‘Easy Tiger IV’, the new Platu 25 launched last week by Australia’s Easy Tiger Racing Team celebrated her first appearance in style by winning at her debut regatta, the Platu 25 Open held March 16-17 at the Ocean Marina Yacht Club in Pattaya.
The Platu 25 Open featured a truly international fleet with teams from Japan, Russia, England, Holland, France, Estonia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia taking part. Team Tiger finished each race in the top three over the two day series with a final score tally of 1,1,1,3,1,2,2 and eleven points. Their closest rivals, the Russian team onboard ‘Niaid’ finished second with 14 points followed by Rolf Heemskerk, racing his still unnamed boat, and the sister ship to ‘Easy Tiger IV’, with 24 points in third.
The ‘Easy Tiger IV’ team pose with the Platu 25 Open champions’ trophy at Ocean Marina Yacht Club in Pattaya, Sunday, March 17. (Photo/Scott Finsten)
“I am very happy with the new boat and the team’s performance. We are absolutely ecstatic with this result. It really doesn’t get any better than this and to have achieved it with a new boat is just magic,” a delighted skipper Chris Way said afterwards. “The Tiger crew has done an outstanding job in both preparation and sailing to the best of our ability. We can’t wait to return to defend our 2012 Coronation Cup title in May,”
The Platu 25 is a 25-foot mono hull yacht designed by Bruce Farr of Farr Yacht Design fame with features incorporated from the Corel 45, Mumm 30 and Farr 40 designs. The class has ISAF status and the Worlds are held annually in Europe with fleet sizes of between 60-80 boats.
‘Easy Tiger IV’ was constructed by XSP at Batam Island in Singapore who are one of the official builders of the class. Several of the Easy Tiger Racing crew were recently on site in Singapore to oversee the final stages of construction including the surveying of the rig and the fitting and alignment of the keel and rudder.
“Our expectations going into this event in Pattaya were pretty low and realistic given the performance of the boat was unknown. But after Saturday’s results we knew we were fast and had a pretty good shot of winning it. We just tried to sail as cleanly and consistently as possible. Once we have over 10 knots of wind speed we just seem to take off,” Way explained.
‘Easy Tiger IV’ (foreground) takes to the water for her debut regatta. (Photo/Scott Finsten)
On Saturday the team recovered well from a disappointing OCS in the fourth and final race of the day. After returning to the line and starting correctly, they managed to claw their way back through the fleet to finish third over the line.
“That was hard work but good training and a real the turning point for us. From that moment on our fierce determination really kicked in and it was game on. Victory was our only goal.
“Initially we thought this event would be a training regatta where we would get to learn and tune the new boat as well as further hone our skills. We are so glad we did it and to win just makes the experience all the more sweeter,” said Way.
“While we are a pretty resilient team we are bruised and battered Tigers. Last night at Go Kart racing Peter Gregg hit the wall and bruised his ribs while Tommy Spithill bruised his elbow and may have broken his pinkie finger. Regardless, they both put in 110% effort today. Our ‘don’t call it quits before 2:00 a.m. curfew’ was enforced throughout this regatta and it seems to have enhanced our performance rather than detracted from it,” joked the Aussie skipper.
“Our missing Tiger crew member Malcolm Clark will be back with us for the Coronation Cup together with our coach Alex Pallu. Having Alex here racing on the boat over the last few days has been awesome. He is such a critical member of our team.”
‘Easy Tiger IV’ will be packed up and stored at the Ocean Marina Yacht Club until the team returns in early May to prepare their Platu 25 Coronation Cup defense at the Top Of The Gulf Regatta being held from May 3-7.
