This weekend sees the Singapore National Champs being raced out of Changi Sailing Club. About 20 boats are expected and this includes 2 boats at least from the Singapore National Sailing Centre. Majority of boats will be Taipans in a variety of guises and 1 Blade. If anyone has been following youth sailing, then they would know that Singapore has one of the strongest youth sailing programs in the world. In Jan Singapore won 3 of the 4 worlds titles on offer at the Optimist Worlds in Uruguay. They are branching out into cats which is great to see.

Originally these dates were proposed for a F16 Challenge but that is another story.

The NE monsoon has been in full swing for the past few weeks. Last week I competed in a 55nm yacht race. Started at 8am and the wind was already in blowing a nice 12 knots. It built during the day with the race finishing in a great 20 to 25 knots. Awesome stuff surfing down 2m swells and not having to worry about getting wet, especially when you have to do a couple of in line changes.

The previous weekend saw the Changi Club Champs being raced. Sat was 10 to 15, Sun 15 to 20plus. Local Taipan sailor Louis Lim took the honours that weekend. Scott McCook and Alice Lim (no relation to Louis) were in prime position to win but were too gung ho at the starts and recorded 2 OCS. There was some great action and close racing.

Next weekend is a breather with Chinese New Year, but the local sailing action returns after that with the Monsoon Cup which is a big event with yachts and cats both racing.

And my wetsuit is getting mothballs.

Cheers

Thanks for the news James. Let us know the Championship results. You must be really pleased to be back in Singapore?

Give my regards to Scott and the others.

Can do. Alice is around, but Scott spends most of his time in Borneo now selling stinkboats.

Results can be found on www.csc.org.sg for the previous weekend.

Singapore is great fun. The work is hard, but the sailing is really good at the moment. I heard it has been snowing in the UK. Can't say I am missing too much.

Cheers

Well the Singapore Champs have been raced and won. Ross Coleman took it out 1 point ahead of Jeff Davison, with Club Champ a further point back. So very close amongst the top 3.

Sat saw a passage race around Pulau Ubin. Didn't race on the Sat as I was off yacht racing. Got a desperate plea from the yacht skipper as I am one of very few people locally who can competently do bow. But from what I heard, the National Sailing guys cleaned up on their Hobie 16s w/spi. They were able to hold the pressure longer than others around the back of the island and catch up to the leaders.

Sun saw a passage out to the race area. Upwind beat for 5nm. No idea who won as I was still on the beach putting up my mast after getting so ended up mid-fleet.

2 W/Ls were next. Wind variable 10 to 15 knots. Racing close up front with Jeff and Ross (both 4.9s with spi) dicing with each other. I was able to get ahead upwind, but trying to hold the pressure down was a bit hard. Spinny guys were able to ride through some of the lulls a lot better.

Last race of the day was downwind passage back after a short beat to give the start boat time to get back to club! Jeff and Ross were fighting for the lead hammer and tong but the pressure got to Jeff who capsized whilst dropping the kite and gave the regatta to Ross. The Hobie guys were able to get the 70s bananas going after extremely slow performance in the W/Ls. They were finishing behind the Nacra 5.0s.

Good event with 17 boats in all. Pics and results are at www.csc.org.sg

Chinese New Year this weekend, but the weekend after is the Monsoon Cup and the last major regatta for the monsoon season.

Cheers