Samui fun

Xena steams past Jing Jing

Check this out: trailer for Samui 2012, based on 2011 footage.  Xena appears three times, each as a "blink-and-you-miss-it" moment: at 0:43, 2:14 and 2:36.  In the middle one, we're trucking past the Jing Jing in yellow (above). Sure, we're lower, but my goodness we're moving past them!
Click here for vid: some lovely babes as well.....

Koh Samui Day Five. Party and "TongZena" Cup

View to Chaweng Cove, from Centara, early morning, 4th June

Noel, MC, Iris, Jing, Digger, TC, Stevo, Peter, Cess, Richard, Tony
Grant, Judy, Cam, Cookie

Just a quick note from my iPad, as the hotel wifi is not working and I can't post photos, to say:

A. Some more photos -- I'll post when I get Internet access, which won't be till Thursday, so come back then to check them out.

B. Pete Sorenson, skipper of "Baby Tonga", instigated the "TongZena Cup" (mis-spelling of both names one of those local Thai "lost in translation" moments), which he presented to us on stage at the Prize giving last night. A gracious and thoughtful gesture. He told us "don't hang on to it too tight, we're coming to take it back at King's Cup!".
Photos of the Cup and party on Thursday, if not before.
Cheers to all crew and safe journeys home!
Update, 9 May, the "TongZena Cup"

Presented to Xena by Peter Sorenson, on 5th June at Samui.
Winner 2010: Baby Tonga. Winner 2011: Xena
To be fought for again at King's Cup 2011

Update, 8 May, some photos:

Xena upwind Race 9

Koh Samui Day Five. Zig, Zag, Zoot, but a Tonga in the boot.

Well, the best news of the day was that we held off Baby Tonga... just!  Entering the last race, Race Ten, four points ahead of them, we lost all those four points as they finished four places ahead of us.  Equal on points, they count back to determine the winner and we pipped them by one place.  So: they beat us at King's Cup on count-back and we beat them in Samui on count-back.  Some symmetry there.

Tactician Cookie, looks for breezes.

Otherwise, our last race day was not covered in glory.  The Race Officer, Ross Chisholm, set us off on Course 9, an islands course to the south around the reef and back north. There was a bit of argy-bargy at the start, we were caught boat end, when we wanted to be leeward near the pin, were OCS, ducked back and came out mid fleet.  It was downhill from there as the winds died from 13knots at the off to 3-4 knots at the bottom mark.
We zigged when we should have zagged, hoped for shifts didn't happen and we finished mid fleet, down the list on corrected.
We were worried Tonga may have pipped us; so, apart from the ordinary race, the day finished well when we saw results of our pipping them on countback.

Koh Samui Day Four. A long day at the office

I don't have the results yet, just off to the Tavern to see them, so this is day four short version. Very, very short version: [update at bottom]

Leading the fleet in Race Seven, Day four

Race Seven: windward-leeward, twice round. Wind 10-15 knots.  We led at every mark and at the finish, raced well, but lost wind on the final run to the line, with others coming on building breeze -- how often has that happened!... So we can't have been good on handicap, as the followers were a following a touch too closely.  Baby Tonga beat us (corrected).  Update below.
Race Eight: windward-leeward, twice round.  Breeze 8-9 knots.  We raced a shocker, going out left looking for breeze, finding it too late, and right turned out favoured, with two completely different breeze lines on the course and we finished mid-field on the water, an unusual place for us to be. Baby Tonga beat us (corrected).  Update below.

Cam pings the start

Race Nine: windward-leeward, twice round.  Breeze 4-5 knots.  You can tell from the so-called "breeze" that this was a dodgy race to even start, to say the least, and there were mutterings....  We drifted round in shifting light winds, up and down, back and forth, but some canny tactics brought us second over the line, with some possibility of an ok result.  We beat Baby Tonga (corrected)
That's it for now.  More later, maybe. [Update below]

Sailing in 3-4 knots of alleged "breeze", Race Nine

Update: 5th Race Seven, 10th in the shocker of Race Eight, and 6th in Race Nine.  Beat Baby Tonga in Race Nine by 4 places, for a net lead overall of 4, which is what we go into tomorrow with.
We're lying equal 7th on points with Katsu, and have a chance to move a few places up tomorrow if the breeze is decent (all we need is a touch above 10 knots and we're happy -- we don't ask for much....) and we'd prefer to do an Islands course, if breeze enough.  The best we can hope for is to move to fifth.  Meantime, we have to hold off any challenge from Tonga, our nemesis in King's Cup (equal first on points, second on count-back).

