After winning the sail up to Koh Si Chang and the overall last year in sub 5 knot winds, Pornstar managed to win again this year this time in 12+ knots.

On Day 1, with a light westerly quickly filling in from the south at 12-15 knots by midday, racers set off on the 25NM course, passing Koh Larn, then inshore to Koh Noi, then back offshore to round the islands of Koh Si Chang and into the finish. Off the start, Phuket 8 Lee Vino cleverly sent Pornstar above the pin, forcing the little boat to gybe back around then head inshore and below the fleet to avoid the windshadow of the larger racing fleet ahead; a tactic which ended up paying off by avoiding the tide. The two sportboats reached Koh Larn just at the front of the racing fleet before making the downwind turn to Koh Noi. As winds filled in, Pornstar extended their lead to the finish at speeds of 12-14 knots, taking out the daily double, with Ray Waldren’s slightly larger Lee Vino holding onto their heels, finishing 6 minutes behind on line and 2nd on IRC. Keelboats and multis were mostly 20 minutes or further back behind, giving Pornstar the win on line, PHS and IRC.

Day 2’s course saw the fleet sailing back to Jomtien in a shorter straight line upwind course, favouring the larger and more powerful boats as the boats made their way across the Laem Chabang Port entrance, which is one of the area’s busiest sea ports in a wind against tide channel. Pornstar managed 3rd place on IRC handicap and thus overall victory for the weekend.

Keys to the win this year were basically being able to drive the boat lower than the Phuket 8 in the transition winds of 12-14 knots, where the Shaw is up and fully planing but where the helm and trimmer need to constantly be looking for depth; otherwise the boat ends up sailing at speed (11-14 knots of boatspeed) but without good VMG to the mark. Sailing back upwind, the course definitely favoured bigger boats, but hard hiking and the occasional lifts allowing the boat to crack off saw good boat speed, all things considering.

Next up is Top of the Gulf in May, with some smaller regattas ahead of that. Good times to sail in the tropics.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Sailing News, Shaw 650 sailboat pictures, Shaw650 sportboat, Thailand's Regatta, performance boat, sailboat, sailboat race. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.