Phuket King’s Cup Regatta: Day 2 Update

Phuket King’s Cup Regatta: Day 2 update

PLAIN SAILING: Phuket sailor Ben Copely at the helm of Katsu,

now in second place in IRC 1 class. Photo: Guy Nowell

PHUKET: -- With the final provisional results just in for today’s racing in the Phuket King’s Cup Regatta 2010, Ray Roberts’ Evolution Racing has kept pole position in the Racing class with arch rival Neil Pryde’s HiFi still in second place.

The Evolution crew have so far secured four wins from five races.

With three races left in the regatta, the outstanding performance of Roberts’ crew leaves a daunting challenge for defending Racing class champ HiFi, who are currently on nine points.

“We are a bit disappointed with the long race. We were doing well and I guess the mistake was we didn’t cover Evolution,” Pryde said.

“He went inshore which we thought was the wrong thing to do. We went straight down towards the islands and he just lifted right up inside in totally different wind. There was nothing we could do about it. That was the race,” he added.

Meanwhile, Nick Burns and Fred Kinmonth’s EFG Bank Mandrake have moved into third place overall with 14 points, relegating fellow Hong Kong racer Frank Pong’s Jelik III to fourth overall.

In IRC 1, Matt Allen on Ichi Ban continues to dominate the class with five points.

Phuket’s own Ben Copley on Katsu scored a win and a third-place finish today to move into second place overall with 13 points.

Rick Pointon’s crew on Chinese entry JingJing is now third overall with 15 points.

Royal Thai Navy 1 continue to lead IRC 2 with five points,

A win in today’s second race moved Team Sea Bees into second place overall in the class with an aggregate of five points.

Brent Morgans’ Men at Work are third overall in the class with eight points.

For the rest of the latest provisional results from today’s racing, click here

-- Phuket Gazette 2010-12-07