Anticipation Builds at The Royal Langkawi Yacht Club for The Belt & Road Royal Langkawi International Regatta 2020

LANGKAWI, 18 DECEMBER 2019 – The staff, participating skippers and crews at the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club are hyped for the upcoming Belt & Road Royal Langkawi International Regatta which will take place from the 6^th to the 11^th January 2020 for the 18^th time.

Since the launch of the registration for the 18^th Belt & Road Royal Langkawi International Regatta, 26 contestants have registered themselves up to date. Contestants are diverse, all the way from Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Russia, Japan, Great Britain, Austria, the Netherlands and the United States of America.

All sailing boats will compete for prestigious titles under seven classes in the highly anticipated annual sailing event – namely the Racing, IRC 1 and IRC 2 class, Club class, Multihull class, Sportsboat class and Ocean Rover/White Sail class.

Trophies and awards include the coveted Prime Minister’s Challenge Trophy (Racing class), the Commodore’s Challenge Cup (Club Cruising class), the LADA-IRC Challenge Trophy (IRC 1 class), RLIR-IRC2 Challenge Trophy (IRC 2 class), Langkawi Sports Trophy (Sportsboat class), as well as the Malaysia Multihull Challenge Cup (Multihull class).

For the Racing class, all attention possibly goes to Ray Roberts and Team Hollywood from Australia who were dominating this category in 2019, however there is toughcompetition from challengers from the Netherlands, Singapore and Malaysia in this class.

Followed by IRC class where Mata Hari skippered by Vincent Chan from Malaysia is coming back to defend their title which they won for the past 4 years in a row. Char Chan from Japan will give them a hard fight this time again. Other regulars such as Phoenix, Meraki, Uminoko and The Blue Angel guarantee that this will be a very competitive class once again. In the Multihull class we will see Allegro and Fetz Ma competing once again. The Club Class with so far 8 entries will see familiar faces and some new challengers in this class. The Ocean Rover/White Sail class once again features boats like Eveline and the ever popular Chantique Team and the Sportsboat class will feature competitors from Malaysia.

Contestants will race to win the Prime Minister’s Challenge Trophy in the Racing class category, Commodore’s Challenge Cup for the club-registered cruisers, LADA-IRC Challenge Trophy for IRC 1 class, RLIR-IRC2 Challenge Trophy for IRC2 class, The Langkawi Sports Boat class and Multihull Challenge Cup is for participants in the Multihull category.

One team will be presented with the Tunku Abdullah Sportsmanship Award, for fair racing and comradeship, on water and land, as a tribute to the late Founding Chairman and the first Commodore of the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club (RLYC), Almarhum Tunku Tan Sri Abdullah Tuanku Abdul Rahman. All participating boat crews vote for this Award.

The Regatta Director, Mr Tayfun Koksal said, “I’m very excited about the 18^th edition of the event and I’m expecting to see a lot of tough challenges from the contestants this year. We all hope for strong winds during the week of the 18^th regatta as it will be more fun for all the participating boats. We also intend to make the closing dinner and after regatta party the biggest party of the year in Langkawi.”

Social events such as Welcome Dinner on the 7^th January, Award Ceremonies, Skipper’s Cocktail Reception and the Closing Ceremony plus a party with a live band and various performing artistes on the 11^th January are all lined up already.

Special thanks to Beijing Mitime Sports Industry Investment Co Ltd for being the title sponsor for the 2020 “Belt & Road Royal Langkawi International Regatta”. The final race day of the Regatta will be named “Belt & Road Race Regatta 2020”.

The Royal Langkawi Yacht Club acknowledges their gratitude to the Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia, State of Kedah, the Langkawi Development Authority (LADA) and the Malaysian Sailing Association MSA for their support.

Media partners are Sea Yachting, HOMME Magazine, Langkawi Mai Mai and DVA Digital Vision Advertising.

The 18^th Belt & Road Royal Langkawi International Regatta is approved and sanctioned by the World Sailing (formerly ISAF) and Malaysian Sailing Association (MSA).