13th Singapore Straits Regatta 2007
AY Race Report
4 & Summary
Blast
reach brings SSR 07 to a close...
In the early hours of the morning the North Easterly monsoon winds returned
and much to the concern of the organisers the final race turned into a
blast reach westward across the top of Batam with enough strength to counter
the strong easterly flowing current. The light fluctuating winds over
the last couple of days caused the race committee to shorten the course
down to seven miles and impose a three hour time limit, so the yachts
can make their way back over twenty miles to the Republic of Singapore
Yacht Club in time for the evenings prize giving ceremony.
First
away were the racing class with Sam Chan's Ffreefire 52 launching
the big asymmetric spinnaker and hitting the pin end of the line at maximum
speed. Followed closely by Neil Pryde's Hi Fi and Robert Knight's
DK46 Drumstick. Paul Winkelmann's TP52 Island Fling
holding a slender one point lead over Fred Kinmonth and Nick Burns Farr/Mills
51 Mandrake kept a tight cover on Mandrake and after
the start, luffed them heavily and took them away above the course, effectively
putting them both out of the running in the final race. It only took Ffreefire
forty one minutes to cover the course distance to score the daily double
and show that the crew can sometimes get it all together. Neil Pryde's
Hi Fi took second and Robert Knight's Drumstick third
place on the day. The legal covering tactics employed by Paul Winkelmann's
Island Fling placed them last and Mandrake in second
last but at the end of the day when the points are tallied it is Island
Fling that goes home with the overall victory. Mandrake
takes second place missing out by only half a point and Bill Bremner's
Sydney 40 Foxy Lady III climbed into third place overall, also
half a point in front of Drumstick in fourth.
In
IRC Class B Keith Dunn's Mountgay 30 Lunch Cutter finally broke
through to beat Jeff Davison's Mumm 30 Panic on the last race.
Dickon Addis's JS9000's Roo reveled in the reaching conditions
to score third place. Jeff Davison's Panic held
a commanding lead in the pointscore coming into the final race to have
won the class at the end of racing yesterday. Keith Dunn's Lunch Cutter
was
the bridesmaid on several occasions and as expected finished up in second
place overall. Hellmut Schutte's brand new Elan 340 Aquavit IV
showed some remarkable turns of speed to end up in third overall on their
first outing.
In the J24 One Design Class Borstnar Vladimir's Angel started
with speed at the pin end of the line and never looked back to win the
race plus the overall class victory, making up for being piped for first
place last year. Second place for Lee Sea Yean's Jangan Main-Main
keeps them in second overall and able to fend of a late charge from the
rest of the fleet. Third place for Raphael Phang's Hakuna Matata
is a big improvement on earlier races. Last place for Tim Tan and Richard
Ahl's Juno becomes their drop race and as they did enough in
the earlier races to hang onto third place overall.
Simon
Piff's Rainbow Dream stayed on the pace through out the regatta
to score another win and overall victory in the Performance Handicap (PY)
Class. Chee Siong Yin's Red Baron scored a surprise second place
and Jerry Lau's WYSIWYG third place after seeing their chances
wash away in the current during the earlier races. As this class only
completed four races there is no drop race, so after tallying the points
David Ross's Frangipani Girl and Leslie Fung's Todak
finished up tied on fourteen points and share second place overall.
First
place at the Raja
Muda Regatta, fifth place at the Phuket
King's Cup, and second place here at the Singapore
Straits Regatta gives Fred Kinmonth and Nick Burns enough
points on Mandrake to win the Perpetual
Cup Series and take home the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy.
