Raja Muda Regatta, Malaysia

Redwings Round the World

Raja Muda Regatta 21 - 29 November 1997

Map Key

Red Line: Our Route

Blue Dot: Port Klang, Malaysia

Aqua Dot: Lamut, Malaysia

Pink Dot: Pinang, Malaysia

Green Dot: Langkawi, Malaysia

Yellow Dot: Phuket, Thailand

21 November: Port Klang, Malaysia

Aaron - Today was the official "signing in day" for the regatta with lots of boats arriving from all over. The Raja Muda Regatta was started eight years ago to take advantage of all of the racing boats coming into the area for the King's Cup in Thailand which takes place in early December. The regatta consists of several overnight legs up the Malaysian coast ending at the resort island of Langkawi which is just south of the Thai border and one day's sail from Phuket. Raja Muda means "crown prince" in Malay and the regatta's patron is the Raja Muda of Selangor (one of the Malaysian states) who is himself a keen sailor who has recently completed a circumnavigation in his massive 90 foot Nautor Swan "Jugra". About 40 boats have entered the regatta with 16 in the cruising class in which we will be competing. Another 20 or so yachts are in the racing division with 4-5 misfits / heavy cruisers / traditional boats in the "classic" division (they are handed a rather arbitrary rating and also allowed to motor). Two ocean going catamarans round out the fleet.

I scrambled all day to try to find somewhere we could haul the boat out so we could change our three blade cruising propeller for our two blade racing prop. The two blade prop locks vertically behind the rudder skeg which results in substantialy less drag than that afforded by the three blade giving us about 1/4 to 1/2 of a knot more speed on average. Unfortunately, slips were full and cranes too expensive and also few and far between so we will have to stick with the three blade. The good news is that one of our new crew who arrived today, Penny Carter, used to run the Cruiser Owner's Association in Hong Kong and is very experienced with dealing with RORC (Royal Ocean Racing Club) and the CHS (Channel Handicap System) rating people. She fired off a fax to them and hopefully tomorrow we will have a new certificate with our rating changed to reflect the fact that we will be racing with the slower three blade prop.

The major fixit job of the day was to take a crack at fixing the furler. Paul and I pulled the sail and yanked on the furling unit and finally got the genoa out and then dropped it. Good thing! The heavy spectra halyard had almost completely chafed through at the top just above the eye splice to the shackle. Perhaps the problem is that the halyard is wrapping at the top and there is no problem with the bearings of the lower unit as we suspected. Sure enough, once we took the sail off the lower unit, it spun freely. Up to the top of the mast for me. Paul and Kerry hauled the sail back up and we did some test furling. Yes. The shackle sticks on the headsail foil when it turns and and the halyard saws on edge of the foil where it ends and just the forestay comes out. Solution: strop the tack one foot above the lower furler which brings head of the sail higher as well and the shackle and halyard above the top of the headsail foil. Tighten the halyard tension and the furler works like a charm. Apparently, the luff on our 130% genoa is a bit longer than that of the 150% which is why we only started having trouble several days into the delivery (we started with the 130% - this is the sail the furler was originally set for). Although slightly less efficient from a sail trim perspective, stropping the tack up a bit also solves the problem of excessive chafe of the foot of the sail on our lifelines and pulpit.

While I was up there, Kerry hoisted the digital camera up to me for some pics (like most of the pictures from the DC, they came out massively overexposed and are not worth putting here). However, I dropped the case and watched it flutter down.... action man Paul, who was also hot at the time, jumped in after it (after stripping to his blue bikini underwear). He caught it, but could not swim back to the boat given the strong current and had to come back later in the club launch.

So yes, our new crew are here. The Redwings all-gal team. Penny was first to arrive apparently getting in last night and staying in a hotel. In addition to running the COA in Hong Kong, Penny is also an international yacht racing juror. This is a major plus for us as a) she has worked at the Raja Muda and Kings Cup for the past several years and everyone know her and owes her favors and b) we have an on board expert of experts to handle all queries pertaining to the racing rules and race protocol. Penny is also a very experienced sailor and I am hoping she can fill the role of Crew Boss during the racing allowing me to concentrate on steering the boat.

