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Monsoon Strikes Singapore Straits Regatta

News brief

Monsoon-strength winds turned the final race of the Singapore Straits Regatta into a wild, screaming reach. In IRC A, Sam Chan’s Ffreefire finished Saturday’s seven-mile race in 41 minutes, but it was last place finisher Island Fling, skippered by Paul Winkelmann, that won the division.Keith Dunn’s Mountgay 30 Lunch Cutter won IRC B and Borstnar Vladimir’s Angel won the final race to secure first place in the J/24 one-design division.Asian Yachting News offered the following commentary on the 13th running of the regatta:”Several grumbling’s came from the racing class about accurately recording the finish times and calculating the results as several discrepancies had to be sorted out by the International jury. Criticism about the length the courses and timing the event during neap tides also [became] a talking point amongst competitors. Once again these issues should be addressed by the organizing committee and race officers during the planning stages – not when the event is underway. Some competitors are spending more than it costs to run the event to prepare their high-tech boats and muster top class racing crews together, so they expect the race committee to set high standards and organizers to conduct the event with international levels of competency.”In Asia we tend to over promote the events in a bid to get sponsors and try to attract top class racing boats but run the risk of conducting so called “Mickey Mouse” events. As the big boys come to seriously race their boats they expect the main focus to be on conducting a smooth running and enjoyable event. Nothing is more annoying than to spend the evening hours in the protest room correcting minor and avoidable problems. When word gets out that an event is run below par there can be devastating effects. Instead wouldn’t it better all round for competitors to return home full of praise and wanting to come back again next year?”For more, click here.

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