2009/2010 AsianYachting Grand Prix Championship
July 2009 - Update

AYGP off to a brilliant start...
July 29: We like to update our readers throughout the season with all the news, expert analysis, regatta results, progressive pointscore and off course notify when the popular regatta photo galleries are posted online, after each of the ten regatta/races that score points towards becoming the AY Skipper and Yacht of the Season.

And they are racing...
Six Senses Phuket Raceweek became the first cab off the rank bringing an early start to the 2009/10 AYGP Season. The 2007/08 Champion Ray Roberts on his re branded DK46 Evolution Sails (formerly Quantum Racing) decided to tackle the 2008/09 Champion Neil Pryde and his prized Welbourne 52 Hi Fi head on from the start of the season. Regatta organisers Image Asia are very pleased that these two high profile racing teams decided to join in with the action, so stepped up to the plate and provided top race management to handle multiple class racing as well deliver an exceptional 4-night entertainment program with the help of the Evason Phuket who kindly turned their 'Into the Beach' venue into the Regatta HQ and post-race bar.

Being first timers at Raceweek both Roberts and Pryde could not count on having it all their own way, as regulars in the racing class Peter Ahern's defending champion Farr 40 YO!2, Ben Copely's Swan CS 42 Katsu and two time winner Scott Duncanson's super fast Phuket 8 Quantum Fusion M went all out to spoil the party. Baby Tonga and Tantrum rounded out the numbers but would find racing Beneteau cruisers/racers against these top teams an uphill task. Extremely close racing ensued with the highly polished teams rising to the challenge and only separated by a few little mistakes and current changes during the race.

Coming into the final day Ray Roberts Evolution Sails held a slender three point lead over Neil Pryde's Hi Fi. The discussion over breakfast was "Would this be enough? Could Peter Ahern's Farr 40 YO!2 slot in to create some points separation?" Neil Pryde's crew were up and at it early, with an air of confidence in their stride and struck gold soon after by winning both races.

Fortunately only 34 seconds in Race 7 and 41 seconds in Race 8 behind was Ray Roberts on Evolution Sails that reduced their overall points lead down to one and enough for Roberts to claim the title on his first outing at Raceweek. Talk about coming down to the wire. If that's how it is going to be for the next nine events on the AYGP we are going to be in for a tremendous season. Two third places for Peter Ahern's Farr 40 YO!2 places them in third overall and hopefully enough motivation to join us for a few more events on the calendar.

Pssst! You want Photo Mister?
A fantastic array of photos form the SSPR 2009 Photo Gallery have been posted online at: http://asianyachting.com/photos/photo.htm?PRW09 An old photographer friend of mine, John Everingham once told me 'That you can't take a bad photo in Phuket, as long as the sun is out and the sky is blue'. After looking through over 400 images and processing the 106 strong Photo Gallery 'I think he is right'. Many thanks must go to Brent McInnes for making his fancy Donzi powerboat available to the media plus put his expert boat handling skills to the test and be voted by the assembled media as the best ever boat driver in Asia. At the same time you can also get the lowdown on most of the Phuket sailors and what they get up to for the rest of the year.

'Sailor Chick of the Regatta' makes a return appearance
We have been asked a lot recently 'What ever happened to the 'Sailor Chick of the Regatta' competition?' Well quite frankly there have not been that many scantily clad girls competing at regattas recently and in the interests of keeping the daily Race Reports available for family consumption we have reserved any girly action photos and comments for these AYGP Updates after each event. There was however a couple of incidents captured on camera at Raceweek. The professional PhotoCatBoat.com team had a couple of Russian models stowed onboard, no doubt to pep up the boating images. Looks like they could do with a few good square meals though!

Another good one was the foredeck hand on Hans Rahmann's Firefly 850 One Design Voodoo Child. Brent our skipper remarked that 'Her pants look like they are made out of dental floss!' Those 'hollisters' may like a good hug but the body inside must be pretty good at her foredeck job on the speedy and sometimes very wet 28 foot catamaran. As they went on to win six out of seven races and seal the title with a day to spare.

First points posted
Check out the 2009/10 AYGP pointscore as the championship unfolds at: http://asianyachting.com/news/AYGP09-10.htm

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