Multihull revival at 20th Raja Muda

The strong favourite in the rejuvenated Multihull class at the 20th Raja Muda will be Grenville Fordham's Phuket built Andaman Cabriolet Niña, who as Da Vinci Niña cleaned up in the good breezes on her racing debut at Six Senses Phuket Raceweek in July this year. Although they will have to keep the pedal to the metal to hold onto their time for handicap honours as the arch rival and chief nemesis Henry Kaye's Seacart 30 Thor will be going all out to make up for the loss at Raceweek.

Henry Kaye is mainly responsible for enticing the Phuket based multihull's down as far as Penang and making a series out of it, on the latter stages of the Raja Muda. Henry also has the distinction of winning the first Raja Muda Regatta, 20 years ago on his X119 Lethal Weapon and in doing so took line honours on all 3 passage races. This year he returns with an all carbon fibre Seacart 30 Thor, that is a flying machine fully imported from Sweden. Age does not seem to weary some and as always a strong campaign is expected. With new sails and sporting a new colour scheme, in his own words they will be "putting down the hammer “ and in the right conditions could certainly give Frank Pong's 75ft monohull Jelik a run for her money in the distance race to Langkawi.

The other two entrants in the new multi class are Miss Saigon and Zhuka. Skippers/owners David Liddell and Richard Eyre are both very experienced sailors. They will certainly perform well when the breeze is over 10 knots as these 37’ Corsairs built in Vietnam are ideal cruiser/racers for this region. There is lots of space and comfort, plus can speed along at 20 kts reaching in a breeze! Safe and well built but weighing in at 3 tons compared to the Seacart's 1 ton and carrying similar sail area, they will have to rely on a handicap advantage of 12 mins per hour to overcome the line honours favourite. Depending on the weather conditions on the day, if the wind fills in after Thor finishes then they will definitely be on the podium.

Our money will be on Thor, as conditions on the passage races could be more like Samui where on her debut she waltzed away from the competition. It could be a different story in the harbour races as Thor has to give Grenville Fordham's Niña, 29 mins each hour during the race which has proved to be a difficult mountain to climb.

The Sea Cart 30 and Phuket built Andaman Cabriolet will be doing most the Thai Regattas in 2010 and everyone at the Raja Muda host club Royal Selangor Yacht Club is hoping that this debut of serious Multihull racing will lead to a larger fleet in 2010.

More info on the 20th Raja Muda Selangor Int. Regatta at: http://www.rmsir.com

This RMSIR 09 is kindly bought to you by the following supporters