Asian Report 5.
Today was teams racing day which started off in about 8 knots of breeze. We managed to get two races done before the breeze died out completely. Now 4 pm and it has been abandoned for the day. Tomorrow we will continue and try to finish teams racing. Tomorrow was scheduled as the day off which the sailors were looking forward to but are keen now to finish the teams racing.
First race we came up against Korea and managed to get a win. There were several judges penalties for both teams around the course. Good race for the kiwis in the end. The second and last race for the day we raced Singapore. They had a better start than us and with their excellent boat speed in the light conditions managed to get 3 boats out clear, so were just out of reach for our guys to do anything. Matt and Cole really gave the one boat they could get a hold of a hard time all the way to the finish. There are 15 teams racing. The top teams as expected look to be Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and hopefully New Zealand. Tomorrow hopefully we will see!
The Thynes bad luck continues with Nick (Boris) cutting his foot on the tiles in the swimming pool this afternoon, so he has gone to Pattaya hospital to have that seen to. He should be ok for sailing tomorrow. So Kate has been busy with that and getting new temporary passports today from the NZ embassy in Bangkok after her bag was stolen by motor cyclist yesterday. Very random event for these parts apparently.
Last evening I went the Asian Champs IODA meeting which was well represented by all countries. We saw the presentation by Singapore Sailing for the next Asian Champs which will be held in Singapore next year from 22-30 July. It will be the 21st anniversary of the Asian Championships. The first being held in Singapore 21 years ago. They assured everyone the regatta will be a special event. New Zealand will be invited to bring over up to 10 sailors, 3 being of opposite gender. There was an invitation for bids to host the following Asian Champs and 3 countries expressed interest. India, Korea and Sri Lanka. So their presentations will be heard at the next AGM. The Asian Champs are a really great regatta and with a very high calibre of sailors, especially in Asian conditions as you can imagine.
The sailors were treated to a pizza evening and then a hip hop dance show. Tonight we have a sea food barbeque at the club. The Royal Varuna Yacht Club is making a great job of hosting this regatta. There many staff employed at the club to organise everything. Even launching and retrieving the sailors with their Optis. The navy are here to look after, launch and retrieve all the coach boats. Jimmy suggested Murrays Bay could do with some of these guys.
Report by Nigel and the team.