Foxy Lady leads fleet as strong winds give sailors a ducking in Pattaya
Strong winds blew excitement through the 2013 Top of the Gulf Regatta yesterday, with the dinghy and beach catamaran fleets seeing a number of capsizes and one dismasting, none of which deterred the sailors' battle in challenging conditions.
In the Open Multihull class, former Asian Champion Damrongsak Vongtim continued his winning ways by adding three more to his perfect tally to lead the series going into the final day.
Racing a Laser, Thai Olympian Keerati Bualong leads the Single-Handed Monohull Dinghy class with some impressive performances on both days so far, while further down the standings and still with a chance of a podium place is future Olympic hopeful Kamolwan Chanyim.
Former World Optimist champion, Noppakao Poonpat, racing a 420 in the Double-Handed Monohull Dinghy class, is a little off the pace but still in touch with the leaders and a podium place.
On the big-boat course, a second in Race 1 for Foxy Lady in IRC Racing 1 was enough for them to stay atop the standings, with Australian entry KukukKERchu winning their first race and moving up to second overall. Another first for Ichiban in IRC Racing 2 saw them take the class lead on 4 points and knock Royal Thai Navy 1 (5pts) into second. With just one point in it and two days to go, anything can yet happen.
In the Platu class, yesterday’s strong winds forced Platu 122 to retire with a broken mast, while Shortime took their first win of the series. A strong performance from Black Betty (4pts) sees them leading the series at the halfway point, with Tigrana (8pts) in third.
It was all change in the Ocean Multihulls class yesterday, with Black Swan scoring their first win of the series, moving into second behind David Liddell’s Miss Saigon (4pts) who finished second on the day.
