Aussies dominate 2013 Phuket King’s Cup Regatta

PHUKET: Australian entries won four of the 14 scheduled classes, followed by Japan with three classes racked up, in the Phuket King’s Cup Regatta, sailed off Kata Beach all last week.
As expected, in the Phuket Dinghy Series, raced as an integral part of the Regatta proper, Thai sailors – boys and girls – reigned supreme in the Optimists, the International Dinghy Class and the Windsurfing.

Aussie Ray Roberts racked up his fifth win in the fiercely-contested IRC Zero Class, Alan Carwadine won the Multihull Racing, Chris Mitchell won the Cruising and David Boekemann did likewise in the Bareboat Charters.

“Its been really exciting for me and the team, we sailed really well, very consistently and without a doubt its great to win, but I just love to come sailing here,” said a beaming Ray Roberts, surrounded by smiling crew members at the awards ceremony on Friday, December 6 at Kata Beach Resort.

“We haven’t sailed for over a year and a half, we’ve come back with a vengeance and we’re very happy to be winners.”

Ray Roberts went on to speak about the challenging wind conditions during the week-long competition.

“Its been a whole week of very, very difficult wind conditions, and it typically is quite a tricky place to sail.

“So it’s very challenging, but that also adds to the excitement, if you get it right you come out on top, if you don’t get it write you loose – so its consistency over the week and I think from day one to day five it was just as hard.”

He also made clear his intentions to return next year to battle for a possible sixth King’s Cup victory.

“We’ll always be back… so barring some unusual event, [we] love coming here, love racing here and we’ll be back.”

Norikazu Arai led the Multihull Cruisers, and fellow-countrymen, Makiko Matsuichi (Sports Boats), and Yasuo Nanamori (IRC Two) filled out the Japanese entries

Singaporean Bill Bremner won the IRC One, Hong Kong’s Anthony Root, triumphed in the IRC Three, Thai Ithinai Yindsiri won the Premier Class, Briton John Newnham was first in the Firefly 850 Sports, and one of the huge Russian contingent (22 entries) Eugeny Nikiforov, led the Open Charters.

Canada and the the UK appeared as winners of the Modern Classic (Jim Ellis) and the
the Classic Classes (Peter Wood), respectively.

At the splendid Awards and Closing Ceremony of the just-finished 26th edition of the Phuket King’s Cup Regatta, 2013, His Majesty’s Personal Representative M.L. Admiral Usni Pramoj, presented awards to the winners of the senior 14 classes, the Phuket Dinghy Series and the Wind-surfing Classes.

A feature of the final party, held at the Regatta’s “home” for the past few years, was the appearance of the award-winning Scottish singer/song-writer Paul Ewing and his band. Paul is also the Artist Ambassador to “World Vision”, UK, the world’s largest charity dedicated to the advancement of children.

— Peter Cummins