Both Pattaya Mail and Heineken will be joined by others to underwrite the 1st Pattaya International Catamaran Multihull Festival, to be sailed on the waters off the Royal Varuna Yacht Club, from 4–10 February, 2012.
The Pattaya Mail, voted the best English- language newspaper in the region for the past 12 years, has agreed to sponsor the Pattaya Mail PC Classic Challenge, Race Day on Sunday, 5 February, as a highlight of the week-long Multihull Festival.
The Race Day itself will feature two races, exhibiting these “flying machines” at their best. All are welcome to join the excitement at the Royal Varuna beach-front for the day and evening. Don’t miss the unique Happy Hour sunset at Varuna’s seaside sala.
Heineken, for its part, is renowned for sponsorship of a huge number of sporting events world-wide and this coming week will be providing a daily “Happy Hour Sundowner” beer to thirsty sailors, race managers, supporters and spectators gathered at Royal Varuna’s water-front bar.
According to the principal organizer, Pattaya-based catamaran builder, John Higham, this inaugural event is to be held annually and, says John, “Will become Asia’s largest multihull regatta by next year”. The aim, apart from promoting this visually-exciting form of yacht racing, is also to create a high profile of Pattaya as a prime venue for water-based activities and marine sports for the City-by-the-Sea.
The regatta, in effect, will showcase the fastest sail-driven craft in the world, thereby emphasizing the superb marine environment and sailing conditions which mark the Pattaya-Jomtien area as one of the world’s best. “This event will, no doubt, become one of the largest beach- based sailing spectaculars in the world in future.” added John.
Yacht-racing in the Kingdom is forging ahead, with a junior world champion and many other Thais in top contention. And, now, with events like the Catamaran fest and the many regattas held up and down the country during the year, Thailand’s water-ways are the most desirable venues in the world. This is the collective opinion of many sailors who come back year after year, especially after such annual regattas as the Phuket King’s Cup.
The Royal Varuna Yacht Club, founded in South Pattaya, Thailand, in 1957, has been the guardian, over these past 55 years of the sailing, yacht racing and cruising scene in Thailand, with the Royal Patron, HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej himself, a Gold Medal dinghy sailor.
During these almost six decades of stewardship, Royal Varuna has managed and hosted countless world championships, international, regional and local events, produced Olympic sailors and fostered the region’s biggest and best regattas.
Ensconced on a beautiful sea-front property facing the world-renowned Pattaya sunset, the Club this weekend takes a quantum leap into the future. While formerly catering almost solely to dinghy classes, more recently multihulls and catamarans with ever-increasing levels of sophistication are plying the waters and racing off south Pattaya.
The 1st Pattaya International Multihull Festival will witness the largest group of fast, modern catamarans to ever race together in SE Asia. Featuring classes such as F20 carbons with their curved foiling blades propelling the boats clear of the water, capable of speeds of 60km/h, there will be a display of the fastest one design beach launched catamarans in existence.
There will be much focus on the F16 class due to the expectation by many that an F16 will be chosen as the new Olympic class in 2016, and already top sailors with an eye on Olympic glory are pushing the limits in their quest for success.
The 1st Pattaya International Catamaran Multihull Festival starts this weekend and runs until Feb. 10.
In fact the F16 will be the most competitive of all the classes racing and is first open F16 class (sailed mainly with a mixed team, i.e. one man, one woman as crew) ever to race in Asia. F16 competitors such as Coen de Koning from Holland, a double World champion in the Formula 18 class, Carolijn Brouwer, also from Holland, who is a three times Olympic competitor and Tornado world champion, Gunnar Larsen from Holland, Jason Waterhouse, Bret Goodall from Australia and Chris Sproat from the UK also feature as top 10 finishers from previous F18 worlds.
A total of 23 entries for the F18 class, mostly from Holland and Varuna sailors make it the largest class with also 11 Bangkok/Pattaya entries and sailors of the caliber of Australia’s Greg Goodall.
There will be 11 very high-level entries in the Dart 18 Class including Gareth Owen, a Royal Varuna -based sailor who is a former world Dart 18 champion, as well as Ian and Fiona Kernick, reigning world champions from South Africa.
Although not as fast as the modern craft, the classic Hobie Cat 16 class, with a huge fleet in Thailand, also has strong following and will feature local Thai sailors such as Damrongsak Vongtim, an Asian Games gold medalist and one of the world’s leading Hobie Cat 16 helmsmen, as well as many Royal Varuna sailors.
Multihull sailing has evolved tremendously over the last decade, so much so that the World’s oldest trophy and most prestigious sailing event, the “Americas Cup” decisively switched to a multihull event some years ago and ever since the sailing world has seen an explosion of interest and development in multihull sailing.
Witness some spectacular multihull racing from the foreshore of the Royal Varuna Yacht Club in south Pattaya.
Thus, sailing in Thailand is keeping pace with these developments and the “1st Pattaya International Multihull Festival”, has attracted 60 plus entries from 14 different nations with numerous world class and Olympic level athletes competing.
All are welcome during the week, to view the action from Royal Varuna Yacht Club foreshore.
The Monday long-distance race, will be known as the 3K Challenge, a course which will take the participants around many of the local islands and more scenic coastal areas, revealing the beauties of the Pattaya-Jomtien environs. This 3K course will be identical each year allowing a record to be set and open to all contestants.
As to Pattaya itself, of course, the excitement and success of the event will depend upon the wind conditions. The past weeks have seen the traditional north-easterly thermals giving way to weak south-westerlies, a little too early, many of the old salts feel, with cloudy skies and some rain.
Nevertheless, by mid-week, skies started to clear and westerliers appeared. It will be “All Go” for this coming weekend!
