22nd Phuket King's Cup Regatta 2008
AY Race Report 1

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Classic King's Cup sailing conditions
It's days like today that go down as the most memorable in King's Cup history. A steady eighteen knots of breeze gusting to above twenty, clear blue sky and coastal courses ranging from 23 to 28 miles, around some of the most scenic islands in Asia - what more could you ask for? A short windward beat after the start, close reach to the gate, then a lengthy beat up the east coast between the islands, followed by a magnificent powerful downhill slide back to the gate, then a two sail close reach back up to the finish. For Frank Pong's 75 foot Jelik it was all aver in three hours and twenty four seconds. By three o'clock everyone was finished, provisional results posted and back on the beach looking for somewhere to quench that almighty thirst. Despite the one day delay to racing the wind has stayed in and we could not help noticing that most boats had reefed mainsails, roller furled head sails or carried number 3 or 4 jibs to control the power of the wind. The boats that got the configuration right seemed to do the best on the results sheets at the end of racing.

Although defending champion Frank Pong sailed his Reichel-Pugh 75 Jelik around the course in record time, Paul Winkelmann's TP52 Island Fling expertly helmed by Steve Benjamin (USA) had the pedal to the metal so hard that the media boat had trouble catching them and went on to correct out in first place. Neil Pryde's Welbourne 52 Hi-Fi is optimized to 12 - 15 knots of wind and although a little overpowered in these conditions, they lost out a bit on the two sail reaches but managed to hold on and claim second place. Frank Pong's Jelik stormed home to take line honours but after handicaps have been applied ended up in third place by the narrowest of margins, 20 seconds in front of fourth placed Fred Kinmonth / Nick Burns Mills 51 Mandrake.

The heavy weights in the Premier Cruising class made a meal of the course when Dr Ian Nicolson's Dubois 80 Intrigue crossed the finish line thirty minutes in front of the next boat to take out the daily double. David Ross' Swan 53 Macquarie - Frangipani Girl corrected out in second place after a close battle with Peter Cremers previous class winner Shahtoosh that settled on third place.

The Sportsboats disappeared into a mist of spray as the crews held on with white knuckles. Ray Waldrons Phuket 8 Vino seemed to have the measure of Scott Duncanson's sistership Somtam Express on the first two legs but as they went upwind Somtam got a march on them to eventually pull off a horizon job. Japan's Kenchi Takahashi had a stroke of brilliance on his Platu 25 Motor Net to overtake Somtam on corrected time to triumph in the first race. Morten Jakobsen also had the crew fully stretched out on the rail of his Platu 25 Emma Mathilde to claim third place and just missed out on eclipsing Somtam Express for second place by a mere second.

Matt Allen Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia that run the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race found the conditions today in Phuket similar to sailing in Hawaii but without the big waves. Champagne sailing his Beneteau First 44.7 Ichi Ban reveled in the conditions to take out the daily double in the IRC 1 class. Rob Bottomley's bigger Beneteau First 47.7 Sailplane could not quite match the pace of Ichi Ban but did enough to secure second spot. Jeff Davison's Mumm 30 Panic was a little overpowered in the heavy going upwind but recovered on the long downwind slide to score third place.

The Royal Thai Navy 2 Farr MRX skippered by NC Pontap Sukudom are very familiar with the waters in Phuket and have won here before, got themselves off to a good start again this year by posting first place in race 1. Having taken over the former Papua New Guinea champion Frers 42 Di Hard Gould & Cusack crossed the finish line first to restore her former glory but got relegated to second place by the navy. After making a late start Niels Degenkolw's 3/4 tonner Phoenix gradually worked his way back through the fleet to score third place.

Achim Griese's Dutch crew on Princess Anna got the jump on the evenly matched Sunsail One Design class to score first and fastest. Although Jakob Handte's German crew on Princess Isabella where over thirteen minutes behind they are happy with second place as they beat Jan Ruedel's fellow German crew on Princess Arieta by a little over one minute on corrected time.

Phuket being the charter boat capital of Asia it makes sense to have a bonefide Bareboat Charter Class. Seventeen yachts went under the starters orders and after four hours of ruff and tumble sailing Jan Kisteit's Bavaria 34 cruiser Little Eva came out on top. Finishing four seconds earlier Toru Inoue's Japanese team on TAG were relegated to second place and after taking line honours Andrey Duvanov's Russian team on Sandy Ann dropped down to third place.

Disappearing into fine spray the nine speedy Firefly 850 Sport catamarans designed by Aussie Mark Pescott shot of the line and left everyone in their wake. A close battle ensured around the course with several lead changes but as they closed in on the finish line Peter Dyer's SEA Property edged ahead to take the horn by nearly two boat lengths or 18 seconds from Hans Rahmann's newly acquired Voodo Child on their first outing. Brent Gribble's Twin Sharks crossed the line a few minutes latter to edge out Henry Kaye's early leader Seahorse Interiors - Mamba.

Radab Kanjanavanit's Farrier - 9A Cedar Swan is in the same devastating form that has won them several multihull King's Cups and showed the newer and bigger Corsairs a clean pair of heels to take first place by over eight minutes. Being the odd one out Bob Brindley's catamaran X Catriot slipped into second place and Neil Ayre's brand new Cosair C28R HotelTravel.com Shanghai Baby claimed third place on her first outing.

The Russian invasion is taking shape when Krasnoperov Oleg's Beneteau Oceanis 423 Thalassa secured first place in the Ocean Rover Class. Despite Chapus Marc's American team on the Contraste 44 Zorba doing their damndest to lead the Russians over the line they had to settle on second place. Charles Hay's British team on the Jenneau SO 45DS Smystery became the intermediary and secured third place for themselves.

With all sails flying James Stoll's grande old dame Argo led the Classic class around the course to capture first place and the photographers eye. Ralph Goetz Waconda tried to keep pace with Argo but lacked the waterline length and settled on second place. Kiwi Roger Folley's Herreshoff schooner Tradition is also a sight to behold and gracefully accepted third place.

Racing continues for the rest of the week with no layday but as Wind Guru has the breeze moderating the by tomorrow afternoon the conditions may begin to suite the boats optimized for lighter winds.

More PKCR 2008 news and results can be found at: http://www.kingscup.com

Online AY Race Reports with photos can be accessed from:
Race Report 5: http://asianyachting.com/news/PKCR08/5.htm
Race Report 4: http://asianyachting.com/news/PKCR08/4.htm
Race Report 3: http://asianyachting.com/news/PKCR08/3.htm
Race Report 2: http://asianyachting.com/news/PKCR08/2.htm
Pre-Race Report: http://asianyachting.com/news/PKCR08/0.htm

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