2013/12/13

King

The Phuket King's Cup Regatta is the Asia's biggest and most popular regatta. Launched in 1987 to celebrate the 60th birthday of His Majesty the King of Thailand, the event has been held every year since during the first week of December. The 2013 King's Cup Regatta ended on saturday the 7th of December after 5 days and 11 races sailed, with the victory of the Australian Ray Roberts's OneSails Racing TP52, leading by one point over Ahern Bailey Wilmer's Oi ! TP52. Neil Pryde's HiFi Welbourne 52 came in third place. The final day of racing in this year's Phuket King's Cup Regatta posed the challenge of very light conditions, making every skipper's decision and change of tacks a crucial decision at the close of this legendary race. Ahern Bailey Wilmer's team took two first places on the final day - an incredible finale and so typical of the King's Cup. The result at the finish was Ray Robert's crew winning the class by a single point. Their second and third place finishes were enough to see them emerge as overall Phuket winners following their good tactical decisions. Ray Roberts, skipper and owner of OneSails Racing, spoke of his delight: ''It's great to be back here and winning our fourth Phuket King's Cup. ''It was very light wind today with squalls, and so we kept focus on calm decisions and consistency. ''Some of the winning gaps have come down to just four seconds or so - very challenging. Technology is changing in sailing all the time and we came up with a cutting-edge sail design at OneSails, and that was our key to success.'' More information about Phuket King's Cup Regatta http://www.kingscup.com/ Congratulation to Ray Roberts and his crew from all the OneSails staff. (Photo: Max Ranchi)