Off to a windy start...

27:01:2010 Fifteen knot North Easterly tradewinds saw the twenty one yacht fleet away to a feisty start and complete two windward leeward races in quick succession. Some crews looked a bit rusty after the lengthy New Year break with several wild broaches, gear breakages and indifferent crew work hampering their progress and not being able to recover despite initially holding a good place. The top guns renewed their battle for supremacy and showed the returning boats no mercy in the opening rounds.

The new Evolution mainsail on Ray Roberts TP52 Evolution Racing immediately paid dividends on Race 1 to beat Neil Pryde's Welbourn 52 Hi Fi by one minute. Shredding an old spinnaker on Evolution Racing in Race 2 opened the door for Neil Pryde's Hi Fi to reverse the roles and make it, one all, at the end of Day 1. Nick Burns / Fred Kinmonth Mills 51 EFG Bank Mandrake and Geoff Hill's TP52 Strewth traded third and fourth places to also end up all square in what has been termed the Corinthian racers in the class.

David Ross' new Kerr 32 Kukukerchu with some of New Zealand's Blackmatch racing team onboard, did not miss a beat to come away with two wins in the IRC B class. Two second places for Kenn Eyears / Rick Overton's newly acquired Farr 30 Panic is a big confidence boost on their first outing. Despite admitting to some crew hiccups Jonathan Mahony's Farr 30 Happy Endings slotted in with two third places and is pleased to see the three Singaporean Farr 30's coming together for the first time. Sarab Jeet Singh's Sydney 40MOD Windsikher had their moments but sadly the sail handling drills let them down in both races.

As everyone else in the IRC C class were experiencing some almighty thrills and spills in the fresh conditions, Jovin Tan's disabled crew carefully guided Victory around the course without the spinnaker and live up to the boats name with two victories. SMU's Platu 25, SMUve skippered by Shaun Toh held on to score two second places to be the best of the rest on Day 1. On some occasions Gordon Maxted's Young 84 Shoon Fung Too were a tad overpowered but survived to score two third places. An injured crew member was taken ashore from Ang Yong Tat's Platu 25 SMUmad which unsettled the crew but they still went onto complete Race 2 to be in fourth place.

In IRC E Borstnar Vladimir's Angel got the better of the five one design J24's to score two bullets and continue on their winning ways. Not to be completely outdone Christopher Lim's Shengli scored two second places but will have to significantly lift their game to beat Angel. Two third places for Colin Cheng / Tim Tan's J24 Juno keeps the rhythm going for follow the leader. Nova skippered by Wahab and Merdeka by Subiyanto are crewed by members of the Indonesian Navy that hope to make a good impression on their superiors to compete at future events.

Racing continues tomorrow with two more windward/leeward races and as the healthy conditions are expected to continue, we can expect some more ruff and tumble on the race course. The social program was outlined at the briefing yesterday and the sailors were asked to put their minds around consuming over 5000 sponsored Carlsberg cans, which they all gave a good round of applause and are steadily making their way through.

More info and results can be found at http://www.straitsregatta.com

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