Raja Muda International Regatta

A solid week worth of racing. Long races that start in the afternoon and continue overnight until the next morning. This is a chance to do some fun sailing and avoid the nasty sun.

The race consists of 4 legs and two days of buoy races. If you look at the following map, you see we start in Port Klang (blue dot) and sail up the coast through the Sembilian Islands to Lamut (light blue dot). Then from Lamut we continue to Penang (pink dot) where we get 1 lay day and a series of buoy races. Following this we race north to Langkawi (green dot), a tropical paradise.

Everything started off beautifully. A gusty wind and a cold rain. The cruisers were set to start first so we milled around the start line and watched them unwind their sails and start their BBQ's. Well, actually we all hid below deck out of the downpour while the skipper sat in the cockpit with an umbrella.

For some reason the race committee had the racing fleet start about 2 hours after the cruising fleet and the smaller raceboats. We watched the storm chase them out towards the lighthouse on the horizon. As our start time approached the wind had gone very light and it was a slow paced dual for starting position. We sailed past the line to get away from the fleet, timed our distance over the line, did a jibe back over the line to the starting area and kept on that jibe for a about 30 seconds. Meanwhile the rest of the fleet was tacking back and forth in the light wind trying to get a clear shot to the line. Our windward-leeward approach left us clear of traffic, so when we tacked back to the line we had a perfect start, even if it was on port tack. We cleared the fleet by about 10 seconds and were on a perfect heading for the point. What's better is it was captured on film by the photographer showing us clear of the fleet charging ahead on port tack. That really made up for the spinnaker tangle at the Straits Regatta.

The current in the Melaka Straits is very strong, so we adopted a tactic that we used in the Singapore Straits - stick to the shore. Unfortunately, in Malaysia, the maps are so inaccurate, that during every race many boats end up doing just that -- getting stuck in the mud. We had a nerve racking 40 minute stretch with only 50cm (about 6 inches) of water between our keel and the bottom. But for the record, we managed to avoid hitting the mud.

As the evening wore on the wind left us completely. We watched in horror as the storms seemed to go around us and find other boats in the fleet. As night approached, the lightening storms lit up the sea like it was daytime. And eventually we got what we asked for, a downpour with loads of wind. We sailed on with the smell of land to our right ("dead shrimp?") and the on-coming storms from the left. We plodded our way up the coast making our way to Pangkor Island, just outside of Lumut.

It was very early in the morning when we arrived at the finish line. I don't remember what time it was or even our overall position (3am and 5th?) but we still had a 2 hour motor into Lumut and most of the crew crashed below. So I drove while Chris (or Christ as his mis-printed t-shirt indicated) navigated. With Christ on the charts, what could happen?

At about 4am as we were entering the narrow channel, all the instruments froze. Interesting. We weren't sure how to reset all of them so we had to wake up the exhausted skipper who had steered the boat the entire race. He helped us get them reset and sat on deck with us for a while as we headed through the channel. A few minutes into the channel and still in pitch dark, we ran into a flotilla. Everyone who fished, and had something that floated suddenly decided to go fishing. We were faced with an on-coming wall of flashing yellow, red sirens, white blinking lights, yellow hazard lights and plain old white florescent tubes. Anything counts as navigation lights in Asia, even not having lights seems to count. It was a confusing mess of boats; some huge fishing boats, other small wooden skiffs. We were damn tired and suddenly forced to steer through a maze of moving lights. Once we were past the fishing fleet, we picked our way through the navigation lights which were hidden by all kinds of strange lights in the water and on the shore. We pulled into Lumut after sunrise and were dead tired.

After securing the boat we tried to check into the hotel. Apparently we weren't allowed to "check-in early" at 7am. However, the staff changed their mind when our tired skipper (a massive guy) approached the counter and gave them a knowing smile. (I think we were the only ones allowed an early check-in.) The room had a nice view of the entrance, which looked dramatically different than out on the water, at night.

After some needed sleep we met back on the boat to clean up the mess and straighten out the spinnaker car which had spontaneously lost all of its bearings in the middle of the night. Surprisingly, we were able to find enough bearings still on the deck to piece the car back together with some minor modifications to the bearing wells. I guess we didn't sail the boat quite hard enough if there was still junk sitting on the deck.

However, the sailing we did was fantastic. A better writer could describe the experience of going from zero wind to 30 knots as sudden as turning on a switch; the dramatic scene of heeling over hard in a rain so hard that you can't see more than 3 feet. A good writer could also tell you about the drama of the calm sections of the race where we watched the "lights of the night" for hours, looking for boats that found wind, or wondering who that was we just passed. A better writer would be able to explain these experiences to you as if you were there. But for me, I'll just throw out a few tempting descriptions, because nothing beats being there.

