Royal Langkawi International Regatta- Coastal Cruising

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 16 Jan 2015 It was ‘business as usual’ in the weather department this morning, with a pleasant 12kts from 065 blowing down Bass Harbour. Oi! demolished the after-breakfast windward-leeward in a mere 35 minutes and looked around for the next mouthful. When everyone else in the racing divisions had finished as well, the RO sent them off southwest down and out of the harbour and then north towards Telaga Harbour to a turning mark (Racing and IRC 1) and back again. IRC 2 sailed an abbreviated version of the same trip, and so did the Cruising classes, for whom this was the only race of the day.

Oi! launched off a well-timed downwind start, leaving all her division competitors a hundred yards behind after the first few seconds, and never looked back. Without anyone to really race against, Peter Ahern reported the race as 'hot and long' (2h 50m to be precise). However, Bill Bremner (Foxy Lady VI) said, 'What looks l deceptively easy and straightforward on paper was actually a lot more difficult. We sailed all points of sail, we had breeze right down to 7 knots and then 20 knots at the finish, and we were bucking 2 knots of tide coming back up the harbour. And for almost all the race we were trading tacks and crosses with Blue Note which made life a lot more interesting'. Diff’rent boats, diff’rent strokes.

Vincent Chan’s Mata Hari led the IRC 2 fleet from start to finish and never looked threatened, finishing a clear 10 minutes on the water in front of Old Mutual International Endeavour of Whitby - who is awarded the Media Wooden Spoon for the longest boat name in the regatta. (‘Oi!’ takes less time to type). And while we are on Media Awards, we’d like to nominate the owner of the Farr 400 Lero 3 as Most Appropriately Named Owner: please step forward, Mr Alexey Takovski (say it…).

Back in the harbour, and the Platus went at it hammer and tongs for two more races, with RSYC dropping from their customary first place to fourth after an OCS – it makes that much difference in this fleet.

Now it’s down to the short strokes. The Racing, IRC and Platu divisions are all stitched up, but the leaders of the lesser classes have positions to defend. Last year’s closing day at the RLIR delivered a 20 knot buster that had a few boats on their ears – it’s a great way to round out a regatta!

Short Results
(Full results at www.langkawiregatta.com)

Racing
1. Oi! 1*,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 (7)
2. Utarid 3*,2,2,2,2,2,2,2 (14)
3. Zuhrah 2,3*,3,3,3,3,3,3 (20)

IRC 1
1. Foxy Lady VI 1,2,1,1,1,1,3*,1 (8)
2. Island Fling 2,1,2,3,4*,4,1,3 (16)
3. Fujin 3,4,3,2,6*,2,2,2 (18)
IRC 2
1. Mata Hari 1*,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 (7)
2. Endeavour of Whitby 3,2,3,2,2,4*,2,2 (16)
3. Phoenix 2,3*,2,3,3,3,3,3 (18)

Sportsboats (Platu)
1. RSYC Setia West 2,3,1,2,1,1,1,1,4* (12)
2. SMU 6*,2,5,1,2,2,2,2,1 (17)
3. Siput 4,4,DNS*,3,4,5,3,3,2 (20)

Multihull
1. Andaman Cabriolet Nina 1,3*,1,1,3,1,2 (9)
2. 2Fast4You 2*,1,2,3,2,3,1 (11)
3. Gale Force 3*,2,3,2,1,2,3 (13)

Club
1. Sophia 3*,1,1,2,1,1 (6)
2. Rascal 1, DNF*,2,1,2,2 (8)
3. Alakaluff 4,DNF,3,3,3,3 (16)

Ocean Rover A
1. My Toy 1,2,1,2,3*,1 (7)
2. Eveline DNS*,1,2,1,2,3 (10)
3. Invictas Reward 2,DNF*,3,3,1,2 (11)

Ocean Rover B
1. Chantique 4*,1,1,2,3,2 (9)
2. Free ‘n Easy 2,DNS*,2,1,2,3 (10)
3. VG Offshore 3*,3,3,3,1,1 (11)