Royal Thai Navy 1 reign supreme

Royal Thai Navy 1 proved that a heavy, obsolete boat and an old sail do not really matter as they overcame modern, aerodynamically designed boats to win the IRC 2 Class as the 25th Phuket King’s Cup Regatta, which concluded off Kata Beach yesterday.

The Navy, with an over-3.5-tonne vessel and a three-year-old sail, outperformed arch-rivals Foxy Lady 5 of Singapore and Ruby Tuesday of Russia, who have state-of-the-art boats, making a strong final race finish to take the top position with 11 points. Foxy came a far second with 16 points, followed by Ruby with 22 points.

The strong winds of 17 knots yesterday should have benefited skipper Wiwat Poonpat’s boat but it turned out that he forgot to bring a suitable sail for windy conditions and had to rely on personal skills to complete the course.

 “We are delighted to win despite the condition of our boat and sail. When we arrived at the finish line, we heard foreign sailors clap their hands for us. It was a surprise to win the last race as I thought we were four minutes behind Foxy,’’ said Wiwat, a Captain Petty Officer First Class.

It’s the fifth time Wiwat and his crew have taken the top spot on the podium during the award ceremony, presented by Admiral ML Usani Pramoj, after dominating the class between 2007-2010. Along came a new spinnaker worth over Bt80,000 from Pie Pacific which his team will be using in the 2012 edition. Unfortunately the Navy will still have to sail with the same boat next year.

“One boat costs many millions. There’s no way we can afford that. But it’s good enough to be able to compete in this event and particularly to be part of the sport that His Majesty the King loves,’’ said the 38-year-old skipper.

Team Premier from the United Arab Emirates completed their domination from start to finish to win the IRC Zero Class with 13 points. With Hannes Weimer as skipper, Premier landed second and first places in the last two races, leaving Hong Kong’s HiFi with 19 points and Freefire 52 with 25 points at second and third places.

 “We have the fastest and the most all-round boat that suits either light or strong winds here. But we also worked hard out there as this is the biggest regatta in the region. We have to modify almost everything in our boat because that’s what others are doing too. We just can’t stand still,’’ said skipper Weimer, who won here in 2003 under a different team.

Japan’s Karasu, with Yasuo Nanamori as skipper, won the IRC 1 class with 16 points while Singapore’s Walawala 2 and Kukukerchu came second and third with 21 and 24 points.

The Firefly 850 Sports saw a neck-and-neck race between Moto Inzi from Great Britain and Voodoo Child from Thailand. In the end Captain Roger Kingdon of Moto narrowly beat Voodoo by a small margin 13-14 to win the title while The Frog of Great Britain was third with 29 points.

Elsewhere, Australian Sidewinder with Alan Carwardine as skipper reigned supreme in the Multihull. Great Britain’s Titania of Cowes, captained by Richard Dobbs, made a splash in their first attempt at the regatta to win the Premier. The Bareboat Charter Class was won by Australia’s Venture, with Mike Crisp as captain, as expected and the Modern Classic title went to Patrice III, skippered by Bo Sondergaard, from Thailand. Odin from Thailand, crewed by the Aquacraft Asia team, won the Cruising. Kiteboards, introduced to the Regatta for the first time, was won by Frenchman Olivier Dansin.