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| Two X-55s "match race" in Phuket Xena (blue kite) and Pine-Pacific battle it out at King's Cup, 2012. Note the different spinnaker set-ups: us with pole, Pine with bowsprit. |
Pine cleaned up in the Premier IRC Division, taking all six races, some by as much as 30 minutes corrected. Their only competition was the lovely grey Swan 75, Silandra V, but Pine beat her handily, including on the water in Race 4.
As Phuket Wan news says:
In Premier class, Pine-Pacific has dominated their class all week, and took two more victories again today. The team have been in a ''class of their own'' all week, and finished well ahead of nearest rival Silandra V.So well done to Ithinai Yingsiri and his crew!
Also in the Division, another old sparring partner, the First 53f5 Baby Tonga, now owned by our neighbour Garry Smith, under charter to an Aussie crew, as Sailing Adventures and they too made it to the podium in Race 5; well done lads and ladies.
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| Baby Tonga crew pick up their second place silverware. Our mate and neighbour, Garry Smith in the middle. Sorry don't know the others... |
IRC 0: the big boys.... Neil Pryde racing again in his much-campaigned Wellboune 52 Custom, Hifi, came in third to two TP52s, just pipping another Hong Kong sailor, Frank Pong on his RP Custom 75, Jelik into fourth.
IRC 1: Long-time Xena cremate, Stevo, was racing on the Patrick Pender & Jamie McWilliam's Ker40, Signal 8 picking up a podium-finish third, in the hotly contested IRC1 Division.
IRC 2: Pete ("Sorro") Sorensen in his newly-bought Beneteau First 44.7 Fujin (Matt Allen's ex Ichi Ban), scored a second overall in their division IRC2. Sailing mate Rob's Sailplane, a First 47.7, was chartered to Russian Kirili Sakhartsev -- whose folks had looked after us so well on our Russia trip in May this year -- and finished a creditable 4th in the division.
IRC 3: Hong Kong boat, the A35 Red Kite II owned -- and raced so well -- by Anthony Root and crew, won handily, tussling along the way with Matt Allen's new Ichi Ban an Adams 10.
LATER:
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| Baby Tonga, 2nd place, R5, on the King's Birthday.... Owner Garry gets his just desserts, from Dagmar.. |
To Ithinai Yingsiri and his crew (7 Dec):
ReplyDeleteFor Khun Yithinai Yingsiri,
Congratulation on your magnificent victory in Kings Cup!
From Peter Forsythe, Jing Lee and the crew of Xena
(Jing and I are attending a wedding in Bangkok so could not make it to the Regatta.)
Best wishes from "the other" Asian X-55!
Peter.
Dear Peter,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your and Jing Lee and the crew of Xena kind words and message to congratulate Pine-Pacific team.
This year regatta, the weather not so nice to us, there are many cloudy days, especially on December 5th. Anyway, we have good wind every days around 12-16 knots and that is important to keep us moving and enjoy the sailing.
There are around 104 boats racing this year, which is around 20% up from last year entry.
We sail mostly on long course and on last day December 6th, we had windward leeward course, finally.
We will race more this year and hope to see you and Xena in the water some day in near future.
Your nice compliment is much appreciate.
Best regards.
Ithinai Yingsiri
Sent from my iPad
From Dagmar, on Baby Tonga,
ReplyDeleteMorning, good to be back.
It was a great experience. Must tell you that Pine-Pacific yacht and the crew are flawless. Xena's sister never hicked up once! Amazing.
Thanks Khun Ithinai (is that correct?),
ReplyDeleteI have posted something on the King’s Cup, with a picture from last year, on the Xena blog...
My friends on Baby Tonga said Pine Pacific was “flawless”…
The main reason we didn’t come down again this year was because it was very tough on the boat last year. ... Propellor caught fishing line, mashed the gear box. For the last 8 days to HK, there was no engine.
We just thought it’s a bit too hard to come all that way, unless we wait to deliver until NE Monsoon is finished, or else go to Philippines first.
So, we would love to race against you again, but I’m not sure if we can make it to King’s Cup…. Still, you never know!..
All the best to you, and again, congratulations.
Pete
From Ithinai Yingsiri (owner Pine-Pacific):
ReplyDeletePeter,
Yes, your writing is correct. In Thailand, we always call a person his/her given name instead of last name.
I always enjoy your Xena blog and follow your blog all year, that make me please on the past King's Cup memory and I start waiting for the next year King's Cup from the very last days of each year race. I hope that you won't mind that I do that. Richard of Titania of Cowes, also, mentioned to me that he always follow you blog
as well and he enjoy it similar to me. We laughing at what we do the same thing in follow you blog all year.
I do not realize the magnitude of all the difficulties you boat had. I now become to understand all the troubles you had in getting boat here to Phuket and Thailand.
It make me and our team appreciate your coming trip to race with us for the last 3 years here.
Thanks for the compliment but we are not "flawless", we had several issues on our first race out.
I will be waiting to race against Xena in future, with much appreciation.
All the best to you and Xena member.
Ithinai