5:12 PM Fri 24 Jul 2009 GMT
Today's racing at the Six Senses Phuket Raceweeek fell firmly into the file marked "It doesn't get much better than this". but the view from the breakfast terrace at the Evason Resort this morning was a bright and sunny glass-out, and all the palm trees were ominously and obstinately stationary. Great for the postcard photographers and the travel brochures, but not much encouragement to yacht racing.
Wait up. an hour later (another cup of coffee and an extra croissant) and there was movement at the station. Breeze on the water, plenty to start racing on schedule (10.00 hrs) and enough rays to dig out the sunblock and make everyone happy. The wind was out of the south and south west, so it was monsoon stuff, but it didn't bring in the heavy duty rain squalls that we saw yesterday. Race Officer Simon James posted a windward-leeward course in the morning for IRC Racing, IRC 1, Firefly and Multihull classes, and sent Club Charter away on a sightseeing tour around the islands.
The Classics class, represented once again by the splendid and solitary Seraph, received what just may be the most relaxed RO's radio instructions ever - "we'll take a start time when you go past the Committee Boat." Heck, no sense in getting all steamed up about starting sequences when you're the only boat in the division, eh?
A 2.5 nm beat for Racing, Multihulls and Firefly was in response to a request for "longer courses" by some competitors. At 51', Neil Pryde's Hi Fi is the scratch boat for the Racing fleet, and made the most of her waterline length to eat up the distance. Even so, it took her 2 hrs 2 mins to complete a three-sausage course, which was just not quick enough to stay in front of Ray Roberts' DK46, Evolution Sails, who claimed first place by under four minutes. Peter Ahern's Yo!2 filled in third spot. "Being a smaller boat (Farr 40) we could probably have done without the longer course. 2 hrs 45 min on the race course is hard work in the hot sun" said Ahern.
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In the afternoon, and in a building breeze over a very rapidly outgoing tide (reportedly the biggest tidal drop of the year), the course went and out-and-back around Koh Bon and Koh Aeo again, but in a different configuration from yesterday. Outside Koh Bon, wind-over-tide produced some very bumpy water, and the tidal flow between the islands gave the navigators plenty to think about. This time Hi Fi made no mistake of it, and nailed first place, followed by a surprise second place from the smallest boat in the division, Scott Duncanson's Phuket 8 sportsboat, Quantum Fusion M. Yo!2 came in third, and relegated Evolution Sails to fourth place. Halfway through the regatta, and there's only one point in it at the top of the scoresheet (or two, with assumed drops). "It's do-able", said Pryde, "but we certainly can't afford any more mistakes. There were mistakes yesterday, and on fast boats the slowing down effect is magnified. We sailed a great deal better today, so early to bed for everyone, even if it is Willy Roberts' birthday [Happy Birthday, Will. Ed]
This is Hi Fi's first visit to Phuket Raceweek, and Pryde and his crew report themselves well happy with the event so far. "The Evason is a great venue and the racing the last two days has been well-run. The competition is hot, the courses are challenging, and it's really great to step off the boat and walk straight into the Regatta Tavern."
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The three-way tie at the top of IRC 1 has broken down in favour of Jaray Tipsuk's Platu, Mitrmitree, sitting on the top of the class without having won a race - consistency and 2, 3, 2, 2 is good enough. Peter Dyer's Madame Butterfly and Niels Degenkolw's Phoenix continue to trade blows, as do Minx (Mick Keely) and Windsatr (Peter Wood). Loose cards in the pack come in the shape Stuart Williamson's Skandia Endeavour of Whitby and Toshio Furuta's Emma, both with one win apiece. Emma crewman Justin Shave insists that on a 7, 7, 1, 7 scorecard it is the three sevens that are the aberrations - [you have two days to prove it, Emma!] and Williamson's crew are ruing recent damage sustained to the leg of their saildrive - "it's loose, and it was swinging around and going 'clunk, clunk' all the way up the beat" reported 'Angry' Rob Heilkma. "I guess it's slowing us down quite a bit."
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After a shaky start to proceedings yesterday, Henry Kaye and Fergus Wilmer's uber-rapid Seacart 30, Thor, kicked up her (his?) heels today and tore round the track at full slippery speed. This wicked-looking carbon trimaran is black all over (see pic, yesterday's report) with day-glo orange noses on the hulls, orange rudders and even orange daggerboards. Is this so that you can see it easily if it tips over? The boat is astonishingly quick, but, says Kaye, "we have to work very hard to sail to the handicap. We finished the first race in 100 minutes - Da Vinci Nina finished in 150 minutes, and we still only beat them by 10 minutes on corrected time. Around the islands it was 84 minutes against 118 minutes, and a three minute margin in our favour. But it's a lot of fun. Winning is always fun, but what I am really interested in is spreading the word that you can go sailing on fast, exciting, boats with a small crew, with low loads that even senior sailors (!) like me can handle." Da Vinci Nina, yesterday's double winner, scored 2, 2, making for level-pegging at the top of the class and a big gap down to 3rd place (Shanghai Baby).
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Yesterday the Firefly results were described as "consistent". Today we'll call them "processional", and will happily take money on tomorrow being "predictable". Hans Rahmann is still enjoying his "little boat" and with a bit of whispering from designer Mark Pescott has now scored 1, 1, 1, 1. It's like a game of gin rummy, with Roger Kingdon's Moto Inzi collecting the 2, 2, 2, 2 set, The Frog (John Newnham) on 3, 3, 3, 3 and Blue Nose (Damian Kimble) scoring 4, 4, 4, 4.
Racing again tomorrow, and RO Simon James will be looking for an excuse (ie early breeze) to send the fleet around more, different and further islands. "It's part of the character of the event," he said, "making use of the great scenery on this corner of Phuket." If tomorrow turns out as enjoyable as today, this will once again be a very happy regatta fleet.
Full results at:
www.phuketraceweek.com/results2009/series_results.htm
by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia
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