ACYC Club Sailing
Race Report 8 - Sunday June 20
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Silk Purse on the way home after demasting
on her 'new' maiden voyage with her
long-awaited 'new' mast! |
And not only have the games begun, they go on! The pressure (and by this we don't mean barometric and wind mixed with rain, dear ACYC sailing fans) in Race 8 in the
Andaman Cabriolet Series sponsored by
ACYC to continue the pursuit of the liquid gold, to embrace the 'who's who and be seen' and more debate back ashore over racing rules dominated the Sunday journey around the buoys and markers in Chalong Bay. Whew!
This penultimate race of the series saw 10 boats out on the bay with two new Cats on the prowl, a new monohull joining in and the release of another monohull from semi-retirement after almost a year and a half. Were Silk Purse and Pagatoon there with claws out to contest victory? Fear not! And the monohulls, Jenzminc and The Four Winds in Racing and Cruising respectively, testing Neptune's waters?
The 12:00 warning signal (delayed to let a rain squall pass through?) flagged by Race Officer Chandran encouraged the fleet to hover in positions around the favoured longtail end with Minx getting the honour of crossing first followed by a line of pretty maids all in a row of multihulls: Charro, Pagatoon, Mamba, Niña, Mathong and Silk Purse. Silk Purse, in her maiden voyage after just having received a new mast, appeared out of the rain from the direction of Ao Yon to find Mathong in full flight charging to the line on starboard. Passing behind Mathong, Silk Purse albeit last across the start took flight and was soon looking good in the midst of the fleet. Alas, just as she was about to commence the final circuit around the starboard outer channel marker down towards the Ban Nit Safe Water Mark, her mast folded and fell over board. A dubious omen? A repeat of karma? She's now in a race to have a new mast built and stepped before the two upcoming regattas,
The Third SEA Property International Multihull Championship and
Six Senses Phuket Raceweek.
That what actually happens on the course can be more of a topic that provokes post-race chatter amongst the galaxy of sea lawyers at the bar can be more exciting than who won, is a well known rule, and game, of the sport. Call it sportsmanship or better yet, just plain fun! An encounter between two boats who normally sail on different parts of the ocean (never mind that Mamba doesn't race often in ACYC races!) saw Mamba having sailed into a hole trying to protect her position by taking Niña up as she overtook to windward. For Mamba, it was a case of luff 'em and leave 'em. For Niña, it was a situation of "this is not the direction I want to go". Both boats having luffed up too far ended up in irons allowing Niña to claim that the time lost cost her dearly in her wager with Charro. But Charro’s crew considering the race to be in the bag had retired from strategic racing positioning to relax in the shade of the cockpit enjoying their favourite refreshments, the ubiquitous green can whilst looking back at the following challenger. Positioning of crew weight is all important as Charro demonstrated when leaving the shore for the start. Having grounded the boat in the mud prior to the race to facilitate cleaning of her undersides, the first crew aboard attempted to free the boat from the sticky stuff but without success. On arrival a few moments later, a polite request from the gentlemanly skipper of the boat for all crew to move to the bows lifted the rudders up out of the goo allowing the boat to back out gracefully!
With monohulls, the racing fleet saw Simone come back after an absence to win top prize with Minx and Windstar earning the other two podium spots. Jenzminc did the honourable thing by doing a 720 turn having had to take measures to avoid contact with the very solid leeward mark! An honourable measure considering there was no one witnessing to later complain or compliment! This perhaps with dirty undersides earned the newcomer fourth? As for Cruising, something pushed The Four Winds, the sole member of her class, to first, a reward after her long hiatus on the hard.
And on to the value of things. Monty Python couldn't do better in the eternal quest for the grail with four line honours prizes now received and consumed! Once again, the laid back crew of 10 onboard Charro sailed a good race albeit at an angle three sheets to the wind. Enjoying yet another line honours victory, the crew naturally awaited their prize. And what would their benefactor offer this time? A case of beer? A variant thereon? Questions had been raised about what constitutes settlement. What is a case? Is it a quantity or is it volume? Did the previous presentation of 18 oversized cans satisfy the rules? Cautious purchasing by a resourceful co-owner had produced monetary savings. But was he being profligate in contributing an extra litre of precious fluids to the winner? And those savings? Were they achieved at a sacrifice to quality? Did our diligent procurer look at the production date of the brew? A new question up for debate at the bar – does the amber nectar have a shelf life. Research carried out by the intrepid winner shows that the smaller cans are consumed within a couple of months of production. The larger cans failed to impress the taste buds of connoisseurs! With one more race to go, will Charro's skipper choose to forego any further goblets containing the precious amber nectar and instead elect to take another boat out from his stable, perhaps Iruvai which has the Cruising Monohull prize already wrapped up? Stay tuned for more...
| Boat |
Name |
Place |
| Simone |
Roger Harris |
1 |
| Minx |
Kevin Gillow / Mick Kealy |
2 |
| Windstar |
Peter Wood |
3 |
| Boat |
Name |
Place |
| Th Four Winds |
John Fenn |
1 |
| Boat |
Name |
Place |
| Niña |
Bob Mott /
Grenville Fordham |
1 |
| Pagatoon |
Mark Pescott |
2 |
| Charro |
Mark Horwood |
3 |
| Boat |
Name |
Place |
| Mathong |
Bruno Marti |
1 |
Hats off to Chandran for coming out of ACYC retirement and slaving the day on the longtail. Bless a king of the Orient, a deserved several cans of amber were thrown into the boat. (For next time, we'll re-educate him on the time of the warning signal!) Cheers and beers to ACYC for sponsoring the day and to the clubhouse crew for the cold beer, great buffet and their hospitality.
The full results for the day can be viewed here. Overall results for the series and the performance handicap can be viewed at http://acyc.asiaaustraliatech.com
Photos of this race can be viewed here. Click here for the ACYC Photo Gallery.
For more information on racing and the club, visit www.acyc-phuket.com.
See you out on the water!!
Text & photos by Leslie Hand
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