Phuket Marine Guide: Royal Langkawi International Regatta 03/03/04

On the last day of racing Malaysian based yachts have excelled themselves yet again, with Peter Ahern's Yo! winning the Prime Ministers Challenge Series Trophy from the Premier Racing Class 1A and Amir Zohri's Gotcha Lagi taking out the Premier Cruising Class 1B for the second year in succession. Stuart Harrison's Mumm 30 Panic put in a sterling effort that kept everyone honest by sailing on the pace to eventually fill second place overall.

The Malaysian Navy teams also responded after yesterdays win with KDP 1 helmed by Malik Sulaiman and Fauzi Mustafa's KDP 2 finishing up 1st and 3rd overall in the up and coming Sportsboat Racing Class. This late turnaround of places with the favoured Phuket 8's that dominated the class in the early races was a result of a determined effort by the crew and a bit of good luck finally going their way. Scott Duncanson's Securicor Somtam Express ended up taking 2nd place overall and is still the best sailed of all 3 Phuket 8's competing here.

The overall division winners are calculated from a combined aggregate of places in each race for matching classes and prizes awarded to the yacht that corrects out with the best times. In the combined Multihull Classes Brent McInnes's No Fixed Address won every race in the Cruising Multihull class to earn him the Langkawi Multihull Cup displacing Mark Pescott's Phuket-based Summersalt who scored 3 handicap wins in the racing multi's but blotted his score sheet with a 4th place in the last race. Their Phuket rivals on Chris Sieber's Kilo finished up 3rd overall and Brian Ritchie's Fine Pitch had to settle for the glory of taking line honours in every race. Today's final race saw the fleet tightly bunched around the course and the all girls Dewi Bayu team on Chimera from Malaysia winning the day. Good on ya girls!

The RLIR Commodores Cup is awarded to the yacht that corrects out with the best placing's of the 3 Cruising Classes. This produced an extraordinary set of events with Joao Sombra's Guardian from Brazil winning this division from the Classic Class with 2 firsts, one second and one forth. Harold Stummeier's Regolarita II from Germany scored 2 firsts, one forth, and one twelfth in the Cruising Live Aboard Class 5B for second overall and Mark Hardess's Dai Mouse IV from Australia finished in 3rd place coming from the Club Cruising Class 5A.

Regatta Summary

Calculating the results by this method produced a little discontent amongst the individual class winners who thought they had done enough by beating all their competitors on the water but were not awarded individual class trophies. Although the four days of racing was hampered by a distinct lack of wind at times, the racing was very close and proved to be a severe test of the sailors light weather sailing skills.

BMW in conjunction with Tunku Tan Sri Abdullah and the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club are keen to organise a yachting symposium to address how the growing number of regatta's in the region can be linked and a logical calendar of events created for the racers to attend. "We will invite governments, yacht clubs, marinas, boat manufacturers and other interested parties to attend and try to address various issues connected with cruising in the region including the important one of security". He also envisaged forming an Asian regatta management group which would ensure a high standard of race and regatta management with a common goal of running top class events for all to enjoy. More on this in the coming months and all participants were invited back for next years event which promises to be bigger and better as planning is already underway.

Click here for overall results.

By Event Media, edited by phuket-marine-guide.com.

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