Jomtien May 6, 2023 – Entries from Australia, Malaysia and local Thai teams lined up for the Second Round of the Ocean Marina Jontiem Platu Championship of Thailand.
Day One: Day one had quite shifty winds of about 7 knots all day. In order to give non local crews time to settle down, the first race was a practise race and teams were allowed to drop their worst score of the day. No drop score on day 2 and 3. Obviously jet lag from Australia is much worse than from Malaysia because Rolf Heemskerk started day one with four wins from 4 with Chris Way hot on his heels with 4 seconds. Nathan Masopust and Doug Smith began a close rivalry that was to last throughout the event. Simon Boyd was on a borrowed boat with a hastily assembled crew but was managed to get round the course quite well only to suffer damage than finished his racing for the day after race one. A lot of repair effort meant that the boat was ready for racing on day two.
Day two: Similar patchy winds but this time they died down as the day went on. Chris scored two wins and a second while Rolf scored two seconds and a win. These two have long history of close racing and this weekend was no exception. Doug held a slender lead of 3 points from Nathan.
Day three: This is when the fun really started with Chris and Rolf engaging in some quite remarkable match racing tactics, leaving the way for Doug and Nathan to enjoy an empty race track. As usual the last race of the regatta was a double point medal race ensuring that the final results wend down to the wire with the overall win going to whoever won the last race. Start line antics left Chris with a small lead and Rolf decided his only chance was to split away from Chris and he chose to go right. Luck was not on his side as the winds on the left proved to be stronger and Chris came home the winner by 100 metres. Nathan and Doug battled side by side for much of the race with Nathan crossing the line one boat length in front.
But special mentions have to go to the crew of Stingray skippered by Simon Boyd. With his hastily assembled crew, some with very little experience, they proved that a positive attitude goes a long way to success. They never finished far behind the regular crews and continued to improve throughout the last two days. Thank you for taking part and showing the true spirit of competition.
As usual with all these events everyone got together round one big table afterwards to swop exaggerated stories and prove that the camaraderie here is a joy to behold. Race hard, but respect your competitors above all else.
Thanks got to Scott Finsten and Ocean Marina Jontiem for promoting this Championship and providing all the necessary on and off water support. Thanks and congratulations to the race officer K Thammasak who ran three days of perfect courses. Thanks to FLS, Simon Boyd, Chris Way and Rolf Heemskerk for buying drinks for all. Thanks to Doug Smith for his behind the scenes effort to get boats and crew racing.
Results Chris Way, 18 points, Rolf Heemskerk 20 points, Doug Smith 34 points, Nathan Masopust 37 points and Simon Boyd 58 points.
Round 2 May 5/6/7 detailed results
Platu 154 Rolf Heemskerk 1.1.1 2.2.1.3.3.2.4 20
Platu 027 Chris Way 2.2.2. 1.1.2.1.4.1.2 18
Platu 124 Doug Smith 3.3.3,3.3.4.2.1.4.8 34
Platu 122 Nathan Masopust 4.4.3.4.4.3.4.2.3.6 37
Platu 117 Simon Boyd 6.6.6.5.5.5.5.5.5.10 58
Friday, shifty winds from 8 to 12 knots and HOT
Saturday shifty winds from 7 down to 3knots, even HOTTER
Sunday, light shifty winds, late start, and even HOTTER still
Must read: One Design Platu Championship 2023 – Round One results
