Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta 2018 - Pouring in Pangkor
by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia 20 Nov 2018 00:43 PST
16-24 November 2018
First start, abandoned. Pangkor-Penang Race. Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta 2018 © Guy Nowell / RMSIR
After a glamour start to the regatta involving breeze all the way from Port Klang to Pangkor, the next leg up to Penang turned out to be a bit of a fizzer.
‘Pouring in Pangkor’ is a bit of an understatement. At breakfast time it was coming down in sheets. There were waterfalls overflowing the gutters and turning the Seaview Resort’s front yard into a paddling arena. At this point a good many sailors realised that they were going to get soaked before they could get to the foulies that they had left on board. There were signs of a distinct reluctance to get out there and get on with it.
Nonetheless, the RO had a start line in place for the first warning signal at 1255h, and just minutes before that there were 8kts from south of west of on offer. It was going to be a spinnaker start. And then the wind gasped… Marikh made a valiant effort to harness the few remaining puffs, with Esperanza under poled-out headsails just behind - but with the P flag up for the following division, the breeze died completely. The Class 7 race was abandoned and all subsequent divisions postponed, while the start boat upped anchor, raised an L flag and proceeded in the direction of Penang.
10nm later, try again. This time all classes went away in minimal breeze that really didn’t hold a lot of promise. There was slow progress for another 15nm, until the wind died again, and the cheerfully coloured lines on the Yellowbrick tracker (http://yb.tl/rajamuda2018#) begin to tell a tale of tangled spaghetti as boats fought hard to make some sense of what was no more than a series of random puffs. “We found out own private hole, and we protected it fiercely,” said Brabas. “The most frustrating thing was the breeze coming and going – every time we thought it was coming, and we got going, it disappeared instead.” It was a common story.
First across the line at 03.26.30 was Sarab Jeet Singh’s Windsikher, followed by Antipodes (Geoff Hill) at 04.14.51. No discussions about Line Honours this time. Mandrake III (Fred Kinmonth, Nick Burns) found a small squall that packed 18kts - for about two minutes. “It looked useful, but we had the wrong sail up, and it was gone so fast that we weren’t able to take advantage of it by time it had passed.”
Prime Factor (Max Pelleschi) caught a fishing net within sight of the finishing line, and managed to free themselves, but at a substantial cost in elapsed time. A few days ago we described the Raja Muda as “by turns, exhilarating, frustrating, and exhausting.” Last night came under the category of ‘frustrating.’
All boats are now at anchor outside Straits Quay Marina in Penang. Racing continues this evening with the annual rickshaw event on the Straits Quay waterfront and the Penang Inshore Series tomorrow.
Standing by on 72.
Short Results.
Class 1 (IRC Racing): 1 Mandrake III 1,2 (3).
2 Ramrod 3,1 (4). Windsikher 2,3 (5).
Class 2 (Premier Cruising): 1 Janda Baik 1,1 (2); 2 Antipodes 2,3 (5); 3 Zuhal 4,2 (6).
Class 4 (IRC): 1 Nijinsky 3,1 (4); Red Rum 2,2 (4); 3 Prime Factor 1,3 (4).
Class 5: Pending Gate calculations.
Class 6: Pending Gate calculations.
(Full results can be found at http://www.rmsir.com/27a/index.php/results)
For more information: www.rmsir.com