King’s Cup: wind disappoints again

KATA: White caps on the waves and a spectacular start by the Premier Cruisers gave everybody hope that Wednesday’s Andaman Sea Race would see hard, fast competition. The race, sponsored this year by Volvo, has a reputation for being long and hard – a grueling 40 nautical miles around the southern tip of Phuket, between Koh Racha Noi and Koh Racha Yai, then back to Kata Beach. Because of its length, the race also has an extended time limit – eight hours against the usual six – and is made more competitive by allowing only a three-hour window for completing a class. Sadly, the early winds petered out by the time the faster boats rounded Racha Yai, and crews were once again hard put to complete the course before time ran out. No Classic class yacht was able to complete the course within the eight-hour time limit. There was no racing yesterday. – Simon Hand Results: Racing Hi Fidelity – 6:32:04 DK42 – 6:35:57 Yo – 6:38:32 Beau Geste – 6:41:43 Karakoa – 7:16:18 Premier Cruising Freefire – 6:04:45 Maligaya – 6:18:22 Hocux Pocux 2 – 6:38:01 Sayonara – 6:56:15 Moonblue 2 – 6:10:41 Performance Cruising Gotcha Lagi! – 6:34:08 Tramontana – 7:15:38 Slice of Heaven – 7:16:49 Cruising Master Blaster – 5:18:50 Fi Tuen – 5:23:38 Simpatico – 6:05:56 Isobar – 6:37:32 Quicksilver – 7:00:11 Ocean Multihulls Fine pitch LM – 3:26:29 Cedar Swan – 4:03:44 Summersalt – 4:16:15 Platu started at 0900 Global Media Access 104 105 Platu started at 1100 Global Media Access 104 109