Phuket King's Cup Regatta 2019 - Day 3
by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia 5 Dec 2019 06:58 PST
2-6 December 2019
Blood Red. Phuket King's Cup Regatta 2019 © Guy Nowell / Phuket King's Cup
Three days completed at the Phuket King's Cup 2019, and once again the racecourse was blessed with sunshine and breeze. The Racing divisions had a hard time getting under way, with a 45 degree wind shift interrupting the first sequence, and then a mis-laid mark causing an abandonment of the first race.
After an agonising 3 half hour wait it was game on, with Team Hollywood (Ray Roberts) defending their series lead over Kevin Whitcraft's THA72 by just one point. THA72 is being helmed by Noppakao Poonpat, former Optimist World Champion and two-times Asian Games gold medallist. We asked her what was the difference between driving a TP52 and an Oppie, and she replied, "In an Optimist you don't have all those people running around in front of you and getting in the way!"
Team Hollywood has on board former AFL (Hawthorn) star Robert Di Pierdomenico, well-known to Australians as The Big Dipper, making a tv programme on sporting destinations, and this time featuring the Phuket King's Cup Regatta. "He's a guest, but not a passenger," says Ray Roberts. "When he lets rip I'm a bit worried that he'll grind the handles off the pumps! A great addition to the crew."
Alexey Mashkin and Megazip have been here before, and this time they are really making it count at the top of the IRC 1 division. After today's 3, 2 was enough to give them a 4-point lead over past winner Karasu (Yasuo Nanamori).
Soon we are going to have to give out special Sail-World Asia awards for the longest names on the entry list. There's the 'Kata Rocks Bigboys Sailing Team (Madame Butterfly)' from China, and another Chinese entry calling themselves 'Wuhan University EMBA Sailing Team (Da Vinci).' Quite a mouthful when it comes to announcing prizes!
They're a little more succinct in the name game over at Premier Cruising, where Geoff Hill's Antipodes leads Peter Cremers' Shahtoosh by just one point after today's single race up the coast towards Patong and back. Dan Fidock looks to have a good grip on the Multihull Racing event, with the current edition of Fugazi Racing leading a former Fugazi Racing (now Team Blood Red) by 7 points. And another Former Fugazi, now Bonza, had a mishap when a ferocious wind shift at the top mark gave rise to a complicated port-and-starboard with Millennium Racing (IRC 0) that snapped off Bonza's prodder and put some damage on Millennium's port side, forwards. Both boats are 'unlikely' to resume racing tomorrow.
The Cruising classes got away bang on time, and enjoyed three geometrical races as a result.
Someone asked us yesterday why is it that the Phuket King's Cup continues to attract entries when "regatta dinners even don't provide chairs?" The answer, of course, is that competitive sailors will always go where the competition is. Success breeds success, and we don't know any other regatta in Asia that attracts five 52-footers at the top of the list, or indeed nine Premier Cruisers. Add in the fact that Phuket itself, is as much a destination as it is a regatta location, and there are plenty of charter boats easily available, and you have a winner. Racing takes place relatively early in the day, and there's plenty of down time after having been out on the water. Go racing in the morning, hang out by the pool in the afternoon, stand up and gargle a beer or three in the evening, and create your own after-party wherever you like. Any more questions?
Meanwhile, in another universe, competition among the Optimists, Lasers (various) and 420s was reported to be 'hot', and the radio controlled fleet was intense, especially when the anchored RTN ship on which the 'controllers' were lodged swung across the race course and sideswiped some of the competitors. Ouch.
Racing resumes tomorrow Friday 06 December.
Standing by on 72.
Full results at www.kingscup.com/result
Results after Day 3: (top three in each class)
IRC 0
1. Team Hollywood 2,3,1,1,1,2 (7)
2. THA72 3,2,2,2,2,1 (9)
3. Windsikher 1,1,3,3,3,3 (11)
IRC 1
1. Megazip 2,1,3,1,3,2 (9)
2. Karasu 1,2,5,3,2,6 (13)
3. Char Chan 5,5,2,6,1,3 (16)
IRC 2
1. Big Boys Sailing Team 1,1,2,2,2,3 (8)
2. Over Here 2,3,1,3,3,1 (10)
3. RTN Academy - 4,4,1,5,2 (11)
Premier Cruising
1. Antipodes 3,1,1,2,4 (11)
2. Shahtoosh 1,2,4,4,1 (12)
3. Pine-Pacific 2,3,3,3,DSQ (21)
Cruising
1. Kata Rocks Sea Escapes 2,1,1,7,4,3 (11)
2. Night Train 1,4,5,2,2,5 (14)
3. Kinnon 5,3,4,3,3,10 (18.5)
Multihull Racing
1. Fugazi 1,1,1,1,1,1 (5)
2. Team Blood Red 3,2,4,2,2,3 (12)
3. Frankenstein 4,5,2,4,3,2 (15)
Firefly 850
1. Twin Sharks 1,1,1,1,2,2 (6)
2. Voodoo 2,2,2,2,1,1 (8)
3. Mamba 3,4,3,3,4,3 (16)
Multihull Cruising
1. Da Vinci 2,1,1,4,3 (7)
2. Klook Star Trek 1,2,3,3,2 (8)
3. Raptor 4,4,2,2,1 (9)
Bareboat Charter A
1. Jing Jing Too 2,4,2,1,2,1 (8)
2. Megan 3,2,3,6,1,2 (11)
3. Moonshine 1,5,1,2,3,5 (12)
Bareboat Charter B
1. Iyarada 4,3,1,1,2,4 (11)
2. Inlova 2,2,2,5,3,2 (11)
3. Hippocrates 1,1,DNF,7,1,3 (13)