Six Senses Phuket Raceweek 2010 – Promises, promises…

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 25 Jul 2010 Six Senses Phuket Raceweek 2010 - On Thursday it was going to blow on Friday, and on Friday it was going to blow on Saturday – that’s today. Apparently, it’s going to blow tomorrow, but nobody is holding their breath.

The day started promisingly with 15 kts and a windward/leeward course for everyone except IRC 3 who went island hopping. Some found the breeze to be a bit of a handful – appropriate wind for a Sunday outing with Auntie in the Solent often leaves Asian sailors floundering. There were some interesting broaches and spinnaker drops, but no major damage was reported.

Baby Tonga (Anthony Hastings) scored her first bullet of the regatta in IRC 1, and Piccolo (Mark Chapman) added yet another first place to the scoresheet in IRC 2. After The Fireflies were up for it and game, with the occasional hull lifting just a leetle bit, and plenty of spray being kicked up on the downwind legs. Moto Inzi (Roger Kingdon) ended a string of second place finishes, but Voodoo followed close behind in second to put herself in an unassailable position going in to the last day of racing. Henry Kaye (Thor, Multihull Class) added yet another first place to a clean sheet. On the water, Thor finished a whopping 20 minutes ahead of second-placed Da Vinci, even though that was whittled down to 5 minutes corrected time.

A quick pause for breath - and even though the breeze was easing, clearly the RO was thinking of that 25 kt forecast… and sent the IRC 1 and 2, Firefly and Multihull classes off on a trip out round Koh Bon, Koh Hae, Koh Aeo and up to the Safe Water Mark near Cape Panwa,and then home.

But sadly the wind did not fill. Instead, it died. What should have been a romp round the islands circuit turned very quickly into an agonizingly slow crawl – exacerbated for much of the trip by a strong ebbing tide. It was painful stuff. 'Did you enjoy it?' 'No,' said the ever-philosophical Roger Kingdon. At 1700 hrs the cut-off cut off, leaving seven Multihulls DNF from a division of nine. They’d probably had enough by then anyway – what a pity the course made no provision for short finishes or timing gates.

We asked Ben Copley (Katsu) how he intends to protect his 2-point lead at the top of IRC 1 tomorrow. 'Who knows?' he said.

Will there be 25 knots of breeze tomorrow, as promised? Who knows?

Full results at www,phuketraceweek.com

Short results:
IRC 1
1 Katsu (2),2,1,1,2,1 = 7
2 Quantum Fusion M 1,1,2,3,(7),2 = 9
3 Baby Tonga 3,3,4,2,1,(4) = 13
IRC 2
1 Piccolo 5,1,1,1,1,(7) = 9
2 Sea Bees 1,5,(6),3,3,1 = 13
3 RTN 5 3,3,2,(5),4,3 = 15
IRC 3
1 LeRo 1,2,1,1 = 5
2 Beaux Esprits 2,1,3,4 = 10
3 Don’t Think Twice 4,3,2,5 = 14
Classic
1 Seraph 2,1,1 = 4
2 Kerida 1,2,2 = 5
Firefly 850 Sports
1 Voodoo 2,1,1,1,(2),1 = 6
2 Moto Inzi 3,2,2,2,1,(3) = 10
3 Pink Lady 1,4,(5),3,4,4 = 16
Multihulls
1 Thor 1,1,1,1,1,(1) = 5
2 Da Vinci 2,2,2,3,2,(10) = 11
3 Miss Saigon 3,5,4,2,3,(10) = 17

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