Close finale
Two race shoot-out brings 2018 Top of the Gulf Regatta to an end.
05 May 2018
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The 2018 Top of the Gulf Regatta lived up to its reputation for delivering close and competitive racing, and this year the weather made the racing even tougher. Over four days sailors experienced everything from moments of becalm to 25 knot squalls, thunder and lightening, and blue skies indicative of sailing in the tropics.
THA72 finished their regatta with two wins. Other than a second in Race 4 of their series, former Optimist World Champion Noppakao Poonpat has driven the TP52 expertly winning five of the six races contended.
The racing between fellow-TP52 Ark 323 crewed by an all-Chinese team lead by Li Hongquan, was close. The short windward/leewards were testing and throughout the Chinese were ready to pounce on the smallest of mistakes, it’s just that THA72 made very few, and thus the Kevin Whitcraft/ Tom Whitcraft owned THA72, helmed by Noppakao Poonpat, are IRC 1 champions.
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In IRC 2 David Dimmock and crew on the Club Swan 42 Loco (USA) did the early running and despite a third place in Race 4 they won the class with one race to spare, ahead of Gary Baguley’s El Coyote (AUS) in second.
A first in the final race for Barry Waugh’s Fujin (AUS) wasn’t enough to outscore Jean Rheault’s Souay1 (CAN) whose results in the second half of the series saw them slide into third place overall.
The Cruising Class boats had a little more action than expected, with a number of windward/leewards replacing their “traditional” long distance series of races, and the sailors seem happy with the change.
A single race on the last day brought their series tally to five and with the drop in play it was the all-Japanese crew on Team Spray that took the win by a single point from Pote Suyasinto’s all-Thai team on Le Vent. Two points further back was Tim McMahon’s Sail Quest Hi Jinks in third.
The one-design Platu class saw some exceptionally close racing. A few slips along the way in the ever-changing weather conditions saw seven out of the 11-strong fleet on the podium at least once during the regatta, and despite a sixth place in the final race Rolf Heemskerk’s Team Viewpoint (MAS) were crowned 2018 Coronation Cup winners, defending their title in the process. Ithinai Yingsiri’s Thai team on Pine-Pacific were in the running throughout but a couple of sixth place finishes when they didn’t read the wind-shifts correct, and a seventh in the final race hurt their scorecard and they had to settle for second overall, ahead of Chris Way’s Easy Tiger III (AUS) in third.
A fast mover in the second half of the regatta was the Royal Thai Navy team lead by Wiwat Poonpat, who surged up the standings to finish fourth Platu overall, one point off the third place finisher and one point ahead of Thai compatriot Totsapon Mahanich on Pim.
Wins in the final two races of the series saw Kirati Assakul and his crew on the Crowther 42, Sonic, defend their Ocean Multihulls title from newcomer Dominique Demachy who sailed his KL 28 Edenko well but could only correct out ahead of Sonic twice over the six race series.
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