Report by Scott Murray, Sea Yachting.

After a buffet and awards presentation at Baan Chang on Koh Yao Noi, the crews were well rested and set out for day two of the 2021 Bay Regatta on Friday April 2nd, sponsored by Octopus Electrical Service.

The 20 mile course today left from east of Koh Yao Noi rounding Koh Pang to starboard, then passing Koh Pak Bia to port, and then passing Koh Ka and Koh Ka to starboard. The fleet moved past through the gate to Koh Kaya (between the island and the committee boat), and then rounded Koh Ngang to port, passing between Koh Daeng and Koh Samet finishing between the committee boat and Koh Ya Man.

PRO and race organizer Simon James had two starts for the competitors again: first off were the monohulls (4 boats) followed by all the multihulls (6 boats). Bad weather set in again soon after the start as a squall quickly moved in.

This caused an unfortunate incident as Twin Sharks lost bowman Ken Wottowa overboard after he moved to the stern of the boat an during a manoeuvre and lost his footing falling overboard. Crewmate Olly Wilce was the first to notice as the crew scrambled to take down the kite – they were going 25 knots. Jason Corall spotted Wottowa in the water and directed the Firefly back to him. After being in the warm water for about 15 minutes, Ken was pulled onboard and later seemed the avid sportsman seemed totally unfazed by the whole incident - great recovery by the Twin Sharks crew.

In Racing Multis, Dan Fidock’s Fugazi took line honors again finishing twelve minutes ahead of its nearest competitor but when handicap was figure in John Coffin’s Fez was the winner of the division, followed by Alan Carwardine’s Coconuts with Fugazi taking third. John Newham’s Twin Sharksrebounded after their mishap to take fourth with Glywn Rowlands’ Twister in fifth spot. Rick Fielding’s Mojo again hung tough through rough weather finishing the race and grabbing a sixth in Multihull Performance.

Results in the four boat-Monohull IRC Class saw Niels Diegenklow’s Phoenix taking top spot followed by Torben Kristienson’s Kinnon in second Paul Merry’s Night Train in third with Andrew McDermott’s Jessandra bringing up the rear. For Monohull Performance, Night Train & Jessandraflipped third and fourth place finishes.

Just a big shout out to the all women making this regatta happen including co-organizer Kae Wattana and her volunteer crew, many of whom are university students. Jessandra has eight women sailors on board, Phoenix has four and Coconuts and Twister 2 also have a number of female crew.

Many in the fleet docked at Port Takola Marina but it was a free night in the Krabi area for all competiot9ord as the awards for today’s races will be handed out tomorrow at the Phra Nang Inn in Ao Nang.