Securicor Somtam Express

The idea to build a lightweight sports racer came up among a group of yachtsmen in Phuket's Ao Chalong Yacht Club. The existing fleet was several years old and somewhat lack-lustre. Requirements were soon gathered and listed and concrete specifications developed. Scott Duncanson, an Australian living in Phuket, asked his father, an award winning Gold Coast based yacht designer, to help develop the plans.

John Duncanson was delighted and having built successful racers before, he saw a great opportunity to put some of his own ideas into the plan.

In its first outing in 2004, Securicor Somtom Express convincingly won the Royal Langkawi Regatta and also the Phuket King's Cup. Both of these regattas were driven by gusting winds.

The vessel is not a boat for beginners. Crucial to the boat’s performance is the weight as well as the distribution, which means you have to be very selective with your crew. There are a lot of control lines to consider and is a lot of tweaking to do. For example the sail itself already attracts a lot of points to an extreme degree.

Blue Jay - Where Are the Shrouds?

"Would you fly in an aircraft with strings attached to it?" is Jay Jarvis' stock answer when asked where the shrouds are to hold up his masts. His cat-rigged, two masted schooner uses no stays or shrouds but has two oval yokes to control sails.

There are countervailing aerodynamic forces keeping the masts steady, he claims. It seems to work. "I’ve had her in a 55 km. wind with full sails... not intentionally, by the by!... The tops of the masts were flattened and still they didn't break" In fact, he has sailed around the world with the 22-year-old boat.

The masts are ½ inch fibre-glass tubes stepped on the keel. The tops bend which tends to belly the sails off-the-wind and flatten them up-wind, but Jay admits she's not as efficient as a professional racing rig. Also, he is limited to the two mainsails. However, she won the Prime Minister's Cup in the Langkawi Regatta two years ago, and Cruising Class honours at Phang Nga Bay last year.

The bendiness of his masts may have also made some contribution to attracting Pat, his wife, five years ago when they met in Dubai.

Isobar

A majestic wooden 45 ft Harlander design, Isobar is certainly deserving of the word classic. Owner Des Kearns has lived in the area for seventeen years. He has a marine survey business located here in the yacht club, though he vacates it for this regatta to be used as the press centre. This gives him the perfect excuse to 'shut up shop and go sailing!'

Des had known and admired Isobar for many years before taking up the opportunity to buy her in 2002. He spent the next eighteen months restoring her to her former glory with a complete refit. Isobar sustained a fair amount of damage in the tsunamis as she was docked at Rebak. Not wanting to miss the opportunty to compete in the BMW Royal Langkawi International Regatta, she was treated to a hasty patch up.

Isobar is crewed by a bunch of 'nice guys' from Rebak Marina. They describe themselves as a 'mature' crew clocking up 310 years between them! At this stage they hope to take the Classic class for the regatta. If there was a classic class for crew age, it would be a certainty.

Isobar's sail number is 60. Given this is the skipper's age, he describes this as a 'once in a life time shot!'

Beaux Spirit

Keith Garry recently took the plunge to indulge in his favourite past time by acquiring Beaux Esprit (formerly Monsoon Blue, rebuilt by Des Kearns).

The new crew are a diverse mix of nationalities that work well together, and have enjoyed the thrill of racing in the regatta. Stefanie, a German graphic designer, based in Phuket came down to the regatta on the Champagne Run. Kelvin from KL is a pilot with Malaysia Airlines. Mark and Chris are a couple of Aussies working in KL. Ivan, a fun drifter, fishes occasionally for salmon in Alaska. David from the UK is taking a break from driving his 1964 Triumph TR4 from 'bridge to bridge' - starting on the Tyne Bridge in the UK and heading for the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia, which are identical in structure. (You can save this bit of trivia for your next quiz night! )

Beaux Esprit, an X412, is racing against a couple of other X-class boats Minx and Abraxas in the IRCI class. The competition has been great, with all boats finishing within minutes of each other on Wednesday’s long course. A couple of crew changes on Thursday, with Stefan from Sweden and Martin based in KL joining, will make the cocktail of nationalities perfect.

Bolero - True Love

Dutch couple Carla Domberg and Ed van den Heuvel were both successful business people sharing a passion for sailing. However, only at weekends or on short holidays could they escape from their hectic daily life and go sailing, mainly in the Med.

Ed's passion leaned more towards racing while Carla preferred cruising, but both competed in several races on their first boat a Swan 47.

In Mallorca they fell in love with the beautiful Swan 59, Bolero. It was this boat which planted the idea into their heads to sail around the world.

At first, they tested whether they could cruise and get along together on longer voyages - which was not such a bad idea. Four months later they were ready to follow their dream. They sold their house and business and bought Bolero.

For them it was the ideal boat with the ideal name, as Clara and Ed love music and dancing and Ed’s father was a famous ballroom dancer, particularly enjoying the tango. Ravel’s “Bolero” encompasses all this history with a feeling of their life on the boat. The most important reason, however, is that they still feel a passion for each other after 15 years.

They started their journey in 1999, following the "Milky Way" run to New Zealand, Toro Tonga, Australia and Indonesia.

After four years of sailing they were ready for a change. Why not introduce other people to this kind of lifestyle? They thought, and so offered their boat for charter. The positive response from their guests shows that they made the right decision.

Now Carla and Ed are discovering Malaysia countries along the Andaman Sea coast.