VOLVO Singapore Straits Regatta, Day 3

What a cracking day, at last some real weather and real sailing! Yesterday I suggested that we would see who was good at hangovers after the long afternoons drinking but there was no cause for concern since the first rainsquall soon cleared any sore heads.

The stiff breezes, up close to 30 knots in the squalls certainly caused a few difficulties, plenty of mistakes and a fair amount of damaged sails and broken gear. Jenny III went as far as to bring their sails up to the clubhouse for repair and there were lots of others busy on the dock.

Two yachts retired in Race 3, today’s first race. Pla Loma appeared to have several headsail and genoa problems at the gybe mark and Solarmax did well not to lose their mast after their forestay came adrift from the mast. RSYC Dua had a mega spinnaker wrap and simply continued downwind and so deep into the bay that the race officer’s dory went after them to investigate. They recovered to sail the second race. HI Fidelity dropped her kite into the drink at the bottom mark too.

Today’s second race also brought some antics and fun. Racing Class A were pushing their luck and given a general recall. They had chosen to ignore the fact that their start gun was the 5 minute for Class B and streamed back over the line getting in the way of the Class B boats who were a bare minute from their start. So close was it that Lady Galadriel did not notice that the Blue Peter had not been hoisted before code flag E for the start was lowered.

The start sequence got underway again and the racing was on into a further series of rainsqualls. Some boats elected not to fly their spinnakers but it is odd how few chose to shorten sail by reefing or hoisting smaller headsails. They would have been in better control of their boats and would probably have made better speed. For those who had time to spare beyond their immediate concerns we can record that Passaya blew out her kite and that Irvmiren took much of the run to finally get her kite fully up.

The race officer was presented with a problem when Lunch Cutter lived up to her name and cut herself free of the gybe mark which set it off on a drift down wind, luckily after it was not really needed any more.

I must mention Shoon Fung Too’s excellent day. Her crew coped with the well weather, disappearing into the first rain squall on a seaward tack in fourth place and reappearing first round the top mark to just take first place. In the second race they were clearly revelling in the breeze and came in to a clear win in Class B.

Peter Dunlop