9th Sawadee.com Regatta 2010, Samui
Final 2009-10 AYGP Championship Event

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AYGP Skippers Going for broke at Koh Samui...
May 30th: After winning the Top of the Gulf Regatta, Ray Roberts has an unbeatable points lead in the AYGP Skipper of the Year award. Neil Pryde elected not to race at the TOTGR, leaving the door open for Roberts to run away with the coveted prize. However all is not lost as Evolution Racing has only a one point lead over Hi Fi in the Yacht of the Year award, leaving it open for the taking at the season ending Sawadee.com Regatta Samui starting this week.

However they won't have it all to themselves as Frank Pong's 76ft Jelik II (Boracay) and the Nick Burns/Fred Kinmonth co-owned Mills 51 EFG Mandrake have ventured all the way from Hong Kong to take on the dueling duo at the top of the leaderboard. They can't be taken lightly as between them they have also won many events in the past and in 2006-07 Frank Pong's Jelik clinched AYGP victory from Neil Pryde as it came down to the last race at the final event. Although not in the running for the AYGP this year there is still the "Bragging Rights" for overall Racing Class victory at Koh Samui to be considered.

As this is the final AYGP event each sailing season this is where the Champion Skipper and Yacht of the Year winners will don the tailored Armani - Koh Samui Blue Blazer and receive the Perpetual AY Cup traditionally filled with chilled sponsors champagne at the magnificent prize giving party held on the spacious lawn (Weather permitting) in front of the spectacular Centara Grand Beach Resort on Chewang Beach on the 5th June. I hope you can join us there?

The IRC Class yachts range from 30 to 45 feet in length and some serious contenders for the title are amongst the entries. Ben Copley's Club Swan NY 42OD Katsu brings a bit of pedigree with them that should covert to success if the crew work is up to scratch. Since arriving in Asia David Ross Kerr 32 Kukukerchu has won everything before them and are boosted by having some of Adam Minoprio's ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing crew onboard. The biggest boat in this class is Robert van Paridon's Beneteau 44.7 Tantrum who would like to step into their sistership, Ichi Ban shoes that has won here for the last two years on the trot. Talk about a last minute entry, the Royal Thai Navy have entered identical Farr MRX Naval Academy 1 & 2 respectively skippered by Lt Weerasit Puangnak and NC Boonyarit Sukmuang. Although getting a little long in the tooth, these boats have consistently picked up numerous King's Cup and TOTGR titles over the years and should not be taken lightly. Brad Kirk's Farr 42 Dynamite used to be very well known in Australia, as back in its heyday the yacht clean sweeped the major regatta scene before Brad bought it to Thailand a few years ago.

This picturesque tropical playground is very popular with the big Premier Cruiser boat owners who like nothing better than some hard racing and some high class entertaining in the comfort of their own boat - Gimbaled blenders at the ready? Go!... Dr Ian Nicholson's Dubois 80 Intrigue is the biggest boat in the fleet and if the wind is up the others better watch out. Down from Hong Kong Peter Churchhouse's Warwick 64 Moonblue 2 knows the waters well and has won here before. Jon Wardill's well traveled Cassidy 55 Australian Maid are making their second appearance here and after clinching victory in the Rolex China Sea Race recently, they hope to add another trophy to their already bulging cabinet. Down from Ocean Marina Gary Baguley's Holman & Pye 52 El Coyote expect to finish a couple places higher than last year and be in the running by the end of the regatta. Pana Trungkabunchar's all Thai crew on the X512 Lawana are the local favourite and will bring the house down at the prize giving if they manage to triumph this year.

The Bareboat/Cruising Class has an interesting mix of entries. Keeping with tradition and as a tribute to the late Andrew Short, his family and friends from the CYCA in Sydney, Australia, that crewed for him and won this class over the last 2 years are back in contention with the renamed Oceanis 461 Andrew Short - Constanza, skippered by his ole mate Scott Finisten. Their aim is to rekindle the spirit of 'Shorty' on this auspicious occasion. Nigel Hopkins Oyster Lightwave 48 Celere will be taking on a gaggle of Sunsail charter boats. Singaporean yachting stalwart Bob Ashman makes an appearance on the Sunsail 43 Danaya and usually excels in mixed company. The Singapore Management University (SMU) have been donated a Sunsail 39 Bussakorn, (Courtesy of Sunsail Thailand) which is skippered by Shaun Toh. The young yet experienced crew, will provide a formidable challenge to other competitors. The other Sunsail 43 CEO 1 (Milliebella) goes to Brian Pozzey who hopes to put his stamp on the trophy. This year John Stall will be in charge of the Atkins 34 Lanta Concept which gives the Samui youth sailors a crewing experience and something to remember for the rest of their lives.