Day Four. Lay day and Library Party

"Take that, IRC!"  Cess' view of our rating.  But don't get me started...

More photos below the fold

Day Three update... and "Splash"!

The lady that took this shot also caught our bottom mark MOB practice.  See below.....
Xena heads south on Islands course nine.

As promised in last post, herewith update:

Race Four: windward leeward, twice round.  10-15knots.  We led the fleet from the good start at pin end, leeward.  We had good speed on all, and led at first two marks, and a third mark, windward, we went round on the heels of One More Prang, the GP42 which rates higher than us (for NSRs*: that means the handicapper thinks they are faster, hence have a higher handicap). Then on the run home did well again on the fleet, tactician Cookie getting well placed and covering well all way down, second over line and a Third on Corrected time. 

Wooshka.

Race Five: windward-leeward, once round.  We led all way round, to finish over line first, by two seconds.  Passably well on handicap, with a sixth. Update (08:00 am): the detailed results were not online as of posting this, but talking to committee boat people just now, (rest day, breakfasting at Centara Grand), they said that there were just three seconds between us and third place on corrected time.  It's our new handicap, see, but don't get me started on that!)

Heading to start, Race three

Race Six: Passage race, course 9, 10-15knots, gusting 18k: down south, port passing mark half way down, round bottom mark, through gate by the reef and home.  We led from the get-go and put distance on the fleet all the way on first beat, which became a tight reach to the bottom mark, boat going well, 8-9knots in 12+ knots of breeze.

Round the bottom mark, gybe-set to A2 spinnaker, beautiful rounding well in front of fleet, kite half way hoisted before the mark, smooth rounding, gybe, set, banded kite pops and flick!  Iris overboard! 

Quick action by crew boss Stevo, and she was hauled back on board, shaken but unbowed.  She’d held on to the sheet saying to herself “we’re racing, we’re racing”, so held on tight and kicked her legs to get a surfing motion going.  Amazing was how quick it was, in an instant she went from on board heading to cockpit to trim, to being overboard.  

Hoist A2, drop Jib, smooth going till...

Splash!... Iris takes a dip... flicked off deck by spinnaker sheet....

... but hangs on ("we're racing, we're racing", she's thinking) and is hauled aboard.

Lessons learned we’ll discuss at tomorrow's briefing....  And, once settled, we made for the gate, under very shy A2 kite (NSRs*: an asymmetrical spinnaker, for medium airs) to lay the starboard passing mark of the gate, running 120-30 True, 85-90 Apparent wind angles, doing 9-10 knots.

All fine till near the line, we well in front, and squall brewing behind us.  We kept our kite up till the last moment, about ten lengths from the finish line, when we spiked the kite, and ran home with 30+knots under main to the finish, and easy Line Honours.  The rest of the fleet was well behind us, us and got hammered in various ways, some broaches, some panicked dropping of kite and heading upwind.  But the good boats all got their spinnakers down and ran home with gusts over 40knots, running fast to the finish, which did it for us on handicap and we took another sixth.

Not a bad day’s work, and with Iris safely on board, we can say it was a memorable and thoroughly enjoyable three races, in the classic of tropical racing, clear skies, flat seas and good and steady(ish) breezes.

Baby Tonga update: "Tonga" is the other boat in the division that is really a Premier Class boat, not IRC 1, same as us. We raced together in King's Cup last December ending equal first on points, with them taking first on count-back. We were keen to take them on again here in Samui, but Premier Class dissolved with some drop-outs, so we race them internally in this IRC 1 Division, not really appropriate for either of us.  
End of Tuesday, they were one point in front of us. In the three races yesterday, we beat them twice by two points, and they beat us once by one point, for a net gain to us of three point on the day, to take us two points in front of them with two days to go.

*"NSR" = Non Sailing Readers

Koh Samui Day Three. Three races and a great day on the water.

Three races today, two windward-leeward one island course.  We picked up a third in the first race, which was pleasantly surprising.  And one, maybe two, line honours (don't know yet -- it was an "on the water" squeaker), just off to the Tavern for prize giving and results).  Some dramatic events on the water, about which more later.  For now, just saying that we had a great day's sailing, a great change from yesterday's squib.
Photos below (thanks again Cess).

