two races done in raja muda

Well we're now in Penang after races one and two of the raja muda regatta. The two legs so far have been very successful for the Hi Fi team, we've had two wins on IRC and took line honours in the first race.

The race from Port Klang started downwind in light airs with a strong current going with us. We had a good start and managed to get away from the other boats. A couple of hours into the race we sailed into a net.Our navigator Willy Roberts jumped into the murky water and cut us free and we didn''t lose too much time. I think the whole fleet got stuck in nets at some stage I'm not sure if we'll be too popular with the Malaysian fisherman... As the breeze got lighter we had to anchor against the tide, so for about half an hour we took a coffee break and watched the fleet sail up to us. We were soon sailing again though and managed to get a big break as we headed for the shore and never saw our competitors again. As the land breeze built in the evening we made a lot of sail changes Ryan did an awesome job packing the chutes about fifty times! We finished off the island of Pangkor at about three am and had some beers by the beach till dawn.

Pangkor was a great stopover, we had lunch at the impressive Pangkor Laut Resort and collected our prizes at the party in the evening.

Monday we started the 65nm race to Penang. Another light airs start, this time upwind. It was close with Quantum but we managed to roll over them and settled into our groove laying through to the finish. No nets this time, but the huge thunderstorms crossing the course meant it was another sail change fest! Staying close into the mud banks which extend out from the shore we were often sailing in less than half a metre of water. We managed to stay ahead of Jelik most of the race, they finally passed us as we reached for the finish line, beating us by only two minutes. A nervous wait for results at the Tanjung city marina ensued but it was all good and we beat Mandrake and Quantum by about 25mins on IRC.

More updates to follow....