King's Cup Regatta starts in Phuket today

Around 90 boats in the keelboat class, 19 in kiteboard and 42  dinghies (34 optimists and 8 racers) will participate in this year’s edition, which was officially declared open yesterday.

Organising Committee president Kevin Whitcraft said the tournament had reached its silver jubilee and would celebrate the seventh cycle of His Majesty the King who will turn 84 today. The tournament features a Sail Past this morning in honour of His Majesty the King and a Candlelight Ceremony to pay homage to the King in the evening.

Two major changes have been made to this year’s event – expanding events in the dingy sailing for youth and children and including  kiteboard, which will be included in the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, as an exhibition event.

Whitcraft said fans should keep their eyes closely on the IRC 0 and IRC 1 categories, which should provide some great entertainment throughout the race.

“The IRC 0 is the biggest and the fastest. For IRC 1, we have about 15 boats, 40 foot in size which is becoming a very popular size for keelboat to race in the world. It will be the most competitive. Both categories are quite close in speed,” said Whitman, who will skipper Won Ma Racing in the IRC 1 with Jaray Thipsuk as his helmsman.

Whitman picked Radap Kanjanavanit, with his KT-ZMICO Cedar Swan, as the Thai who has the most potential to perform well in the Multihall category. There would be light winds and some rains during the weekdays with strong winds at the weekends, he added.