Phuket King's Cup 2018 - close and wrap
by Guy Nowell 11 Dec 2018 14:47 HKT
2-8 December 2018
IRC 2 fleet. Phuket King's Cup 2018 © Guy Nowell / Phuket King's Cup
Saturday’s closing day at the 32nd Phuket King’s Cup started with the obligatory bright sunshine, and 10 kts or so of breeze from the east. PRO confided over breakfast that the plan was for “two windward-leewards for the Racing classes. Short, simple and sweet to end the regatta."
So the first race whistled away – take a look at the photos. The weather was glorious, and in the IRC 2 division Die Hard improved all the way through the regatta, and were especially pleased with themselves for collecting Line Honours. “Wait until we get some new spinnakers,” said John Grendon. “One of the current collection is 35 years old, and we were trying to preserve it, not race it!” It is very gratifying to see some of the older boats in Asia recalled from pasture and reintroduced to the racetrack. In this year’s IRC 2 there were three Farr 40 IOR ladies – Die Hard, Uminoko, and Prime Factor. Three cheers for the three old ladies.
Over on the Cruising course, the RO ran three races without incident, filled up the race card, and made everyone happy.
Just as the media boat was leaving Alpha Course, we heard on the radio, “Next race, Courses 11 and 14.” Hang on, those are not windward-leeward courses, and didn’t he say at breakfast time…? So the Racing classes set off in 11kts of breeze on islands courses that took them all the way up to the Safe Water Mark or the top of Koh Aeo, depending on the division. For the RO, this was a pretty gutsy call for the last race of the regatta when what you are really looking for is a clean finish and a quick trip to the ballroom for the Royal Awards programme. That, dear friends, is sacrosanct. Do not, repeat not, ruffle the regal protocol.
Somewhere up the top of the course the wind died and the tide started to run out of Phang Nga Bay – that’s quite a lot of water, and it moves pretty quickly. At the front of the pack, Mandrake III kedged. So did Fugazi, and there were others, and this is the first time we have heard of anyone kedging at the King’s Cup. Eventually, the calculations proved that nobody was going to make the 15.00h cutoff for the afternoon’s race. “But not to worry” said the RO over the radio, “we have the times at the first gate near Koh Kaeo Noi.”
Provisional results were issued of the basis of times at the gate, some 4nm and 40 mins from the start of the race. But then, ashore, the RO decided that this was an “unfair race” and marked it as ‘Abandoned’. Two boats that had been substantially disadvantaged by the reversal – Mandrake III (IRC 1) and Antipodes (Premier) - protested the Race Committee, but the International Jury found for the PRO, and with mere moments to spare before the Personal Representative of His Majesty the King arrived to hand out the glittering prizes, proper hegemony was restored.
Well, that was not necessarily a good way to end what had been, by all accounts, an excellent regatta. However, as the man said, “Nobody died out there.” Mandrake III missed the follow-on from the Raja Muda on a countback, the slimmest of possible margins, and Aquarii (Craig Nicholls) was declared the division winner. Scott Bradley’s East Marine Emagine was third. “That was some of the tightest racing I have done in a long time,” said a Mandrake crewmember. “We have had a great few days of nip and tuck, and we made a whole lot of new friends on the racecourse. Sometimes decisions go against you, and those ones you have to leave on the water. Long live the Phuket King’s Cup – still no 1 in Asia!”
Elsewhere in the news, Ray Roberts’ Team Hollywood gave Kevin Whitcraft’s THA72 a good hiding, scoring six wins from ten races. There has been plenty of grumbling recently that, with THA72, the Whitcrafts had brought a gun to an Asian knife fight. Well, this time Ray Roberts’ brought a machine gun. Of course the top end of the fleet depends entirely on their cheque books, but that is why there are marginally ‘lower’ divisions, stuffed with 40-footers and resurrected IOR boats that still have the requisite get-up-and-go.
Asia is not the heart of the hi-tech racing world, and long may it continue that way. The thought of (for example) an Asian TP52 series that requires a new boat every year to remain competitive is anathema. Roll out your boat, and sail it well. Sail it to the numbers and win the chocolates.
IRC 0 was won by Ray Roberts and Team Hollywood, making for his 6th King’s Cup title since the Men in Red first showed up in 1995. Zannekin, Marcel Leidts’ Ker 46, looked very yesterday against current competition. Aside from the last race, IRC 1 was a battle of wits between four well-sailed boats – Aquarii, Mandrake III, Ramrod and East Marine Emagine. IRC 2 produced two surprises: Morten Jakobsen’s VX One sportsboat Over Here punched well above its negligible weight and claiming 2nd overall in the biggest of the Racing divisions. The Mumm 30, Judy, that has won her division at PKC more than once, and this time called Highlead Encouragers, was the highest placed Chinese-crewed boat in the regatta.
Premier class was reduced to just three boats this time around, which is a shame. We can immediately think of two more boats that should have been there – one in the regatta in the wrong division, and another not competing at all. A tree-boat division means that you can leave the boat anchored for the week, score a whole string of DNS, and still walk up the aisle in third place at the Royal Awards. You know it doesn’t make sense, and the fix is simple: only three boats, only one prize. The last race of the regatta was another abandonment, with Geoff Hill’s Antipodes failing to beat the 1500h cutoff by just 200m.
The Firefly 850 Sports cats always put on a good show for the cameras, providing colour, speed and lots of spray. John Newnham’s Twin Sharks does it better than anyone, albeit with Hans Rahmann (Voodoo) snapping at his heels. The other multihull division, MH Racing, was a major mismatch with the ORMA 60 SHK Scallywag Fuku bld up against Dan Fidock’s 40ft all-carbon tri, Fugazi (formerly 3Itch), and both of them racing in isolation against the clock.
Numbers at Phuket King’s Cup were down this year, in common with practically every regatta in Asia (and probably even further afield). Phuket doesn’t welcome as many long distance racing visitors as it did once upon a time – the cost of moving a race boat from Hong Kong to Phuket via Singapore and maybe an entry in the Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta en route is substantial, and the regatta calendar at the end of the year becomes ever more crowded. This year the China Cup very unhelpfully moved itself from end-October to early-November, meaning that boats were definitively unable to compete there and then race to Hainan and follow on to points further south. (Now China Cup are proposing a Macau Cup, in January, clashing perfectly with the Royal Langkawi International Regatta. I know which one I would rather be at!)
Nevertheless, King’s Cup is still The One to Win in Asia. And if you add in the dinghy classes, it’s also the biggest regatta in Asia by a healthy margin! Here’s looking forward to a bigger turnout next year.
Full results can be found at http://www.kingscup.com/result
Standing by on 72.