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Release 26th January, 2004 Phuket, Thailand Superb breeze, torn spinnakers and a couple of collisions in Phuket's QBE Insurance Phang Nga Bay Regatta 2004 Superb breeze, torn spinnakers, a couple of collisions and some very exciting racing was the order of the week for the 7th QBE Insurance Phang Nga Bay Regatta which commenced last Thursday from the Yacht Haven Marina at the northern end of Phuket Island. A strong fleet of 34 yachts compiled into 4 classes were blessed with some of the most outstanding sailing conditions Phuket has enjoyed in years with blue skies and strong winds prevailing for the entire four days of the event. Hocux
Pocux 2 the well campaigned X-682 from Hong Kong skippered by Denis
(Bruno) Bonutto managed to sail away with the overall racing class
trophy for the week but not without a fight from one of the most
competitive racing classes the PNBR had seen in its seven year history.
David Lindhal and his crew aboard local yacht La Samudra, a Swan
42, took out the cruising class A honours with Fat Cat and the Latitude
8 built Charro taking the cruising B and ocean multihull prizes
respectively. Day 1 saw the fleet push against the tide down the
6 mile channel from the Yacht Haven to a very wide start line where
the breeze was blowing constant with approximately 12 knots. The
upwind beat to the top of Koh Yao Noi tested the fleet with the
smaller yachts struggling to make it up to the first mark. The larger
yachts and multihulls lead the way with likes of Hocux Pocux 2,
La Samudra, Charro and Rhythm Stick making it up to the gate and
through to the finish in good time. The exception to this was Securicor
Somtam Express the locally built 25ft Phuket 8 who managed to stay
in touch with the larger keelboats and took advantage of the stronger
breeze on the port side of the course, which about half way through
the race started to ease and thus favoured the lighter vessel. Results
from Race 1:
Results
from Race 3: Day 4 was again fun filled with a spinnaker start between Koh Phi Phi Don and Koh Phi Phi Lei. A nice long start line was set by the race committee and again Cruising B were let go first, followed by Racing and Cruising A starting together, and the multihulls completing the fleet 5 minutes afterwards. An incident free start let the downwind flyer Securicor again blitz past leaving the rest of the class in their wake. The sight of the regatta fleet with their spinnakers flying in perfect blue skies was certainly a sight to behold as well as a photographers dream. The course ran from Phi Phi to the gate located at the southern tip of Koh Kai then through the second gate off Koh Maiton and into Chalong Bay. Gate one caused the fleet some problems for it was laid too close to Koh Kai resulting in big wind shadow arising just as the boats went through. This tested the sailors’ skills in all division as they flopped from side to side until they eventually made it out of the shadow and continued onto Koh Maiton. The Mark Pescott designed Charro with Pescott himslef at the helm lead the race from Gate 2 to Chalong Bay and was just pipped with the finish line in sight, by Duncanson aboard Somtam Express, who, by the finest of margins managed to secure line honours for the day. The rest of the fleet enjoyed probably the quickest run from Phi Phi to Phuket they had ever experienced with constant breeze of 15 - 18 knots pushing them home and gusts of up to 30 knots throughout the day. Results
from Race 4:
Results:
overall
results | racing
class series |
cruising a class series
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