Neptune Regatta 2011 - preparing the way for the Race to the Equator

by Guy Nowell, Neptune Regatta Media on 22 Dec 2010 Neptune Regatta 2011 - Brave bully-boys prepare the way for the Race to the Equator

Sailing into unfamiliar waters… reconnaissance… checking the charts… selecting campsites… meeting the inhabitants… safely home again

Anyone who has read Arthur Ransome’s incomparable books will recognise the style of intro (above). The more I think about this adventure, the more I am convinced that the Neptune Regatta is very likely to find the Swallows and the Amazons waiting when the fleet gets to Pulau Buaya… (Hang on, going too fast here…)

The Neptune Regatta 2011 is growing by the minute, and now has 17 boats on the entry list - four in IRC, six in PY, one multihull and no less than six motoryachts. And as is usual on these occasions, there are a fair few who have ‘expressed interest’ and are going to be there but just haven’t got round to signing up yet. (And of course there are also those who are going to sit on the fence this time round, and then wish afterwards that they had, indeed, joined in the very first regatta to the Equator…) Check out the entry list - the potential competition! - at http://www.neptune-regatta.com/boats.aspx#irc)

Regatta Organiser Tudor John reports himself and his team well pleased with progress. 'We are still more than a month away from the 01 February start line, and things seem to going well. Our numbers are looking strong – especially for an inaugural event.'

But doesn’t racing to the Equator mean racing to the Doldrums? 'Not at all,' says John. 'We chose February precisely because 30 years of met data shows that (on an annual basis) it has the joint highest mean true wins speed of the year, consistent true wind direction, the lowest percentage of calms, the least rainfall and the least likelihood of thunder... which is pretty much what you want, right?’

Organisers of the world’s first (anyone care to disagree?) regatta racing to the Equator recently made their second foray south from Nongsa Point to check the intended course of the Neptune Regatta, and see how closely the charts married with reality. The intended ‘mother ship’ for the expedition turned out to be more akin to a tender, but never mind – 32’ and 500hp will get you there well enough. John was accompanied by Neptune Safety Officer Alex ‘Ferret’ Voss and RO Jerry Rollin, and three members of staff from Nongsa Point Marina. It was a quick trip down to Pulau Buaya – the island destined to be ‘Race Central’ come February – checking chart positions, and what’s actually marked and what isn’t along the way. 'Both times Alex and I have made this trip south, we have been pleasantly surprised at the accuracy of the charts,’ reports John. ‘There are some interesting-looking islands hereabouts – the name of one of them translates as ‘Big Stiffy’ so that’s going to need a visit… This really is an amazing sailing ground, and all the way down the intended course we had good wind, unaffected by geography. The islands are so small, and they have no height worth speaking of, that this may as well be considered oceanic breeze. It was magic, sheer magic, and I really wished I was sailing.’

The recce party spent the night camping on Pulau Buaya (‘just because we could’). ‘We’d finished cooking dinner over a camp fire, and all of a sudden the clouds parted and the sky cleared right across. It was as if someone had opened a curtain across the heavens. It was like looking at a star chart… and Mr Navigator (Alex Voss), who knows about these things, pointed out a tiny smudge somewhere all-the-way-out-there and told us that it was a galaxy. It took my breath away.’ (Pay attention. This comes from the hard-boiled military man, Tudor John RM. Evidently this is a corner of the world worth a visit.)

But this was a recce party, not a cruise or a regatta, and there was business to be done. Literally. Next morning, the recce party went to visit the nearest local village, on an adjacent island, to ask permission to use Pulau Buaya, and camp there (sorry, no 5-star resorts this far south – that’s all part of the show). ‘We were very well received by the head of the village. We want the Neptune Regatta to engage with and make a positive contribution to the local community’, said John, ‘so over the course of the day we negotiated several things – first, permission to use Pulau Buaya as our Equator Base; then an agreement for the villagers to clear space on the island for a campsite (nothing invasive – we had chosen a flat sandy patch behind the beach that just needed tidying up); next, a contract for the villagers to build a jetty on Pulau Buaya to allow access at low tide; and lastly an agreement for them to provide pilotage and ferry services to and from the anchorage.’ And an absolute promise given that nobody in the Neptune Regatta will anchor in the local fishing grounds.

And rather than just arriving on the local doorstep, saying hello, and waving goodbye – event organisers have undertaken to assist in turning one of the island’s two brackish wells into drinkable water through installation of a reverse osmosis plant. ‘We want to come back here again,’ says John.

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One way and another, it feels as if the Neptune Regatta is breaking down a lot of barriers, and it hasn’t run its first event yet – sailors and powerboaters setting off together (unheard of!), going cruising/racing in an area often reported as infested with pirates (nonsense!), and even connecting with the local community with more than a token gesture (inspiring)…

The return journey to Nongsa, continuing anticlockwise around Batam, completed the chart-check of areas of ‘navigational concern’ – a survey of intended waypoints, racing gates and potential hazards. Once again, it was a lot easier than expected. But care and attention does need to be paid while navigating in these waters, which is why the race programme calls for the cruising fleet to stop overnight both on the way to the equator and on the way back again – you probably don’t want to be sailing around here in the dark.

Word on the street, and around the yacht club bars, is that this event is becoming well known before it has even started. That’s really very impressive for something of this organisational scale. Tudor John reports that he is ‘part thrilled that it’s all really going to happen - and soon (01 February) - and part terrified for exactly the same reasons.’ Undoubtedly he is being modest. The organisational structure is in place, arrangements have been made with the villagers down at Pulau Buaya, and there is an entry list of 17 boats.

So join the Neptune Regatta and break down a few barriers. And race to the Equator at the same time, and have fun at Asia’s newest and thoroughly unique event.