Thailand: The Kings Cup Regatta

After less than two weeks at home in Brisbane, I had the chance to fly up to Phuket in Thailand to do some more sailing. This time it was to race in the Kings Cup Regatta aboard Zefiro (no not Zefira, yes a similar name, but no connection), Zefiro is a 100ft Farr / Southern Wind currently doing a circumnavigation of the world and trying to enter as many regattas and races it can along the way.

With the arrival of a set of new sails the week before the regatta, we had a few days training to get used to the boat and to realise just how tough a regatta it will be in minimal wind and maximum heat.

The regatta has been going for over 25 years and this year attacked over 130 boats, from all over the world. The biggest surprise was the amount of Russian entrants, however after spending time there and learning that there is now direct flights from Russia to Phuket it is easily comparable to Bali for Aussies.

The race boat - Zefiro

Even though we were the biggest boat in the fleet (3-times the size of some); myself and Josh had to sleep on the Perini, Clan VI. Luckily it's captain Keiran was a nice enough guy and made sure to show us around Phuket when we weren't sailing.

The support boat - Clan VI

The Clan in the background and some of the other race boats.

Finding some shade after another light air training session.

We had a photo shoot to show off the boat one day, instead of using helicopters now, most of these photographers splash out the $15,000 on a Drone/DSLR set-up.

Most afternoons after sailing would generally involve a little debrief over some beers, before chilling out with some halyard swing action off Zefiro's 38m tall mast; sometimes eggs were involved for target practise....

Chipper on the halyard whilst Josh takes aim with an egg.

Rob was in charge of the food for the racing and would generally go in to grab 15ft of subway each evening for the next day's racing. He got pretty stressed about it and lost it a few times after some communication breakdowns - I think here he just had enough of it and decided to end the pain.

Not a bad way to finish the day.

This is a Myanmar flag for those not in the know..... which is probably everyone.

Kata Beach

 The kings Cup is probably Phuket's biggest event each year, and most nights there is usually a regatta party happening, which was always free food and free drink, and also at a place like this.

Kata Beach Resort

Just to prove we did sail, here are some photos

Josh on kite trim whilst Justin steers - this downwind was the better part of 3 hours.

The Kings Cup Regatta is named because the King of Thailand learnt to sail in Phuket when he was young, they started this regatta to keep that spirit going and decided to run it to coincide with the Kings Birthday each year. On his Birthday, all the boats do a sail-past past one of the Thai Navy Ships; he usually shows for it, but he was in hospital this year unfortunately.

Sail Past

Unfortunately for us, the Kings Birthday is the start of December, which is the transitional period between the Northeast Monsoon Dry Season and the Southwest Monsoon Rainy Season, which also means both winds fight each other the whole time and it is very rare to get a day with good steady breezes. This meant that being the biggest and the heaviest boat was not going to help win the regatta, and as such we found ourselves in the middle or back end of the fleet on corrected time in all the races.

But we did overtake a lot of boats and we looked good doing it so thats all that matters I guess?

Here are some more photos of us sailing.

Chipper looking for breeze between races

Overall, the time over there was a great experience; it is always a thrill to sail these bigger boats, no matter how light, hot or tough the conditions are. We had some good days sailing, some good nights out, plenty of beer, subway and massages. The sailing was testing and the heat did almost fry our brains but is was a good time with a great bunch of people.

Kieran, Josh and Me at the After Bar, overlooking Phuket and Kata Beach.

Thanks Phuket.