By Scott Murray (Sea Yachting Magazine)

The third day of the 28th Bay Regatta saw PRO Simon James have participants sail the Krabi Islands course. With the results tabulated, many classes’ top spots are still undecided, so the sailors will have to prove their mettle in the race home to Phuket tomorrow to see what position they will earn on the podium.

Today, the multihulls were first off the start line followed by the multihulls. IRC Racing A and Multihull Racing sailed the same course today while IRC Racing B, Mono-and Multihull Cruising and OMR Multihulls sailed another course.

The routes saw the sailors round Koh Ya Man, Koh Dam Khwan, Koh Khom (South), and Koh Ya Wa Sam all to starboard before rounding Koh Man to starboard and finishing with the committee boat to starboard. Both courses were shortened as the wind did not hold.

Ray Roberts’ TP52 Team Hollywood won the IRC Racing Class A for the third straight day and they have this class wrapped up with a bow. But only a point separates Steve McConaghy’s Aftershock, a Davidson 59, and Craig Nicholls/James Bury’s Alright, a Sydney 40, heading into the final day’s race.

There’s still all to play for in the six-boat IRC Racing Class B: the Estonian team on Gern Kard, led by Matti Sep, is in top spot with six points, followed by Andrey Novoderezhkin’s Madame Butterfly (8 pts) and Andrei Mororov’s Gateway Ichi (10 pts). Still in the mix are Sergei Musikhin’s DSA Venture (11pts) and Niels Degenkolw’s Phoenix (12 pts) - which has won its class in the Bay Regatta many times - heading into the race home to Phuket.

The eleven-boat Monohull Cruising Class sees Philippe Dallée’s Swan II (a Swan 43 - 1969) in a great spot going into the final day (4 pts) with Polina Mikhailenko’s Ventura in second (7 pts) and Boris Burmentev’s Winds of Change in third (10 pts). Aleksei Brunov’s Monnshine is hovering close behind with 12 points.

The three-boat Corinthian Class is Philippe Dallée’s Swan II’s race to win unless they don’t finish the race tomorrow. However, the other two boats in the class., Mark Sennett’s Madam and Steven Wong’s Snap Dragon are tied with seven points each and will battle it out for that second spot.

The five-boat OMR Multihull class is tight as can be with Dougal Jackson’s Stealth Haruki sitting at five points with John Newnham’s Twin Sharks, a Firefly 850 Sports multihull point behind, and David Liddell’s Stealth Wow is a point behind Twin Sharks heading into the final day.

There’s a similar grouping in the four-boat Cruising Multihull class with Rob Azzopardi’s North Star leading Tim Hawkins’ Quoll by a point and Lt Col Brigadier James Baxter (OBE)’s Zephyrus, in turn, a point behind Quoll

Each evening, the regatta anchors at a different venue and the sailors go ashore. Those staying ashore –the majority of the fleet – book accommodation and either eat in the local restaurants or enjoy the official event functions, which engage with the local community. Most of the expenditure of the regatta goes directly into the local economies of the areas the regatta visits — this has been the case since the regatta was launched and it will remain so for the future — an excellent example of how sports tourism works to the benefit of communities and local economies.

The evening party was held at Vacation Village, Pra Nang Inn, where prizes were given out for day two’s racing by Preecha Poolphokphol, owner of Vacation Village. Octopus Electrical Services’ Mick Kealy then handed out the prizes for day three. The final day will be an exciting race home to Ao Chalong tomorrow with many spots still up for grabs and the final awards party is set for Kan Eang II.