The Third SEA Property International Phuket Multihull Championship

The Third
SEA Property International
Phuket Multihull Championship
July 16 - 18 2010

AY Pre-Regatta Report

'Multihull Only' event unique for the Asian region...
By AsianYachting Event Media

July 15th: After a couple of years flying below the radar, the 3rd SEA Property Multihull Championship organised by the Ao Chalong Yacht Club kicks off tomorrow and this 'Multihull Only' event has grown in stature to become the largest ocean racing multihull event in South East Asian waters. Presently there is a big revival of interest globally, towards multihull racing, especially after the 33rd America's Cup was contested on 120ft multihull's and Alain Thébault's l’Hydroptère crashed though the 50 knot barrier earlier this year. Event organisers have decided to take the opportunity to showcase what local boat manufacturers have on offer in Asian waters and at the same time attract some International media attention.

The entire SE Asian archipelago falls within the tropical cruising belt and the year round sailing season suits modern day multihull sailing enthusiasts down to the tee. Over the last couple of years there has been an explosion of catamaran and trimaran manufacturers in the region. The majority of the 19 boat fleet are either Latitude 8 Firefly's, a variety of Vietnam built Corsair Marine folding trimarans plus a couple of Andaman Cabriolet's. They are all competing like mad, both on and off the water for boat sales, so overall performance at the regatta is everything!

Last year, Mark Pescott skippering Voodoo Child took the overall honours in the six strong one-design Firefly 850 Sport class in front of Peter Dyer's SEA and Roger Kingdon's ever illusive Moto Inzi slotted into third place. Mark is the designer of the nifty Firefly 850 catamaran and has grown the class by spending time introducing the boat to new owners. He has since handed over the reigns to Hans Rahmann and together they have gone onto greater heights by winning 2009 Six Senses Phuket Raceweek and Thailand's prestigious King's Cup last December. They will no doubt start out as favourite's, but the others have regrouped and come out in force with all but one of the nine boat class expected to compete and given the right conditions they are all certainly up to the task.

In the Multihull - Performance class last year, Henry Kaye and Fergus Wilmer's Seacart 30 Thor showed the opposition a clear pair of heels to win four out of five races and claim another comfortable victory. Second place went to HotelTravel.com's Corsair 28R Shanghai Baby and third to Mark Horwood's Pescott 37 Charro, which clearly shows the diverse range of designs they are catering for in this class. This victory was short lived as Grenville Fordham launched the Andaman Cabriolet which immediately opened up a battle royal between Henry Kaye's Sea Cart 30 Thor and Fordham's newly launched Andaman Cabriolet Da Vinci Niña for the top gun status. Winning the starts, showing a good turn of speed and being in front of the Corsairs won Da Vinci Niña six out of eight races and the Multihull Title at Six Senses Phuket Raceweek, on her first aggressive outing. This battle continued on throughout the year and they have just launched a new Andaman Cabriolet Da Vinci to swell the ranks even further. Henry Kaye's fully tricked up, all carbon Seacart 30 Thor is sailing off about 0.73 and has to give the more traditional Andaman Cabriolet 28% or approx 25 mins every hour the race lasts. As there was lots of reaching last year Grenville's Da Vinci Niña easily beat Henry's Thor, so he has asked the race committee for more true windward/leeward courses this time around. However they won't have it all their own way as there is five Corsair trimarans and four other catamarans in the eleven strong class to contend with.

This event is sponsored by SEA Property plus organised and hosted by the Ao Chalong Yacht Club and comprises 3 days of racing with 4 party evenings. Just what sailors have become accustomed to at Asian regatta's. Registration is tonight Thursday evening and the race briefing is on Friday at 9am at the ACYC prior to the first scheduled warning signal at 11am. This is followed by a program of five races - Friday (2), Saturday (2) and Sunday (1) with evening parties at the relatively new AC Yacht Club premises overlooking Ao Chalong bay.

The weather forecast is for squally SW monsoon conditions being drawn across the peninsula towards Typhoon CONSON, which is presently stirring up the South China Sea, so we can expect some excitement over the next few days.

This is a perfect feeder event for the action packed Six Senses Phuket Raceweek (July 21 to 25) to be contested on the very same waters, next week.

Sponsored by Sea Bees, Corsair Marine, Derani Yachts, Andaman Cabriolet, Latitude 8. Media Partner IMAGE Asia with Elite Wine promising some special prizes.

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