Special report about Phuket Yacht Club, AoYon 1st dinghy & Hobie Cat Regatta

The Phuket Yacht Club at AoYon, near Cape Panwa, with a small but friendly beachside clubhouse, held its first dinghy and Hobie Cat Regatta last Sunday 21 December 2008.
It was a beautiful sunny day with clear water,
for sailing out in the bay beyond the oyster farm marked by the white buoys.
The starter boat signaled the messages to the sailors in the regatta.
There were only five Hobie Cats and Catamarans (and 15 other small dinghies) who started (their race category)in breezy conditions. Katy, sailing secretary, of the club described some of the 20 boat and sailors:
The Hobie boats, popular with beach hotels, can quickly reach speeds of over twenty-to-thirty knots in good winds.
Merv Owens, the new commodore of the club, was putting his feet up enjoying sailing in a bigger and heavier Catamaran. Katy described the other smaller dinghy boats in the other category:
The Topaz, and their sailors, are built in the U.K. but seem to like the Phuket waters.
Paul, the ex-commodore of the club, was also enjoying the Topaz experience.
Adam Bowers, from U.K., was helping with the timing & organization of the regatta as he has good qualifications as coach of the successful British sailing crews including recent Olympic winners:

After the first races they gave out sandwiches to the hungry sailors. Katy mentioned how they hope to attract more adult members to this friendly club :
The second part of racing started after lunch.
You could see the fun elements of small boat racing
but to really appreciate the excitement
both for foreigners, and also Thai people who seem a little reluctant to try this cheaper & easier form of sailing, I went on board with a Swedish-Thai family on a Topaz:
Another crew on a Hobie Cat, Tony Knight and Grenville Fordham, MD of IMAGE asia, organizer of the annual Phuket Raceweek Regatta, told me how they were enjoying this new experience :
If you want to also catch the sailing bug & learn some special skills from the GB coach, Adam gave more details of his expert training course to be held at the club this coming weekend:
To get more details on how to get on board, on & off the water, surf on over to www.PhuketYachtClub.info
Special Report for Andaman News NBT (VHF dial) + FM90.5 Radio Thailand at 8.30am & perhaps relays/repeats on local Cable TV channel 1, broadcast to Phang Nga, Krabi & Phuket provinces, & possibly FM108 Mazz Radio 7.30pm in Phuket, Wednesday 24 December 2008 & http://thainews.prd.go.th/newsenglish/ Send comments to AndamanNews@yahoo.com

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Phuket
• Thailand
• Yacht
• Club
• sailing