Entries trickle in for Phang Nga Bay regatta
Whew - it's a bit crowded here. At the start of one of the races in the 2009 Phang Nga Bay Regatta.
Nineteen boats are so far signed up for the “fun” regatta – the annual Phang Nga Bay Regatta, which goes under the gun on February 4.
More boats can be expected to join in the next couple of weeks – there were 50 entries in the 2009 event. It’s one of those nerve-racking things that regatta organisers in Phuket have to put up with; very few boats are registered until the last minute.
This year’s regatta will see racing on four days – the 4th to the 7th, with registration on the 3rd.
Partying will begin before the regatta with the opening event, as in the past few years, at the Chandara Resort in Ao Por.
Conveniently close to the Ao Por Grand Marina, the resort is now managed by the Absolute group, promising to make it an entertaining evening with the potential for painful starts for some of the less serious crews.
As in last year’s regatta, there will be six classes: Racing, Cruising A and B, multihulls, bareboat charters (last year this was filled entirely with Darwin-class boats from Sunsail) and the one-design Firefly class.
Although the regatta started out 12 years ago as a casual antidote to the very serious King’s Cup Regatta, serious competitors are by no means excluded.
Last year’s Racing Class winner, for example, was Yo!2, owned and skippered by Peter Ahern. Ahern in based in Perth, Western Australia, and his yacht is usually berthed in Port Dickson in Malaysia. You don’t come all that way to drift around the bay swilling beer.
For more details, visit the regatta website.
