YACHTING
PETER CUMMINS
PHUKET : Not even the rain could dampen the enthusiasm of the record fleet of 45 craft which took principal race Officer Simon James' starting signal to open the Six Senses Phuket Raceweek 2008 regatta, sailing off the Evason Six Senses Resorts and Spas, on Phuket's southeast coast. At the end of the first day, results were not confirmed but it was, provisionally: Australian sailor Peter Ahern, winning the Racing Class 1, British sailor Peter Dyer, Madame Butterfly (IRC 2), another Aussie, Andrew de Bruin Awatea (Club Charter Class), Frances Bernard Chapus Chamarai (Ocean Multihull), Bill Phelps, (Thailand, Twin Sharks, Raimon Land Firefly 850) and USA's Mark Myking, Idiom, Classic Class, winning their respective classes.
Seven different classes comprised the total entry and much interest was centred on the newly-imported Corsair Multihulls, built in Vietnam and the locally-designed and built Firefly Class from Phuket. Nevertheless, after a very wet start, the weather lightened and a good south-westerly made the racing exciting and the sailors somewhat drier.
Many of the Racing Class entries are hardened veterans of a number of Thailand's seasonal regattas. One such is Peter Ahern, Rear Commodore of Perth's Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club who has contested most of the regattas in Thailand and the region. He started well, with a win in the Racing Class.on his refurbished sloop, Yo 2!.
Known also as the Green Regatta, Raceweek has come a long way in a short time. In just four years, it has almost trebled in size from a modest 19 entries, from mainly Phuket-based yachts, for the inaugural low season event in 2004 to this years record entry.
But, it is not a matter of quantity: it is the quality which the founders, Phuket entrepreneurs Grenville Fordham and Andy Dowden, find most satisfying. Entries have arrived from Australia, France, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, UK and USA and, of course, a large contingent from host country Thailand.
Concomitant with the greatly-expanded fleets, the international media have honed in on the action.
This attention, in turn, attracts more sponsorship and this year, the Six Senses has earned the naming rights, having supported the regatta, with the Evason Phuket, as the host venue, since day one.
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