17 - 25 November 2023 
2023 Race 1
33rd RMSIR off to a great start
At midday, on Saturday November 18th, PRO Simon James launched the 33rd sailing of the Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta with two rolling starts. The first course, A1, for classes 1-3 (nine boats) was an 82 NM race from Port Klang to Fairway Rock near Pangkor Island. The second race, course 1B, for classes 4-6 (ten boats) sailed 75NM from Port Klang to the southern tip of Pulau Lalang. The start saw 5-7 knots of wind with a strong tide.
Last year’s regatta was held during a Malaysian federal election: the start was even delayed so all Malaysian nationals involved in the regatta could vote. As such, getting police and support boats was difficult.
Not so this year as both Police boats and Maritime Authority vessels were out in force which not so surprisingly made for fewer fishing boats and nets to navigate through, though there will always be a few to dodge.
The Malaysian Navy’s Uranus, skippered by Hanif Husain, and racing in Class 1 (Racing IRC) had line honours in the first race crossing the finish in 15:44:20, but when their handicap was factored in they finished third in the four-boat division behind Nick Burns’s Witchcraft (a Mills King 40), Rolf Heemskerk’s The Next Factor (a Farr 40). Steve McConaghy’s Aftershock (a Davidson 55) rounded out the class and just couldn’t get any luck.
Aftershock lost two jibs during the race and had to use their Dacron delivery jib to finish the leg. The first jib, a J2, delaminated 8 knots before the first squall, and the second jib, a J4, ripped just below the top batten as the 25-knot squall hit.
Class two (Premier IRC Cruising) saw P Cremers sleek Shatoosh (a Warwick 75) beat out Hans Rahmann’s equally slick custom-built Yasooda on corrected time though Yasooda was eight minutes ahead on elapsed time.
Class three (Sports IRC) was won by Lee Yi Min’s Silhouette (a First 40.7) followed by Steve Manning’s Red Rum One (an Archambault A4ORC) an Max Palleschi’s Prime Factor (a Farr 40).
Class four (Sports non-IRC) saw Chris Mitchell’s Lady Bubbly (a Naut 40) beat out Karan Khara’s Sitka (a Sun Odyssey 429) with Sonny Soh’s Lady Elluanne (a Jeanneau 54) placing third. Claire Canning was supposed to be crewing on Sitka, but a shoulder injury forced her out. Not wanting to miss the regatta she joined anyway and has been a great help to the committee.
Class five (Cruising non-IRC) was won by Dash (a Yamaha 36) with the irrepressible Rama’s VG Offshore (a Dehler 38) in second spot and Ken Yap’s Millennium 2 (a Hunter 326) in third place.
Class six, the last and final class, was won by Hasani Hassan’s Marikh (a Contesa 32) followed by RMP’s Penarik (a Catalina 30), and Shah Azlan Ramli’s Tofan (a Westerly Storm 33). Dato Richard Curtis’ Eveline will join the fleet in Langkawi.
There are no multihulls sailing in this regatta.
There was no other major damage except that Millennium 2’s engine overheated about 8NM from gate one at the same time that their reef line was stuck. Eventually they were able to get the engine going and make it to Pangkor and Puteri Bayu beach resort, where the evening’s party and awards are being held.
The regatta’s technical guru Malcolm Elliott has installed a YB3 tracker on each boat. This utilizes the Iridium satellite network, so the committee will know where each boat is during the passage races and what time they finish.
The regatta continues tomorrow with a 65NM passage race from Pangkor to Penang.