B00B00 310 Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 I was going to do a report on the regatta but just havent had time, I saw Kips report on the SA front page which seemed to sum it all up very nicely. I was doing Mainsheet on the TP52 Freefire, i can tell you it was a SCREAMING kite run when that squall hit- 35kts with the MH A3 on! Cameron Thorpe was there too doing bow on the X55 Xena. See attached shot of Xena with someone in the piss. Its a great event (AWESOME partys), plenty of boats available for charter if anyone is keen next year. See event video here- samui delivers Sailing in 30 degree celcius weather, 5 days racing off beautiful Samui Island saw dramas, breakages, millpond conditions and some curious protests/incidents at the final stop of the Asian Grand Prix, a series of 9 regattas across the region held annually. 31 boats raced, with most attention on the 50s+Jelik/Boracay in racing, and one of the region's largest 40+ footer IRC1 division in some time, including the custom boats Mandrake (Mills 40), Won Ma Rang (IRCed GP42), Zanzibar (IRCed 42) up against the production boats; favoured Bene 44.7 Ichiban of Matt Allen, Jing Jing J130, Katsu Swan 42 and 2 Archambault 40s from Hong Kong. Asia is a nice home for earlier generation TP52s, which for several years have been prodding the boats up, and use them for both inshore and offshore racing. Starting with the first two days in light typical SE Asian 6-10 knots, wide wind shifts plus a relentless current, in the racing class Team Premier of Dubai moved into an early lead breaking the usual leading 2010 duo of Neil Pryde's Hifi and Ray Roberts' Evolution Sails. In IRC 1, after finishing day 1 with a 1 and 2, Ichiban suffered a port starboard incident with Won Ma Rang right at the start. Ichiban retired with damage, a busted kite pole and applied for redress, while they waited for replacement parts, missing 2 days and 4 races. After an initial ruling and a subsequent protest of the ruling clarification ), the International Jury ruled that Ichiban must complete at least 50% of the races in the regatta, and points would be averaged for the 4 races missed then discard applied to the complete set of 10 results. This was the cause of a lot of discussion, with some talk at one of Samui's many beer bars suggesting they should race without spinnaker (pointless, and impossible to score having already sailed 2 races with kite), that they should have fixed the boat faster (unlikely) or that they should have carried a spare kite pole (err, maybe, but who does that?). In the end, Tuesday's only race in the very light stuff before dying out completely saw HiFi, a Welbourne 52 which seems optimised to perform strongly in sub 10, taking the win in racing. With Ichiban away, Sell Side Dream the Archambault 40 from HK took the win ahead of Elektra, her Archie sister ship in IRC 1. Wednesday's racing had 2 windward leewards followed by a longer island course. Samui is an island about 30NM off the Thailand coast, and can receive some pretty big rain squalls, many of which had been hitting the parties in the early evening. Usually these tropical monsoon rain push a cold strong front ahead of them which brings breeze and lasting just a few minutes, then a mill pond and loads of rain. Today's racing saw the rain descend earlier in the day and gusting breeze for a lot longer, hitting most of the boats racing as they came downwind, with peak winds recorded at 39 knots and zero visibility. Numerous boats tore sails while Surf Patrol, the sole sportsboat here tore off their rudder, leaving a long trip back to Chaweng under tow. With many boats laid on their side, Sam Chan's (relatively) new TP52 Freefire tore down the course at an average of 23 knots over 15 minutes and a peak speed of 28 knots, affiable Sam claiming afterwards that his arms were about a foot longer, and his legs a foot shorter at the end, given that he sails with a tiller and extension taller than him. Elektra and Mandrake had been putting on a hard charge during the races when Ichiban were shorebound, and together with the importance of results in the last few races applying to the redress, this was sure to raise tensions once Ichiban returned after the lay day on Friday for the final 2 days for IRC 1. In Racing, Hifi strung together a couple of wins and a second to take the lead, with Freefire and Evolution locked for 3rd, behind Premier. IRC 1 saw further protests at the start and up the course, with Ichiban needing to keep their scoresheet clean as each race was effectively counting twice. 