Koh Samui Yacht Club Regatta
Sailing in The Gulf of Thailand
Monthly Sailing Yacht Regatta on Koh Samui

MARCH RACE ARCHIVE:
Race Results from Samui Yacht Club Regatta

MARCH 2007

Race report March 2007

This month’s regatta was a 15 mile race to Samui’s sister island Koh Phangan and the beautiful Thong Nai Pan bay on the North East corner.\

Mermaid Resort at Ban Rak was this month’s regatta sponsor and it was off their beach, the committee boat, the 85 foot Burmese junk La Fortune, set the start.

The fleet got off to a good start at 1030 and the Nacra 4.5 led China House and Nok Talay through the gap off Koh Som and into the Phangan channel with an 11 knot Easterly. Against a strong Southerly current, the Nacra jibed up the Koh Phangan coast, while the rest of the fleet favored staying further out to sea. Martin Peters’ Nok Talay soon had the only spinnaker flying much to the delight of her guest crew, Merv Owen, over from Phuket.

Also enjoying the reaching conditions was the Macgregor 26 Viva 2 skippered by visiting Poole yachtsman Bill Gaskins. Line honors went to the Nacra catamaran Tradewinds, finishing in just over 3 hours, followed by Kunta’s China House 20 minutes later and then a similar distance to the Windrider crewed by John and Sam Vowell. By 3pm all the fleet had finished and moved into Dreamlands Resort and began training for the expected party on La Fortune.

And what a party Pascal and his crew of La Fortune provided ! By 5pm all the crews and guests were aboard, thanks to Big Roy and his little speedboat and the guests were then treated to an endless parade of canapés, barbeques and drinks.

Under a full moon and surrounded by the towering 700 m. mountains of Khao Ra, the bay began to work its magic and most of the crews finished the evening in a jamboree of drinks and cocktails at the Dolphins. Unfortunately, La Fortune had a charter on the Sunday, so a decision was made to split all the guests and race committee amongst the fleet and return to Samui at their own speed.

By 3pm all the boats were back anchored off the Mermaid resort where the staff served up a grand barbeque and the traditional keg of beer. Halfway through the keg, Cap’n squall spotted some whales or dolphins splashing in the middle of the bay.

As this usually occurs only twice a year, all the guests and staff were soon all pointing and clapping their hands in glee. It was only when Jimmy the photographer pointed his 500 mm lens at the splashing was it apparent they were caused by two farang snorkellers ! Duuuuhhh.

RACE RESULTS MARCH 2007