In the
Firefly 850 Sports one design class at the 23rd Phuket Kings Cup
Regatta, Bill Phelps’s Twin Sharks skippered by Brent Gribble of New Zealand
prevailed for a hard fought one point victory over Hans Rahmann’s Voodoo and
SEA Properties, skippered by Tornado sailor Damien Ford.
The victory was especially sweet for Brent as he was badly injured in a collision in the 2007 Kings Cup.
Also onboard Twin Sharks was Mark Pescott as tactician and mast man, Mia Gillow as trimmer, Ken Feldsman as mast trimmer and foredeck and Brents wife, Thai national Sarina on the foredeck.
Due to a hip replacement earlier in the year, Bill was unable to compete on Twin Sharks as he has done in the past, but was able to watch the racing from his new cruising cat
As usual the racing was very close with the lead changing several times during the windward return courses with some interesting and tight mark roundings resulting in a couple of protest calls, all in the spirit of good close class racing.
Voodoo got off to a good start with a win in the first race but then Twin Sharks got into her stride, winning 4 of the next 6 races, including the 2 long island races by comfortable margins. SEA Properties were never far behind winning 2 races while Roger Kingdon’s Moto Inzi scored a couple 2nds and 3rds and were unlucky to have to retire from one of the island races with sail damage when well placed.
John Newham’s crew, regular charterers of The Frog were never far off the pace.
Congratulations to Brent and crew and to Bill as Twin Sharks took her first regatta victory.
View the video by clicking here.
Many thanks to Phil Bender for producing an excellent video of the regatta.