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Singapore
Sling
Following the completion of the 1999 Raja Muda and King's Cup
regattas, many a dedicated racer has gone back to his home club
with fervent hopes that his liver and kidneys are still intact
after the many post race parties that are associated with each
regatta. Sometimes it's a pity that we have to go racing and
spoil great regattas! As for winners and losers of each regatta,
I can't remember, but the winners know who they are and the
losers - who cares. Merv Owen from 'Monsoon Blue' will remember
race 6 at the 1999 King's Cup for a long time; after a medium
to large dust up with 'Stormvogel' his boat went quickly to
the bottom. Luckily there were no major injuries, but a couple
of sodden and shaken sailors. The talk on the beach after the
race was all about the great sportsmanship displayed by the
crew of 'Stormvogel' for their assistance after the racing incident
and their instant retirement to sort out all the details. Great
to see!
Actually race 6 was a small battle of attrition with Ray Ordoveza's
'Karakoa' blowing out a couple of rags and Neil Pryde's 'Hi
Fidelity' losing her rig, thankfully not over the side. The
mast incident brings me to this edition's question: which carbon
fibre spar maker has had the most broken masts? Is it:
a. Cloncurry Stockmans Hall of Fame b. Kalgoolie Gold Spar Co.
Inc. c. Carbon Tech Spars d. Carlton and United Spar and Breweries
Ltd.
As far as the Raja Muda and King's Cup regattas themselves,
the 10th Raja Muda was, as usual, very good social wise but
a little lacking in the wind department. Maybe a tweaking of
the actual races or a change of regatta dates would be beneficial.
Perhaps start the whole Sir Thomas Lipton Cup series with the
King's Cup followed by the Raja Muda and then The Straits Regatta,
which reverts to its original time slot in the first year of
the new millennium, Jan 2001.
The main reason I hear for not starting the series with the
King's Cup is what about the cruisers competing in the King's
Cup and wanting to go west later. Bugger them. They will still
do it and as very few do the other two regattas then those two
regattas have not lost much anyway. The King's Cup was, apart
from the sojourn to Krabi and the annual wallow in the rubbish
dump called Phi Phi, very good. Mostly good winds and very hard
racing made the on water scene excellent. The parties on Phuket
were excellent, although the Ao Nang party was average and the
Phi Phi party non-existent. Bring back the 'Jolly Roger' ASAP.
They were the days.
While writing about Phuket, I see 'Phuket' Paul Bosanquet has
admitted that the Jenny Craig diet is not working and he will
be trying another one. Good luck Jumbo. Also, that doyen of
the delivery skippers Rob Taylor has decided to grow his hair
long in an effort to retain his youth. I must admit that the
ponytail looks great but perhaps you should transplant some
of it around to the front just for effect.
I Arrived back at Changi Sailing Club on December 18th with
'Australia Challenge'. We had a roaring ride through the Straits
with a 40+ knot Sumatra blowing us through at 16.18 knots. A
great ride on the main only. Thanks for loan of your delivery
main 'Hi Fidelity'. Sorry about the damage.
The Northeast has been blowing steadily for the last three weeks
night and day. The east coast of Malaysia, especially around
Tioman Island with winds up to 50 knots and seas up to 5 metres
causing many coastal villages to be severely damaged. At C.S.C.
a couple of yachts have snapped moorings and dragged through
the fleet. Luckily with very little damage. Unfortunately, one
of the push tug and sand barges got a little off course one
night and dragged 3 moorings about 200 metres towards the main
channel. Unluckily, there were 3 club boats attached to the
moorings at the time, resulting in one on the bottom still to
be raised and two capsized and severely damaged. Of course,
the culprit did a runner and is yet to be identified.
It was nice to see Eric Bakker on his boat 'Forex' finish in
front of the much larger boat 'Australian Maid' at the King's
Cup. Now all you have to do is finish in front of boats your
size or smaller at Changi. On the Changi scene Lex Barker has
won the keelboat sailor of the year by a very small margin.
Maybe next season Lex will sail the boat booze free and win
by a bigger margin.
With the New Year the Changi Sailing Club changed caterers and
so far all seems to be running smoothly. People tell me the
food is very good and the beer is icy cold, which is all that
really matters to me. The general manager of the club, Mr. Kong
Seng Khee, has moved to operations and the very experienced
Jason Lim has taken over the day to day running of the club.
Jason was previously at the East Coast Sailing Centre.
The racing scene at Changi has been slow to kick off for the
new season, probably because there's been too much wind, but
the keelboats are up and running with a race to Nongsa and back
with a windward/leeward thrown in. As well, on the 15th and
16th of January, it looks like another tear at Lucy's Oarhouse,
Sphinx Disco and Skyline Disco. Oh my aching body, this yacht
racing is just too hard!
The new marina at Sentosa Island had its first customer on New
Year's Eve when 'La Baronessa' came in to spend the evening
and enjoy the fireworks display. The new marina is not quite
ready but should be in a few months time and will be a perfect
spot for those large boats that don't like mooring on the outer
wall at Raffles. Rumour, and a very strong one at that, has
it that a new marina will be built at Turtle Island off Sanur
beach in Bali subject to government approval, bribes and objections
from other marinas in the area. I also have it on good authority
that a small boat repair facility is in the pipeline for Batam
Island due to commence operation later this year.
As for the great insurance debate between the two Mr. As it
is now in the hands of the lawyers Lee and Lee. A pity that,
cause once it gets there, no one wins. Time to rest up in the
Ubin lounge at Changi, physche up, dry out and get ready for
the President's Cup in Subic Bay in early March 2000.
Cheers for now.
Gotcha Got It - Malaysia's Own Capture
Raja Muda
Singapore Sling
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