It's Evolution Racing by a whisker...

30:01:2010 Once again it came down to a final day showdown in the Racing Class. Both crews on Ray Roberts TP52 Evolution Racing and Neil Pryde's Welbourn 52 Hi Fi were pumped up and raring to go. Some old fashioned America's Cup style circling started the sequence, then they broke away and headed for the startline with speed. Geoff Hill's TP52 Strewth and Nick Burns / Fred Kinmonth Mills 51 EFG Bank Mandrake also joined in and tried desperately to throw a spanner into the works. Neil Pryde hit the line first at the pin end but Ray Roberts was a couple boat lengths to windward with Strewth on their hip and Mandrake taking the weather berth.

The last couple of tacks coming into the top mark are proving very crucial to rounding in first place. After going tack for tack up the first windward beat Evolution Racing had the honour of rounding only a few seconds in front of Hi Fi. This is a significant advantage as Hi Fi maybe slightly quicker downwind but can only close the gap and extremely difficult to find an overtaking lane. Professional crew at this level rarely make mistakes and are a sight to behold as they go through the maneuvers with clockwork proficiency. As the two boats surged into the finish line the watch keepers were poised with their fingers on the button. In a cloud of spray Evolution Racing crossed the line and Hi Fi followed 38 seconds latter. So was this enough for the lower rating Hi Fi to even up the score? In what seemed like an eternity finally the thumbs up sign came from the Evolution Racing tactician.

Despite securing the title they went through the same process on the final race and once again Evolution Racing got the better of Hi Fi to firmly seal their place in the record books. After trading third and fourth places all regatta Nick Burns / Fred Kinmonth Mills 51 EFG Bank Mandrake managed to slip into third overall by one point from Geoff Hill's TP52 Strewth that wagered their own battle between themselves.

For winning the Raja Muda Regatta and the King's Cup plus second place here, Neil Pryde and Hi Fi have won the annual three nations S.E.A. Perpetual Cup Series and was awarded the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy at the gala prize presentation party.

In a less tense affair David Ross' Kerr 32 Kukukerchu pushed on to add two more wins to their tally and take home the IRC B Class title on their first attempt. Good crew work allowed them to race the fully optimised IRC design to its full potential. Sarab Jeet Singh's Sydney 40MOD Windsikher returned to form after a disastrous first day to secure second place. The battle of the Farr 30's turned in favour of Jonathan Mahony's Happy Endings after Renford Tay's Judy was called over the start line on the last race and did not return to correct the error. Despite scoring second place in Race 6, the last race penalty dropped Judy down to fourth and opened the door for Happy Endings to sneak into third overall.

Going into the last day Jovin Tan's disabled crew on Victory held a two point lead in the IRC C class but could not afford to slip up as the others were rapidly closing in on them. After an up and down sort of regatta Shaun Toh's Platu 25 SMUve came good to win Race 6, followed by Gordon Maxted's Young 84 Shoon Fung Too in second place and Ang Yong Tat's Platu 25 SMUmad in third place. Jovin's Victory had slipped to fourth and was now tied on ten points with Maxted's Shoon Fung Too going into the final race.

As the wind strengthened it favoured the bigger Shoon Fung Too who came out of the blocks quickly and proceeded to put some distance on the rest of the fleet. As the blazing pink spinnaker was hoisted for the last time it looked like they had the title in the bag. Half way down the run an unexpected gust caught them off guard with a catastrophic chinese gybe that caused all sorts of mayhem. After wasting precious minutes to unravel the mess and retrieve the spinnaker from the water they gingerly got underway again to scamper across the finish line. By then the rest of the fleet had rounded the top mark and substantially closed the gap on the one time cover pinup on Fragrant Harbour magazine. As Jovin Tan's Victory crossed the finish line it was reminiscent of the Greek marathon runner being asked if it is ' Victory or Defeat?' Quick calculations revealed that it is Victory by forty two seconds and a huge sigh of relief plus high fives all around as they merrily sailed into the marina.

Amazingly in the IRC E class all five J24's have finished in the same order in all the races. Right from the very beginning Borstnar Vladimir's Angel held the upper hand and kept a clean sheet by winning every race to secure the IRC E title two years in a row. Christopher Lim's Shengli almost caused an upset in the last race to finish only a few seconds behind Angel who picked up the last wave to shoot in front of them at the finish line. So Shengli earns a well deserved second place and Colin Cheng / Tim Tan's J24 Juno secures third overall. Nova skippered by Wahab and Merdeka by Subiyanto representing the Indonesian Navy may not be amongst the podium places but have gained some valuable experience here.

Summary
Each morning we have been blessed with warm sunshine, blue sky and more importantly a building NE tradewind that sent the racers on their way. Looking across the busy shipping lanes we can hardly see Singapore shrouded in haze and the noisy hum drum of industrialization must justify the decision to hold the entire regatta in Batam, Indonesia. The more relaxing nature of resort living by the sea and the huge expanse of open water to hold the races makes sense. For the first time all the sponsors have come from Indonesia and Nongsa Point Marina Resort must be thanked for playing host and providing excellent service to the participants. Next year it is Raffles Marina's turn to organise the event and they have already stated that they will follow the same race program. As word gets out hopefully some more boat owners can be enticed to cross the straits and join in for four fantastic days of uninterrupted racing at the center of the universe.

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

Goto: SSR Photo Gallery
SSR 2010 - AY Race Report 3
SSR 2010 - AY Race Report 2
SSR 2010 - AY Race Report 1
SSR 2010 - AY Pre-Regatta Report
January AYGP Newsletter...

This SSR - AY Race Reports are kindly bought to you by the following supporters