July 2001
SPONSORED
BY the 11th Malaysia Int. Boat Show
Don't miss the only boatshow in S.E. Asia this year (MIBS) at
Admiral Marina, Pt Dickson on the 9th–11th
November.
1. Editorial
2. Asian News
3. International
Editorial
After merely suggesting a boycott of the Kings Cup (June Newsletter) in an endeavour to highlight the severity of the imposed taxes boat owners are facing in Thailand I have received numerous emails from various past and present yachting stalwarts in Phuket including the Kings Cup committee clarifying the situation. First of all to set the present record straight from official sources.- A foreign flag vessel may stay in Thailand for 6 months, not 3 months as previously reported.
- The current tax situation is: 35% import duty, 50% excise duty and 10% luxury tax. As the tax is cumulative, it adds up to a total of over 100% of the boats value which is considered unreasonable but has been in place for over 4 years.
- Thai officials feel that foreigners with legal resident status in Thailand, or those using their vessel in commercial enterprises or want to leave your boat longer than 6 months, should import their boats and pay the legal tax – as a Thai would have to do. A discouragement for some, perhaps, but not unreasonable.
However this does not affect a genuine short term visitor to Thailand other than signing a few forms on arrival. Intensive lobbying by various parties to get these rules relaxed has resulted in a recommendation from the Finance minister to the PM currently being considered to reduce these taxes to sensible levels and increase the temporary stay from 6 months to 12 months. Hopefully common sense will prevail. I will attempt to keep you posted with any changes (if any) as they become available.
My apologies to Bill Gasson for mentioning him in the June article and the Kings Cup committee, who I know work so hard to run a successfull regatta and should not be discouraged despite the current crackdown.
Now onto the sailing news and boating action!
ASIAN
NEWS
1. The Sunsail fleet racing series provisional calendar has been distributed and plans for both the A.C.Y.C Match Racing competitions and The National Match Racing Championships are well under way. Any one interested in supporting one-design racing and sailing in the Andaman Sea.
2. KIEL WEEK Congratulations to Women Mistral boardsailor Lai Shan Lee from Hong Kong who did it again and placed in the first 3 places of 9 races to finish first overall and take the title at this prestigious sailing event.
3. The latest version of Sailwave (v34), a popular and completely free Windows sailing scoring application is available for download at www.sailwave.com Sailwave is RRS 2001-2004 Appendix A compliant as confirmed by the USSA in their recent review. Sailwave can handle multiple fleets, has all the popular rating systems integrated and has the capability for users to specify their own rating system. A variety of reports can be published as HTML including series summaries, race details, competitor lists and declaration of retirement forms. Recent changes include a wizard to enter results by sail number and import facilities to read data from CSV files. New versions of Sailwave are uploaded regularly. Contact colin@sailwave.com for further information.
4. Asian Pacific viewers don't forget to watch
the 4 events that form the Asian Yachting Circuit
2000/2001 to be broadcast by Star Sports at the following times.
Catch the interesting comments your skippers made during their interviews!
Date - Day - Start - Yacht Racing Event - Channel - Country/
Region
17-Jul Tues 1730 - Raja Muda Int. Regatta - Star Sports - Asia Pacific
18-Jul Wed 1730 - Phuket King's Cup - Star Sports - Asia Pacific
19-Jul Thurs 1730 - Singapore Straits Regatta - Star Sports - Asia Pacific
20-Jul Fri 1730 - Hong Kong/San Fernando Race - Star Sports -
Asia Pacific
5. View a colourful variety of Yachts for Sale. Some big, some small, if you are interested in cruising or racing in this years Asian regatta's check them out click http://asianyachting.com/boats/yachtsforsale.htm to browse current listings.
6.
June 24 - July 8 - Over the Top Cruise in Company,
Gove Yacht Club NT starts at Gove, goes through the 'Hole in the Wall'
at the Wessel Islands, then via selected remote anchorages across the
top to Darwin. The fleet is limited to 30 boats because of space limitations
at some of the anchorages, and the logistics involved in bringing the
fleet through the 'Hole in the Wall' on the one tide. An experienced local
accompanies the fleet. Most of the anchorages are in Aboriginal Reserves.
This years' event was booked out by February.