Grant asked if North Sails could do a little bimini for the back.
Instant service from Stevo

More photos below the fold

Dingle update

Hong Kong from Lei Yue Mun, last year (nothing to do with post below....)

There was a bit of a dingle at the start of the race yesterday, involving a collision at the pin end between front runner Matt Allen's Ichi Ban, the local GP42, and top-rated boat Wan Ma Rang and Baby Tonga.  WMR hit both the other boats, was judged at fault and disqualified.  Ichi Ban was hit and spinnaker pole bent, so they had to retire and seek redress; which they got -- they will be awarded an extra place at the end of Friday's racing equal to the average of its places to that day's racing.  Tonga had damaged stanchion, but was otherwise unaffected by the event.
One other result: Wan Ma Rang, promptly rechristened "One More Prang".

Baby Tonga update: had chat with Pete Sorensen, skipper of Tonga last night's skipper's reception.  He's keeping close eye on us as well, as the only other Premier class boat in the fleet, and given our close competition in King's Cup.  They finished three places up on us yesterday, against the two points we made on them in Day one, giving them one points lead on us overall so far....
Pete said he liked Xena.... so we invited him to join us for a regatta closer to home -- Boracay in the Philippines maybe, in February.  Chatted with Ross Dawson of Ffree Fire, who's crewed with us on Xena from time to time, and he says Borocay is a great regatta, with steady strong breezes in the 20+ knot range, dependable.  It's in February, winter there, no need for air-con.

Met the lady that takes photos for the Regatta, who directed us to the Regatta website where there are plenty of photos, too many maybe....   

Koh Samui Day Two. More photo opps...

Downwind trimming is soooo dehydrating.  TC enjoying a can, au naturel

More photos below the fold

Koh Samui, Day One

Photo of our crew, cast of thousands, on Xena before going out to the racecourse today, just off Chaweng Beach, Koh Samui.

I’ll post a bit more a few more photos the below, remaining broadband time allowing.   Mostly people piccies.

Front Row, L to R: Richard, TC, Cess, Iris, Digger.
Back Row: Tony, Judy, Cameron, Jing, Grant, Peter, Simon, Michael, Noel, Stevo.

Cess: for whom also thanks for the photo-taking.

More photos below the fold.

Spotted at Zico's party: Koh Samui Regatta, June 2011

Woopsie!  Does "she" need the Crocodile Dundee test?

"Jamaican" Thai She-boy shakes his/her booty...

Jing with "Digger"

Practice day..

Some photos on my camera, kindly taken by Cess, for which many thanks, Cess!
Breezes shifty in 5-10 knot range, holes in places (TIA*, says Stevo).  At one stage on a beat we were on starboard tack and went to port tack without changing direction or doing anything... the breeze just shifted 90 degrees.
There's no Premier Class this year, as too few boats, so we're in IRC 1, which really doesn't suit Xena and the job is ahead of us, as there are a number of racers in the division, as opposed to we cruiser-racers.  Not to mention our new, increased, handicap, but don't get me started on that....

Les belles du mere,  Amanda, Cess, Judy, Iris

More photos below the fold

In beautiful Samui

Xena at anchor.  Showing the overhangs very clearly...

Jing and I arrived here in Samui at the lovely Centara Grand Resort Hotel, HQ of the Regatta.  The boats are out off the beach and we get ready for on-board by 10:00, couple of hours practice and practice race at 1:00.
Bumped into TC on the plane, just back from his stint of training in the US, and now back living in Hong Kong.  And Neil Pryde and Barry Hayes and number of other sailors on the flight.  It's always a pleasure to arrive back Samui and even its airport, charming, open-to-the-air little place, with electric golf-cart type buses that pick you up and then the quick drive to hotel through streets redolent of Asia.
Race-wise: we've got a tough job ahead of us with our new -- and *not* improved -- handicap.  So the decision is to sail well, sail fast and simply enjoy the FUN regatta.... 

Winds forecast

WindGuru shows a reasonably breezy week, mainly W/SW, 8-15knts, gusting 20.  Lighter Thursday (rest day) and Friday, 5-10knts, gusting 14.
Note: if looking at this times are UTC. Samui is UTC + 7.

