PRESS RELEASE RACE DAY 5

Langkawi, 14 January 2017 – Day 5 of the 15th Royal Langkawi International Regatta greeted the sailors again with very calm weather conditions. The Race Committee went out at 8 am searching for wind. By 10.30am the wind had picked up enough for the Principle Race Officer Simon James to quickly set up a course. The final race series for this regatta saw the fleet flagged off at 11.00 am with 4-5 knots of wind. Unfortunately towards the end of the race the wind died again and after all boats had crossed the finishing line they were sent back home to celebrate another successful regatta in the new premises of the RLYC, Fisherman’s Wharf

“We had more races than we thought at the beginning of the week. So, the sailors are happy and that is the important thing” said Simon James. “The facilities in the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club are fantastic, we can sail out of the marina which makes the logistics very easy. And we had a really great management team”.

In the four racing days of the 2017 regatta the Racing, IRC1, IRC2 and Sportsboats Classes competed in seven races. The Multihulls raced six times, the Club Cruisers five times and the Ocean Rovers and White Sails had four races.

THA 72’s first time at the RLIR was rewarded with the Prime Minister’s Challenge Trophy for the Racing Class winning every single race during this regatta. Emagine came in second and Black Bazza, another newcomer to the RLIR took third place.

Mata Hari racing this year in the IRC1 class came first taking the LADA-IRC Challenge Trophy over Insanity and PhPlus.

The IRC-2 Challenge Trophy was claimed by Phoenix. Old Pulteney Blue Angel settled for second place ahead of Sailescapes Fargo Ladies.

The teams in the Sportsboats class took turns for line honours throughout the week but the RSYC Team finally won the Langkawi Sports Trophy for this class.

Tantrum Too outclassed Fetz Ma and Mojo, winning all six races in the Multihull class taking home the Malaysian Multihull Challenge Cup.

The RLYC Commodore’s Challenge Cup went to VG Offshore winning three of five races in the Club Cruisers class. Freedom 12 took the Ocean Rover title and Invictus Reward made a clean sweep of the White Sail Class.

Tayfun Koksal, the General Manager of the RLYC said: “The day we had no race turned out to be a great day for all the sailors to meet old and make new friends at Charlie’s. I am also very pleased that we had a final race on the last day despite the mediocre wind conditions. It was my first regatta at the RLYC and I am very happy to see one of the newcomers winning all races in the Racing Class. We hope that in 2018 we get more participants and many more newcomers. Also, I will promise that this year’s closing party will be one of the best ever and I am sure all regatta participants and guests will have a great time.”

RLIR 2017 is grateful for the continued support of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia and Tourism Malaysia, Ministry of Youth & Sports Malaysia and the Langkawi Development Authority (LADA), as well as its commercial sponsors such as Volvo Car Malaysia Sdn Bhd, ECK Development Sdn Bhd, ETIKA Sdn Bhd (formerly known as Permanis Sandilands Sdn Bhd) and supporters.

Media Partners are SEA Yachting, IMAGE asia, HOMME and TRAXXfm RTM.

The Royal Langkawi International Regatta (RLIR) 2017 is organised by the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club (RLYC) and sanctioned by the World Sailing (formerly 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.