Commentary by Cap'n Squall on
the Mini Regatta Race
August 26 & 27
Committee boat provided by
Kia Ora
Catamaran Charters
This month's
regatta was hosted by Bill's Beach Bar at Hua Tanon located in a
picturesque cove on the South of the island and although his
establishment hasn't been rated with a star or boast a kitchen, his
staff provided a superb barbeque and top service.
The Phuket
racing community were well represented with John Hamilton acting as Race
Officer and a number of their sailors driving over to participate.
Once again, our
thanks to the BBC and Mark Cullimore for providing Kia Ora as committee
boat.
The Race
Officer ably assisted by Alan Solley got the fleet underway for
Saturdays long distance race at 1300 with a 25 mile race rounding the
offshore reef Hin An Wang and Koh Mat Sum to the South.
Kunta on Coco
Blues rounded the reef buoy first, just 20 metres in front of hot Phuket
sailor Jock Cromie driving the 4.5 m Nacra catamaran Tradewinds and then
Francesco's F24 trimaran Vivace closely followed by Mick Grover's newly
imported Elliott 770 Ice Bucket.
China House
began to make ground on Vivace on the leg down to Koh Mat Sum, while
Tradewinds tacked inshore to avoid being blanketed by Coco Blues who by
now was standing on a long tack out to sea.
Approaching Koh
Mat Sum, Vivace then put in a series of short tacks to the island and
rounded the island in the lead closely followed by Coco Blues and Ice
Bucket with China House and Tradewinds now well in the rear.
The spinnaker
run back to the reef saw Coco snatching the lead again and now Ice
Bucket just edging Vivace when an approaching rain squall forced the
boats to harden up for a close reach to the finish.
The stiff 15
knot breeze with 25 knot gusts were especially exciting for Ice Bucket,
for without any guard rails, they lost crew overboard twice, costing
them time. Perhaps with a Velcro deck and the crew wearing Velcro pants
we can expect them to rapidly improve ! Sunday race 1 Two races back to
back of winward/leewards were got underway with the first race
experiencing the same strong winds as Saturday.
Ice Bucket
wisely deciding not to fly their chute but still completed the first
race 2nd over the finish line behind Jock Cromies' Nacra 4.5 . Jock, an
Australian ex A Class catamaran champion took off from the starting line
and was never headed.
John Stall who
provided the Nacra 4.5, conceded the Rolly Tasker mainsail was cut too
full, so provided an Australian Manders mainsail for the Sundays racing
and this made all the difference with the Tradewinds catamaran taking
out both races from Coco Blues and Vivace. Kunta's Coco Blues had ace
bowman Jim Kane (Phuket) handling one of the mainsails and although with
a smaller rig then sistership China House, always had the measure of the
yellow China House.
With another
Elliott 770 being prepared for next months regatta, we can expect more
exciting racing as the Phuket gang swear they'll be back but this time
with some of their boats!
Bills Beach
Bar's regular guests did an amazing job in assisting launching the boats
and helping out with the food, even if they did sleep on the floor that
night
Race was on the weekend of August 26 & 27 2006
Race Results:
Samui Mini Regatta August 26 and 27
RACE 1 SATURDAY
Place Name
Corrected Time Points
1st Ice
Bucket 2.38.43 1
2nd
Tradewinds 2.50.45 2
3rd Coco
Blues 2.52.45 3
4th
Vivace 2.54.59 4
5th China
House 3.22.30 5
RACE 2 SUNDAY
1st
Tradewinds 0.29.13 1
2nd Coco
Blues 0.34.54 2
3rd Ice
Bucket 0.35.59 3
DSQ
Vivace 6
DNF China
House 6
RACE 3 SUNDAY
1st
Tradewinds 0.35.54 1
2nd Ice
Bucket 0.38.02 2
3rd Coco
Blues 0.41.22 3
4th
Vivace 0.44.13 4
5th China
House 0.48.04 5
WEEKENDS PLACINGS
TOTAL
1st
Tradewinds 2.1.1. 4
2nd Ice
Bucket 1.3.2. 6
3rd Coco
Blues 3.2.3. 8
4th
Vivace 4.6.4. 14
5th China
House 5.6.5. 16 |