Despite the ever increasing Multihull fleet in the Kingdom only four are making an appearance in Koh Samui. Kirati Assakul's (Nim) Crowther 42 Sonic is down from Ocean Marina and will be taking on two locally made bi-plane rigged catamarans and another that looks more like a pepped up Tornado cat. Kunta (Samui Ocean Sports} Radical Bay Team Zazen is one of the original bi-plane rigged boats that was built on Koh Samui. Mick Grover's Yachting Siam 750 Mia Noi was launched a couple weeks ago on the neighboring mainland and has been undergoing sea trials to get ready for the big event. Kim Thomas intends to take them all to the cleaners with his slightly bigger Tornado look alike Storm and if anyone can kick up a storm it is Kim.

Behind the scenes hotels are being made ready, vast quantities of beer and wine have been shipped in and both the on and off the water teams are putting in place the finishing touches to what promises to be another fantastic event. Upon arrival today the media were greeted with bright sunshine, a nice 8-10 knot breeze and the famous hospitality that makes Koh Samui one of the world's favourite holiday destinations.

More Sawadee.com Regatta news, full results, photos and videos at: http://www.samuiregatta.com

Check out the AY Photo Gallery plus the gala prize presentation at: http://asianyachting.com/photos/photo.htm?KSR10
Goto AY Race Report 4 & Summary at: http://asianyachting.com/news/Samui10/5.htm
AY Race Report 4 at: http://asianyachting.com/news/Samui10/4.htm
AY Race Report 3 at: http://asianyachting.com/news/Samui10/3.htm
AY Race Report 2 at: http://asianyachting.com/news/Samui10/2.htm
AY Race Report 1 at: http://asianyachting.com/news/Samui10/1.htm

About AY MultiMedia
Readers may of noticed that AY is going MultiMedia by linking all our individual networking sites together to provide our faithful subscribers and browsers with a great opportunity to view their favourite regatta videos & photos, catch up with the latest AY News, make comments and post their own material, all the while watching Live LVT action online on the three AYTV channels presently on offer.

The RSS Feed is up and running plus the latest to join the unique group that make up AY MultiMedia is flickr AsianYachting - Capt Marty and Picasa - Capt Marty's Gallery. Presently on flickr there are some image sets dating back to the 2007 Phuket King's Cup and Singapore stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race. On Picasa, photo galleries of the 2006-07 and 2007-08 AYGP when respectively Frank Pong and Ray Roberts were victorious. We are endeavouring to post regatta images more regularly in the future. Already we have quite a large AY Library with a variety of regatta and other yachting related Photo Galleries online. Now if I could only find a way to put all these on my flicker account?

About the 2009-10 AYGP
Points are awarded each sailing season based on the racing class Skippers and Yachts performance over Ten x 5-Star Yachting Events that make up the AY Grand Prix Championship (Malaysia 2, Hong Kong 2, Thailand 4 plus Singapore and the Philippines each with 1 a piece). This system fairly grades the competing Boatowners and Skippers ability to successfully run a full-on racing campaign through Asian waters over the 2009 - 10 Season.

Each year the events on the annual AsianYachting Grand Prix Championships come under scrutiny, as this is the best way to determine the top Skipper and Racing Yacht of the Year in Asian waters. This season the top three Racing Class results at 10 major Asian Events were scored as a series. Therefore selecting the events each year must reflect the high standards expected by the Racing Class boat owners and a fair turnout of top level Racing Teams to compete at the event. The Biennial HK to Vietnam Race was dropped in favour of the Six Senses Phuket Raceweek which kicked off the 2009-10 Season on the 22nd - 26th July. The Rolex China Sea Race returned in April and became the tenth event on the program. All other events on the annual Asian sailing calendar remained the same as last season. We also like to keep our readers up to speed, by generating monthly AYGP Newsletters with all the finer points on the upcoming events, expert analysis, race results plus links to the progressive pointscore site.

AYGP Historical data - previous winners
The AYGP first came together during the 2002-03 season when Peter Ahern and YO! became the inaugural Asian champion skipper and yacht of the year. He then followed it up during the 2003-04 season and Sam Chan's Freefire took out the Yacht of the year with higher points but as he shared the skippers role with his sailing master did not score enough points to become the Skipper of the year. Neil Pryde completed the double during the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons with Hi-Fidelity and Hi-Fi Team Pryde respectively. In 2006-07 Frank Pong's Jelik clinched victory as it came down to the last race at the final event at Koh Samui. Ray Roberts DK46 Quantum Racing became the winner of the sixth running over the 2007-08 season after coming close on several occasions. After serious modifications last season Neil Pryde and Hi Fi with a record 20 points have dominated the 2008-09 year to capture the title with two events to run.

Each season there are ten selected 5-star AY Grand Prix racing class events, so its anybodies guess who will don the tailored Armani Koh Samui Blue Blazer and receive the Perpetual AY Cup traditionally filled with chilled champagne at the magnificent prize giving party on the lawns of the spectacular Centara Grand Beach Resort at the Koh Samui Regatta in June 2010.