Laura Longsworth is Kerry's friend from the US who will be joining us for a couple of months and at least as far as Sri Lanka. We were originally supposed to meet her in Singapore, but as we had to skip it, she worked her way to Klang successfully and met us this afternoon. Laura sailed some as a kid, but does not have a lot of experience. However, she is a pilot and I think a lot of the concepts will come to her quickly.

Joanna Sulzburg worked with Colleen at WI Carr in Hong Kong and has sailed dingies and crewed on big boats, but will get a lot more action with us. Given her relative "vast" experience, we're throwing her on the foredeck. Baptism by fire.

Kerry - Eddie and Captain O enter the scene - I'll try to describe both of our new friends. Eddie is a former Olympic and Whitbread sailor - now captain of a classic boat based in Singapore. He is in his mid-20's and will be joining us for the King's Cup. I hope that he can live up to the high standards set forth by Redwings. Captain O is a former Malaysian military captain, now head of a shipping empire. He is full of jokes, all clean, of course, and many stories which are all true. Captain O became our commodore for provisioning in each port, as well as leading the way to the best curry houses for dinners to go for our overnight sails.

Laura - This my first effort at writing the log and as I only recently discovered that the Windex is not a bottle of blue liquid for cleaning glass I will leave the more technical aspects to Aaron, but I will feel free to comment on everything else from cat vomit to Penny's observation's about the strange conversations held by Americans to Captain O, who has taken the liberty of renaming several of us -- Englishwoman (that's Joanna), Sissy Spacek (that's me) and others. I think he remembers my real name, but since I have taken to responding to Sissy, he probably won't for long. Captain O provides us with hours of yarns and many a tall tale, not to mention the jokes and Limericks, drinks, and trips to the supermarket, which can be time consuming as they are often on his own terms, but always with distinct Captain O flair. By the way, ask Captain O what the "O" stands for and the standard answer is a soft and confessional "O my love.".

22 November: Port Klang to Lumut, Malaysia

Aaron - We're racing! How exciting to take Redwings over the line for the first time - the first time we have ever raced the boat and the first time the boat has ever been raced in its history. This first leg consists of a 65 mile race from Klang to the Sembalin islands off Lumut. We started at 1420 and were over the line in non-embarrassing form and within 30 seconds of the gun. The goal here is to finish, beat a few boats, train the crew, and not destroy anything. So far so good.

After the start, we were moving well close reaching in 10-12 knots of breeze. The boat loves the new sails. She was perfectly balanced and I barely had to hold the wheel to keep her on course. Dinner consisted of re-heated curry and rice donated by the infamous Captain O.

At press time (midnight) we've moved inshore to get out of the incoming tide and try to pick up a shore breeze. The wind is dying. We are stalling. It takes a bit more than 3-4 knots to get Redwing's 16 tons moving when she has stopped..... frustrating watching the lighter boats glide on.

23 November: Lamut, Malaysia

Aaron - Stuck in the M-U-D unbelievable!!!! What a way to start the day. Last night I noticed that it seemed on the chart we were in much shallower water than our depth sounder was indicating. I passed it off to the fact that the tide was not particularly low and or slight GPS /plotting errors. Mistake number one - believe the charts. I think in fact our keel was skimming the bottom for hours and at least once, it seemed, we had stopped even though our sails were full. I immediately suspected a fishing net as we saw one boat hopelessly mired the day before and as there was a fishing boat abeam of us. But there was no net and with a bit more wind, we were moving again - in fact we were probably momentarily aground.

So, back to the main story. I had gone down for some sleep at around 0400 and Penny and Colleen were on watch and steering the boat past a mark which denoted a headland and towards the finish line at Sembalin Islands. I could hear some concerned hushed voices at around 0500, but took no notice as the boat was healing and I could hear waves slapping the hull - sounded like we were moving ok. Then Colleen pops her head down and says "ah Aaron I think we've run aground". I jump up on deck, throw the lead line overboard, and sure enough, we are in two meters of water. Look at the depth sounder: its reading 8 meters. What is going on!!!!! Look up ahead and we are well inside of the buoy we were supposed to leave to starboard. Oh well, no time to worry about the hows and whys, the tide is going out and we better get off of this mud bank. Start the engine. Get everybody up and leaning on the port shrouds to try to tilt the boat over and raise the keel off the mud. At first, nothing happens, but after a minute of gunning the engine we start to move and eventually pull off. After we make about two minutes progress away from the bank, we shut the engine off and decide to continue racing. We were lucky this time. Technically, we should be disqualified for using our engine, but we want to try to see if we can finish and get a result.

