Team Hollywood claims three-peat in IRC Zero at 34th Phuket King’s Cup Regatta.
Defending champion and veteran Australian sailor Ray Roberts Team Hollywood narrowly edged out rival Thailand’s TP52 Kevin & Tom Whitcraft THA 72 to win the top-flight IRC Zero class in a thrilling competition that highlighted the 34th Phuket King’s Cup Regatta.
The IRC Zero class went right down to the wire: THA 72 won the first race of the final day leaving it trailing Team Hollywood by one point heading into the final race of the regatta. And if THA 72 had won the last race, it would have won the regatta as on countback it had won the second-last race of the event.
The two yachts dueled it out throughout the course and as they turned the top mark on the last leg of the final race, they were less than a boat’s length apart.
Sparring all the way down the course, Team Hollywood, who had six wins from ten races in this class, was just able to pull out victory crossing the finish time by six seconds on corrected time over THA 72.
The Singapore-registered boat WindSikher of Sarab Singh and Nick Burns finished third overall in this class, but did manage to hang tough, sail every race and win the last contest in the series.
With a second-and-third place finish, Kazuki Kihara’s Japanese crew on Char Chan was able to hold on and win the IRC 1 class.
They narrowly avoided a late charge by Garry Holt’s Let’s Get It On, which won both final races and claimed second overall.
Thais claimed victory in the Premier Cruising class, as Ithinai Yingsiri’s X-Yacht 55 Pine Pacific won again on the final day to claim overall victory.
Second was Peter Cremers sleek Warwick 75 Shatoosh and Simon & Chaa Piff’s Firstlight finishing third, although it did not sail on the final day.
The Charter Cruising Class did not compete today but Jakod Handte’s Fei Jian triumphed in this class, winning a division in the King’s Cup for the first time in thirty years of competition.
The Multihull OMR class did not compete on the final day but Hermann Schwarz’ 2Fast4you won every race in this class over Hang Chen’s ZOE, except for the race in which it had to withdraw because of its collision with Kinnon.
His Excellency Air Chief Marshal Chalit Pukbhasuk, a personal representative of His Majesty the King of Thailand, presided over the Royal Awards Ceremony and presented the trophies to the winners.
All winners of the keelboat and multihull and international dinghy classes accepted their honours at the royal award ceremony, held at the Beyond Resort Kata, Phuket.
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