bounces back despite lack of wind

The Royal Langkawi International Regatta (RILR) returned to the regional regatta circuit in January after an absence of three years. And the organizing team, led by En Azlan Abdullah, did a fabulous job. They only thing they couldn’t control was the wind. Lack of breeze canceled sailing on days two and five of the event and delayed it on days three and four.

Still in all, everyone had a great time and the regatta saw 25 entries, more entries than either the recent Phuket King’s Cup, or the Raja Muda Selangor International Regattas. This regatta has sometimes played bridesmaid to other regional regattas, but it has served notice that will no longer be the case.

The regatta was originally established to position Langkawi as a prominent sailing location while promoting sailing and boosting sports tourism in the country.

177 participants from six countries (Malaysia, Thailand, UK, Australia, Denmark and Austria) competed in five classes over a period of five days from January 10-14.

Two TP52s competed in the Racing Class, with the Malaysian navy boat Uranus pitted against the THA72, which is usually based in Ocean Marina in Pattaya though it recently fought an epic battle with Team Hollywood at the Phuket King’s Cup.

Seven boats competed in the IRC 1 class including: Mata Hari, Phoenix, 79th Endeavour of Whitby, Uminoko, Prime Factor, The Blue Angel & RMP/DSA. Meanwhile, five identical Platus competed in the Sportsboat class. Six Multihulls took part including: Twin Sharks, Saffron, Trident, Fetz Ma, Mojo & Allegro. And five boats raced in the Club Class including Marikh, Dash, VG Offshore, RECAA & Eveline, Dato’ Richard Curtis’s 120-year-old Bristol Pilot Cutter.

One of the unique features of the regatta is that it is staged out of the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club (RLYC), where many of the sailors stayed and where the prize giving took place. Within a few minutes sail from the club, you can be in beautiful cruising grounds with colourful landscape of karst topography and Kuah Town in the background.

Scenic Kuah Harbour was the site of most racing during the regatta.

The regatta was extremely lucky to have Richard Slater as the head of its jury. A real all-star in the world of sailing officiating, the America’s Cup website details Richard as “one of the architects of many of the rules governing high-performance foiling, will be a key figure making the sporting calls in real-time and coordinating the Umpire Team and International Jury. The role also requires Richard to continue the development of the America’s Cup edition of the Racing Rules of Sailing, including the World Sailing approval processes.

“Richard Slater’s involvement with the America’s Cup goes back to the Young Australia syndicate of 1999 where he acted as Rules Advisor to the team that included a young Jimmy Spithill on the helm. Stints as a respected International Umpire and International Judge ensued across events including the World Match Race Tour, Volvo Ocean Race and as a Rules Advisor to the Australian Team at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. Richard was appointed as Chief Umpire for the 35th America’s Cup in Bermuda, a role he repeated for the 36th America’s Cup in Auckland.”

The person with the toughest job in this regatta was Principal Race Officer Simon James. Simon and his team were on the water for six hours some days trying to dredge up enough wind so that the sailors could race. Competitors were at least able to wait in comfort at the

RLYC hoping for the wind gods to change their disposition.

Six boats from Phuket took part in this year’s RLIR. It was great to see four multihulls including John Newnham’s Twin Sharks, Dan Fidock’s Saffron, Andrew McDermott’s Trident and Rick Fielding’s Mojo. There were also two monohulls from Phuket competing: Niels Degenkolw’s Phoenix and Britain Andrey’s Uminoko.

The group made their own way 130 miles down to Langkawi and the teams enjoyed the local hospitality and the revelry with fellow sailors after such as long break for the event.

The Phuket Yacht Club youth agenda continues to be promoted with 14-year-old Brandon Wright (son of Northern Shipyard GM, Brendan Wright) aboard Saffron.

The RLIR has a number of prestigious perennial trophies and this year’s winners were Kevin Whitcraft’s THA 72 winning all five races in the Racing Class to take home the coveted Prime Minister’s Challenge. Vincent Chan’s Mata Hari won the LADA-IRC Challenge Trophy capturing all four of the races in the IRC 1 class. Rizal Mahadi bin Sazili’s RSYC Team also won all four races in its class to clinch the Langkawi Sports Trophy for the Sportsboat class.

John Newnham’s Twin Sharks took three of the four races in its class to win the Malaysia Multihull Challenge Cup, while Marikh, skip- pered by Jamil bin Ahmad Urayah, captured two of the three races in the Club Cruising class to win the Commodore’s Challenge Cup. The winner of the Tunku Abdullah Sportsmanship Award, voted on by fellow sailors, was Team Uranus.

Regatta sponsors included the Malaysian Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia, the State of Kedah, the Langkawi Development

Authority (LADA), the Malaysia Sailing Association, MIDF (Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Berhad), Etihad Airways, Permanis (Revive & Tropicana), and Hypergear.

The Royal Langkawi International Regatta is approved and sanctioned by the World Sailing (formerly ISAF) and Malaysian Sailing Association (MSA). It is also the first international event on the annual Malaysian tourism calendar.

Final Results

Racing Class: 1. THA72, Nappakao Poonpat/ Kevin Whitcraft 2. Uranus, Mohd Zaidey bin Bahadun

IRC1: 1. Mata Hari, Vincent Chan 2. Phoenix, Niels Degenkolw 3. 79th Endeavour of Whitby, Stuart Williamson

Sportsboats: 1 RSYC Team, Rizal Mahadi bin

Sazili 2. Navy 1, Mohd Akiyuddin bin Mat Zaki 3. UMT 2, Nor Naeilah Binti Nor Multihulls: 1. Twin Sharks, John Newnham 2. Saffron, Dan Fidock 3. Trident Andrew McDermott

Club Cruising: 1. Marikh, Jamil bin Ahmad Urayah 2. Dash, Asri Azman 3. VG Offshore, Rama Menon