Belt and Road Royal Langkawi International Regatta 2020
The second day of the regatta started again with good winds of about 15 knots from the North East and choppy seas.
The start boat anchored about one nautical mile east of Pulau Enggang, easily recognized due to it having a navigation light (mini lighthouse).
The first warning signal of the day was for Racing class at 9.30am followed by IRC1, IRC2, Multihulls, Club Cruising and White Sail combined and finally Sport Boats. By 11am most of the classes had started their second race for the day with the wind abating to around 10 knots moving slowly around to the ENE. By noon the wind had dropped to 6 knots and at 1205 the AP over A flags were raised and all classes were advised to return to the yacht club.
The Racing, IRC1, IRC2, Sports Boats enjoyed two races today while Multihulls, Club Class and White Sails only had one race.
Ray Robert’s ‘Team Hollywood’ was successful in winning both races today and the team is back at the top of the class followed by THA72 skippered today by Don Whitcraft and efileConnect helmed by Rolf Heemskerk who topped the list yesterday. It should be noted that ‘efileConnect’ is a forty footer competing very well with other yachts in her class that are all over fifty feet which have a decided advantage in hull speed. This tells us just how well the handicaps are given and the results testify to their accuracy!
In the IRC1 class the Japanese team crewing Char Chan skippered by Kazuki Kihara dominated both races of the day winning ahead of Geoff Masters Meraki and local team Mata Hari KL Registry.
In the IRC2 class ‘Discovery Sailing Asia – Gateway Ichi’ withdrew from the regatta yesterday and was renamed ‘Beihai China’ and is now crewed by the Zhufeng Sailing team from China. The Behei China team and Danish skipper Niels Degenkolw with his team on Phoenix each succeeded in one race today.
The Sports boat class saw Malaysian team MSA-MSN again on the top of the list.
Multihull class were only given one race today won by Bob McIntyre’s Allegro who came second yesterday after Gerhard Pils’ Fetz Ma. The smallest yacht in the fleet finds it tough going in choppy waters
The Club and White Sail classes, including the Classic Challenge class were also given one race only. Russian team ‘Wind Of Change’ topped the Club table. VG Offshore was disqualified today after a successful port/starboard protest and fell from second in his class to last. There is still plenty of racing ahead to pick up lost points!
Malaysian Chantique took the honour in the White Sail class.
Gwell skippered by Xavier Le Henaff came first again in the Classic Challenge class followed by regular participant Eveline helmed by Dato Richard Curtis.
by Belt & Road Royal Langkawi International Regatta