All eyes on Foxy Lady for Phuket Raceweek (video)

PHUKET: Hot off a win at the Samui Regatta last month, Bill Bremner’s Foxy Lady VI will be looking to kickstart their campaign to retain the crown as AsianYachting Grand Prix (AYGP) champions at the Phuket Raceweek Regatta from July 16.

Foxy Lady scored a two-second win in the last race at Samui to be crowned the 2013/14 Asian Yachting Grand Prix (AYGP) Yacht and Skipper of the Year. The crew are on a record seven-regatta winning streak; winning Phuket Raceweek would make it eight.

Jilted by the Lady in the final race at Samui was Australian boat Jessandra II. Skippered by Roland Dane, principal of Red Bull Racing Australia, the team won the Audi Australian IRC Championship in 2012 and remained unbeaten in competition, until they arrived in Asia.

New to Raceweek, Jessandra II will be looking to continue to improve along their fast learning curve and to forge a solid start to their 2014 Asian campaign.

They will be up against another newcomer and well known sailor on the Asian circuit, Hong Kong-based Paul Winkelmann, who is bringing his HH42 Island Fling to line-up against the growing fleet of 40-footers this year.

Yet the “big guns” will face feisty challengers in the form of local sailors, who have long performed well in the Phuket Raceweek waters off the east coast. Among them are the veteran crews of Fujin, Venture, Skandia Endeavour of Whitby and Phoenix, to name just a few.

Fears of mass cancellations that circulated after the military seized power on May 22 have foundered, and at this stage currently 33 boats have either already ponied up or booked to compete at Phuket Raceweek.

Among the growing fleet are multihulls, which so far this year number 13, many of which will be out in force in the week before Phuket Raceweek competing in the Multihull Solutions Regatta – Southeast Asia’s only dedicated multihull regatta.

The Firefly 850 class at Raceweek will see the return of Twin Sharks, Moto Inzi and Voodoo and veteran Neil Ayres on the chartered Mamba, all vying for the Firefly bragging rights.

In Multihull Racing class, Nina, Java and Sweet Chariot are up against Raceweek first-timer Galeforce skippered by Kirill Stashevsky.

Mixing it up will be the racing trimaran Adrenalin, skippered by Phuket’s Mark Horwood. A boat of racing pedigree from her days in Europe previously, a syndicate has brought her out to Thailand and is looking to cause ripples on the Asian circuit.

The Phuket Raceweek Regatta comprises four days of racing over five days, from July 16-20.

For the latest information on the Phuket Raceweek Regatta, visit the official website (click here) or the official Facebook page (click here).

The Phuket Gazette and PGTV’s ‘Phuket Today’ show, the island’s only nationally broadcast television program (aired daily on True Visions channels HD-79 and SD-107), are proud to sponsor this event.

— Chris Husted