-------------------------- SPONSORS OF THIS ISSUE --------------------------
Learn to SAIL in one weekend on Malaysia's favourite racing yacht 'Gotcha Lagi' at Admiral Marina, Port Dickson. Return email for more info or browse the website at http://AsianYachting.com/gotcha
Malaysia's Royal Selangor Yacht Club in Port Klang advises that this years Raja Muda Int Regatta dates are Nov 16th to 24th. Notice of race and entry forms are available at http://www.rsyc.com.my or email the club at rmir@rsyc.com.my
AsianYachting is a yacht racing and sail training group that promotes regional sailing events and its boating activities globally at http://AsianYachting.com
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INTERNATIONAL
1. SAFETY AT SEA SURVIVAL COURSE - The In-augural Australian Yachting Federation's Safety at Sea Survival Course concluded after a three-hour stint in the chilly Qantas training pool, where participants were taught man overboard and liferaft drills in simulated heavy rain and darkness.
AYF training manager Genevieve White, who
helped compile the course, said: 'The sailors discovered how hard and
horrible it is to be inside a liferaft. If they left with the thought
"I never want to get in a raft again" then we have succeeded, because
they will then strive to keep their boat afloat.' Media release by Mark
Rothfield
2. The leaders of seven America's Cup syndicates will gather to decide match racing supremacy at the Swedish Match Tour's Championship Final, the Swedish Match Cup, in Marstrand, Sweden, just south of Gothenberg. Sixteen of the world's top skippers representing seven America's Cup syndicates will do battle off Sweden's craggy coast from July 2-8.
3. Follow your favourite Transpac boats across the Pacific with the tracking chart on the Transpac Web site The staggered starting order saw the smaller Aloha Division start last Monday the 25th June off the Palos Verdes Peninsula with the Racing divisions III and IV starting on Saturday, June 30, followed on Sunday, July 1, by the larger Division I and II boats, all at 1 p.m. In all, 33 boats will be challenging the 2,225 nautical miles course to Hawaii. Roy E. Disney's 73-foot Pyewacket is the defending champion and holds the present record at 7 days 11 hours 41 minutes 27 seconds set in 1999.
4.
The Internet has revolutionised the coverage of
ocean races. Just a decade ago a yacht race that left sight of land
was nearly impossible to follow from start to finish. Now the up to
date sailing information available online daily is phenomenal.
Sailors are expected to become computer savvy emailing reports, pictures
and live interviews from the middle of the ocean to be made instantly
available on the internet.
Some of the spectacular photos received
recently come from Gilles Martin-Raget at Royale
Production www.martin-raget.com of
the Cagliari Grand Prix (Sardinia, Italy) races at the 9
Telecom Championship for 60' multihulls.
More photo's and info on these magnificent yachts
5. The EDS Atlantic Challenge has gone live bringing this sailing event - the first race of its kind in the Open 60 Yacht Class - to followers around the world via the Internet. The race begins July 3, 2001, in St. Malo and ends in the same French port in late August. Sometimes compared to the Formula One car racing, the EDS Atlantic Challenge will pit a fleet of Open 60s yachts in head-to-head competition. They will sail from St. Malo to Hamburg in Germany on to Portsmouth, across the Atlantic to Baltimore and Boston in the U.S., and then back across the North Atlantic to the finish in St Malo.
6.
Always more is Tour Voile's motto!
Nearly 40 boats and about 600 sailors will line up at the start
of this non-stop four week regatta around France. Part
of the 'FFVoile Championnat de France de Course au Large' (French offshore
Championship under the aegis of the French Yachting Authority), Tour
Voile 2001's course includes 34 races. 10 offshore races from Le
Havre to Mandelieu - La Napoule and 24 inshore races at the stop overs.
7. This year's Fastnet Race starts off the Royal Yacht Squadron, Cowes on the 12th August at 1600 and is sponsored for the first time by Rolex . The course is approximately 608 miles, from the Royal Yacht Squadron start line at Cowes on the Isle of Wight, westward down the English Channel, across open sea to the south-west corner of Ireland and the Fastnet Rock, from there after rounding the Scilly Isles to port, the fleet returns to the English mainland, finishing at Plymouth. Full details on the Rolex Fastnet Race, including entry qualifications and race details, are available on the RORC website: www.rorc.org
8. BankWest Freo to Darwin Splash - The Splash is to be hosted by Royal Perth Yacht Club but is a cooperative of most of the Yacht clubs of WA & NT and of the offshore sailing community. It will leave Fremanltle on the 1st of June 2002 and stop at Geraldton, Carnarvon, Dampier, Broome and finally Darwin.
--------------------How
to become a Sponsor of this Newsletter?---------------------
Become a primary sponsor at the top of this popular newsletter or one
of the 3 Secondary sponsors by composing a 2 line advert with a
hyper link to your website and by return email to CaptMarty@AsianYachting.com find
out the attractive rates presently being offered.
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Once again, I hope you have found this issue of AsianYachting News & Views useful and interesting please forward it to your sailing friends.
Kindest regards
Capt Marty Rijkuris
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