Capt Marty's Sailing Memoirs - 5th Phuket King's Cup 1991

Thailand can make a hard man humble...
Arriving in Thailand for the first time can be extremely mind boggling even for a reasonably open minded yacht skipper with worldly experience. The huge array of girly beer cluster bars are a real eye opener and getting mixed up with this lifestyle can have drastic affects on the crews performance and for some have lasted a lifetime. Meeting up with cruising yachties at the ramshackle huts at Ao Chalong, long before the present establishments were built, kindly gave us somewhere to store our cruising equipment and an introduction to what we could expect in Thailand. Deeply etched in the memory was Blown Away John arguing over breakfast with a lady of the night about how many times and how much to pay for the explicit sexual acts they preformed the night before. This set the scene for the rest of our stay.

A quick trip back to Koh Phi Phi for the start of the 1991 King's Cup bought us back to reality for at least a short time. Renown Aussie surgeons Doc Jon Wardill TFO (The Flaming Owner) and Alan Woodward flew in to join the seasoned Aussie racing crew which included Bob Mackie his business partner Jim and various Darwin Sailing Club members on this auspicious occasion. Winning the first race around the neighboring islands prompted the committee to put a film crew onboard for the passage race back to Nai Harn Bay in Phuket. This could have been our downfall as Patrick Cusick, ex-editor of the controversial Star Newspaper in Darwin turned out to be the film director and over exuberant celebrations the night before saw the heavily hung over crew fumble their way across the start line. In true Aussie fashion the crew put on a horrendous display in front of the camera and unbeknown to us the raw footage was shown latter that evening to the Sports Association in Phuket town that exclaimed "Stop the film this is not sport, it is just a bunch of beer swilling, cigarette smoking animals trying to sail a boat".

Rounding the limestone islands on the course became paramount in getting a good result. Bill Gasson's crew on Buzzard had obviously been practicing this maneuver as they invariably came out well in front despite entering a few places back. Having former America’s Cup skipper Mario Pelaschier on the helm of Buzzard saw them quickly out of the blocks and master the short courses held in Phuket to go on and score their third King's Cup victory in a row. Despite falling of the mantle Aussie Maid held on for a minor placing and learnt a huge amount from the experience. Exclaiming "We will be back" after downing their weight in Champagne Mumm at the prize giving and keeping the Darwin drinking reputation intact to fight another day.

Competing for the first time in Singapore, Malaysian and Thai waters increased the WOW! factor, so much that the Austral-Asian route became an annual yachting campaign. Aussie Maid has become an institution on the Asian circuit and continues till today by inspiring well over 4000 sailors to take up the challenge.

Some of the sailing legends and well known yachts that accompanied Aussie Maid through Indonesia in those early days included DJ Johnson's Final Approach from Hawaii with Aussie's Don Mickleborough and John "Steamer" Stanley onboard. Jim and Jo Wallace's magnificent Monsoon from Port Douglas with Moss Hunt on-board that still pop up in various places around the world. Many other world cruisers did not get past Phuket and after undergoing significant lifestyle changes are still there and now considered stalwarts of the Thai yachting industry.

Since its inception in 1987, the Phuket King's Cup Regatta has grown to become Asia's premier yachting event. Now 23 years on the event has grown from strength to strength, in both size and reputation, boasting the largest gathering of keel boats, multi-hulls and traditional sailing craft annually in SE Asia. Website: www.kingscup.com or contact the Regatta Secretary by E-mailing: info@kingscup.com

Keep in contact with Aussie Maid while on Tour
Over the last 20 odd years, 4,000 plus sailors have competed on Jon Wardill's Australian Maid which is still lining up and competing on selected Asian events. The crew have formed a social Facebook group Australian Maid on Tour to keep in touch and coordinate the boat and crew movements. So if you think you could fit in with a very bawdy Aussie crew that like to have fun on and off the water goto: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=42836451253

Future CM Sailing Memoirs are in the process of being prepared. Early Darwin Ambon Races, Inaugural 1973 Darwin to Dili Yacht Race, 1989 Sydney Hobart Race plus a few others are in the pipeline. These can be accessed from http://asianyachting.com/Archive/Memoirs.htm If anyone can help with old photos to accompany the story's, will be rewarded and very much appreciated.