I switched on the fishfinder to see what depth reading it was giving - about 6 meters shallower than the new B&G instrument. Hmmm. A quick read of the B&G manual and I go up after it armed with what I hope is the knowledge I need to recalibrate it. But wait. It has already been "calibrated" to only start making readings six meters below the surface! I now vaguely remember Tets asking me what the boat drew and me saying "six feet" and he responding that he had calibrated the instrument so it would indicate depth below the keel. Apparently what happened is he did it in meter-mode! Oh well, easy to re-calibrate. Good thing we did not test it out on rocks!

Now, given the delay, the tide and wind have both turned against us and we had to beat into current and light air all morning / early afternoon till we finally creeped over the finish line at 1400. We are probably last, but we did finish notwithstanding out mishaps.

But the day's fun was far from over. Entering the port of Lamut, we were faced with a "channel marker" which was of black and white color. On the microscopic view of the area on our chart, it was not clear which side to leave it to. It certainly looks shallow on one side and rocky on the other. I went for the shallow muddy side. The depth started dropping and was soon at four meters. I got nervous and started to head back, but Penny chimed in "if it makes you feel any better, all of the boats came this way last year". Ok keep moving forward. Three meters. Bump. Glunk. Stop. Aground again!!! If there were not so many witnesses, I'd not bother to write this humiliating garbage! I tried to gun it in forward to get to the deep water up ahead which was indicated on the chart. No luck. Every time we came off a bit, we got stuck again. I also tried reverse a few times with no success. Guess we'll just have to wait for high tide (we were within five minutes of the low). Penny insisted that I give it a hard go in reverse as if we came in that way, we should be able to go out that way. I gunned it for thirty seconds and was just about to quit when Kerry called out "we're moving!" Sure enough we were again granted a relatively easy escape. Needless to say we went back round the marker and left it to port and were in deep water all the way - the rocks which looked so close on the chart were left well to starbord.

On arrival at the Lamut Yacht Club, we discovered we actually beat a few boats and finished 11 out of 16. Overall we were happy to have persevered and escaped without a holed boat.

Laura - Lack of wind overnight meant for a late-morning arrival at the finish line in nearly dead air. We could see the committee boat in the distance, but it was ever so far away. It must have been the intense heat that drove us to fanaticizing who might come to our rescue. There are those among us who will swear they saw Stevie Nicks standing on the bow of a yacht and that Elton John's glasses glinted in the background. Others swear it was Princess Diana who guided us off the mud flat in the night. Whatever the case, it was high time to get moving under motor by the time that ever-so-gentle breeze ushered us over the finish line.

Since it was my first stint sailing on the boat I did find the fact that we ran aground twice in 24 hours to be somewhat alarming. I guess I was just glad it was soft muck and not a rock. I have to say that while the idea of a premature departure did cross my mind, I figured we hadn't gotten into serious trouble so I should give it some time and remember that these guys were pretty wiped out from the trip from Hong Kong. We also made some changes in the number of people who must remain on deck during the night and increased the frequency of GPS checks. I have to say that since then, my confidence has been greatly restored.

24 November: Lamut to Penang, Malaysia

Aaron - The race from Laumut to Penang was likely to be a reach so we went out early and practiced with the spinnaker. A set, a few gybes, and now crew, you are ready. Started in good breeze and again kept pace with / moved out on fleet. At dark, the wind went and we stopped. Raven, on which we had been moving out on all afternoon, drifted ahead under spinnaker. Put up spin for first time. Barley able to keep moving. Multiple gybes. Good practice but frustrating. Joanna's apparent dyslexia kicked in multiple times as she repeatedly attached the pole to the wrong side of the forestay during each gybe. No speed on B&G but GPS ticking over towards North - seemed to have current all night even though tide should have been against us from 1700 to 2300.

