Thailand Platu Open 2009

Last Weekend the 13th & 14th of March 2009, at Pattaya.
I joined Rolf for the Thai Platu Open.
We have with us Aili, Yew and David.

It was a rushing hectic weekend , as we flew in on a Friday Morning
and left on Sunday Evening, I got back to work on Monday morning thinking I need more weekends like this.

On Friday itself, we went on the water, to work out our crew work. After a few hoists and drops plus numerous tacking; we begins to feel more comfortable with our crew work, and were convince we are ready for race.

Like every Race day, Its always a race back to the bar; and we manage to do just that on Saturday and this is how we did it.

Day 1 , Wind speed at 7-12 knots, shifty
Race 1,
We started at the pin, with some shifts we manged to reach the windward mark 1st; we had awesome speed. But after the leeward mark, on the second upwind, we were complacent and a shift enables Scott to make ground and round the windward mark 1st on the 2nd leg.
We were tailing closely and pushing the boat hard,as we went close to the finishing line, they went for the pin while we went for the boat and we ended up losing by a whisker.

Race 2,
Rolf and Dave realize the wind shifted to the left, as we went for a port start at the pin, we were then yelled starboard by the whole fleet. we double tack twice to avoid 2 starboard boats as we stubbornly wants to stay on port. We manage to be the lowest and first boat port boat on course. Others may be too preoccupied to notice the occurring shift, avoiding starboard boats, and staying on starboard tack waiting waiting for another starboard boat to tack, they waited too long and hit the lay line. As the wind shifted more to our favor we manage a decent lead and end the race with a bullet.

Race 3,
We started on starboard . It was not one of those best start. we were late by 5 seconds, but position wise we were lucky, as some boats were OCS, and we were looking at, at least top 3 after the starting line. With some shifts and good boat speed, we manage to break from the fleet and round the windward marks 1st, On the second leg, the windward mark were moved due to the shift, and that further consolidate our position as others seems to be more content, playing safe following us, we then end the race with another bullet.

Race 4,
We started on starboard again, by now, the wind speed drop to around 7 to 8 knots; which is very good for us as our rival look more the heavier boat . We reach the windward mark 1st again commanding a decent lead, and went back 1st .

It was a great day for us, with 3 bullets out of 4 race.


Day 2,
10-17 knots ,Constant and not a single shift.

Race 5,
Call it a day, we were complacent. Scott covered us from the start. through out the race course we were basically in a tacking duel. Chris from the SMU managed a decent lead while we race it out with Scott for the second place. We lost the duel and ended up 3rd.

Race 6,
We were frustrated, again we did not manage one of those good start; and had Scott covering us closely from the start. As we play catching up, Scott managed to get a boat between us, and finish the race with the bullet; as we lost 2nd by a whisker a second time.

Race 7,
We basically blew our lead from Day 1, and are now down to the last race , as we are even on the score sheet with Scott. We thought we had a good start as we set off the start line; but were OCS, to make matter worst; we were already 7-8 boat lengths away from the line when we realize it.
We went back; and and tried to work our way up from the last place. 1st windward we were sixth, and then we push harder, hope for shifts to close up the gaps with fleet in front, by the leeward mark we were 5th; as we try to gain more boat lengths our effort were futile; as the race course ends with us finishing 5th.

Overall Results

	Sail	Boat	Skipper	Total
1	124	The Ferret	Duncanson,Scott	10
2	117	The StringRay	Heemskerk,Rolf	11
3	130	The Fox	Lim,Christopher	18
4	109	YachtPro	Razmilovic,Nils	18
5	120	The Weasel	Razali,Mohamad	33
6	103	Emma Mathilde XX	Jacobsen,Morten	36
7	125	Gulf Charters	Waldron,Ray	39
8	257	Pine Pacific	Yingsiri,Ithinai	40
9	122	Platu	Suyasin,Pote	43
10	112	Magic Dragon	Dover,Steve	58
11	114	Puma	,Kobayashi	62

Full Result @ http://www.omycsailing.com/platuopen09.shtml