Phuket King’s Cup regatta starts today
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The Phuket King’s Cup Regatta is Asia’s biggest and most popularregatta. Inaugurated in 1987 to celebrate the 60th birthday of HisMajesty the King of Thailand, the event has been held every year sinceduring the first week of December.
With the Royal Patronage of His Majesty the King, the Regatta isorganised by the Phuket King’s Cup Regatta Organizing Committee underthe auspices of the Royal Varuna Yacht Club, in conjunction with theYacht Racing Association of Thailand, the Royal Thai Navy and theProvince of Phuket.
King’s Cup racing machines rev up as record fleet hits Phuket It is less than two days before the start gun fires in Thailand’s 23rdPhuket King’s Cup and many of the crews are already talking up regattachallenges. Leading the record international fleet of 110 boats will be the 11Racing Division yachts ranging in size from Kevin Whitcraft’s GP42 upto Frank Pong’s 76-foot Jelik II. In the middle though is a group of50-foot yachts that are fast, competitive racing machines, ready to dobattle.Top of the list at the start of this year’s event is the Ray Robertsteam. Winners of last year’s King’s Cup Racing Division with the DK46Quantum Racing, Roberts, is back again, this time with his TP52,Evolution Racing.
After using last week’s Raja Muda Selangor Regatta “as a training run”to fine-tune the boat and assess their competition for the King’s Cup,and after finishing second to Neil Pryde’s Hi-Fi in this regatta,Roberts has decided some small tweaking of his yacht’s sail wardrobe isnecessary before the first race on Monday. “From that regatta we have decided to get a new spinnaker. Half theracing in the King’s Cup is like a coastal course and often you findyou are in very tight reaching conditions. We are getting a specialistsail made for those tight reaching conditions to try and get us betweenthe transition when you get wind shift, a tight angle to the mark oraround an island. We saw that we needed that sail in the Raja Muda.”Roberts says the sail will be built at his Evolution Sails loft.He will also add another important element to his alreadywell-performing yacht and crew lead by Steve McConaghy with theinclusion of New Zealand Olympian and Finn class sailor, Dan Slater.
With an eye on the competition, Roberts is expecting to encounter somegood, close racing. “We have now got five 50 footers racing on theAsian circuit so that means the racing is extremely good across thefive boats. They are all very good boats and are all sailed by verygood, competent crew. You have got to get it right all the time. If youmake any small mistake then somebody jumps in and knocks you out of aplace.”Other entrants in the Racing Division are Frank Pong’s Jelik II (RP76),Markus Fiala’s Tazo Too (Farr 11s), Geoff Hill’s Strewth (TP52), RussPaker’s Ffreefire (TP52), Bill Bremner and Andy Cocks’s Foxy Lady IVTP52), Nick Burns’s EFG Bank Mandrake (Mills 51), Regatta PresidentKevin Whitcraft’s AA (GP42), Audrey Arbuzov’s PH Plus (Elliott 46) andChirs Meads’s Full Metal Jacket (Corby 43 custom).
Neil Pryde fully intends keeping Roberts out of first place this yearwhen the numbers get counted at the end of the prestigious King’sCup.”Evolution Racing will be a tough competitor. They are very, verysimilar in speed to us. We learnt that already from the Raja Muda; thedifference in boat speed is negligible. They have to give us a littletime. They actually have to beat us on the water. So they are going tobe tough competitors and they have a very strong crew on that boat.”There has been some recent changes made to Hi-Fi during August andSeptember in preparation for this year’s King’s Cup. The recent RajaMuda was the testing ground for the success of those changes. The bulbwas changed to make the boat stiffer and some weight was taken out ofthe boat hull to counter the changes to the keel.
“The Raja Muda was the first regatta we really sailed with the newconfiguration. We were pretty satisfied with the performance. We learnta little, but the second time (racing) in the Kings Cup we willhopefully capitalise on some of the lessons we have learnt.”Pryde, like Roberts, has stacked the rails with an impressive crew mostof whom have raced with Pryde for quite a while. Those crew include histactician and “right-hand man” Kevin Costin, trimmers Andrew Parkes,Bruce Clarke, Tony Rae and Phil Houghton. “I have a very strong crew,”Roberts said.Costin, an eight time veteran of the King’s Cup recognises that whilethere are a lot of boats to watch, he will be keeping a close eye onEvolution Racing. “They would be the closest after the Raja Muda. WithEvolution Racing, as he has moved from the DK46 to the TP52, we are nowracing him as opposed to watching him. Before we were racing him onhandicap, now are racing him boat on boat. It will be exciting.”
While the tussle between Evolution Racing and Hi-Fi will be exciting,Pryde has not forgotten that this year most of the competition in hisdivision is in similar size boats as opposed to in previous years wherehe found himself racing his big boat with a high handicap againstsmaller boats with low handicaps.”I understand from the entry list there are some pretty good smaller boats in the division this year.” The Phuket King’s Cup, in the opinion of both Roberts and Pryde, isprobably “the most prestigious regatta in Asia in terms of its highprofile, the quality of sailing.” Both also agree it can be a difficultregatta in terms of the wind conditions and currents. Pryde said the regatta is often quite challenging. “You often haveconditions where you start in strong winds and then the wind shuts downduring the race. For handicap racing it makes it difficult for highhandicap boats because, actually it can work for or against you whenthe wind shuts down. Ray has done well in the last couple of yearsbecause he was a low handicap boat (DK46). He was often blowing home inwind, we would be way ahead on the water, but the clock was runningagainst us.” For Roberts it will less of a focus on handicaps and more on racingharder and faster than the rest of the fleet, including Hi-Fi. “We justhave to sail smarter and manage the boat around the course moreeffectively if we are going to beat him at the end of the day.”
The 23rd Phuket King’s Cup is the fourth event in the prestigious2009/10 Asian Yachting Grand Prix Championship which comprises 10events run across Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines andSingapore.There is a practice race tomorrow afternoon with the first scoring racescheduled to start after 0900 hours on Monday 30 November.
For media who will not be at the Phuket Kings Cup event in Phuket, the website Media Centre will be circulating news
Media wishing to cover this event need to register online at www.kingscup.com
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