Bangkok--11 Dec--Vivaldi
Glorious sunshine and consistent winds guaranteed competitive and enjoyable sailing for Friday’s Phuket King’s Cup Regatta. Today represents the most poignant racing day of the Regatta as sailors and vessels assembled together before the start of the race to honor the birthday of His Majesty the King of Thailand with a Sail Pass.
The fleet then set sail in winds of around 10 knots, seemingly to the benefit of those craft set up to perform in light conditions. However, in IRC0 Race 7, Team Beau Geste consolidated their excellent victory run with another win over rivals HiFi, with Neil Pryde’s team managing only third place this morning. HiFi fought back in Race 8, winning by 21 seconds on corrected time. In Race 9, both Hong Kong rivals battled closely at the start, but it was Team Beau Geste who would have the last laugh, pulling out a sizeable lead on the final leg. This has been an amazing neck-and-neck race all week and will go down to the wire, with just 5 points separating them following Team Beau Geste’s final win of the day.
In IRC1 Race 7, EFG Mandrake came out on top of a closely contested group, finishing a nose behind rivals Island Fling but winning out on handicap correction. Mandrake took Race 8 also, but in Race 9, Paul Winkelmann’s Island Fling did enough to secure victory. Interestingly, the top two rivals of both IRC0 and IRC1 are all Hong Kong boats; they are out in force at the close of 2014.
TBG Team Premier were in exceptional form once again to take IRC2 honors over Foxy Lady and WindSikher, making them likely Regatta victors in the class. Hannes Waimer’s crew has made very few errors during a great week, even though today’s Race 7 saw them only 2 seconds clear on corrected time. Race 8 should have tied this up for them, as they are a good 8 points clear of the rest.
Foreign Affair seem to be uncatchable in IRC3, overcoming a heavy handicap to once again rise to the top of the class and take victory. They have been extremely quick all week, with both Royal Thai Navy boats unable to match their pace. Greg Reynolds’ team is four points clear in IRC3.
Premier class races were both won by Malaysian boat Zuhrah today, but Pine-Pacific remains on top by two points. This late charge by Zuhrah has crushed the lead down to a surmountable level, with tomorrow’s race expected to be a thriller between Thailand vs Malaysia!
In Bareboat Charter A, a very close finish involving six of the seven boats made for an extraordinary finish to race 5; Igor Puzanov’s Lychee team were three seconds behind Isabella across the line, but won out on corrected times. Just over a minute covered the top five! In Bareboat B, Sarawadee claimed a decisive victory, in a top seven comprised entirely of Russian teams. The second races of the day went to Papaya (another close one!) and Sarawadee in A and B respectively.
Open Charter saw Kata Rocks 3 victorious over nearest rival Sailplane in both of today’s races. Tony Pfeiffer’s team remains on top by four points, and look likely to win the class, pending any upsets.
Race 7 of the Firefly 850 Sports went to Advance Racing, which took a narrow victory over very competitive rivals in the shape of Twin Sharks and Voodoo. The British team were also successful in Race 8, today’s second run.
In the Multihull Racing boats, Alan Carwadine’s Asia Catamarans Hurricane made victory look like yet another formality, having cruised home an easy four minutes ahead of the pack on corrected times. The boat won all three of its races today, and has in fact won everything they have entered in this year’s regatta.
Thai team Sansiri (Windstar) has been brilliant in the 2014 Phuket King’s Cup, winning again today to pre-emptively win the Modern Classic class. Skipper Patinyakorn Buranrom inspired his crew to beat every rival in the class, and they thoroughly deserved their victory. They were runners-up in the second race, behind key rivals Farrgo, but look to have done enough (perhaps) to secure the Regatta.
Of the remaining classes, Minnie and Starfruit both won races in Multihull Cruising; new winner Gokova Sailing Phuket won today to take the Cruising class victory in Race 5, while Race 6 went to Lady Bubbly, which has sailed well for much of the week; S.Y. Ravensong won the Classic Race 5 and Race 6 and has already won the class.
NOTE: All results are provisional.
For more information, please visit www.kingscup.com.
High resolution images for media are available upon log-in.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/phuketkingscupregatta.
Twitter: www.twitter.com/PhuketKingsCup
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/phuketkingscup