Another light day

TP 52s get nobbled today at the King's Cup Andaman Sea race

Today's Kata Group Andaman Sea race was scheduled to be the longest passage race of this week's regatta, from the start line off Kata Beach, through the Koh Kaeo Noi gate, marked by the Royal Thai Navy patrol boat, onto Koh Racha Yai, (Big Racha Island, a beautiful diving location with wonderful coral reefs, to the south of Phuket) and back again, a distance of almost 40 miles.

But it was not to be... the best description for today would be 'a tough day at the office.'

13 fleets were gunned away from 8:30am this morning. The first start was in around four knots of breeze, with the top mark, a mile upwind. The first of the fleets, the combined Racing 1, IRC 1 and Coutt's Premier Division started together. There was the sound of crunching carbon, as Dr. Ian Nicholson's Dubois 80 Intrigue and Paul Winkelmann's TP52 Island Fling, contacted.

A building current was running, curving out from the shoreline against the fleet, and the wind was dropping. Neil Pryde's Farr 52 Hi Fi, the former Hollywood Boulevard, was first to the top mark. Behind her, Nick Burn's Mandrake came in from the left, close to the lay line.

Singaporean helm Tiffany Koo, was concentrating hard as she guided the Chinese entry Konka Hummingbird, the Corby 45, towards the mark. Toby O'Connell's DK 46 Dhevatara Drumstick, the second smallest boat in the Grand Prix fleet, was sailing well above her waterline length and was ahead of Frank Pong's Reichel Pugh 76 Jelik, when the wind died on the right of the course and she fell back.

It was definitely not a good day for the TP52s. Island Fling was second last in the fleet and was well back, as was Sam Chan's TP52 Ffree Fire, who was the tail gunner.

First around the mark was Hi Fi, then Mandrake. Next was Jelik with Konka Hummingbird right on her stern. The Jamie McPhail-helmed Karakoa followed, then came Drumstick and Island Fling.As soon as she rounded the mark Jelik just sailed away, with her big asymmetric kite starting to fill as the breeze built. Island Fling was struggling and Ffree Fire was a gut wrenching 15 minutes behind Island Fling.

In the next division Yasooda, Hans Rahmann's 70 footer had come inside Island Fling, Nix and Moonblue 2 close with her. When she hoisted her white kite, she did at last start to draw away. Nico Cortiever's Nix, the X-612, Rhythm Stix and Intrigue were being swept away from the mark; no progress at all.

Nix and Rhythm Stix were falling away from the stern of Intrigue. Moonblue 2 was coming right across her bow but 15 mins later, still no progress. Nix came up with the line of pressure.

Boats of all sizes and shapes were arriving at the top mark. Benoit Lasaffre's Crowther 50 catamaran Atmosphere, with the turning circle almost as wide as the Andaman Sea, was in the middle of the pack. Behind her, the lightweight Firefly 850s ghosted up. First was the series leader Marc Cudennec's Chi Machine. Ahead of her, Atmosphere stalled.

Chi Machine sailed outside Atmosphere but behind her Roger Kingdon's Moto Inzi had to put on the breaks to avoid a collision, drifted down and touched the mark. She had to do a 360 just ahead of Henry Kaye's Mamba. Andrew Marshall's Pink Lady was 300m short of mark.

The breeze began to lift and so did the spirits of race officials and sailors, as the lead boats sailed south. But the wind began dropping again. By the time the leaders reached the Koh Kaeo Noi gate the tide was crossing the course at more than 1.5 knots. Hi Fi was the first boat there by four minutes, behind her Mandrake was ten seconds ahead of Jelik. As the wind fell, Drumstick understood and had to tack up to the gate. The same thing happened to the following fleet. Up ahead, the leaders were half way from the gate to Racha Noi being swept west.

Aboard Hi Fi Neil Pryde and his crew threw out their anchor in 50 metres of water. Twice the wind lifted and the anchor rose from the ocean floor, only to be dropped again as the racing current took her seawards.

Race officials mercifully shortened the course for the IRC 2, Multihull 2, Ocean Rover and Bareboat Charter fleets at the Navy Patrol boat and four hours later, as the Racing fleets closed on Koh Racha Yai, an announcement was made that times taken at the earlier gate would become the finishing results.

There are protests aplenty across the fleets, numbers of which will significantly affect the outcome of the racing and results will be delayed for some hours.

Thursday is the Lay Day at the 2006 Kings Cup and many of the skippers and crew will take the opportunity to vist PIMEX.

Typhoon Durian that savaged the Philippines and Thailand was tracking south-west and has eased into a tropical storm in the Gulf of Thailand this afternoon, .The strongest breeze of the week is expected tomorrow.

See Rick Tomlinson's photo gallery here