2 wins and a 5 on day 4 initially appeared to keep them ahead, however a protest decision to give Ichiban a 50% penalty (left, for the first time in many years, a last day where someone other than Matt Allen might take the win. In the lighter conditions off Samui, a huge premium is placed on understanding the current and way in which new breeze tends to fill in (or fade). On the last day and during the week, a number of leading boats including Premier had to watch in pain, as the new boats carried breeze down with them or watched the breeze fill in on the opposite side of the course. Always frustrating to watch, and very challenging to read. The last day saw Sam Chan and his Freefire crew (including anarchist BooBoo) almost match racing Evolution Racing, finally taking the all important 2nd in race 10 and thus 3rd overall in the regatta. Team Premier had a few unlucky moments, and after winning in Top of the Gulf (http://www.topofthegulfregatta.com) in early May almost had Hifi, but in the end Neil Pryde fought back, won the last day and the overall regatta. In IRC 1, as the result of the protest, Ichiban just weren't able to climb back on the last day, and had to settle for 2nd overall, with Elektra (picured here) taking the win, and the Mills 40 Mandrake in 3rd. For IRC buffs looking at these results using new 2011-2012 IRC ratings, some talk has focused on the seeming dominance of production boats (1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th) vs the custom boats, but for many the jury is still out, given the mostly light conditions and relatively newer custom boats with, in some cases, crews still coming to grips with them. Final results here. Captain Marty is one of the leading sources for sailng news in Asia, and also manages the Asian Grand Prix circuit, comprising the best 6 of 9 events across the region http://www.asianyachting.com. This year, despite only getting 4th in Samui, Ray Roberts and Evolution Racing AUS 8898 had done enough with 4 wins to take out the Skipper of the Year, donning the traditional Armani Blue Blazer, and taking home the new Evolution Sails Trophy, which apparently is both termite and white ant proof (an important issue for SE Asia). More news on this probably will make its way to SA soon enough. All in all a great regatta, and with almost all skippers promising to return in 2012 plus the additions of the Ker 40s, Ker 32, perhaps a Soto or 2, more sportsboats including 4 new Thai one design Shaw 650s, and perhaps even a Seacart 26 in future, Samui Regatta promises to be a great week away from the crap of officework. For Aussies and Kiwis just starting to brace down for the winter of cold southerlies and shorter winter days, Samui is a mere 10 hours flight away, and with so many antipodean sailors there now, the usual sheep shagger/convict banter means no one feels away from home, except the beer is free, the beach is perfect and the women are sometimes, er, not. - Anarchist Kipsan. Link to post Share on other sites
B00B00 310 Posted June 10, 2011 Author Share Posted June 10, 2011 This is us during the china coast regatta which was our first one in the new boat. Its an awesome boat, out of the mean machine mould. Link to post Share on other sites
Cameron 74 Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Thanks for your choice of pic's above Josh ! (Pity I don't have a pic of you guys flogging a 3Di jib for half a beat) But it does prove one thing... F$% ups on the bow are normally due to the strings that lead to F@$% wits further back in the boat ! (Sorry Iris your not really a F#$% wit.... but you learnt a big lesson in respecting the power of a big boat!) The crew were somewhat surprised to see their bowman for the first time... Biggest bowman in Koh Samui (and second biggest Kiwi...aye Josh!) Lucky size isn't a big issue on a 16 ton 55 footer. I also managed to sneek back for a drive on the Islands course, after doing pretty well on behind the wheel (If I do say so myself) hopefully next time I'll be further back in the boat! Not having really done bow for over 10 years (bar the odd two handed race) I was quite pleased not to make any stuff up that cost us time. The Person Overboard was our only real issue but luckily she managed to hang on the the sheet and we recovered her in seconds (the photographer was lucky to be so fast and in the right spot to capture it all !) Xena normally races in Premier cruising and this was her first time in the racing division. We lacked power in the light but were the fastest upwind in over 12knots. The Owners enjoyed it and are now talking of getting a dedicated race boat !!! Link to post Share on other sites
Cameron 74 Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 But I do have pic's of Josh "owning" his scooter... ...and the inevitable blow out ! Link to post Share on other sites
Cameron 74 Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 And finally... Success in the search for the worlds best beach chair ! Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 great to catch up with you Booboo; your skipper on Freefire is a great guy drunk and sober :_) Should be a good regatta in 2012 Link to post Share on other sites
B00B00 310 Posted June 14, 2011 Author Share Posted June 14, 2011 Yes Kip great to catch up. Sammy Chan is a real beauty, great fun on and off the water and probably one of the few owners who gets on the piss with the crew! Looking forward to 2012, Cam and I found some glamor spots on our numerous scooter tours so now we know where to go. Bring it on! Link to post Share on other sites
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