25 November: Penang, Malaysia

Aaron - Eventually the wind filled in during Penny's watch and we made good progress close reaching. I got up as the wind was dying and fishing boat activity was rising. We were very close to a net line and a fishing boat chased us and shined a light on us. We tacked out. I called the wrong time to tack 2x but eventually we made it. Really slowed us down. Drifting through boats till dawn. Then wind starts to build. We reach through a pod of trawlers. Put the 3/4 oz chute up and aim at the mark on a beam reach. Wind builds to 15-20 apparent and we scream towards the mark at 8.5. Every time I feel a broach coming on, I just muscle the wheel down and the boat follows. So much control! The big rudder and weight of the boat make it so easy to handle in these conditions. We can see Moonbeam, a lighter and faster-rated boat, below struggling to hold her chute below us. They have a tough time taking it down. We are too low on line to hold the chute. Takedown. I give 1-10 odds that we can keep it out of the water - we do it! Well done. Really the crew's first takedown ever (with the exception of Penny) and to do it in 20 knots apparent charging into a finish line was unbelievably impressive. We finish ahead of Moonbeam (who owes us time anyway) and other boats in the distance charging across the line at 7 kts. Big boost to confidence with spin handling and exhilarating finish. Into Penang and dodgy yacht club (bankrupted I'm told) with mission control tower (they tell you over a loud speaker where to go from a smoked glass tower). Ended up 9th overall - good show. Dinner at hawker stand and sleep....

26 November: Penang, Malaysia

Aaron - A civilized day with a 1420 start for a two hour triangle race and then back to YC for dins and sleep. Pushed up another competitor called Mas Ayu II on line, collided, protested, and won. Too bad for them. They would have been second. Sailed a good race, but some problems with furler - really have to get the halyard tension exactly right for it not to get hung up on top. Tacks slow, but decent speed under sail. Perfect set around last mark. Great run into club - Laura's B-day and she steered in. All felt good about the race. 8th! Better each time!

Before the race though, something terrible happened. Shirley from Slipaway (a "classic" entry - they are an American couple sailing around the world) brought her pet rat Aussie over to visit Basil and Sybil. Aussie looked at them and wiggled his nose. They looked at him and went back to licking themselves! Hey guys, your one and only job on the boat is to keep rats off! I expect a bit more of a reaction than this. My confidence level in their ability to defend the turf from varmints has dropped. Colleen volunteered that she thinks they just are so smart they recognize Aussie as a fellow pet and knew he was not fair game. I hope so.

Returning from the Penang Triangle

Kerry - We became regatta celebrities as we filed a protest against Mas Ayu for the collision - as we won the protest, anyone ranked below them moved up a spot (including us). Aaron filed the protest (Penny waved the flag originally - a red one off of the backstay) and presented our case to the international jury. Mas Ayu then filed a counter protest. The captain claimed that we hit them with our bow without giving them time to get clear and that one of the "Redwings girls" reached over and touched their boom - neither of which were true statements. Unfortunately for him, he brought along a crew member to give his account, which was totally different than that of the captain's. The committee was able to get the true story from the meeting, and Mas Ayu was disqualified from the race.

27 November: Penang to Langkwai, Malaysia

Aaron - Made it out from pontoons from hell (massive current and poor protection) with mission control saying "good bye Redwing - see you next year." Horrible start. Wind was 10 true at 6 mins to gun, but as turned off engine 100 m below the line at 5 min gun, wind died and we were trapped well below the line. Crept up and had very close pt/stb with Angin Angin - we held, they did not seem to dip and did not protest, though they later claimed they did come down. Had to tack to clear headland. Tough to get going. But finally wind kicked in and we started gaining on boats including Raven and Simba. Passed Raven at sundown even though wind dying. Stayed to right of rhumbline as Penny had it on good acct that wind would fill in from NE in evening. After a massive squall during which we did a 360 and sailed away from the finish for awhile, the NE did come and we surged along at 7-8 knots close reaching on starboard under partially furled headsail to the finish. Joanna and Colleen (who were actually off watch and supposed to be grabbing kip) gave us constant feedback from the nav station while the rest of us drove the boat as hard as we could. Really fun and exhilarating sailing. Penny steered to finish. Close with Battle Axe (a much faster racing boat - we cleaned them on corrected time). Had to tack due to header and had trouble as I had lashed around the sheet to the stay by mistake. Finally got around and finished at 0100 on 28th. Stumbled around to get bearing to club. Eventually made it - last boat let in to a berth. Tight squeeze next to Sailmaker IV but somehow we continue to avoid bumping into any one or anything. Another 8th. Not as good as we had hoped, but still respectable. We are beating boats and getting better and better. Wow - the mega-yachts at the Langkawi yacht club are unbeleiveable. Several 100+ footers with full crews. Two massive yawls and a few big smokers. Really beautiful club and scenery. To bad we don't have more time to hang out and enjoy....

