Hua Hin Sailing
Regatta 2015
T
he 15th Hua Hin Regatta took
place from April 20th to the 25th.
This annual event took place on
the beach near the Regent Cha
Am Hotel and is held in honour of his
Majesty King Bhumiphol Adulyadej,
himself an avid sailor in his past.
Over 240 competitors in nearly 200
boats lined up on the beach for the
Thai National Championships, the
most prestigious dinghy sailing event
in Thailand. The event is superbly
organised by the Royal Thai Navy in
conjunction with the Tourist Authorities
of Thailand, Cha-Am Municipality and
Phetchaburi Province. .
The event also incorporates the
Thailand Open Championships for the
420 Class. The Championship hosted
teams from Thailand and Malaysia in an
11 race series over four days of racing
at the Regent Cha-Am Beach Resort in
Phetchaburi.
The leaderboard unfolded into a
battle between the top four teams, and
ultimately went all the way to a tiebreak
finish between Thailand’s Chaninat
Poolsirikot/Piriyaporn Kangkar and
Malaysia’s Alif Safares Binazmi/Ikrami
Hakimin Bin Nlarkham.
Thailand’s Puvich Chanyim/Sarawut
Petsiri opened the Championship on
form, taking a swift race win, followed
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May 15 - June 15 , 2015
by a 2nd and 3rd to share an early
lead on equal points with Nopporn
Booncherd/Kittipoom Kamjohn
(THA). Day 2 saw the leaderboard
shuffle around with Chanyim/Petsiri
consolidating their strong opening day
with a repeat show to lead by 3 points.
The series unfolded with the race wins
going between any of the top four teams.
By the final day, claiming the
Championship win was simply a case
of who beat who. Back to back race
wins in the closing two races brought
Poolsirikot/Kangkar (THA) onto a level
pegging with Binazmi/Bin Nlarkham
(MAS) and the pair claimed the tiebreak
advantage to seal overall victory and
National Championship glory.
Richard Vine, Hua Hin Sailing Club’s
Director scored a succession of 12ths and
13th to finish 13th overall. “Our Club
has only been open 3 months and so we
were delighted to be able to compete.
Now that we are better known and we
have more members we are hoping that
we will be able to field a much stronger
team next year. We are especially
looking forward to starting our Saturday
Morning Club for junior sailors in the
very near future.”
Photos by Steven Moore