Photo: Guy Nowell
Thailand's largest island welcomed the return of the Phuket King's Cup sailing regatta earlier this week and the event has proven to be a boon for the tourist destination devastated by the pandemic.
The sailors in the event are just as happy to have paroled their sailing vessels from the shed and unfurled their sails for the first time in a couple of years.
Although everyone was happy to be back out on the water, they could use a little sunshine that has been shielded all week thus far by persistent cloud cover. Despite the grey skies, Asia's biggest regatta has been rolling with the tides on the beautiful Andaman Sea.
With the Dinghy races having concluded, 17 keel boats and multihulls spread over five classes are left to compete. Race Officer Simon James summoned the IRC Zero and IRC One class boats on a windward-leeward course for the first race and a coastal jaunt for the second on Day 2 of the event while IRC Premier Cruising, Charter Cruising and the Multihull classes were sent off on a separate passage race.
The only two boats in the IRC 0 class, Team Hollywood and THA 72 are locked in a duel for TP52 supremacy off the Phuket shores. Ray Roberts’ Team Hollywood took two races from Kevin Whitcraft’s THA 72 and holds a one-point lead going into Day 3.
The IRC One class with a 6-boat fleet of racers has Let’s Get It On and Craig Douglas’ Ramrod tied for the lead with 8 points, followed by Char Chan just a single point back.
Thai Skipper Ithinai Yingsiri has piloted Pine Pacific in the three-boat Premier Cruising class, edged out Shatoosh by less than two minutes on corrected time. Both are tied for the lead followed by Firstlight. Interestingly enough, these are tried and true sailors as Firstlight, along with Ramrod and Windshihker, sailed up from Langkawi, Malaysia, to take part in the Phuket regatta.
Torben Kristensen’s Kinnon took honors again in the Charter Cruising class by outpacing Jakod Handte’s Fei Jian with Masami Yamashita’s Sunsail Inlova placing in third.
Hermann Schwarz’s 2Fast4you proved to be too fast for Hang Chen’s ZOE winning their race by almost six minutes on corrected time.
Craig Douglas, a Sydney-based sailor and owner of the Farr 40 Ramrod told SailWorld about the Phuket King's Cup regatta saying, “It’s a fantastic event and very competitive. All the other regattas are like a rally: people are there for the journey, hotels and the food. But at King’s Cup, the sailors really thrash it out and take it to the next level. It’s a badge of honour to win it. The regatta is very challenging: you can’t come into it in cruising mode because the handicap and the IRC rating will get you. If you are having a bad day, it’s not forgiving. You are either on good pace, or you will get punished. You need to race with a good and experienced crew."
Although everyone was happy to be back out on the water, they could use a little sunshine that has been shielded all week thus far by persistent cloud cover. Despite the grey skies, Asia's biggest regatta has been rolling with the tides on the beautiful Andaman Sea.
With the Dinghy races having concluded, 17 keel boats and multihulls spread over five classes are left to compete. Race Officer Simon James summoned the IRC Zero and IRC One class boats on a windward-leeward course for the first race and a coastal jaunt for the second on Day 2 of the event while IRC Premier Cruising, Charter Cruising and the Multihull classes were sent off on a separate passage race.
The only two boats in the IRC 0 class, Team Hollywood and THA 72 are locked in a duel for TP52 supremacy off the Phuket shores. Ray Roberts’ Team Hollywood took two races from Kevin Whitcraft’s THA 72 and holds a one-point lead going into Day 3.
The IRC One class with a 6-boat fleet of racers has Let’s Get It On and Craig Douglas’ Ramrod tied for the lead with 8 points, followed by Char Chan just a single point back.
Thai Skipper Ithinai Yingsiri has piloted Pine Pacific in the three-boat Premier Cruising class, edged out Shatoosh by less than two minutes on corrected time. Both are tied for the lead followed by Firstlight. Interestingly enough, these are tried and true sailors as Firstlight, along with Ramrod and Windshihker, sailed up from Langkawi, Malaysia, to take part in the Phuket regatta.
Torben Kristensen’s Kinnon took honors again in the Charter Cruising class by outpacing Jakod Handte’s Fei Jian with Masami Yamashita’s Sunsail Inlova placing in third.
Hermann Schwarz’s 2Fast4you proved to be too fast for Hang Chen’s ZOE winning their race by almost six minutes on corrected time.
Craig Douglas, a Sydney-based sailor and owner of the Farr 40 Ramrod told SailWorld about the Phuket King's Cup regatta saying, “It’s a fantastic event and very competitive. All the other regattas are like a rally: people are there for the journey, hotels and the food. But at King’s Cup, the sailors really thrash it out and take it to the next level. It’s a badge of honour to win it. The regatta is very challenging: you can’t come into it in cruising mode because the handicap and the IRC rating will get you. If you are having a bad day, it’s not forgiving. You are either on good pace, or you will get punished. You need to race with a good and experienced crew."
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