LANGKAWI, 13 January 2023 – Day 4 of the RLIR was another roller coaster day, the Gods of Winds still have not been in our favor today. The day started again ‘windless’ and the AP flag was up at 7.41am.
The PRO ordered the committee boats to depart to check out the east coast options. At 10.15 the AP flag came down and boats were asked to proceed to the east coast where a course was to be set. Unfortunately before the boats arrived the wind had died again, AP flag went up, the race was postponed and boats were asked to head back towards the marina and waiting for further instructions.
Finally at 14.40 a windward/leeward course was set for all classes at Bass Harbour, 1.7 miles from the Marina. All boats were asked to proceed to the start vessel. AP was down at 15.29 with wind speed at 10-12 knots, all classes finally started the first race of day 4
It is also well worth to mention that the Chairman of the Jury for this year’s RLIR is Richard Slater, a high profile international judge involved in events such as the Volvo Ocean Race and Tokyo Olympic games. He also was the chief umpire for the 36th America’s Cup in Auckland in 2021 and has again been appointed for the 37th America’s cup in Barcelona. Richard is one of the architects of many of the rules governing high-performance foiling and will be a key figure making the sporting calls in real-time and co-ordinating the Umpire Team and International Jury for the 37th America’s Cup’s start in September 2024. The role also requires Richard to continue the development of the America’s Cup edition of the Racing Rules of Sailing, including the World Sailing approval processes (source: www.americascup.com/news).
I think it is a great honor for us to have Richard as the Chairman of the RLIR jury this year. And here are the results of day 4: Racing class was the only one racing twice today with the same result as in all previous races. Unbeatable THA72 came in as number one and Uranus as number two in both races and overall.
Mata Hari topped again the IRC1 class as in all previous three races, but today followed by team ‘79th Endeavour of Whitby’ skippered by Stuart Williamson, their best race so far.
RSYC team in the Sportsboat class also seems unbeatable, they took the top spot in every race so far. Team UMT2 came second and Navy2 third.
Multihull class showed more mixed results, John Newnham’s Team Twin Sharks topped the table today (second yesterday) followed by Dan Fidock’s Team Saffron (fourth yesterday) and Andrew Mcdermott’s Trident (winner yesterday).
And finally the winner in Club Class – who only had one race every day – is Team Marikh skippered by Jamil bin Ahmad Urayah.
