Moto Inzi victorious in the Firefly 850 Sports class of the 2011 Kings Cup Regatta.

On the eve of the 2005 King Cup, Moto Inzi was launched and went on to win the Ocean Multihull Division of the Phuket Kings Cup regatta.

For the 2006 Kings Cup, the Firefly 850 Sports catamarans raced in their own One Design Class for the first time with 6 Fireflys competing, with French multihull legend Kito de Pavant skippering Chi Machine to victory.

The following years have seen fleets of up to 8 Fireflys blasting colourfully around the Kings Cup courses with a different boat winning every year. Mamba in 2007, SEA Properties in 2008, Twin Sharks in 2009, Voodoo in 2010 with Roger Kingdon’s Moto Inzi claiming the top step of the podium in 2011.

The series result could not have been any closer with Moto Inzi winning the series by only one point despite looking to have a comfortable lead after 4 wins from the first 4 races, with Hans Rahmann’s Voodoo uncharacteristically off the pace with 2 seconds and 2 thirds.

As the wind increased during the regatta, so did Voodoo’s pace as they won the next 4 races to trail Moto Inzi by only one point going into the last days racing. John Newnham’s Twin Sharks and Neil Ayer’s The Frog were also having an equally tight tussle for 3rd place, while Richard Colman’s Team AIA completed the fleet.

The final day’s racing saw the best wind of the regatta with a solid 16- 22 knots. Moto Inzi led all the way in race 9 with good pace and covering well to go into the final race with a 2 point lead but still requiring a second place for overall victory. Despite having damaged the No1 jib and being reduced to the smaller No 2 headsail, they maintained a comfortable lead on the long beat on the island course and the fast run back and it was only on the reach across Nai Harn and the short beat to the finish that Voodoo managed to pass to win the final race. But the 2nd place was enough for Moto Inzi to take the regatta victory by one point.

In fact Moto Inzi had snatched a 2nd place from The Frog in Race 6 by margin of only one second, without which they would have lost the regatta to Voodoo on the “last race’ rule.

The Frog and Twin Sharks continued their battle in the final race with The Frog narrowly beating their rival to take 3rd overall, a satisfying result for Class newcomer Neil Ayer’s crew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deserved congratulations to Roger Kingdon and his and crew, Brent and Sarina Gribble, Jason Corall and Vera.