In the AY Grand Prix Skipper and Yacht Championships Paul Winkelmann's TP52 Island Fling draws level with Neil Pryde's Hi Fi on six points. The Fred Kinmonth and Nick Burns owned Mandrake increases to five points and clearly within striking distance of the leaders. Bill Bremner's third place on Foxy Lady III earns them an extra point and puts them one win away from the leaders with four regattas to go. As racing now separates out between Langkawi and the Philippines further scoring opportunities are dependant upon which events the owners choose to do before coming together again at the season ending Koh Samui Regatta. Check out how your favourite racing team is going at: http://asianyachting.com/news/AYGP06-07.htm
Summary
Several grumbling's came from the racing class about accurately recording
the finish times and calculating the results as several discrepancies
had to be sorted out by the International jury. Criticism about the length
the courses and timing the event during neap tides also become a talking
point amongst competitors. Once again these issues should be addressed
by the organising committee and race officers during the planning stages
- not when the event is underway. Some competitors are spending more than
it costs to run the event to prepare their high-tech boats and muster
top class racing crews together, so they expect the race committee to
set high standards and organisers to conduct the event with International
levels of competency.
In Asia we tend to over promote the events in a bid to get sponsors and try to attract top class racing boats but run the risk of conducting so called mickey mouse events. As the big boys come to seriously race their boats they expect the main focus to be on conducting a smooth running and enjoyable event. Nothing is more annoying than to spend the evening hours in the protest room correcting minor and avoidable problems. When word gets out that an event is run below par there can be devastating knock on effects. Instead wouldn't it better all round for competitors to return home full of praise and wanting to come back again next year.
Results are posted
at: http://www.straitsregatta.com/
Painstaking
long day on the water...
The
fifty footers are experiencing extremely close racing which is a delight
to watch as the crew go about their work and skippers take a tight line
to get the better of each other. Sometimes a little to close as Sam Chan's
Ffreefire 52 crew found out as they were disqualified in race
four for infringing Hi Fi at the mark. Race four and five honours
were shared by Paul Winkelmann's TP52 Island Fling and Fred Kinmonth
/ Nick Burns Farr/Mills 51 Mandrake trading first and second
places to keep them respectively at the top of the leaderboard. Robert
Knight's DK46 Drumstick scored third place in race four but unfortunately
broke the mainsail halyard in race five to drop out of contention. Neil
Pryde's Hi Fi managed third in race five but a little to late
to make any significant effect on the leaders. Despite two fifth places
today and one DNF yesterday Bill Bremner's Sydney 40 Foxy Lady III
holds third place overall after recording two wins in the earlier races.
Jeff
Davison's Mumm 30 Panic scored two wins today to take an insurmountable
lead in IRC Class B and has clearly out classed the opposition. Keith
Dunn's second and sixth places on his Mountgay 30 Lunch Cutter
places them in second overall with one race to go. Third place in race
four puts Hellmut Schutte's Elan 340 Aquavit IV into third overall
and gives them a slim one point margin from a hungry chasing pack. Abdul
Karim skippering Victory with a disabled crew managed a second
place in race five which gives them a tremendous moral boost after misjudging
the current in earlier races. Kent Goeking's X-99 Solarmax placed
third in race five and Gordon Maxted's Young 840 Shoon Fung Too
are tied for fourth overall and as they are only one point behind they
are ready to pounce in tomorrows final showdown.
Two
wins for Borstnar Vladimir's Angel gives them the J24 One Design
Class with one race to spare. Two second places for Lee Sea Yean's Jangan
Main-Main secures them second overall and a late charge of two third
places by Tim Tan and Richard Ahl's Juno may give them third
overall.
Changing
conditions produce a mixed bag of results...
A
lengthy delay followed as the wind died between races but the building
black clouds to the North East bought with it a freshening breeze allowing
the race committee to bang off another race. A heavy deluge mid race saw
a massive wind shift that benefited the leaders and back markers but disadvantaged
the mid fleet runners. Paul Winkelmann's TP52 Island Fling powered
across the line at full speed to once again take the daily double in race
three. Bill Bremner's Sydney 40 Foxy Lady III was in the right
spot at the right time to provisionally score second place, missing out
on the glory by a mere second. After reviewing the time sheets the jury
awarded a first place tie between Island Fling and Foxy Lady
III. Robert Knight's DK46 Drumstick clawed back with a
third place.
