Phuket Marine Guide: Royal Langkawi International Regatta 05/03/05

Too much wind for some...
The 18 to 20 knot SW Monsoon presently pumping in from the Andaman Sea proved to be a little to much for some sailors today. First signs of a feisty day to come was Olaf Riese announcing the retirement of his brand new 28ft (Not 26ft as reported yesterday) Mark Pescott designed and skippered Voodoo Child with technical difficulties. On the first downwind leg some heavily reefed yachts chose to goose wing the genoa instead of flying spinnakers. The 1 to 1 1/2 meter swell had the gamer crews with spinnakers up experiencing some fantastic rides with the occasional uncontrollable broach seen. David Lindhal's Swan 46 La Samudra reported torn sails and heading in for repairs as Mark Horward's crew on Image-Asia Attitude 8 were performing one of their enormous knock downs which destroyed the rudder this time.

Just as the cameras were focusing on Josh Lee's Vino by Watermark taking off on a wave, out of the corner of my eye, the shock of all horrors, I noticed what looked like upturned catamaran hulls with the dagger boards sticking up. Quick action taken by the media boats yet again had the slightly battered crew of Sue and Michel Arnulphy's Cyrene safely onboard and taken to shore, although a little shocked as it all happened very fast. (See Guy Nowell's photo on AY Website Edition) Fellow cat sailors Bob Mott on Cameleon and Wolfgang's Mozart were on the scene shortly after and stood by to help in favor of completing the race. As we write a salvage attempt is being under taken.

Another change on the leaderboard in IRC 1 sees John Vause's Ruby Tuesday catapulted to a insurmountable points lead by scoring 2 bullets or 1st places today. Scott Duncanson's Securicor Somtam Express climbed back to 2nd place overall after scoring two 2nd places and his crew managing to keep the Phuket 8 flying around at the front of the fleet. After racing into contention with 2 wins yesterday David Lindhal's retirement and 4th place today on La Samudra has cost him the title. While others were having difficulties around the course the Andy Stephens skippered RPM Switchblade scored two 3rd places and climbed into 4th spot overall.

In IRC 2 the silverware was shared evenly between Mick Kealy's Minx and Paul Kendall's Simba with a 1, 2 each, to give Mick Kealy's team a unbeatable lead coming into tomorrows final race. Stuart Crows's Cinders fell of the pace to score two 4ths but still maintains 3rd spot overall. Mike Bean's Lee Marine Suk San claimed two 3rd places today but trails in the points by placing poorly in earlier races.

The Club Class only had one race today which saw Mark Trupp's Maddalena extend their overall lead with another victory. Christine Caufman's 2nd place on Rastegaisse allowed them to climb the rankings above Matt Mcgrath's Gator who could only manage a 3rd placing. All racers in Club Class happily finished the passage race set for them.

Henry Kaye's Charro won the first race despite running over the spinnaker and a ripped jib which forced them to retire from the 2nd race. After Cyrene's capsize most of the multihull fleet either retired to assist them or were experiencing difficulties of their own. Chris Sieber's Kilo in the Performance Cruising Multihull class was the only competitor to complete both races today which takes them to the top of the class leaderboard.

Full set of PRW 05 results can be found at: http://www.phuketraceweek.com/results.htm.

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