Raja Muda 2011- Penang Inshore races and a Grand Party

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 24 Nov 2011 There were reports of 40 kts of breeze at the Monsoon Cup today at Terengganu, and there was plenty of wind in Penang first thing… but then is faded away and left the Raja Muda race fleet waiting in a flat calm for the day’s racing to begin. Numbers were augmented by the arrival of three more multihulls from Phuket via Langkawi. The Race Officer was obliged to wait an hour until 1300 hrs before a few zephyrs joined together to allow racing to start in a bare 3-4 kts of breeze from the north east for the first of two windward/leeward races.

Hi Fi started not so much at the back of the fleet as maybe in the next division (there wasn’t one!) but managed to conjure up a Get Out of Jail card, slipping through most of the boats in front while showing a remarkable turn of speed. They then took off like a cat with a cracker on her tail, neatly shooting the top mark to get inside the Royal Malaysian Navy’s Utarid and take over the lead. There was no looking back – the boys in red popped the kite and left everyone else trailing in their wake. The end result was a 4-minute win over EFG Bank Mandrake as the breeze started to fail once more and the course was shortened at the second top mark rounding.

But between races, and after a few drops of rain to make everyone think we were about to be pasted with a monsoon downpour which never eventuated, the wind came back with a vengeance. Not quite Terengganu’s 40 kts, but a good solid 15kts from the northeast. Once again Classes 1, 3 and 4 all came to the line together, and Hi Fi was definitely looking to make up some of the points hangover from her disastrous first race from Port Klang to Pangkor. However, this time EFG Bank Mandrake hung on for a win in the blustery conditions by 67 secs (corrected).

With three races left in the series, watching Hi Fi trying to make up a 5-point deficit is absorbing to say the least – at the moment the regatta is still EFG Bank Mandrake’s to throw away. Other notable performances on the race course came from Tom Whitcraft’s Won Ma Rang, getting herself on the podium for the first time since Port Klang; some seriously steady sailing from the Royal Malaysian Navy’s crisp new DK47, Utarid; and the sight of Bill Bremner’s Foxy Lady 5 (Ker 32, formerly KukuKERchu) sailing straight through the lee of David Ross’s new KukuKERchu (Ker 40) in the second race of the day.

In Class 6, the venerable Bristol Pilot Cutter, Eveline (100 years and counting) tore up the form book for the second time this week when the breeze picked up and sent her storming home to a win. Maybe the lunchtime cocktails were in fact pre-celebrations – who knows? Eveline has been so much a part of the Raja Muda over the last several years, and so often the Race Officer’s despair when waiting for her to arrive hours after everyone else at the end of the long passage races, that it really is good to see her marking the score sheet with some wins.

No doubt the catamaran Fantasia (Andrew Stransky) is glad to have someone to race against after ‘cruising’ all the way from Port Klang, uncontested. But Alan Carwardine’s very slippery Sidewinder showed everyone else in the division a clean pair of heels (hulls?) twice in today’s two races to immediately go to the top of the Class.

Getting back into the marina proved a problem this afternoon as Hi Fi, Zuhal and Utarid all parked on the mud inside the Straits Quay breakwaters, but everyone was afloat again in good time for the evening’s party at the Khoo Kongsi. Quite possibly this can lay claim to be the most spectacular regatta party venue in Asia. Take a look at the picture. The aerial Lion Dance was nothing short of fantastic, the street hawker food stalls are a perennial favourite, and the entertainment was entertaining!

Tomorrow: passage race Penang-Langkawi. Forecast: monsoon wind.

Overall results:

Class 1
1 EFG Bank Mandrake 1,2,2,1 (8)
2 Hi Fi 7,1,1,2 (11)
3 Utarid 2,3,4,3 (12)

Class 2
1 Strongbow The Goat 1,1,2 (3)
2 Australian Maid 3,2,1 (6)
3 Silandra V 2,5,4 (11)

Class 3
1 Foxy Lady 5 2,1,2,2 (7)
2 Windsikher 1,3,3,1 (8)
3 Katsu 3,2,1,3 (9)

Class 4
1 NiJinski 2,1,2,1 (6)
2 Mat Salleh 1,2,3,2 (8)
3 Skybird 3,3,1,3 (10)

Class 5
1 Fortssimo 8 1,3,1 (5)
2 Rascal 2,2,3 (7)
3 Panacaea 6,4,2 (12)

Class 6
1 Kay Sira 2,1,2 (5)
2 Eveline 1,5,1 (7)
3 Musitary 3,2,3 (8)

Class 7
1 Sidewinder 1,1 (2)
2 Miss Saigon 2,2 (4)
3 Fantasia 3,3 (6)

Tomorrow: passage race from Penang to Langkawi.