3:35 PM Thu 28 Jan 2010 GMT
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'HiFi and Evolution Racing. Singapore Straits 2010.'
AsianYachting.com
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After being thrown in at the deep end yesterday, the crews had a chance to re-organise their manoeuvers and approach today's races with renewed vigor. Fortunately for some, the first race was held in softer conditions allowing crews to settle in before it strengthened for Race 4. This may not effect the class leaders but changed podium positions and placing's further down the order.
If you want to know what is happening in the Racing Class, all you have to do is look for two boats that seem to be joined at the hip. As they gybe and tack to cover each other, they appear to be dancing instead of going hammer and tongs at each other.
The latest bout of optimisation seems to be going in favour of Ray Roberts' TP52 Evolution Racing. In the 12 to 15 knot range it appears they have a slight edge upwind, and can hold off Neil Pryde's Welbourn 52 Hi Fi on the downwind. When the handicap calculations are made, it is only a matter of seconds that separate the two yachts.
In Race 3 Evolution Racing won by a mere 8 seconds and Race 4 by 56 seconds. Not far behind is Nick Burns / Fred Kinmonth Mills 51 EFG Bank Mandrake lurking in the shadows, and Geoff Hill's TP52 Strewth ready to pounce but will have to find that extra half knot of boat speed if they are to get in amongst the leaders.
Despite being called over the line in Race 3, David Ross' Kerr 32 Kukukerchu came back strongly to win both races today and with four wins now posted they take a commanding lead in the overall IRC B pointscore.
After a day of horrors yesterday Sarab Jeet Singh's crew on Windsikher rebounded with two second places and regain some composure on the scoreboard. In the absence of Kenn Eyears / Rick Overton's Farr 30 Panic who apparently spat the dummy and returned to Singapore, Renford Tay's Judy did the best of the Farr 30's for third place in Race 3 and Jonathan Mahony's Happy Endings claimed third spot in Race 4. For a 32 footer Kukukerchu's low handicap has raised some eyebrows but seeing she is one of the latest fully optimised IRC designs that won some big events in the UK before arriving here it should not be an issue, rather take a look at the crew work if your searching for answers on performance.
In the IRC C class Jovin Tan's disabled crew on the Sonar Victory struck gold again in Race 3 but a broken halyard forced them to retire in Race 4. This left the door open for Gordon Maxted's Young 84 Shoon Fung Too close the gap with second and first places for the day plus overcome yesterdays boat handling errors. Ang Yong Tat's Platu 25 SMUmad got the better of the other SMU Platu 25, SMUve skippered by Shaun Toh in both races and reverse yesterdays results to some what even up the score.
In IRC E, Borstnar Vladimir's crew on Angel have an impeccable International reputation in the one design J24 class to preserve. Therefore it comes as no surprise that they added two more wins to make it four in a row. Although Christopher Lim's Shengli was called over the startline in Race 3 they recovered to score two second places and closed to within two minutes of Angel in Race 4.
Two third places for Colin Cheng / Tim Tan's J24 Juno keeps the five boats in the same finishing order for all races so far. Nova skippered by Wahab and Merdeka by Subiyanto are crewed by members of the Indonesian Navy and having a great time in the fresh conditions despite being the tail enders.
Racing continues tomorrow with a passage race for all classes. The Racing Class will cross the Singapore Straits and round the Stapa mark in Southern Johore, Malaysia. The rest of the classes will head for a mark set off the Indonesian Resort Island of Bintan before returning to the center of the universe in Batam.
As the NE Tradewinds are expected to continue, we can expect plenty more rock and roll on the two race tracks.
More info and results can be found at
www.straitsregatta.com
by AsianYachting.com
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Maatsuyker Island, TAS
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