The racing conditions were fabulous throughut, with strong winds and mostly sunny skies for every race set against great scenery, with great parties shoreside every night at the Phuket Yacht Club.
Dan Fidock’s Extreme 40 Parabellum whizzed through the course all week taking line honours in every race and winning seven out of nine races to capture the Multihull Racing class.
John Newnham’s Twin Sharks won the other two races and finished four points back in second spot in the overall standings. George Eddings’ Blue Nose finished third with Glywn Rowlands’ Twister 2, the Stealth from Asia Catamarans, in fourth and Neil Ayre’s Ballerina in fifth.
Ayre’s and his son George, plus their other two crew, flew in from Manchester, UK to sail in the event hiring Peter Taylor’s Ballerina to compete with two other Fireflys (Mark Pescott design, Mark Horwood build) Twin Sharks and Blue Nose. All three Fireflys were built in Phuket as were Twister 2 and Zephyrus by Asia Catamarans.
Monohull Racing saw Craig Nicholls and James Bury’s team on Alright won all eight races staged in this class over Nils Degenkolw’s Phoenix, but the margins were very close in many races. The two teams decided not to race on the final day as the outcome was a foregone conclusion.
Andy McDermott’s Corsair Trident won four of the six races staged in the Cruising Multihull division to win that class. James Baxter’s Zephyrus won race five and claimed second overall. David MacInnis’ Vancouver, a Lagoon 450F, sailed down from Yacht Haven Marina in northern Phuket to compete in the event, and finished third but was able to win the final race.
Marquee sailing
After the racing was done, competitors gathered at the Phuket Yacht Club for a buffet dinner and prize-giving event hosted by Peter Dyer, Commodore of the Phuket Yacht Club. Charles Robinson of the Yacht Sales Co was on hand to officially hand over the trophies.
Since its inception, this regatta has been renowned for having family members compete together and this year was no different. Glywn and Karen Rowlands had their daughter Sian sailing on Twister 2. As mentioned, Neil Ayre and his son George were sailing on Ballerina, while Ket Manglaseranee and his daughter Kwang sailed on Trident. Kwang, by the way, is an accomplished Muay Thai fighter, winning a series of fights recently at Bangla Stadium.
The Cholamark Boat company kindly provided their flagship RIB as the photography/safety boat for the regatta. This 11-meter rib is capable of going 50 knots and is featured in the new Hollywood blockbuster Jurassic World: Rebirth as the escape boat. Ironically, the film was released in Thailand on the opening day of the regatta, July 2 – quite a coincidence.
A huge shoutout must go to Phuket Yacht Club Commodore Peter Dyer for all the hard work he put into making the event happen. Many Phuket Yacht Club committee members were either overseas, sick or unavailable due to work commitments, but Peter did an amazing job of making it work for which all regatta participants were very grateful.
And Simon James, aka the Wind Whisperer did an outstanding job as race officer, sending competitors out on a different set of courses each day. As one competitor said, when it comes to finding wind Simon can “make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”
This regatta is now the marquee sailing event of the summer season. Formerly called the Multihull Solutions Regatta it used to be a three-day event, that only featured multihulls. It acted as a feeder for Phuket Raceweek as competitors from abroad could fit in two regattas in ten days. Now with its main sponsor being the Yacht Sales Co (associated with Multihull Solutions), it is the key event of the Phuket summer racing season for both monohulls and multihulls, with five full days of racing.