IRC
Class B saw Jeff Davison's Mumm 30 Panic keep his nose ahead
for a clean sweep on line and handicap honours. Keith Dunn's Lunch
Cutter remains on the pace and secured second place. After a disastrous
day yesterday Kent Goeking's X-99 Solarmax climbed back into
contention with a third place in race two. Unfortunately the wind died
towards the end of the race and four yachts got washed away in the current
and did not finish in time. Race three saw Gordon Maxted's Young 840 Shoon
Fung Too come to the fore after a disastrous start to the regatta.
Jeff Davison's Mumm 30 Panic stayed in the running with a second
place and Kent Goeking's X-99 Solarmax is climbing the rankings
with another third place.
Borstnar
Vladimir on Angel scored a second win in the J24 One Design Class
to finish off where he left off last year. Lee Sea Yean's Jangan Main-Main
scored second place to stay in reach of the leader. Raphael Phang's Hakuna
Matata is steadily climbing back with a third place after misjudging
the current in race one. Dawn Phung's Quarterdeck turned the
tables on the leaders to score first place in race three. Tim Tan and
Richard Ahl's Juno made a welcome return with second place on
the podium displacing series leader Borstnar Vladimir's Angel
to third place in race three.
Race
won or lost at the startline...
Neil
Pryde's Farr 52 OD Hi Fi and Paul Winkelmann's TP52 Island
Fling had no such problems and with thirty seconds to go swung their
bows around almost in unison to cross the line right as the horn sounded
and powered away with speed. A wind change to the south east, left others
at the pin end struggling for up to five minutes as the breeze filled
in. Further down the road the gate was incorrectly laid but Paul Winkelmann's
crew leading the way, managed to follow the sailing instructions to the
letter by completing a 'z' shape track round the boat then back around
the mark which even surprised the officials on the boat. A quick change
over to a freshening North Easterly saw the yachts progress rapidly with
the current to the finish line at Nongsa Point Marina. Paul Winkelmann's
TP52 Island Fling had the foot firmly on the accelerator all
day to finish up with the daily double of line and handicap honours. Bill
Bremner's lower rated Sydney 40 Foxy Lady III scraped into second
place, a mere twenty seconds in front of Robert Knight's DK46 Drumstick
in third place.
The 10 strong IRC Class B with a varying degree of racing experience suffered
badly as the wind change coincided with their start time. A number of
redresses have been lodged for the international jury to decide on. Hellmut
Schutte's new Elan 340 Aquavit IV has provisionally won the class
in front of Jeff Davison's Mumm 30 Panic, although a redress
has been lodged as the leading boat Panic followed the racing
class line through the gate before the boat re-anchored on the correct
side of the gate. Keith Dunn's Lunch Cutter followed closely
behind to claim third place.
Only
three finished in the PY Handicap Class as the others ran out of time
getting to the start line. David Ross's magnificent Swann 53 Frangipani
Girl completed the daily double well in front of Simon Piff's defending
champion Rainbow Dream. Chee Siong Yin's Contessa 33 Red
Baron was the last boat to finish and a mere speck on the horizon
by the time most boats were safely tied up in the marina.
Were
back on deck for the 2007 
Now
in its 13th year, the SSR has grown steadily in stature to become Singapore’s
premier regatta and is the concluding regatta in the Perpetual
Cup Series. Inaugurated in 1997, the Perpetual Cup Series
brings together three regional regattas, the 
Close
racing is expected from the six J24's lining up in the one design class.
Borstnar Vladimir on Angel will have his hands full as Tim Tan/Richard
Ahl previous winner Juno rejoins the fleet and the ever consistent
Raphael Phang on Hakuna Matata is expecting to go that one step
further and stand on the top of the podium by the end of the regatta.
Several old foes are amongst the six Performance Handicap class entries.
Simon Piff's defending champion Rainbow Dream will benefit from
a lengthy campaign north on the Raja Muda and King's Cup. Jerry Lau's
Ericson 28 WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) will be wanting
to make up for being piped at the post last year and Chee Siong Yin's
Contessa 33 Red Baron has several race wins in the past and desperately
wants an overall win. They won't have it all their own way as this year
David Ross's magnificent Swann 53 Frangipani Girl joins the class
and given the right conditions should be able to stretch their legs on
the two long passage races.
