King's Cup day three forecast for stronger winds and quick racing

by Tracey Johnstone on 2 Dec 2009 After enjoying a night of celebration at the Phuket Orchid Resort, the international fleet line up today for day three of the 23rd Phuket King’s Cup with winds forecast to be stronger than yesterday.

PRO Jerry Rollins is planning to send the racing divisions off on two windward/leeward races using longer beats. But he said, all will be revealed once the race committee get out on the course. In the cruiser/racer divisions, Race Officer Ross Chisholm hopes to get in two races; one triangle and one coastal. The exception will be the Classic class with only one race proposed.

Overall leaders in each of the 11 divisions are Racing – Neil Pryde’s Hi-Fi 2-4-1-1, Premier - Anthony Hastings’s Baby Tonga-Hideaways Club 1-1, IRC1 – Matt Allen’s Ichi Ban 1-1-1-1, IRC2 – Peter Dyer’s Team Bentley 2-4-1-1, Bareboat Charter – Mike Crisp’s Venture 1-1, Classic – Rene Tiemessen’s Alondra 1-1, Modern Classic – Peter Wood’s Windstar 1-1, Cruising - Bob Ashman’s Simba 1-2, Firefly 850 – Brent Gribble’s Twin Sharks 2-1-1-1, Multihull Racing – Henry Kaye/Fergus Wilmer’s Thor 1-1-1-1, Multihull Cruising – Yoshiaki Fujitani’s Sunfish III.

The racing is fast approaching the point where divisions will be able to drop their worst race result. The Racing division requires six or more races to allow one drop. For IRC1, IRC2, Multihull Racing and the Firefly 850s, five or more races are required and in the remaining divisions, four or more races are required before a drop is allowed.

After a hard day’s racing the 111-boat fleet will no doubt be looking forward to enjoying a long, cold sample of today’s race sponsor product, Chang Beer.

The King’s Cup has bought together an interesting group of sailors this year.

In the IRC1 division there is the Farr MX41 Octopussy skippered by Malee Whitcraft, the only female skipper in the regatta. Octopussy has previously been raced by Whitcraft's husband, Kevin. He now owns the GP42 AA which he is racing, in its first Asia regatta, in the Racing division.

Malee Whitcraft has sailing with her a team of six female crew plus three men. After a break from racing for 15 years it appears Whitcraft is back in the game and looking to achieve good results over the next three years. 'I look at people who are ambitious, strong and motivated. I believe women are very, very good sailors because they pay a lot attention to the small things, the timing is often very good which is important for female crew where strength is sometimes missing.' Octopussy is placed 12th in the 16 boat division.

The oldest skipper would have to be 86-year-old Hong Kong sailor Mr Li Fook Hing who is aboard the 43-foot Bareboat Charter division yacht, Morakot. They are currently placed 14th in the division of 24 boats.

http://www.kingscup.com/