Malaysian team Matahari hold on to lead despite losing windsail

LANGKAWI: Two minutes before Malaysian team Matahari KL Registry started their race at the 17th Royal International Langkawi Regatta (RLIR 17), their yacht’s windsail broke as it was set up wrongly.

As they hosted the sail, it got caught on the feeder of the boat and was torn.

They had to change their sail, but instead of a windsail, they had to make do with a light air sail.

Despite the setback, they continued to hold on to their lead in the IRC1 class race.

“We had to sail very carefully. We managed to get first place. The second race was a very long race,” said Matahari skipper Vincent Chan yesterday.

“We tried to stay in contention to preserve our sail because we were using the wrong sail. It was close.

After eight races, Matahari have 11 points while Russian Team MegaZip are second with 15 points.

Both teams won one race each yesterday, which was held at the Kuah Harbour and the West Coast Course.

“It’s still very much open. Hopefully we will be able to hang on for our fifth consecutive win,” said Vincent.

In the racing class category, Team Hollywood stamped their superiority by winning both races, making it a clean sweep of all eight races.

Barring any mishaps today, they are likely to win the overall title.

Thai team TH72 finished behind them in all the races.

Team Hollywood have seven points while TH72 have 14 points with Malaysian boat SCS Janda Baik third on 25 points.

In the IRC 2 series, APW Endeavour of Whitby are ahead with 10 points while Phoenix and The Blue Angel have 13 and 17 points respectively.

There are also competitions for the sportsboat, multihull, club cruising and white sailing classes in the five-day regatta.