Six Senses Phuket Raceweek - Day 3

20 plus knots of wind has the multihulls sailing on the limit and some permanent breakages have forced several boats to retire from the series. Yesterday just after Stewart Crowe's Beneteau First 285 Cinders crossed the finish line, the mast came tumbling down! Scott Duncanson's three time winner Raimon Land suffered a broken rudder stock and for the first time was forced to retire from a regatta.

Several torn spinnakers, damaged equipment, running aground and bruised ego's has chased some of the race course and others to sail a bit more conservatively. Never the less, the show must go on and the same Course 5 that goes around the off lying islands, once again gave the remaining crews an exciting sleigh ride down the back of the islands. After a short break the race committee carried straight on with windward/leeward races for the die hard serious racing classes.

Peter Ahern's crew mainly from Perth, Australia are used to racing in these conditions and have fully demonstrated the fact by hauling in another two wins making it six wins on the trot and wrapping up the series for his Farr 40 Yo!2 with a day to spare. John Vause's Young 11 Ruby Tuesday sailed a good race to sneak into second place in Race 5 and by scoring third in Race 6, sees them elevated into third overall. When asked to find an extra knot of boat speed, Ben Copely's Swan 42 Katsu could not quite respond favourably and had to settle on third and second places that will secure them second overall.

As it turns out Niels Dgenkolf's all Danish crew on Phoenix have taken the IRC 2 Class by storm and by posting five wins in a row have run away with the overall class trophy. Peter Dyer's defending champion Madam Butterfly started with a flurry and despite exerting as much pressure as possible, a string of second places will this year see them relegated to second overall. Mick Kealy's Evason Phuket Minx has kept themselves in amongst the action but trading third and fourth places with Roger Diggelmann's Nereida will see them battling it out for third overall.

In the Club Charter Class, Horst Lakits Swan 55 Big A got up to score first place again on the only race held today. By correcting out into second place Andrew de Bruin's Ron Swanson Sloop Awatea holds onto first overall by a slender margin and will have do well in the last race as the drop race is introduced on the final day of racing. Somov Viatceslav's Russian entry Thalassa finally came to the fore with a third place but is well down the overall scoreboard.

In the Ocean Multihull Class Bob Mott's Chameleon charged down the back straight again at times exceeding 25 knots and had no trouble dispensing with Aussie Bill Webb's Out of the Bag who was the only other boat to compete. The other two boats entered have chosen not to take further part in the regatta for fear of breaking things and not having the experience to deal with the strong conditions.

An interesting battle is shaping up in the Racing Multihull Class. By trading first places in the two races held today Mark Horwood's Summerhaven 10.6 Charro and Bob Brindley X-Catriot are now tied for first overall coming into the final day of racing. Second place in race five for Neil Ayre's Corsair 28 Shanghai Baby is enough to hold onto third overall but the points difference is to big for any improvement on the leading duo.

Roger Kingdon's crew on Moto Inzi came out determined to improve their standings and hit the starting line with speed on a daring port tack, then disappeared into the distance in an all out effort to close on the overall leaders. Surprisingly it was Peter Dyer's SEA Property that snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by posting two wins today and going directly to the top of the leader board. A mere 30 seconds dropped Roger Kingdon's Moto Inzi down to second place and despite coming fourth in Race 6 has them rising to second overall. At the start of today's racing Henry Kaye's Mamba was sitting in the box seat but by posting two third places has them tied with Moto Inzi in second overall. Despite disappearing off the radar screen all regatta Chris Jongerius on The Frog regained some credibility by slipping into second place in Race 6. With only two points separating the tied boats sharing second place the hotly contested Firefly 850 One Design class is still open for the taking with only one race to run.

Gunter Nutt's Kerida regained some composure by posting their first win of the regatta and the familiar spot at the top of the leader board. Mark Myking's Idiom has won both of the earlier races but scored OCS today which drops them to second overall. Neil Parry's junk rigged Burong Bahri did not compete and Tom Howard's 100 year old Seraph has struggled to finish a race.

Although a couple of classes are well and truly stitched up, the others will be determined on the last day of racing when one final shoot out can be expected. The SW Monsoon is still pumping away outside and will provide the perfect setting to sort out the men from the boys.