Winners in their respective classes included Phuket Yacht Club’s Niels Degenkolw’s X-Yacht dominating IRC 2 with five first place finishes, three seconds and one third. A strong class of five very competitive yachts with nine races over four days.
The Multihull class were all Phuket boats including three Stealth’s on the water racing and Glywn and Karen Rowland’s Twister2 parked in Bass Harbour anchorage off Kuah Town.
The crew of Twister2, a retired husband and wife team, crewed on Boreas a Stealth (formerly Java, and Saffron). Joining them were WOW, another Stealth that completed a circumnavigation the year before last, and Haruki, yet another Stealth with Zam Bevan the manager of Asia Catamarans aboard (builders of the Stealth’s in Phuket).
Others in the class were Twin Sharks, a Mark Pescott Firefly one design also built in Phuket and Trident, a Corsair 28 built in Vietnam that lives in Phuket all representing Phuket Yacht Club.
WIND CHOP
Racing was brisk with excellent wind in both speed and direction and consistent in every way, which typically tended to build throughout the day. The first race day was around the buoys in Bass Harbour with windward leewards.
As usual Simon James’ PRO pushed for three races in most divisions on the first day to get the numbers up encase following days became light. That turned out to not be the case, with the following days generally windier than the first.
Day 2 saw the exposed eastern island course being used where a developed wind chop on a low swell made for bumpy, wet and windy sailing. Day 3 was again around the buoys inshore with longer legs towards the southern islands.
Day 4 was an around the islands course. All downwind on the east coast and all windward back in Bass Harbour in very windy conditions up to the high 20 knots. One casualty was the TP52 Vayu blowing their spinnaker trying to catch the diminutive Firefly cat Twin Sharks driven by John Newnham and his international crew, who are all Phuket-based.
Unfortunately one of the Stealth’s Boreas capsized in a gust throwing her crew every which way. A change down to a smaller spinnaker and a full main was not enough sail shed for the conditions reaching towards a southern island gate. Thankfully only one casualty with a broken collarbone who was taken to Langkawi Hospital, and back ready to join the post-race celebrations in no time.
A combination of regatta safety services, navy crew on the yacht Uranus who withdrew from the race to assist, and the Malaysian water police and their trusty motorboat managed to heave the stricken cat back upright.
Zam Bevan also lent his expertise supervising the process to ensure Boreas was soon back at the Royal Langkawi Marina a bit worse for wear but with mast intact and not far from being ready for the sail back home to Phuket. A video detailing the Boreas’ salvage can be viewed here.
The final day was an easy inshore course in Bass Harbour so as to leave plenty of energy for the evening’s prize giving and party.
The event was a big success with the overall 35 entries this year a considerable improvement on last year tally by 10. Dates have not been set yet for the 2026 regatta but will be announced in due course.