Sailor’s Regatta 2024: a great success
Photography by Scott Murray
The seventh annual Phuket Yacht Club Sailor’s Regatta was a great success with competitors enjoying good times both on and off the water. The event took place from Friday March 29th – Sunday March 31st, as thirteen boats competed in this regatta, split between multi and monohull classes.
PRO Matt McGrath ran one course on the final day, course nine: from the start, sailors left a windward yellow triangle to starboard, sailed around Koh Lon, leaving it to starboard, then left the yellow triangle mark near the mosque to starboard before passing though the finish line, which was the same as the start line as sailors kept the red mark to port and start boat to starboard.
Four classes in total were awarded honours in this regatta with a different boat winning every class.
John Newnham’s Twin Sharks earned line honours in every race as it went on to sweep the multihull racing class series, winning every race. George Eddings’ fellow Firefly Blue Noze placed second in every race in this class and Andrew McDermott’s trimaran Trident was third in every race, using the TCF Handicap System.
Multihull cruising, meanwhile, saw Blue Noze and Twin Sharks flip the top two spots with Trident again placing third. Rob Azzopardi’s North Star beat out Rick Fielding’s Mojo for fourth in the five-boat class — the competition within the competition for the bigger cats — with the scoring based on the ECHO Handicap System.
Niels Degenkolw’s X-Ton Phoenix won the monohull racing class as it has done so many times in the past. In the monohull racing class, Phoenix is followed closely by Georgi Pimkin’s Som Tam Pu (one point behind), with Kirill Stanshevskly’s Lastochka in third place. Kirill also owns Som Tam Pu, so he really had two spots on the podium on the final day.
Torben Kristensen’s Kinnock did not compete on the final day as Torben fell ill, but the boat hung on to claim fourth overall. K. Sand’s Beaver, D Izatt’s Wolf and Mike Downard’s Weasel, finished fifth through seventh in that order.
The standings in monohull PHS saw Som Tam Pu take home the top prize followed by Phoenix and Lastochka. Madam and Kinnock were fourth and fifth respectively followed by Mike Downard’s three boats from Sail in Asia; Beaver, Wolf and Weasel.
The 15-ton Madam, a 70-ft sloop, designed, built and shipped from the UK, drew oohs and aahs throughout the regatta. Helmed by Paul “Flatty” Baker, it had PYC Commodore Peter Dyer & Treasurer Chris Creagh on board as crew for the final day.
There were no significant injuries to crew or their boats during the event, which was celebrated with an awards ceremony, MC’ed by Matt McGrath, at the Phuket Yacht Club on the final evening.
And a big shout to Tim Willis for supplying the camera boat as well as Khun Jib and all her crew at the Phuket Yacht Club for keeping the sailors well-fed and refreshed.
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