Windy and wavy from the get-go, World Sailing International Race Officer Simon James staged two different starts (for the mono-and-multihulls) and set two different courses for the third day of the 2020 Bay Regatta. The Racing and Multihull class were off on the longer 21NM course and then a shorter windward-leeward, while the Cruising classes, and the Bareboats hit the 16NM course: all finishing off of Krabi’s Ao Nang Beach.

The Racing Class saw Megazip win the first race while Aquari was second, but they flipped positions for the second shorter race while Pi Jui Express came third in both races and Insanity finished fourth both times.

Cruising A saw Steve McConaghy’s Jing Jing take first and they yearned for a second race but their class was too spread out over the course with the last boat finishing 1:20 later. Paul Merry’s Night Train came in second with Garry Smith’s Resolution of Whitby and Brendon Roscoe’s Lola in fourthand Jack Christensen’s Linda in fifth.

Cruising B results were the same as the first two days with Sergei Kataev’s Turtle edging out Tessana Mahasamuth’s Thai Team followed by Steve Joos’ Sengawa and Oleg Samolov’s Winds of Change.

The Bareboat Class repeated its results from yesterday as well with Kinnon, helmed by Evgenii Nikiforov, and Venture, skippered by Anna Afonia coming in one-two and AllSail Angela helmed by Russell Waddy coming in third again.

In the “bat-out-of-hell” Racing Multihull class Mark Thornborrow’s Bonza took top honors on the day with a first and second as well as line honors in both races. John Newnham’s Twin Sharks was next with a third and a first followed by Dan Fidock’s Fugazi 3 with a second and a third. Alan Cawardine’s Phantom 5 was next with a fifth and a fourth spot followed by George Eddings’ Blue Nose with a fourth and fifth and Glywn Rowlands’ Twister 2 with two six-place finishes. Dirk Weiblen’s No Fear did not finish as the boat was damaged in the heavy wind.

The Cruising Multis class saw Andrew de Bruin’s Multihull Solutions Neel 51 beat out Mark Horwood’s Charro on corrected time. It was great to have Mark Horwood back as he did help start and run the first few Bay Regattas.

The regatta incidentally was founded by a photographer (John Everingham) and friends (Chris Schaefer and Andy Stephens). Everingham, a long-time Phuket King’s Cup Regatta committee member, was motivated in part by frustration at the annual struggle over setting that regatta’s courses. On the one hand, he wanted to shoot the fleet of sails contrasted against the dramatic scenery. The hard-core sailors, on the other hand, wanted their boats as far away from land as possible to avoid fickle winds. Dramatic photos would attract more sponsors, argued the photographer; but the sailors always won. So the stymied lensman rounded up some like-minded friends and established a regatta designed to sail among the dramatic limestone island towers and mainland forests off Phuket’s east coast. The problem was that the courses would go too deep into the Bay, where the wind didn’t blow. So. when the Ao Chalong Yacht Club (now the Phuket Yacht Club) gained control over the regatta over 10 years ago, a compromise was worked out between beautiful scenery and good sailing courses.

The ACYC committee, however, felt it could not provide the resources to continue the development of the event, so Regattas Asia were asked to assumed the mantle in 2012, being one of its principle logistic organizers , so they knew exactly what they were getting into and they have done a tremendous job of running the regatta with Simon dealing with all the on-water logistics and Kae handling all the issues on terra firma.

A special shout-out to Brent McInnes for supplying the photography boat that captured all the great images of the stunning karst topography that Phang Nga Bay is so famous for.

A great evening party was held at Ao Nang Villa with with great food and entertainment along with presentations for Friday’s Raymarine sponsored race day by longtime regatta supporter Mick Kealy and , Ao Nang Villas, presented by Khun James.

The final day will be an exciting race home to Ao Chalong as many of the classes are still up for grabs.