10th Annual Royal Langkawi International Regatta

Race Day 1 10th January 2012
By Beth Liggett

Welcome to all racers and participants to the 10th Annual Royal Langkawi International Regatta! An overcast morning greeted the racers as they headed out on the waters of Bass Harbor ready to begin the first series of races for the Regatta. Winds were about 8 Knots from the ENE at that point. The capable crew members of the Marine Police Boat #PA53 had anchored and had the Race Committee on station at 9am.



The Racing Class boats were cleanly away at 9:30 as were all the subsequent racing classes. Indeed, there were no dramas on the start line for any of Race #1starts. MY TOY (Henning Lenz) was the last boat over the line! A slight increase in the wind from same direction took the sailors up to windward toward a threat of rain showers that didn't thankfully materialize. There were 32 yachts participating today in 7 different racing classes.

JELIK 2 (Frank Pong) was the first to finish in the Racing Class for the first race as well as the following races for his class.


First place winners for Race #1 were:

    HOOLIGAN (Marcus Blackmoore) – Racing Class
    MATA HARI (Vincent Chan) – IRC 1
    SKANDIA EOW (Stuart Williamson) – IRC 2
    ATM ( Mohd. Masyuri B. Rahmat) – Sports boats
    FANTASIA (Andrew Stransky) – Multihull
    HAFFIMAN(Morten Ringvold) – Club Cruising
    MY TOY (Henning Lenz) – Ocean Rover




The most interesting finish occurred when RASCAL ( Gavin Welman) came to the wrong side of the Start Boat, had to reach up to cross the line in the wrong direction before squaring away and making a proper finish at the line!

The racing course is spread out over a 2 and a half mile section of the harbor, so it is hard to see what is going on at the far ends. Most exciting events are apt to happen during a start or finish however.

The IRC-2 class had a very close start for race 2, and in the Ocean Rover class, MY TOY managed to make a start 1 minute too early and had to return and make another try at it. Despite that, MY TOY to pull off a first to finish in the race! There were 2 boats over the line early in the Racing Class for their Third race causing individual recalls for URANUS (Malaysian Navy/ Ishak Jab) and UTARID (Malaysian Navy/Mohamad Razali Mansor) Both these boats were newly launched in December.


The most dramatic moment of the day – for spectators, not the racing team – came during race #3. The race Committee was conducting a start for some classes while race #2 for the Racing Class was finishing. Two multihulls sped out to windward crossing in front of HI FI (Neil Pryde). HI FI hardened up on the wind which put extra strain on the big spinnaker it was flying. Just as HI FI came abeam of the Start Boat and seconds away from the finish line, the big kite blew apart!

By 1:30 in the afternoon all the racers had finished for all classes and were headed back to the Yacht Club. Great day on the water! See you al.