Yacht Sales Co Regatta cements spot as elite sailing event of the Phuket summer season

Story photos by Scott Murray editor Sea Yachting Magazine

An action-packed week full of excitement and chaotic weather highlighted the 2024 Yacht Sales Co Regatta. Indeed, the weather gods threw everything they had at the competitors, but it did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm and fun the crews experienced. With 15 boats, featuring teams from the UK, Australia and China practically all vowed to return for the 2025 event.

The regatta got off to a rousing start as a squall blew in with winds gusting up to thirty knots blowing through the first race of the regatta. Needless to say, no kites were needed as most skippers were just trying to keep their boats and crew intact. A few boats suffered gear and sail damage from the squall, but were quickly repaired and ready to race again.

After losing Race Day four due to extreme weather which saw gusts up to 42 knots, the final race day saw two races put in which saw positions changed in both racing divisions.

In Monohull Racing, Craig Nicholls & James Bury’s team on Alright, who traveled all the way up from Australia for the event, won all but one race to capture the four-boat Monohull Racing division. Spry Neil’s Degenkolw, 79-years-young, took Phoenix to second overall in the division while Aftershock took third. Aftershock had some very talented sailors on board including co-owner Steve McConaghy, a former Australian Olympic sailor as well as Michael Lockley and Russell Murphy (both former Commodores of the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club). Peter Dyer’s Madame Butterfly was fourth.

The eight-boat Multihull Racing class was won by John Newnham’s Twin Sharks, an 8.5m catamaran. Twin Sharks won four of the seven races in the class with the remaining 3 being won by Stealth catamarans. John Hearne’s Boreas Stealth catamaran was second overall, while George Eddings Blue Nose, another Firefly, was third in the class. They were followed by David Liddell’s WoW, Dougal Jackson’s Haruki, Mick Kealy’s Mamba, Glywn Rowland’s Twister 2, and Dirk Weiblen’s crew on No Fear.

For the first time an Asian regatta held an Asia Catamaran Stealth division (within the wider Multihull Racing Division). This seemed fitting as all their boats are designed and built in Phuket. Asia Catamarans co-owner, Roger Diggleman was on hand to give out the first championship trophy, which went to John Hearne’s Boreas. David Liddell’s WOW was second followed by Dougal Jackson’s Haruki and Glywn Rowlands’ Twister 2. Asia Catamarans also sponsored the final day of racing.

The Multihull Cruising class was taken by Andy McDermott’s Corsair Trident followed by James Baxter’s Zephyrus who won two of the races and performed well.

Boyd Jackson’s Morningside showed a lot of moxie capturing the Monohull Cruising class.

The Yacht Sales Co Regatta ended with a sumptuous buffet at the Kan Eang 2 restaurant in Ao Chalong where competitors received their prizes and had a great time reliving the events and excitement of the past week.

Race Officer Simon James did a superb job of giving the competitors a different set of courses every day while dealing with constantly changing weather patterns. Classes that sailed a minimum of five races were able to drop their worst result.

Almost half the fleet (7 of the 15 competing boats) were built in Phuket with the three 8.5m Fireflies being built by the late Mark Horwood, and designed by Mark Pescott, who competed in the regatta on Boreas. Asia Catamaran’s Operation Manager Zam Bevan sailed on Haruki.

There was a different scoring system for almost every class: Racing Monohulls were on the IRC Handicap System while the Cruising Monos & Multis were on the Phuket Yacht Club PHS Rating. And then, Racing Multis were on the OMR v9 Handicap System.

After the awards ceremony, competitors bid on a Highfield Tender donated by the Cholamark Boat Company, Rick Fielding was his usual colourful self as the auctioneer and was able to raise THB91,500 for the Phuket Yacht Club’s building fund with Steve McConaghy coming in with the winning bid.

As mentioned, competitors faced lots of changing weather during the event. There was no rain, then there was a lot of rain. There was no sun, then the sun broke through. There was little wind, then there were tremendous gusts of wind. Throw all that in with the strong tidal current and there’s plenty to reckon with.

“Bring it on”, yelled one of the sailors, who along with other competitors celebrated the challenging days on the water by congregating for food and drink at the Phuket Yacht Club, where Khun Jeab and her team did a fabulous job of looking after all the sailors.

The regatta saw seven decades competing, or helping out, on the water, including 79-year-old Niels Degenklow, who did a superb job helming Phoenix as usual while 81-year-old David Rucker, who flew 1,000 combat missions in Vietnam, did his usual stellar job helping record scores on the mark boat.

It was also great to have family members racing together in the regatta. Glywn and Karen Rowlands had their daughter Sian sailing with them on Twister 2 while Mick Kealy had his son Liam with him on Mamba, while his brother Brendan ran the mark boat during the event.

This event is now the marquee sailing event of the summer season. Formerly called the Multihull Solutions Regatta it used to be a three-day event, that only featured multihulls. It acted as a feeder for Phuket Raceweek as competitors from abroad could fit in two regattas in ten days. Now with its main sponsor being the Yacht Sales Co (associated with Multihull Solutions), it is a key event of the Phuket summer racing season for both monohulls and multihulls, with 5 full days of racing.

Local Day sponsors included: Really Good Deli (day one); Phuket Yacht Services (day two), Octopus Electrical (day three); Cholomark Boats (day four); and Asia Catamarans (day five). Regatta supporters included the Phuket Yacht Club, Regattas Asia, Rolly Tasker Sails, SEA Yachting. The start boat, Alien Kat, a Fontaine Pajot Athena 38 was graciously supplied by Peter Theimann.

The regatta couldn’t have taken place without the hard work of PYC Commodore Peter Dyer and the diligence and effort of PYC Treasurer Dan Fidock.

www.phuketyachtclub.com