King’s Cup- final races and all results in the balance

by Tracey Johnstone on 5 Dec 2009 It’s the final day of racing in the 23rd Phuket King’s Cup and still all 11 division results today are critical to the overall outcome.

The weather forecast is for a east-north-east breeze of 13 knots softening off to 8 knots by late morning. After a bruising day on the water yesterday, the fleet will no doubt be looking forward to these gentler conditions.

The race officers are hoping to complete two races in most divisions. But firstly, the 111 boats will participate in the annual Sail Pass in honour of his Majesty the King of Thailand. Racing is then scheduled to start no earlier than 0930 hours.

Equal second in the Racing division on 18 points is Frank Pong’s Jelik II and Chris Meads’s Full Metal Jacket. In reviewing his rival ahead of today’s racing Pong said, “Full Metal Jacket was here in 2007 and 2008.This is his third year and I have to say Mr Chris Dickson (tactician) is good in light airs and heavy airs. He has got the boat going which before was yet to sparkle. But now, he has made an enormous amount of difference on the performance of that boat”.

The Sting’s David Wales competing in the Multihull Racing division said yesterday that many of the multihulls found the day four race short, choppy sea conditions difficult. Placed in fifth overall, Wales and his team have been struggling to get used to their completely new set of sails. “It takes a long time to get used to a new set of sails especially when they are completely different from the ones we had before.”

In regards to what the Multihull Racing fleet are going to do about the dominance of the Seacat 30, Thor, Wales joked “there are two schools of thought on this. One is that Henry disappeared forever. Henry is a really nice guy and a good friend. I think we are not going to be able to do anything about Henry (Thor) because he has a boat that has a much, much higher tack than any of the rest of us have got. I am not much good on handicaps, but there has to be something wrong with them. He is beating us by an hour and a half on a two hour race. I suppose it is a problem for any event when a new type of boat appears. How do you cope with it until you see what it can do ?”

The top three overall place holders in each division are Racing – HiFi on nine points ahead of Full Metal Jacket and Jelik II both on equal 18 points; Premier – Baby Tonga-Hideaways Club on six points with Shahtoosh on seven and Australian Maid on 11 points; IRC1 - Ichi Ban on six points ahead of Koull Baby on 19 and Switchblade on 21 points; IRC2 – Team Bentley on 12 points, Royal Thai Navy on 13 and Skandia Endeavour of Whitby on 19 points; Bareboat Charter – Princess Sharda on six points ahead of Venture on 10 and Fidgi on 11 points; Modern Classic –Windstar on four points, Emerald Blue on seven and Pytheas Aura on 14 points; Cruising – Simba on four points, Skylax on five and Rainbow Dream on seven points; Firefly 850 Sports – Twin Sharks on nine points, Voodoo on 12 and Sea Property on 13 points; Multihull Racing – Thor on six points, Miss Saigon on 15 and Seamico Cedar Swan on 18 points; Multihull Cruising – Nipper on five points and Sunfish III on nine points; Classic – Alondra on six, Schwalbe on seven and Sirius on eight points..

Event website - http://www.kingscup.com/