Cape Panwa Hotel Phuket Raceweek 2019 - day 1
by Guy Nowell 18 Jul 2019 15:58 BST
18-21 July 2019
Cape Panwa Hotel Phuket Raceweek 2019 © Guy Nowell
After yesterday and last night’s torrential downpours, we were rather hoping that the weather department was ‘over’ that stuff for a while. There was sunshine at 0600h, and the palm trees were moving gently. It was a little less encouraging at 0800h, and then at 0900h the rain started.
And got worse.
At 1000h (’first warning signal’) there were heavy squalls moving around the start area, with windless holes in between. The AP went up, and stayed up. Thunder and lightning, and horizontal rain scudding across the water. The on-course photographer was in an 8m RIB with a bimini offering scant protection. The problem with waterproof Pelican camera cases is that they cease to be waterproof as soon as you open the lid to take out the camera – so the lid stayed shut… and anyway there was no sailing going on, and the visibility was often down to a couple of hundred metres. Not the sort of stuff that great racing images are made of.
AP over H went up at 1030h, and the fleet went looking for some respite, but RO Simon James and his mark boats stuck it out, moving around the general racing are on the off chance, but there really wasn’t much hope. The weather radar just promised more of the same from the south and west, breeze went to 25kts+ at times, and in the wet bits the visibility was almost non-existent. The breeze shifted 50 degrees and more between one squall and the next. In short, ‘unsailable’. At 1302h it was AP over A, which was voted a smart move by all concerned. PRW has got everyone onto a WhatsApp ‘group’ which is a very good idea for communicating with what was by then a very scattered fleet.
Back at the Cape Panwa Hotel, the gardens were flooded again, and the puddles were deep enough for suggestions of an ‘Onshore Multihull Class’. The decision had already been taken to move the evening party back indoors – same as last evening.
Hoping for substantially better weather tomorrow.
Standing by on 72.
On a lighter note, and if the meteo dept continues to fail to cooperate, we'll be be booking in for a Pineapple & Coconut Smoothie Bath tomorrow. Watch this space.