July 10 2015
By AsianYachting MultiMedia
Weather fails to dampen cruisers’ bright spirits!
The strong wind warning has dropped to a consistent 12 – 14 knots, with rain storms randomly sweeping across the course and gusts increasing to the high teens. Crews proceeded with caution reefing the mainsails and as they got used to the conditions, shaking out the reef and powering around the course. Overnight Hans Rahmann’s Firefly 850 Voodoo parted company with the mooring and ended up high and dry on the other side of Chalong Bay to become the first casualty of the regatta.
Two of the new Corsair Pulse 600 trimarans suffered some damage, leaving only one to circulate and reducing the fleet to twelve yachts. This did not diminish the serious contenders from pushing the pedal to the metal and extracting the best performance from both crew and boats, which shows on the Result Sheets.
Alan Carwardine’s 11.8m Asia Catamarans Hurricane and the builder of the four competing Stealth catamarans, showed their experience by claiming Line Honours in both races and, despite having the higher rating, managed to score two Racing Multis (OMR) bullets on the opening rounds. Mick Coleman’s sister ship Java followed suit with two second places and only one minute off the pace. Kirill Stashevskiy’s Stealth 13 Galeforce traded third places with Henry Kaye’s Seacart 26 Sweet Chariot, and one point separates three boats for third overall. David Liddell’s new Stealth 14m WOW suffered some equipment failure but finished both races to share third overall with Kaye’s Sweet Chariot.
Neil Ayre’s Advanced Racing Team took off on the first Firefly 850 Sports start and led around the course, but as the storm swept across, they emerged from the rain cloud trailing John Newnham’s Twin Sharks who didn’t let up to claim the daily double. As John Newnham has a back injury and did not want to disappoint the crew that have been training hard for the event, he handed over the Twin Sharks’ reins to Brent Gribble and looked on from the spectator boat. There was no let up from the Twin Sharks crew as they blitzed the dogleg course in the second race and left the others clearly in their wake. Despite George Eddings’ Blue Nose having Mark Pescott, the Firefly designer onboard, they need to improve their crew work to match the pace of the other boats. Hans Rahmann’s Voodoo was refloated late this afternoon and quickly dispatched to the boatyard and is expected to be back racing tomorrow.
Unfortunately the numbers in the Open Multihull Class have diminished, with two Corsair Pulse 600 trimarans suffering structural damage, leaving Bob Garner’s remaining Cosair SuDu Red and Tatiana Bogatyzova’s Lagoon 380 Star Fruit to complete the two races in that order. As Garner’s SuDu Red will be receiving an official Racing Multihull (OMR) rating tonight, they will be bumped up into the racing class and Bogatyzova’s Star Fruit will go it alone in the Open Class.
Racing continues tomorrow with the Marine’s logo “Who Dares Wins”, and as the weather report is similar to today, expect some more fun and games!
More information:
To find out more information on this fabulous regatta, please visit the Ao Chalong Yacht Club website: http://acyc.asia/regattas/multihull-regatta/
To register your interest in next year’s regatta please email us.
