Blasting off into the New Year...

10:01:2010 It is amazing how the regatta comes together after several months of planning. The race officials are first to arrive and run through the procedures put in place. The competitors work through their own organisational plans for the boat and crew movements. An influx of foreigners at Asian airports and the streets of Langkawi with bright coloured shorts and crew shirts, warn the locals that a regatta is coming up. Extra mini van services are needed to ferry people between hotels, airport and the yacht club marina. Finally the jury and media appear and the regatta is ready to rock and roll.

Twenty seven yachts have registered for RLIR 2010 to be held at the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club in Kuah, Langkawi. Although a little down on last years numbers mainly due to work commitments taking a priority since the festive season only just finished last week. Zack the Regatta Director remains unfazed with the time slot choice by citing "We are already prepared for our regatta and we want all our participants to enjoy themselves while doing some serious racing. We are planning to follow the same format as 2009. First day-races in Kuah Harbour, second day-outside Langkawi, third day-round the island, fourth day–outside Langkawi, and the last day is back in picturesque Kuah Harbour". As if the warm weather, clear waters surrounding the legendary and duty-free islands of Langkawi is not enough for sailors to enjoy throughout the year in Malaysia, the organising team have gone to great lengths to organise daily, fun-filled prize giving parties to dance the night away.

As mentioned in the January AYGP Update Ishak Jab's Royal Malaysian Navy Farr 520 Zuhal will be taking on three stalwarts of the Asian racing class, that have dominated proceedings for the last decade or two. Neil Pryde's custom Welbourne 52 Hi Fi, Ray Roberts TP52 Evolution Racing and Frank Pong's 75ft Jelik II have each won the annual AY Skipper and Yacht of the Year awards at least once since their inception will be battling it out for the prestigious Prime Minister's Challenge Trophy. Ray Roberts has won this event 4 times and must be favoured to repeat the performance.

The eight yachts in the IRC Class will compete for the LADA-IRC Challenge Trophy. Stuart Williamson's Beneteau 34.7 Endeavour of Whitby and Niels Degenkolw IOR 3/4 Ton Xyacht Phoenix are old foes at Asian events and have shared top placing's at most events they enter. They will be joined by Vincent Chan's Titan 36 Mata Hari and down from Hong Kong Peter Wintle's Kerr 11.3 Koull Baby (Ex Jaywalker) might make it first time lucky. Ben Copley's Club Swan 42 Katsu inclusion will pose a threat to Simon Piff's Lavranos 34 Rainbow Dream and Mike Van Zyl's 24ft Jandi skippered by James Hardie that won their class with distinction last year. The class will be further subdivided into Premier Cruising and IRC 1 based on size and rating bands.

Five Platu 25 teams make up the Sports Boat Class will be competing for the Langkawi Sports Trophy. Mohd Masyuri Rahmat and Izmi Hairi Idros will be heading up the Royal Malaysian Navy Teams 1 and 2, Razman Mat Ali has the pleasure of representing the MYA/KFC, Curtis Skinner's RQYS is the sole Aussie team and Christopher Lim Zijie is from Singapore's highly successful SMU racing squad. Being one design this class is to close to call and will take a game person to make any early predictions. Three boats also make up an under 25 subdivision.

A very depleted Multihull fleet will compete for the Malaysian Multihull Challenge Cup. John Danks Blue Moon and Robert Prolux's Vertical Time have already arrived and Grenville Fordham Andaman Cabriolet Da Vinci Niña will be making a beeline for Langkawi on Sunday night after the boatshow in Phuket and may miss the first days racing. Despite all this if Da Vinci Niña preforms up to their Phuket Raceweek winning formula they will be hard to beat.

Three Club Cruisers will contest the RLYC Commodore's Cup, Morten Ringvold Haffiman, Jeff Harris Elan 40 Rapscapllion and the Royal Malaysian Navy Marikh skippered by Norhafisam will be battling away for the honours.

In the Ocean Rovers Gavin Welman Hallberg Rassy 53 Rascal is the biggest and Henning Lenz 33ft My Toy is the smallest. Two newcomers are Christian Doering Ilya and Jeremy Paul Astra. Last year Henning Lenz popularly won the inaugural "Tunku Abdullah Sportsmanship" award for the best team on and off the water and not necessarily the fastest boat. This prize is a tribute to the Founding Chairman and 1st Commodore of the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club, the late Tunku Tan Sri Abdullah and will be voted on by the participants each year.

So as the fun and games are just about to begin in earnest we will rush off and join in the festivities.

More info at: http://www.langkawiregatta.com or call the Regatta Secretariat at +6-04-9664078 or fax +6-04-9665078 or Email: office@langkawiregatta.com

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Goto: AY Race Report 5 & Summary
AY Race Report 4
AY Race Report 3
AY Race Report 2
AY Race Report 1
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