Raja Muda 2012 – Race 2, Pangkor to Penang

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 20 Nov 2012 An unpromising start to proceedings in very light breeze, but there was a big band of heavy grey cloud approaching from the west, and RO Jerry Rollin decided to get things going. ‘There might be some wind under that cell – which is good – and there might be nothing at all behind it.’

All classes went away clean in 3-5 knot conditions, but as soon as they were around the point on the west corner of Pulau Pangkor Laut the fleet was into good breeze and heading for Panang some 63nm to the north. ‘The good part lasted about an hour,’ said Warwick Downes (EFG Bank Mandrake) ‘and after that there was a zero speed ‘lull’ that lasted until almost 2000hrs (ouch!) followed by a gentle fetch all the way to the finish line.’ Mandrake was actually getting worried about the cut-off time, but all was well as they crossed the finish at 03.51 to score second place on corrected time.

Once again top spot went to Ichiban, finishing six minutes behind EFG Bank Mandrake on the water and 19 minutes in front ‘on paper.’ In fact the results look remarkably similar to Race 1, except Katsu and Foxy Lady swapped places at the bottom of the list.

Sea Bass claimed honours in Class 4 after an agonising 20h 51m of ‘directed drifting’ followed by NiJinsky some 90m later. At the time of writing (now 1450h) there are a great many non-finishers. At the bottom of Class 2, No Name took 1h 40m to cover the last two miles of the course and, sadly, missed her cut-off. Classes 5 and 6 are presently recorded as a series of blanks.

Maybe the crew of Eveline enjoyed the party at Pangkor a little too much – whatever, yesterday morning they were unable to raise anchor, and then (very substantially late) motored all the way to the start line at full throttle only to receive a DSQ for being under engine inside the ‘P’ signal. Along with all the other C5 and C6 entries they are now in danger of missing out on the free beer, free rum and rickshaw racing which will be taking place at Straits Quay at 1700h.

See you on the Boardwalk, Mount Gay in hand…

Cumulative Short Results (so far)

Class 1
1. Ichiban 1, 1 (2)
2. 2. EFG Bank Mandrake (2, 2 (4)
3. 3, KukuKERchu 3, 3 (6)

Class 2 (Premier Cruising)
1. Australian Maid 2, 1 (3)
2. Antipodes 1, 2 (3)
3. Baby Tonga 3, 3 (6)

Class 4
1. NiJinsky 1, 2 (3)
2. Sea Bass 4, 1 (5)
3. Rainbow Dream 2, DNF (7)

Class 5
1 Virgo
2 Fortissimo 8
3 Free Wind

Class 6
1 Lady Bubbly
2 WYSIWYG
3 Kay Sira