Report by Scott Murray, Sea Yachting.

The fourth and final day of the Bay Regatta saw PRO and race organizer Simon James started the multihulls and monohulls together for the Budget Car Rental and Coca Cola Haad Thip Race Day, for their long race back to Ao Chalong. Originally scheduled to start off of Krabi’s Railay Beach, a lack of wind saw the fleet motor approximately 6 miles towards Ko Yao Yai until they found enough to start. A line was quickly setup utilising two fish traps and the Start/Mark Boats and the racing commenced with the fleet being led by the ever-present Mojo.

John Coffin’s Fez pulled the surprise of the regatta winning the five-boat Multihull Racing Class with John Newnham’s Twin Sharks coming in second. Twin Sharks had a man overboard on day two, which saw them lose valuable time and finish fourth, which would hurt them later in the overall standings, though thank God crewmate Ken Wottawa was alright (a big shout out to Grenville Fordham who was crewing on Coconuts as they were hot on the heels of Twin Sharks as he managed to alert his squad to avert as Wottawa hit the water).

Dan Fidock’s Fugazi had a number of line honours throughout the regatta but handicap saw them settle for third overall. Alan Carwardine’s Coconuts never recovered from their DNF on the first day and settled for fount overall, while Glywn Rowlands’ Twister 2 took fifth-place in the class. Multihull Performance saw the order shift as follows: Twin Sharks, Fugazi, Fez, Coconuts, Twister 2 & Mojo.

Niels Diegenklow and Phoenix rode three first-place finishes to victory in the four-boat IRC monohull class allowing the Dane to win this class for the umpteenth time in the Bay Regatta. Fellow Dane Torben Kristienson’s Kinnon was third and it was only Andrew McDermott’s Jessandra, who was able to take a spot away from Phoenix at the top of the podium winning day two of the regatta, allowing them to finish second overall in the class. Paul Merry’s Night Train was fourth. Overall results were the same for the class in the Monohull Performance division.

Rick Fielding’s Mojo led the fleet to win the day 4 prize in the Multihull Performance Cruising Class. While not Mojo finishing high in the overall standings Fielding did show great sportsmanship in ferrying Night Train’s crew to shore safely in Ao Nang. He was honoured by PRO Simon James with a bottle of port in memory of the late Marty Rijurkis who made a habit of highlighting good deeds people would perform during regattas.

Simon did a tremendous job as PRO setting the courses, manning the starts and keeping things in order. Kae Wattana and her Regattas Asia team made sure everyone was happy onshore, providing plenty of good food and drink and great entertainment from songstress Bonnie Anderson. Bob Mott provided his “Rainman” boat as the support vessel which Chandran used to lay the marks and act as a gate to record times during the regatta. A big shot out to Simon’s team on the water—Susie, Chandran & Eddie—who as always, made sure all the starts and finishes were correctly posted and recorded. And a huge round of applause for the great job Brenda Kealy did for providing his catamaran Catapulta the committee boat. The final night’s party was once again held at Kan Eang 2 restaurant, overlooking Chalong Bay and a great time was had by all.