7th Top of the Gulf starts in Grade 1 Asian sailing conditions
by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 1 May 2011
Top of the Gulf Regatta 2011 - Cedar Swan Guy Nowell/Top of the Gulf
Top of the Gulf Regatta 2011 - Roll out the clichés – ‘champagne sailing’, ‘bright and breezy’, jolly boating weather’ and all the rest. But whichever way you slice it – or describe it – the seventh Top of the Gulf really did start today in Grade 1 Asian sailing conditions. Sunshine and blue skies, warm breeze and warm water.
After a Skippers’ Briefing at 0900 hrs, the combined IRC classes were all on course for the start of the sequences at 1100 hrs. RO Simon James sent the Cruising division away on a 21 nm coastal course southwest towards Koh Khram Noi, followed by a windward-leeward for all other classes.
Johannes Waimer’s modified TP52, Team Premier, threw down the gauntlet and possibly ruffled a few feathers with a seriously fast start, sailing straight into the lead and holding it – and extending it – all the way round the race track. Evolution Racing (Ray Roberts) and HiFi (Neil Pryde) were left to follow along behind, finishing 1, 2, 3 on the water and 1, 2, 3 on corrected time. Team Premier put on a display of impressively efficient crew work, even earning themselves a round of applause from the spectating press for a spectacularly slippery spinnaker hoist.
Today’s second race for IRC 1 sent them off chasing the Cruising class on the same course, in 10-14 kts of steady breeze. Kevin Whitcraft’s Wan GP42 Marang handicapped herself a little with an MOB ‘event’ ('This is not a drill…') but the crewman was recovered successfully. This time, Evolution Racing got the better of Team Premier, with HiFi in third place. 'We’ve got a lot of work to do,' said Pryde later. 'A couple of third places is not the ideal way to start a regatta, but we still have three days of racing ahead of us.'
Matt Allen’s Ichiban opened the batting in IRC 2 with two bullets on the same courses as IRC 1. There’s quite a lot of experienced mileage at the back of Ichiban, with Michael Spies calling shots as usual, and new addition Grant Wharington along for company, so no surprises there. Rick Poulsen’s J/130 Jing Jing, with a Beijing Sailing Centre crew on board, took out the two second places. Katsu took third place on the podium after the first day’s racing. 'First day of a regatta,' was Ben Copley’s comment after 3, 4 finishes on the Club Swan 42.
In IRC 3, racing the same two courses, Royal Thai Navy scored 1, 1, Shaun Toh’s X-99 Hi Jinks claimed 2, 2 and David Bell’s Magic completed the hand with 3, 3 (in a ‘roundabout’ sort of way).
The Platu OD fleet contesting the Coronation Cup always provides close and exciting racing for all concerned, although normal service was interrupted in race 1 when Maximilian Soh’s SMU team on Magic Dragon won the start, won the first beat, and then went on to extend their lead all the way to the finish and win by a very handsome margin. The long-standing rivalry between Rolf Heemskerk (The Fox) and defending champion Scott Duncanson (The Ferret) took a second row seat today as the two crews finished third and fourth overall with 7 points apiece. Numbers for this year’s Coronation Cup are down from 2010, but th competition promises to be no less fierce this year.
The biggest fleet in the Top of the Gulf Regatta is the Optimists, contesting the Thai National Championships. The results sheet lists two sub-fleets of 65 boats apiece, and each of them completed three races today. That’s a lot of little bobbers on each start line, but somehow they sort themselves out, and it makes a brave sight as they all start to come together again at the top mark. Current leaders of the two fleets are Pongsapat Pumyam (THA) with 2, 1, 2 and Nattapon Yoak-Khaw (THA) on 2, 1, 1.
Racing for all classes continues tomorrow, with first start scheduled for 1100 hrs.
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