Royal contest
Mixed conditions see out the final day of competition at the 31st Anniversary of the Phuket King’s Cup regatta.
11 December 2017
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After blowing the birds out of the trees all week, the North Easterly finally gave up the ghost and left the fleet floating around on a glassy seaway, with Race Officers scanning the horizon for wind ripples to appear. Two hours went by before PRO Ross Chisholm found some consistency from the ESE breeze on the Southern Course A and went into the starting sequence.
No such luck on the Northern Course B and after four hours waiting around, PRO Simon James sent the cruising fleet home without a start. The leaders of various cruising classes rejoiced without even lifting a finger, while the racing classes battled it out on one short windward/leeward course, with some detrimental effects on the overall results.
A little hustling on the start line and IRC 0 were clean away. A couple of lead changes between the 52 footers and after Phillip Turner’s Reichel/Pugh 66 Alive crossed for line honours, only one minute a piece separated the three 52’s and it was Sarab Singh’s Welbourn 52 Windsikher II that claimed the handicap honours in front of Alive. Despite slotting into 3rd place Kevin Whitcraft’s TP52 THA 72 has won 9 of the 12 races and walks away with the IRC 0 title for the second year.
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Like always, Ray Roberts TP52 Team Hollywood put up a good fight for 2nd overall and broke THA 72’s winning streak during the week. Optimised for light weather, Sarab Singh’s Welbourn 52 Windsikher II has never broken so much equipment at one regatta and paid the consequences for 3rd overall.
Otonomos Mandrake III had a clear lead on the first lap, but they missed a wind shift on the second upwind and Mati Sepp’s chartered Loco went on to claim line honours.
Since being disqualified and suffering equipment failure, Nanamori’s defending champion Karasu has been on the comeback trail and by correcting out in first place today, they leap frogged Loco into 2nd overall but couldn’t quite catch the leaders Otonomos Mandrake III who have been on fire all regatta and were the most consistent scorers in the IRC 1 class and deserve the title.
The battle of the heavyweights boiled over into the Premier Cruising class. With only one point separating Aussie Geoff Hill’s Smith 72 Antipodes and Thailand’s Ithinai Yingsiri’s X55 Pine-Pacific it was decided to attack, with match racing tactics to delay the boats and hopefully one of the others might take the win. It didn’t quite work out that way and the jury deliberated over 5 counter protests to decide the outcome, including the controversial Rule 69 for misconduct.
As it turned out, all the protests were dismissed and Yingsiri’s Pine-Pacific has defended the title for the fourth time, with Hill’s plans on Antipodes backfiring for 4th place and having to settle on 2nd overall. Former Whitbread racer Gijs van Liebergen’s King’s Legend secured 3rd overall, while Fabio Becattini’s A80 Apsaras claimed line honours, in front of the duelling leaders and finished in 4th overall.
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