July 11 2015
By AsianYachting MultiMedia
Blustery wind is taking its toll…
Consistent 18 to 20 knot westerly breezes greeted the sailors on Day 2, causing some equipment failure before the off. Broken halyards on two Firefly cats, steering linkage failure and a snapped daggerboard forced two Stealth catamarans to retire from the second race. Despite all this, it was warm and sunny until the inevitable storm passed over during the latter stage of proceedings. It is believed the uncharacteristic breeze is being sucked across the peninsula by Typhoon CHAN-HOM (FALCON) that is due to make landfall over China today. The resilient crews have remained undeterred and instigated running repairs to get them through the day and stay in the running for the title.
Despite Alan Carwardine’s Stealth 11.8m Asia Catamarans Hurricane leading the fleet and looking as if they would take their third win, it was Mick Coleman’s sister ship Java’s turn to take the handicap honours by three seconds from Hurricane. David Liddell’s new Stealth 14m WOW slotted into third place by 44 seconds after overnight repairs. Then the radio announcement that Hurricane was retiring with broken steering linkages leaving the overall Racing Multi’s (OMR) leader’s position vulnerable, as all races are to count in the series.
This left the door open for Java to make it two wins on the day and take over the overall lead. WOW hit the sandbar and broke the daggerboard, allowing Kirill Stashevskiy’s Stealth 13 Gokova Phuket Galeforce to slot into second place and Grenville Fordham’s Image Asia Nina slipped into third place. These placings and retirements have reshuffled the pack. Hurricane drops down to second overall and Henry Kaye’s Seacart 26 Sweet Chariot remains in third overall. Only one point separates third to sixth place, with three boats tied on 19 points. Tomorrow’s results will determine the overall podium places.
Just as the Firefly starting horn sounded, the halyard on John Newnham’s Twin Sharks parted company and the headsail come tumbling down. Some thing very similar happened on Neil Ayre’s Advanced Racing Team. The spinnaker halyard was jury-rigged and smaller jib hoisted, which didn’t seem to make much difference to the boat speed as they set off to overhaul George Eddings’ Blue Nose. Top mark roundings became difficult as the jib had to be lowered and the spinnaker hoisted on the same halyard. Despite all this Brent Gribble and the Twin Sharks crew took it into their stride and still managed to speed away into the distance and record two wins, making it four in a row. Blue Nose edged in front of Advanced Racing Team on the second race by 36 seconds but the roles are reversed on the overall standings.
The reorganising of the classes has resulted in the Corsair Pulse 600 trimarans using this regatta as a display event, in their own class and Tatiana Bogatyzova’s Lagoon 380 Star Fruit being the sole entrant in the Open Multihull Class. Bob Garner’s Cosair SuDu Red has performed the best and running repairs have enabled the others to join in today. Tomorrow it is expected to have three Corsairs back and awarded daily prizes.
Last day of racing tomorrow will determine the overall results and the prize presentation will be held in the evening at the Ao Chalong Yacht Club. The weather report is similar to today and can expect some daring people on their flying machines to settle the bragging rights for another year!
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.
