It was ideal conditions for racing at Royal Varuna Yacht Club in Pattaya for the 77 youth sailors who entered the Admiral’s Cup held from 16 to 18 February – a typical Varuna regatta with sunshine and some good racing wind.
In the Optimist fleet it was Panwa Boonak just leading the way from Jedtavee Yongyuennam after 3 races on the first day. With conditions being good, the race team managed to get 4 races in for the two Laser fleets. Lathavit immediately made his mark on the series by winning all but one in the Laser 4.7 class. Varuna member Sasha Romanyk was at the top of the leader board in the Laser Radial class, but close behind were two of the Korean sailors with their team showing strength in depth.
Day two saw Jedtavee really start to dominate the Optimists by winning all three races, but Panwa was still in touch just 3 points behind. Lathavit continued to sail consistently in the 4.7’s and just managed to retain the top position from Piranpat Sukontsub by one point. In the Laser Radials it was change at the top: You Dong-Jae from Korea moved into a good lead now he was able to discard his result from the first race where he was over the start line. Sasha was still in second, however she also made a mistake by being over the start line in the final race of the day.
The final day saw Jedtavee and Panwa confirm their positions at the top of the Optimists, but Varuna was well represented for the future with Weka Bhanubandh finishing 5thoverall – second in the under 12 age group, and the top under 10 prizes going to Grace Montgomery in 16th and Claudia Nazarov in 25th.
Latavit stretched his lead to win the Laser 4.7’s overall from Piranpat in second, and Alex Romanyk from Varuna in 3rd. The last race in the Laser Radials saw more start line drama with both You Dong-Jae and Sasha over the line at the starting signal. However You Dong-Jae had scored so well in the other races that he still kept the top spot, but Sasha dropped to 3rd behind Cho Yong Gean also from Korea.
