27th Phuket Kings Cup Regatta closed with fair weather

USPA NEWS - After several days of grey skies and dark grey seas the 27th King´s Cup Regatta finished the last day with sunshine and a partly blue sky. From 29 November to 6 December the annual regatta was held in Phuket, Thailand.

During the whole week, the regatta experienced scattered showers, unpleasant drizzle and heavy overcast skies and often challenging wind conditions which made sailing rather tricky at times. But on the last day, the participants enjoyed the overall improved weather conditions.

Divided into 14 different classes, a record number of 105 crafts were registered. The dinghy class, added a few years ago, sailed separately but was still an integral part of the regatta. The dinghy class was divided into two fleets of which one was the Optimist Class, subdivided into boys and girls born after 1998 and the Laser Class, which comprised a one-design class of sailboat, raced by mixed genders and ages.

The dinghy class is one of the most important series for Thailand to encourage young sailors to enhance and develop sailing skills. Thailand´s youth has performed extremely well in the former class, having won numerous regional and world championships in the past.

Windsurfing once more attracted a large number of international competitors as a competitive class, with Thai windsurfers performing stronger in this class than their international rivals, finishing ahead of them.

After seven years in the Mediterranean Sea, gaff-rigged schooner Sunshine was back for the regatta and won all five races in the Classic Class. For these wonderful classic boats, the results don´t really matter. They are a nice addition to the otherwise highly competitive other participating classes.

Australian teams were very strong this year. With 15 teams they won four races out of 14 scheduled classes, with Ray Roberts collecting his fifth win on One Sail Racing in the rather forcefully contested IRC Zero Class. The Multihull Racing was won by Alan Carwadine on his Asian Catamarans Hurricane, Chris Mitchell won the Cruising Class with Lady Bubbly and David Boekemann won the Bareboat-Charters on Venture.

The Australians were followed by Japanese crews who won three classes of the 14 scheduled classes. Yasuo Nanamori on Karasu, IRC2 Class, Makiko Matsuishi on IPPAI in the Sports Boat Class and Norikazu Arai in the Multihull Cruising Class on Minnie. Canadian Jim Ellis appeared as winner of the Modern Classic on his boat Remington. As every year, His Majesty´s Personal Representative M.L. Admiral Usni Pramoj, presented the prizes to the winners of all the 14 classes, as well as the Wind-Surfing Classes and the Dinghi Series on the last day.

The closing party was held at Kata Beach Resort, part of the Kata Group, who hosted most of the regatta parties. Paul Ewing an artist from Scotland and his band took care of the entertainment. Sponsors of the 2013 Phuket King's Cup Regatta included Kata Group Resorts Thailand, PTT Global Chemical, Land Rover, Jaguar, Mont Clair, Singha Corporation, Sansiri PLC, Haadthip PLC, TAT, and Sunsail. Media Partners included Phuket Gazette, Phuket Magazine, Sail-World.com, SEA Yachting and YachtStyle Asia.