Unfortunately, some guys couldn't escape the rat-race for very long. Especially with the wireless world. Rob has deftly learned how to turn any nook and cranny into an office space. Here's one of his better locations in the bow. We were climbing all around him, running the diesel engine, dragging ropes around while he worked for about two hours from his "office" on his cell phone.

The next leg was to Penang. The Singaporeans on board were already getting hungry. Penang is famous for great food and we were setting sail. We had another two hour motor to the start line through the narrow channel. Strange though, in the daylight navigating the channel was rather simple. I think those sleeping below when we entered the channel at night had a hard time believing our tale of the flotilla and the crazy navigation lights....

We had another good start off the line and were quickly making good time up the coast. The charts showed a heavy mud bank all along the coast with multiple warnings that "shallower depths have been reported". We stayed a little deep to catch some of the tide and then slowly worked our way inland. We agreed to establish a rule that if the depth was less then 3m for more than 3 minutes, we would tack. None of us were eager to waste time in the mud, and the last leg with 50cm under the keel was fresh in our minds.

As we were slowly tacking inland, a cruising boat slowly came up from behind. The skipper was flying a gennaker and dancing on his foredeck in shorts. He was ecstatic to be beating us in our race boat with our uniforms on, etc. We all had a good laugh at the whole scene. But sometimes the sea is a good equalizer. We watched him continue on a reach as he passed us and headed further in shore. Our skipper commented quietly, while we all watched the cruiser waving and sticking out his tongue, "Should we tell him he's headed for the mud?" Not more than 20 minutes later we happened to look back to see him and a boat we were hotly competing with run smack into the mud and their boats come to a grinding halt.

We had a blistering run to Penang and finished in good time. I don't have the race results from the Raja Muda, so I don't dare quote our position, but it wasn't as good as the first leg. Several boats had done well by going a little deeper. There was apparently some current out there. Also some of the boats who got ahead of us had solid wind all the way to the finish line. Where as, we ran into a storm which forced us to tack back and forth for approximately the last 2 hours of the race. The storm put us at a big disadvantage compared to the rest of the fleet.

There was another 2 hour motor to the anchorage, so most of the crew crashed while we took the boat around the island under the bridge and into the anchorage.

We had been warned to leave someone on the boat as an anchor watch because the currents were very strong. Several boats last year dragged their anchor and ended up almost drifting into the bridge. We were sure the stories got better everytime they were told, but it was obvious there was a very strong current and a lot of boats were tied up close together. So the crew decided to keep a watch, even though the skipper insisted not to worry.

We took turns watching the boat, and I was lucky enough to have a great night on board. No wind or rain, just a beautiful full moon.

There was an olympic triangle race scheduled for Penang and we motored out the next day for the race. I have to take a second and describe the fierce heat we suffered through during the daytime. If you've never been on board a boat in 90 degree weather with 80% humidity, imagine sitting in a sauna room with a spotlight turned on you. We were cooking in the heat. There was no relief from the sun, unless you went down below, which was 10 degrees hotter with no air circulation. The crew would huddle under the boom's shadow and move from side to side as the boat turned and the shadow moved. The skipper gave in to holding an umbrella, to keep from turning into human bacon.

The buoy race was not pleasant for us. In fact I don't really want to even talk about it. Let's just say the crew wasn't ready to handle the big boat in tight quarters. We needed some practice to get our teamwork up to speed.

We returned to the anchorage eagerly awaiting the start of the longer race to Langkawi. Once again the cruisers started ahead of us in light wind, but this time with strong adverse current conditions. Some had problems getting over the line. Also in the cruising class was the old wooden sailboat sailed by the Indonesian Navy, a real fun bunch of guys who knew how to have a good time.

The race to Langkawi was my favorite leg. We watched the cruisers fall off to the left side of the bay, swept by current. They eventually stalled and were pushed up next to the shore. We opted for the other side of the bay, as shallow as possible to stay out of the current. About 3 other boats took this course with us and we managed to climb out of the bay and move ahead of the other two classes who were left struggling in the current.

The course was simple: head to Langkawi and avoid the islands in-between. We had a couple of squalls after sunset, but the rain was warm. It inspired a few stories about sailing in snow or using frozen ropes among the crew. It seemed a million miles away. No chance of getting cold here.

We suffered through some lulls where we discovered the light spinnaker worked much better as a jib on the fractional rig than the jib itself. It was frustrating at first, watching the competition sail by us. But once we employed the spinnaker, we turned the table and started passing boats. Soon they were all trying to fly their spinnakers....

The reason this leg was my favorite was because we eventually had clear skies, 20-30 knots of wind, a reach heading, and a full moon to steer by. It was perfect sailing by anyone's description. We roared past the islands and kept heading straight towards the finish line.

