Phang Nga Bay Regatta - Is it really Asia's second biggest sailing event??

All aboard for the fun in the sun regatta...
Thailands rapidly growing sailing season gets underway in spectacular fashion this week, when a fleet of 50 boats set sail on the annual Phang Nga Bay Regatta in picturesque southern Thailand.

This regatta, now in its 11th year, is as famous for its parties as it is for its sailing and this year promises to be no different. Four days of racing takes the fleet from Phuket to Phang Nga and Krabi provinces from February 6-10 with a prize-giving party held each evening at different venues along the way. Quite frankly, I don't know why its taken me 10 years to come and cover this event. What else is there for foreigners to do over the Chinese New Year break other than go out and enjoy sailing around southern Thailand's most stunning cruising grounds. More News goto http://asianyachting.com/news/PNBR08.htm

The organisers were taken by surprise when the regatta grew so quickly, expanding from an average of 30 boats in the early years, to 46 yachts in 2006 and 50 boats lined up in 2007. Making the Phang Nga Bay Regatta, Asia's second biggest sailing event, after the King's Cup. Unlike other annual regattas held in Thailand which are run from one location the organisers have a good reason to limit the number of entrants to 50. The regatta moves onto a new anchorage each day and with little or no accomodation ashore makes the logistics just that little bit more difficult to manage. This year most of the crews will have to sleep onboard their boats during the stopovers or on a big power boat which they have hired to follow them around the course.

Quite a few email comments have been received about Phang Nga not being the second biggest regatta in Asia. Don’t just be a reader, leave your mark here! Come on and give us your best shot!

Come on & join our Asian Yachting Racing Team

After opening the first commercial AsianYachting Center in Malaysia last year we are taking the Learn to Sail with Asian Yachtmasters keelboat training scheme onto the next level. As it is our intention to form an AY Racing Team, we are looking for serious sailors that want to develop there skills to go on and successfully compete at regional keelboat regattas and match racing events. If you want to TRY OUT for our AY Racing Team we have set aside some weekends when we will take sailing anyone that is interested in making up the core of sailors needed to form a team. The first TRY OUT dates for our AY Racing Team are Feb 2nd, 3rd, 16th, 17th Further info on training courses and competition events the team is expecting to compete in this year can be found at: http://asianyachting.com/AYmasters/classes.htm