, with first places going to five different boats in six races. And a quick look at the corrected finish times shows that the margins are very small indeed. Jaray Tipsuk has been showing what a Platu can do when sailed well, and was leading the score board yesterday without having won any races at all– that changed today when Mitrmitree won the first race from Madame Butterfly by two minutes. Tipsuk and his all-Thai crew are still leading the division (by just one point) but with two more races tomorrow there are four boats capable of winning. It will make interesting viewing.

The flat water and moderate breeze in Ao Chalong Bay should have suited Henry Kaye’s Seacart 30 Thor to a ‘T’, but in spite of rushing around at enormous speed, and even lapping Da Vinci Nina during the first race in the Multihull division, it was the racing-green boat skippered by her designer Alan Carwadine that won both races today.

Yesterday’s money on ‘predictable’ results in the Firefly class was a winner. Voodoo, gleefully helmed by owner Hans Rahmann, scored another two wins to maintain her clean sheet. John Newnham’s The Frog got in front of Moto Inzi on a number of occasions – but not at the finish line, and Moto is still collecting the '2s' set while The Frog picks up the '3s'.

Phuket has really turned it on weather-wise this week. The forecast for tomorrow is for 'more of the same', so please keep your fingers crossed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

IRC Racing

Sail No Boat Name Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Race 4 Race 5 Race 6 Race 7 Race 8 Total Drop Score Place 8889 Evolution Sails Ray Roberts (AUS) 1 1 1 4 1 2     10 0 10 1 HKG2112 Hi-Fi Neil Pryde (NZ) 3 2 2 1 3 1     12 0 12 2 AUS2000 Yo!2 Peter Ahern (AUS) 2 3 3 3 2 4     17 0 17 3 HKT801 Quantum Fusion M Scott Duncanson (AUS) 4 4 6 2 7 3     26 0 26 4 AUS 1943 Katsu Ben Copley (AUS) 5 6 4 5 4 7     31 0 31 5   Tantrum Robert van Paridon John Vause (NED) 6 5 5 6 6 5     33 0 33 6 MAS 99 Baby Tonga Antony Hastings Fraser Jonson (GBR) 7 7 7 7 5 6     39 0 39 7

IRC 1

Sail No Boat Name Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Race 4 Race 5 Race 6 Race 7 Race 8 Total Drop Score Place 1234 Mitrmitri Jaray Tipsuk (THA) 2 3 2 2 1 3     13 0 13 1 GBR4497 Madame Butterfly Peter Dyer (GBR) 1 4 3 3 2 2     15 0 15 2 JPN 777 Phoenix Niels Degenkolw (DEN) 3 2 4 1 3 5     18 0 18 3 MAS88 Skandia Endeavour of Whitby Stuart Williamson (GBR) 5 1 6 4 4 1     21 0 21 4 JPN6373 Emma Toshio Furuta (JPN) 7 7 1 7 5 4     31 0 31 5   Windstar Peter Wood (IRL) 4 5 5 5 6 8     33 0 33 6 THA777 Minx Mick Kealy Kevin Gillow (AUS) 6 6 8 6 8 6     40 0 40 7 THA118 Coco ColaTuay Lek Sail in Asia David Iszatts (THA) 8 9 7 8 7 7     46 0 46 8

Club Charter

Sail No Boat Name Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Race 4 Race 5 Race 6 Race 7 Race 8 Total Drop Score Place AUS 36 Awatea Andrew de Bruin (AUS) 1 1 2 1 1       6 0 6 1 MLT 1295 Big A Horst Lakits (AUT) 3 2 1 2 6       14 0 14 2 181 Prosafe Cunning Plan Rob Azzopardi (AUS) 2 6 3 4 2       17 0 17 3 M Amandla Star Chrisotpher Kingsley-Smith (GBR) 6 6 4 3 3       22 0 22 4   NRG Alissa Elite Yachting Benjamin Dupal (THA) 4 3 5 5 6       23 0 23 5

Multihull

Sail No Boat Name Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Race 4 Race 5 Race 6 Race 7 Race 8 Total Drop Score Place   Da Vinci Niña Composite Catamarans Alan Carwadine (THA) 1 1 2 2 1 1     8 0 8 1   Thor Henry Kaye/Fergus Wilmer (GBR) 2 2 1 1 2 3     11 0 11 2 234 Shanghai Baby Neil Ayre (GBR) 3 4 3 4 3 2     19 0 19 3 GBR 720M Miss Saigon David Liddell (GBR) 5 6 4 3 5 8     31 0 31 4 20 Chameleon Faraway Yachting Shane Smith (THA) 4 3 8 8 6 4     33 0 33 5   Madame Cholet David Thomson (GBR) 8 7 8 5 4 8     40 0 40 6 00 Happy Feet Arnold Duckworth (USA) 6 5 5 8 8 8     40 0 40 7

Firefly 850

Sail No Boat Name Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Race 4 Race 5 Race 6 Race 7 Race 8 Total Drop Score Place FF777 Voodoo Hans Rahmann (GER) 1 1 1 1 1 1     6 0 6 1 FF222 Moto Inzi Roger Kingdon (GBR) 2 2 2 2 2 2     12 0 12 2 690 The Frog Andaman Sea Club John Newnham (THA) 3 3 3 3 3 3     18 0 18 3   Blue Nose Damian Kimble Mark Horwood (CAN) 4 4 4 4 6 6     28 0 28 4   SEA Property Peter Dyer (GBR) 6 6 6 6 6 6     36 0 36 5

Classic

Sail No Boat Name Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Race 4 Race 5 Race 6 Race 7 Race 8 Total Drop Score Place 59 Seraph Tom Howard Bao (GBR) 1 2 1 1         5 0 5 1

Jul 25 2009 9:52 PM