For some reason a lot of the other local yacht and cat regattas suffer from poor attendance, poor race management, or restrictive sailing areas, or some other mediocrity or combination of this and more. But everyone turns up for a white sails yacht race around an island off Changi Sailing Club where you have 1 to 4 or more Ambassadors from various countries. And it is scheduled for a time between monsoons when the wind is fickle, driven by storms and all over the place.
Or maybe people turn up because of the great prizes. First year I did this race the winning catamaran got a Bulgari watch. Which was me, but then I got DNF'd as I went the wrong side of a channel marker. Had only been in Singapore for a month and hadn't sailed the area and was 10 mins ahead of the next cat so my random guessing of which marks to go around didn't pay off. I went within 50m of the mark and wouldn't have lost or gained time. Bugger. But what was hilarious was the winner didn't know what a Bulgari watch was worth so gave it to his crew/date and didn't see her again a few weeks afterwards. Was kicking himself when we told him a few months after that.
The second year a made amends and got the chocolates. Magnum of Moet that year, nice. Third year was a write off as they changed the course a bit so was an out and back. Well the out was with a spring tide, and when it got turning around, well I kept going out to sea and the shipping channels as 2 knots of wind against 3 knots of tide doesn't make for any positive progress. So towed home by one of yachts throwing back a regular supply of beers for the long trip back.
Doing it on the A-cat as opposed to the moth. 50 yachts and 20 cats in narrow shipping lanes and strong tides and light winds not a good idea or situation for a moth. So we will see what comes of it all this year. Sounds like going to be a big one based on the yachts entered already.
