SAILING: Good wind and good weather prevailed on the final day of the Yacht Sales Co Regatta as Dan Fidock’s Fugazi and James Bury’s Alright continued their dominance in their two classes to win the multi-and-monoclasses respectively.
Principal Race Officer Simon James sent both the classes on two windward-leeward races to start the day last Sunday (June 25), followed by a longer race towards the channel marker at Cape Panwa for the multihull fleet and one last windward-leeward for the monohull class.
The Fugazi crew of Joel Berg, Ciaran Corrigan, Scott Duncanson, Dan Fidock and Nick Gutry made an amazing recovery bouncing back from a starboard shroud snapping last Friday (June 23) – which brought the boat’s mast down – to repairing the boat that evening and having it in the water ready to go Saturday morning without missing a beat. With the dropped race format in play, once the minimum requirement of five races was met the ‘Did Not Finish’ (DNF) ended up being discarded anyway and Fugazi ended up winning six of the seven races it did complete for a final total of eight points.
John Newnham’s Twin Sharks and George Eddings’ Blue Noze staged a race within a race as the two Fireflies jockeyed for position all regatta in the eight-boat multihull division, with each boat winning a race in their game of snakes and ladders. In the end, Twin Sharks captured second spot with 14 points with Blue Noze close behind with 18. Both Fireflies were designed by Mark Pescott and Mark Horwood and built in Phuket.
Dirk Weiblen’s No Fear finished in fourth place with 29 points, closely followed by James Haste’s Bonza on 34 points, while Glywn Rowlands’ Twister 2 finished a point back in sixth with 35 points. Roger Diggleman’s Saffron was seventh with 43 points while Andrew McDermott and his all-female crew on Trident rounded out the multihull class with 53 points. Twister 2 and Saffron were both built in Phuket by Asia Catamarans.
In the monohull class, Alright (formerly Emagine) won seven of the eight races to capture the first official monohull title in the Yacht Sales Co Regatta. The Alright crew travelled all the way up from Australia to compete in the event and frequently sail another boat, Aquarii, in regional regattas.
Niels Degenkolw’s Phoenix, who is used to winning this class, came second in the three-boat monoclass with Fang Liang Zhou’s Sumalee in third. Zhou’s crew flew in from China for the regatta and showed great sportsmanship competing in the event.
Near the end of the second race on the final day, Phoenix encountered halyard problems, so they motored into the Ao Chalong mooring area where Alexander Velikokhotko shimmied up the mast to rectify the problem and ended up using a shorter version of the halyard that had snapped.
Roger Diggleman took to the stage on the final night to thank Saffron’s owners Dan and Dao Fidock for letting him take the tradesmen who built the craft onboard as crew during the regatta so they could see what it was like to sail their finished product.
Paul Stamp, Yacht Sales Co General Manager for Southeast Asia, and company broker Charles Robinson were on hand at the closing dinner and awards ceremony held at the Phuket Yacht Club. Mr Stamp passed out the trophies to the delighted winners.
Sponsors of the regatta included: Yacht Sales Co; Multihull Solutions; Phuket Yacht Club; Phuket Boat Lagoon; SEA Yachting; Octopus Electrical Service; and East Marine Asia.
Yacht Sales Co is the exclusive distributor in Thailand for: Absolute; Cora Catamarans; Dufour; Fontaine Pajot motor yachts and sailing catamarans; Iliad; LEEN Trimarans (power); Maritimo; NEEL Trimarans (sail); Ocean Voyageur; Stealths; and Tesoro Yachts.
