Royal Langkawi International Regatta 2016 – fuelled by testosterone

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 15 Jan 2016 Just to ring the changes, a trip to the ‘outside’ course today, a little more breeze (to start with) and a little more chop. The racing classes sailed windward-leeward courses, and the cruising classes went off on a geometric course off to the east.

After a flying start to the regatta (1, 2), Alive had a doggy day yesterday (3, 4) and something had to be done. The answer was two bullets today to lead the division by one precious point from Oi! who dropped their DSQ as the race counter ticked past five. “We sailed our socks off today,” said Duncan Hine. After one more beer he confided, “there was so much testosterone driving the boat, she would have been fast even without the sails up.” Phew!

Other notable events: Fujin broke her picket fence of first places when she was bested by Uranus in the second race of the day (IRC 1). My Toy lit up the afterburners to record a win over Eveline in the Ocean Rover class. And for brief glorious moment Manta Blu led the Multihull class, crossing the line with a perfectly timed start.

Our man at the Cats & Dogs Office says that there’s going to be less wind tomorrow, which probably rules out an Around the Island (Pulau Bunting) race. Whether the racing is Inside, Outside or Around, we’ll be there with a camera. Stand by.

Full Results at www.langkawiregatta.com