Being in Singapore for January and February, I have the tremendous opportunity to sail the Thailand Catamaran Week at Royal Varuna Yacht Club in Pattaya, Thailand this week. I am sailing with Peter Kloppers on his new Infusion MKII for the event, having posted my availability on the regatta website and getting an email from him a few weeks ago. We had never met before the event, but that is all part of the fun! Royal Varuna is a beautiful club, and the weather couldn’t be better for a winter event.

Day one of the event was sailed in a shifty and puffy Southwest breeze between 8 and 12 knots. After a slight delay to wait for the breeze to fill, the race committee was able to run three windward leewards for both fleets. The regatta is being scored using Texel handicaps, with the white fleet composed of the Carbon 20s, F18s, F16s, a Tornado, an A Cat (with spin), and a Spitfire. The F16s are stacked at this event, with AHPC and Nacra both fielding top teams. The new Nacra F16 looks great in person, but the more polished teams on the Vipers had the upper hand on day one. In the F18s the racing was very close, and we were happy to end the day as the third F18 on NED 5. The second start is filled with Darts, Hobie 16s, Nacra 16 square meters, and a Nacra 570. The racing looked very close in that fleet as well, but I couldn’t tell you the results off hand!

One of the cool parts of the event is it is like a mini Olympic selection trials, with only the Nacra 17 missing. I will save my impressions of the boats until the end of the event, but I was definitely impressed by both F16s today as they lead most of the F18s around the course. Tomorrow has a windward leeward and a medium distance race on the schedule, should be another great day.

Results: www.thaicatregatta.org

Best,
Jeff Dusek