Blogging from Samui

This blog started at last year's King's Cup (hence the URL name).  I did a daily post from there, but was constrained by having only my iPad, which I didn't realise is not really optimised for blogging -- you have to do it in HTML, which is a bit of a hassle, and I couldn't upload photos.
This time, I'm bringing my MacBook Pro, so it should be rather easier.
SO, CREW.... bring your cameras along and click away!  I'll chose a couple each day to post.  People piccies tend to be the most popular.
Cheers
Peter.

Our 2011 IRC TCC...

We got our new Certificate yesterday: 1.228. [*]
13 pips up from last year.  Yikes!
I was pretty grumpy about this, and there've been emails flying around the place, XY in Denmark, the IRC reps here, IRC in UK, etc... Net result is that we have to live with it, with the only option to challenge it being to have re-measurement when we return to Hong Kong.
On a slightly more positive note: it seems as though many boats will be going up, as the IRC has implemented some changes, which are here.
For info, the only other X-55s we know with IRC TCC are Echo in Europe, with 1.216 and Audeamus in Perth with 1.180, but she has smaller sails for heavier wind and is "loaded with gear" (then again, so are we...).
In sum, there it is.  We have the dubious distinction of being the highest-rated X-55 in the world.  And, we have to give about another 50 seconds/hour...
Update: Tonga has gone down 2 pips to 1.162...

Meantime, back to the races:
Course notes: Stevo/TC/Richard: if you're reading this, I've got them all laminated for you.

********

[*] Note for our NSR's (non-sailing readers): this is the number by which we have to multiply our Elapsed Time (time "on the water") to get our Corrected Time, which is the time used to calculate final positions.  i.e. the lower the better, the higher the worse.  The IRC certificate, with the Time Correction Coefficient, is issued by the Royal Ocean Racing Club. Our TCC went up from 1.215 to 1.228, hence my "grumpiness"....

Email to crew...

Three cheers to Grant the “the Boyz” (Noel and Mike), who delivered Xena safely, and have been race-prepping her.  And for Grant’s great struggle -- finally successful -- to fix the Genset and the Engine, both of which have been acting up of late  -- yesterday both kaput, today both working, after epic struggles and hours in dingy Samui workshops. Great job, Grant, Noel, Mike, and esp Grant!

Photo from Regatta website, Xena in 2010 Samui.  Click to enlarge.
I rather like this one...

Modelling the new hats

First Mate, Marcus William Forsythe, our Weimaraner,
models our new crew hat

Crew list for Samui finalised

Stevo, Richard, Michael, Cess, Peter, TC, Bicky, Olaf, Rick, Jing, Ross, Klaus, Petra

Well, almost... just the Bow to go, which Bicky is helping us sort out -- many thanks Bick, if you're reading this!
Oh.... and the above is NOT the crew for this year's regatta; it's the jolly lot at last year's. Quite a few making the return trip to defend the title we won last time: from left to right, those returning are: Stevo, Richard, Michael, Cess, Peter, TC and Jing.
Full crew list for this year here.  If I've got any contact detail wrong, please let me know here.

Sawadee.com Regatta, Koh Samui. Here we come....

Regatta is 30 May to 4 June
Click image above to go to Regatta Website.

Prepping now for Xena to head down to Samui, in the kind care of Grant and "the Boyz" (Noel and Mike).  Xena's ETD Hong Kong is 12th May, with Grant arriving from Kiwiland and staying with us on the nite of the 8th.  Meantime, we're planning an overnight trip with Rick and Inge to Mirs Bay this coming weekend, so if we're not home by the time Grant arrives on our doorstep, I've left him a briefing note: on the dogs (full c.v. on Nikki, Marcus and Basil) and how to walk them in Siena Park....

There's already 25 boats entered, though my worry is whether our class, Premier, will have enough, as I know Moonblue 2, for one, is not coming. Pete Churchouse says that she's been out of Hong Kong for so much of the year, they want to have her back here for a bit of Po-Toi-ing... We will have Baby Tonga, though, a good competitor and we have to get revenge for the last race in King's Cup...  Apart from the renowned Pete Sorenson ("Soro") as Skipper, they have our San Fernando crewmate Gordon ("Gordie") Ketelby on board and he's a demon in the light airs, which we'll have at Samui.

Crew-wise we have 14 confirmed, with Ben ("TC") having just confirmed -- he's coming back to Hong Kong, by the way, after a stint in the US.  One concern: who to have on bow....

After the Regatta, we plan a several days cruising with Grant and Iris, thinking about going to the Marine National Park.   This is some of it below: