Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta 2018 - Langkawi Inshores (1)
by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia 24 Nov 2018 05:00 AEDT
Antipodes heads south to the islands. Langkawi Inshores, RMSIR 2018 © Guy Nowell / RMSIR
After arriving from Penang in good order, the fleet made sure that the bar takings were well funded in Charlie’s Place at the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club. With a prospect of late finishes on the passage race from Penang, an L notice cancelled today’s racing for the slower classes, but Richard Curtis’s Eveline was determined to race, come what may, and so the RMN crew on Marikh joined in.
The other boats in the Classic class never got the memo about the reinstated race and so stayed at home. Given the choice, they might have done so anyway.
Race card: Class 1, windward-leeward. Class 2, 1 x islands race. 3, Class 4, 1 x windward-leeward. Class 5, no racing. Class 6, unofficial race (see above). Class 7, 1 x windward-leeward.
The Premier Cruisers went away downwind in light breeze, heding for the delightful island scenery at the south end of Bass Harbour. “I think it lasted about 10 minutes,” said Geoff Hill, owner of Antipodes. “After that, it was nothing but pain in slow motion, and we were lucky to squeak a finish just before the 1700h cut off. Janda Baik finished as well and added another a single point to their scoresheet, putting them 3 points in front of Antipodes with one race to go tomorrow. Shahtoosh and Zuhal didn’t make the cutoff.
Marikh started the Class 6 race right on the gun, cruised a short way, and then crawled to the very first mark for an ‘S’ flag and a short finish at 1643h. Having demanded a race today, Eveline was more than a mile from the start line when her signal was made. She motored down the harbour and arrived at the start line 15 minutes late (the RMSIR SIs ‘close’ any given division’s start line after 5 minutes), when her course number and class flag had already been removed from the board. Perhaps a good thing then that this was a non-carded race? Eveline finished at the first mark just 10 seconds before the cutoff, and won The Race That Never Was on corrected time.
Earlier, back at the start area, the international media eagerly awaited the remaining starts, whilst foregoing the chance to take beautiful photos of big boats sailing around interesting islands.
Alas, the gasp that had sent the cruisers off to the south proved to be the Last Gasp of the day, and everyone was mightily relieved when the PRO abandoned racing and allowed the fleet to return to RLYC for much-needed refreshments.
Short Results for Class 2 today. For full results please go to http://www.rmsir.com/27a/index.php/results.
1 Janda Baik 1,1,1,3,1 (7); 2 Antipodes 2,3,2,1,2 (10); 3 Shahtoosh 3,4,3,2,5(DNF) (17)