The only barriers between us and the finish line were several unlit barges, and fishing boats. A careful eye could spot their dark outline on the water. We picked our way through them and finished in grand style.

We navigated our way into Langkawi and pulled in at about 3am. Sherrell was waiting at the hotel room for me to arrive so I packed up quickly and jumped ship. The next day we staggered down to see the results and see the boat.

We were doing ok in the series overall, about 5th. After computing all the points, we found that with some miracle (1st or 2nd) on the next day's buoy race, we might have a chance at 3rd.

Sherrell and I decided to put the sailing aside for the day and go check out Langkawi island.

We took a taxi to explore a new place to stay. We wanted to find a small bungalow by the beach and the driver took us south to a small sandy cove with a small resort in the center. There were some people laughing and sitting around a table and some wild monkeys running around by the beach. It seemed perfect, so we inquired about a room, but they were full. Too bad because we had just made friends with one of the locals who had a catamaran and I had hoped to get a chance to try it out.

Our taxi driver took us west this time to another beach area. He seemed to think there was a hotel there that would work for us. It was small and close to the beach. They told us they had a room that was near the sand and they led us to the hut that was practically in the surf. Perfect. We dropped off our things, and hired another taxi to take us around the island. Sherrell had found a beautiful beach the day before and was dying to take me to it. This hotel had built a nice open air resturant that led out into the white sand beach.

We had lunch and our driver came back and took us to some of the other spots around the island like the waterfalls and some tourist shops where we bought some presents for our family at Christmas. After a full day of touring, we headed back to the Yacht Club to meet everyone for beer. From there, we all headed downtown to a seafood place where the Singaporeans ordered all of the best kinds of local food for the table. We ate and drank until we couldn't move.

The next day, we still had a buoy race to deal with and some lost ground to try to recover. We all decided to go out and get some practice in before the race. Rob led us through the spinnaker motions and after some rigorous practice with the lines, we had the jibes and sets down.

We went into the race with an excellent start and were right with the big boats. We stayed on the starboard tack as the fleet tacked over to port. In retrospect, we should have followed, but our slower boat doesn't get ahead by sailing the same course, so we took our chances. By the time we had gotten to the windward mark we had lost our lead significantly and had to fight hard to regain our ground. Our spinnaker handling was much improved after our practice and we stayed with the fleet. Each leg we tried to edge out boats around the marks, because this race wasn't long enough for our handicap to help correct our time. We had to beat most of these boats around the marks. We closed in on the lead boats on the last leg and chased them all the way home. Although we knew we didn't win, we thought we might have a chance of improving our standings in the regatta.

Back at the club house we drank beer and waited for the results to be posted. Finally we saw that we were still 5th overall in our class. Our buoy race had gone well, but it wasn't enough to advance our position.

At least our sailing had improved over the Singapore Straights Regatta. We were more consistant and sailing quicker, barring the buoy race in Penang, of course. We had a great time racing together and I hope we will get a chance to do it again.

At the end of the race, several of the crew tried to catch a flight back to Singapore. Since most of the crew was going to bail, Sherrell and I decided to skip the party and head for a Thai resturant in the middle of the island. This resturant was buried deep inside a mangrove forest and found only after following a wooden pier through the trees for almost 2km.

After that hike, we found the restaurant didn't open for another thirty minutes. The manager was inside going over his inventory and let us sit at the bar and have some drinks. Suddendly, we heard a bunch of screeching and the manager led us outside to see the staff feeding some of the monkeys that had been hanging out by the kitchen. The monkeys were fighting and screeching over little scraps of bread. They looked like a bunch of little kids fighting over spilt candy.

As the monkeys can attest to, they had great food and we stuffed ourselves in preparation for the long hike back to the road. It was about two hours before we got back to the hotel, after a long wait for a taxi, and we crashed hard.

The next morning Sherrell and I had lined up a boat tour to take us around some of the islands. Since our trip to the Philippines, our annual Thanksgiving tradition has become island hopping. They were going to take us to see the nature reserve, the "lake of the pregnant maiden" and for a spin around some of the other outer islands. This nature reserve was nice because they went to the effort of keeping the animals in their natural habitat, but they were a little short sided on the pollution side. Paint cans in the water, etc.

The shape of the island of the pregnant maiden looks like a pregnant lady laying down, hence the name. In the center of this island is a lake said to make women fertile (I told Sherrell not to swim, but she never listens). We had a wonderfully refreshing swim, as we rarely have the opportunity to swim in fresh water.

We went back to the hotel and relaxed by the beach watching some of the cruising boats sailing their way along the shore. To avoid jealousy, we started making our own plans about cruising through these waters....