The top piece of news in Asia is the Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta, and we have full reports, below. This was the 25th running of this hardy annual, a mixture of passage and inshore racing, port calls, adventure, socials and general merriment that has captured the imagination of many Asian sailors – and a good few from further afield, too. Dr John Wardill thinks he has completed 22 out of 25 Raja Mudas – and his boat, Australian Maid, lives in Darwin. This year's winner, Bill Bremner, tried for ten years and with five boats before ‘cracking the code' last year. Now he is a back-to-back winner, joining Neil Pryde in a very exclusive two-boat club. Pryde says that the Raja Muda is good 'because it's so damn hard to win'. He should know, having done so six times.
Bermuda is located about 650nm off the US coast and is a British Overseas Territory Google Earth
Is the America's Cup really going to Bermuda? Our NZ Editor, Richard Gladwell writes, 'Imagine the outcry in NZ if Team New Zealand won the America's Cup and then decided after 15 months that they would hold the Defence in Australia?' Is there really nowhere in the USA that can hold a decent regatta? We can think of heaps, but in the la-la world of Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts it looks as if the commercial tail is wagging the sailing dog. A banker friend in Bermuda has told us that 'the ‘tax haven' angle is not relevant as any US person or team has to pay USA tax no matter which country is chosen. I believe one of the main reasons is TV: Bermuda is four hours from the UK, one hour from New York City, and four hours from the US West Coast. The races can also be held within the harbour, thus can be viewed from the shoreline (even park a cruise ship or two)'.
Do you use PredictWind? Feel an urge to cross an ocean? PW is one of our favourite weather forecast programmes, and it just got better. For offshore routing, selecting the weather information needed is now as simple as setting up a route, and the relevant GRIB files, weather routes, GMDSS text forecasts and satellite imagery are automatically selected. (We know someone who recently navigated all the way across the Pacific with an iPad and Google Earth, but let's not go there...)
The Volvo Ocean Race continues to provide a display of boats all joined at the hip. Abu Dhabi has relinquished the lead to Mapfre (by 5nm), but there are still 3,445nm to go. All praise to the hard-working crews, but don't you wish someone would do something different? Yes, we know why they don't, but once again it looks very much like harbour racing but on a grand scale. Once again, I think I'll start taking an interest when it gets down to the short strokes near the finish. Say, the Straits of Hormuz.
On the horizon: Phuket King's Cup 1-6 December. Everyone wants to be the biggest everything, and there are umpteen ways to measure. The truth is that the King's Cup is a classy event and very much something that needs to be ticked and won. Current entries stand at 92 plus 25 dinghies - call it 117 if you wish.
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