Celebrations Abound After Final Day Races Abandoned at The 14th Royal Langkawi International Regatta

LANGKAWI, 16 January – Day 5 of the 14th Royal Langkawi International Regatta dawned with grey skies and no winds but the festivities did not skip a beat as sailors celebrated yet another successful regatta in the popular Royal Langkawi Yacht Club (RLYC), despite races being cancelled on the last day.

“The Race Committee and I went out early searching for winds around the island but everywhere we went we had very low amounts of wind, or little gusts that came through and disappeared. It became harder and harder to set a course and eventually at 1.00pm we had to cancel the race,” said Simon James, Principal Race Officer.

He added, “This year is probably the most competitive regatta we’ve had in all Classes with results coming out by seconds. The redevelopment of the club is phenomenal and it’s going to be one of the best clubs in Asia.”

In the four days of the regatta, the Racing, IRC-1, IRC-2 and Sports Boats Classes competed in eight races; the Multihulls raced seven times while the Club Cruisers, Ocean Rovers and White Sails had four races.

Alive’s first time at the RLIR was rewarded with the Prime Minister’s Challenge Trophy for the Racing Class, with Millenium Racing coming in second and Oi!, last year’s winner, in third place. The young all-Malaysian crew of Team Ulumulu managed to slip into fourth, ahead of Jelik and Trader.

Fujin stole the show to take the LADA-IRC Challenge Trophy over Uranus, Emagine, Megazio and Insanity in the IRC 1 Class.

This year, the IRC-2 yachts competed for their own trophy – the RLIR IRC-2 Challenge Trophy – which was claimed by Mata Hari. RLIR regular Phoenix had to settle for second place ahead of newbie Foreign Affair.

“We won last year so it’s good to retain the trophy but we were pushed to the wire by Phoenix and Foreign Affair. The first two races we were shocked by our 16 second and 20 second loss to Phoenix but we stepped it up to take four bullets although in the light winds we really had to work hard to keep our lead,” said Mata Hari skipper Vincent Chan.

Team RLYC gave SMU a run for her money, with both boats taking turns for line honours throughout the week but SMU edged the home team by one point to win the Langkawi Sports Trophy for the Sports Boats Class.

WOW outclassed Allegro, IMAGE asia Nina and Manta Blu, winning six of the seven Multihull races to take the Malaysian Multihull Challenge Cup.

The RLYC Commodore’s Challenge Cup for the Club Cruisers stayed with Sophia while the 105-year-old Eveline toppled defending champion My Toy to take the Ocean Rover title, and Chantique made a clean sweep of the White Sail Class.

The Tunku Abdullah Sportsmanship Award, was presented to Manta Blu for its competitiveness, fair racing and comradeship, on water and land, in memory of the late Founding Chairman and the first Commodore of the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club (RLYC), Almarhum Tunku Tan Sri Abdullah Tuanku Abdul Rahman.

RLIR 2016 is grateful for the continued support of the Ministry of Youth & Sport Malaysia and Tourism Malaysia as well as its commercial sponsors and supporters.

Media Partners are SEA Yachting, Sail-World Asia, HOMME, IMAGE asia, TRAXXfm Radio & RTM and Spectrum Outdoor.

The Royal Langkawi International Regatta (RLIR) 2016 is organised by the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club (RLYC) and sanctioned by the ISAF and Malaysian Sailing Association (MSA), and supported by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Malaysia. The RLIR is part of the Asian Yachting Circuit.