Phang Nga Bay Regatta 2010 – a sight for sore eyes

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 11 Feb 2010 Last weekend wrapped up four days of racing at the 13th edition of the Phang Nga Bay Regatta, a gentle cruise around the spectacular limestone turrets and towers of Phang Nha Bay, with pauses for refreshment at some very smart resorts.
Starting at the Absolute Chandara, Ao Po (very nice too) with an Opening Party, next day the 41-boat fleet headed north in just a few knots of wind towards Koh Yai. Around about here the wind disappeared altogether – especially for the back markers, and RO Simon James very wisely called a short course for the slower divisions. The quicker boats – and this is a relative term, remember – headed east across the bay in the ever-dying breeze heading for Koh Sum and another short finish.

Even the first stages of the race were light enough to call a postponement (if this had been the America’s Cup), but the real point of the trip across the bay was the stop at Chong Lat. Tucked away behind a ridge of limestone, and with equally precipitous cliffs on both sides of a narrow gully, this has to be one of the most glorious anchorages anywhere. Would anyone care to dispute that? Squeeze into here from the north end to get the full effect: threading the eye of the needle into a corridor of unreasonably lush vegetation and dizzying cliff faces to find the rest of the fleet tucked into an extra-sheltered corner. You’ve seen the pictures of Phang Nga Bay – well, they are real, Virginia. Dropping a hook in Chong Lat is just like anchoring in the middle of a postcard.

The sun went down, painting the cliffs orange and then purple, and along came the longtails – a small posse of them, arriving like bandits in the middle of the fleet. But there’s no threat here, it’s just the taxi service to take all those hungry sailors around the corner and up the river a short way, to be greeted by the children of Laem Sek before dinner at the Laem Sek Seafood Restaurant where (it looks like) the whole village has turned out to help feed 300+ visitors.

The best-laid plans, and all that… No sooner had the crowd sat down than the heavens opened, down comes the rain, and out went the lights. But never mind – the lights came back on, the rain stopped (eventually), and there was enough wonderful seafood to feed an army – let alone a small fleet. Well done, Laem Sek, for a great dinner and party! The longtail ride in the dark, back down river and round to the anchorage, was positively furtive – and hugely enjoyable!

More gold-painted cliffs greeted the early risers for racing day 2, and the start signals sounded on time (0830 hrs) but the breeze pattern was very similar to the day before, but shorter. From the start line to Koh Pai is only a mile or so, but that was where the wind stated to fizz, and by the time everyone had drifted around for a little longer under a brass-blue sky and overheated for the second time in two days, it was time to call a short finish at Koh Ku Du Yai. Some of the racing fleet – and spectator boats – took a quick side trip for a swim and a bit of exploring on Koh Roi. And then it was on to join the rest of the fleet anchored off the Paradise Koh Yao Resort at the north eastern tip of (you guessed it) Koh Yao.

The party that night featured an International Buffet provided by race-day sponsor, The Paradise. You don’t often see English Cottage Pie on the menu at Asian regattas, but there is was, alongside the Greek kebabs, the German sausage and all the other offerings from around the world. Yum yum! Another brief rainstorm did nothing to dampen the party-going spirit, nor snuff out a drum solo that was still being talked about next morning – by those that could remember it!

Day 3, and the wind arrived. Not a great deal of it, to be sure, but enough to push the fleet gently through the gaps between the islands on a tortuous course between one Koh and the next. 13 years ago this regatta was instigated by noted local photographer John Everingham, who mourned the passing of the famous 'spinnaker start under the cliffs' at Koh Phi Phi that was formerly an iconic part of the Phuket King’s Cup. The Phang Nga Bay Regatta is specifically engineered to be scenic and photogenic... and it is.

This time everyone made it to the finish line outside the Sheraton Krabi Resort, and anchored in front of the flour-soft beach. After dark, a disco-themed party and dinner once again made sure that a good time was had by all, and the PNB Regatta’s mantra of 'fun, fun, fun' continued unsullied. Like any good party, this one took a long time to wind down, with repeated demands for 'just one more’ directed at the band and the interestingly-clad singers (did people really dress like that in the 60s? Have I forgotten..?) Rumour has it that a substantial number of people were left on the beach long after the longtail service had stopped, and were obliged to spend the night ashore. Beached, as it were.

And so to the last day’s racing. A quick detour to a windward mark, and then a long, almost straight line, haul across the southern part of Phang Nga Bay, and round the corner at Cape Panwa into Chalong Bay. And hallelujah, the breeze was ‘in’. Blue skies, blue water, brilliant sunshine and breeze. One crew even spotted a whale shark – such is the reputation of this event that even the local marine life wants to join in! The Closing Party and prizegiving took place at Kan Eang Seafood 2 where, it seemed, pretty much everyone was a winner. Both boats in the Multihull Cruising class got prizes – presumably, one for coming first and the other for coming last. Henry Kaye’s superlight SeaCart 30, Thor, hung on by a whisker to win Multihull Racing on a countback, and Hans Rahmann’s Firefly (now known as simply ‘Voodoo’, since the ‘Child’ fell off) wiped the class with four wins from four starts. And so did Phoenix (Niels Degelkolw) in Cruising A, and Bill Crump’s Fistral (Cruising B) also produced a clean score sheet by virtue of a drop race. Things were a little closer at the top of the Racing division, but in the end it was the Turkish visitors (skipper, Selim Kakis) on Switchblade that prevailed, ahead of Katsu (Ben Copley) and Ruby Tuesday (John Vause).

There have been a number of tags assigned to this event over the years – 'a series of parties with some sailing in between', 'a party on the move', 'the most scenic regatta on the Asian racing calendar', 'the FUN regatta'.
You’d better enjoy the scenery as there’s plenty of it to appreciate, and you’re going to see a great deal of it as you pass (slowly) by. It’s phenomenal, glorious, magnificent, stunning… (have I repeated myself yet?). 'It's a regatta, Jim, but not as we know it'.

Come for the visuals, stay for the parties, and use the races as an excuse to get from one cold beer to the next – it feels like more of a rally than a regatta, but what’s wrong with that? Asian Yachting’s Captain Marty summed it up like this: 'This regatta appeals to the serious, the not-so-serious and the not-at-all-serious 'racing' sailors. It combines spectacular scenery and lively parties with some yacht racing thrown in. If you’re tired of gear-breaking racing then the Phang Nga Bay Regatta will be very much to your liking.'

And you don’t have to be racing – at all – to enjoy Phang Nga Bay. Sail-World was 'incarcerated' on the Media Boat, which just happened to be the Silolona, a 50m 6-star-luxury traditionally-built Indonesian phinisi. A tough berth indeed! Silolona is a familiar sight at the Phuket King’s Cup, and is undoubtedly a stunning piece of moving scenery in her own right.

Will we be back next year for Asia’s most laid-back sailing event? Yes, we very much hope so – you can’t have too much FUN at the Phang Nga Bay Regatta after all those hard-work serious racing events that we usually cover! Roll on PNB 2011…