On your marks, let her rip. By Scott Murray, Sea Yachting Magazine.

With winds gusting up to 27 knots the Bay Regatta certainly didn’t disappoint today as participants revelled in the excellent sailing conditions. Dan Fidock’s Parabellum make great time taking line honours once again finishing in 02:02:10, winning the six-boat OMR Multihull class in the process (Dan himself suffered an arm injury but was able to tough it out until the finish where he was taken to hospital to be checked out). David Liddell’s Stealth Wow was second again, just over seven minutes behind Parabellum on corrected time. John Hearne’s Boreas was third in this class today.

After a buffet and awards presentation at the Blue Bay Beach Resort on Koh Yao Yai, the 29th Bay Regatta fleet was eager to let loose for day two, sponsored by Port Takola Marina & Boatyard. Beginning at 10am, PRO and race organizer Simon James again had three starts for the competitors: first off were the performance monohulls, followed by the multihulls (split into OMR & cruisers) and then the combined monohull classes.

Competitors sailed a 25-mile course starting off Koh Yao Yai to Krabi passing Koh Chong Lat Nai to port and then passing Leam Hua Lan to port before passing through a gate keeping Hin Mu Sang Neua to starboard, passing between Koh Samet and Koh Daeng, finishing off of Koh Ya Mann.

The biggest confusion of the day came when the crew from Venture, woke to find their boat had sailed itself to Koh Lipe (hint, next time, it might be a good idea to let out more anchor chain).

And although the weather was quite rough, the only boat not to make it was the start boat carrying PRO Simon James & his committee members. The skipper of the chartered start boat “Implication” decided to turn back halfway there and Simon and his crew had to then unload and hire a car and drive to Krabi from Phuket, while continuing to track the yachts. The gate boat was then relocated to the finish line, and as a backup, all boats were asked to record their own finishing time, the leaders were checked using their AIS tracking and once the rib arrived the remaining fleet were recorded by Chandran and his team. A bit of a logistical nightmare, but the on-water team prevailed.

The elite four-boat Performance Monohull class saw the same order of finish as yesterday with Ray Roberts’ Team Hollywood beating Peter Cremers’ Shatoosh by just over seven minutes on corrected time. Next up was Hans Rahmann’s Yasooda who finished third, and then Steve McConaghy’s Aftershock, was fourth, some distance behind Yasooda. It should be noted that in both races Yasooda had a quicker elapsed time than Shatoosh.

The eight-boat IRC Racing Class saw the same three yachts win, place and show as in day one but their order was a little different today as Craig Nichols’ Alright took first with Matti Sep’s Gern Kard coming second and Maksby Lisun’s Dynamite placing third.

The ten-boat Monohull Cruising Class saw James Duke’s Kimikimi gain the top spot on the podium today followed by Nikiforov Evgenii’s Ganett 2 with Sergei Musikhin’s Wind of Change placing third.

A lot of bits and bobs broke on many of the boats today because of the wind. Twisted 2 couldn’t even set off because of a broken steering column, which they were able to fix enabling them to make the evening’s festivities at Port Takola marina. Vancouver 1 and Saalt also did not start in the Cruising Multi division with sail damage, making the six-boat class a three-boat class with Jeff Harris’ Serendipity, formerly owned by Tim Milner, coming in first beating Michael Hähnel’s Liberty V by just over a minute on corrected time. Lt Col Brigadier James Baxter (OBE)’s Zephyrus then finished 00:02:17 behind Liberty V.

Every regatta has its own unique selling point and for the Bay Regatta it’s the stunning karst topography that competitors sail through. Ao Nang in the Krabi area is a perfect example of this and that’s where Simon James plans to stage races on day three of the regatta as the wind is forecast to be quite strong again tomorrow.

A big thank you must go out to Martin Woolnough who graciously supplied the camera boat, an Axopar 28, named Freya, which is a perfect photography boat. And always a big thanks to Kae Wattana and her team of wonderful volunteers on shore who go out of their way to make sure everything goes smoothly off the water.