Laura - The trip into Langkawi was rather rough and it must be noted that Joanna stuck it out down below with the stench of diesel fuel to continually read the GPS and thus help Penny steer us toward the finish line. Also below keeping Joanna company was an unhappy Sybil who after creeping about on the navigation table finally threw up on the floor. Joanna described events below deck as being quite hectic as she kept getting tossed into the galley by the rocking of the boat and had to avoid Sibyl's contribution to the evening.

Sybil Queen of Charts

Kerry's relationship with the cats seems to be improving. She has at times been spotted poking a pencil at Sybil. Sybil bats the pencil with her paw. Then, a few hours later, after having thought over this game, Kerry might ask "Why does Sybil like to play with the pencil?" One might ask Kerry the same thing.

28 November: Langkawi, Malaysia

Kerry - We all enjoyed sleeping late (and I did enjoy sleeping the latest) and then some time recuperating around the pool. We met many interesting members of other crews in the race (though none as interesting as Eddie, O, Neil and Michael - just in case they read this) and felt very relaxed for the first time in days. Laura and I journeyed into the town of Kuah along a walking path that featured the largest, man-made eagle ever built (another good example of why the Malaysian economy is so screwed up at the moment - AH). Given my eagle alliance, I meant to return to take a picture but never had the time. It was the size of a small mountain and seemed to be made out of steel. Upon closer look, a plaque revealed that it was built in honor of the legendary eagle of unknown size which used to dwell in Langkawi.

As it was a Muslim holiday when we reached town, many places were closed but we still managed to find a good restaurant for lunch for a couple of Ringitt each. After, I bought some batik sarongs in the back alley markets, and then walked through some duty free shops (established to encourage tourism in the area).

That night we joined O and crew at a Thai restaurant. Colleen ordered well in her acquired Thai - I believe O was a little disappointed he didn't do all the ordering. Just to get something else in, he ordered two dishes of squid at the end which no one had the room for. My mouth was still aflame from the TomYam - which I am told is even prepared mildly for their Caucasian customers. More jokes from O, a cab ride back to the club, and some socializing around the bar before walking back to Redwings past many beautiful boats harbored there.

Laura - A description of this day is not complete without mention of the heat. It was so hot that at first I thought maybe the enormous eagle was an illusion. The walk into town just about did me in and we had to take momentary refuge in the local Harley Davidson store, where we feigned interest in leather pants and Harley jeans. Really it was the aircon we were after and hmmm it was sweet.

29 November: Langkawi, Malaysia

Aaron - Triangle race. Blowing 12-15 true at start so did headsail change. Died 5-7 true at start and fell to nothing from there. Hot and frustrating. Hit mark. Race abandoned. Turn boat back into cruiser (dodger, inner forestay etc), check out, provision, awards dinner. Bed by 2400 for planned 0730 departure for Phuket Thailand tomorrow. Joanna leaving at 0530.

Overall, we finished 8th out of 16 cruising boats entered in the regatta. I am really happy with the result and charged to get the two blade prop on in Phuket as well as lighten the boat a bit for the King's Cup. With more experience, a crew of eight to ten, and these improvements, we should be much more competitive and make further improvements. Hopefully we will have WIND and lots of it.

Kerry - This was the day which later prompted Penny to tell us that she doesn't understand American culture and how we are so intent on psycho-analyzing everything. She claims that when she sits around and listens to her children (our age) talking with their friends, it is nothing like us. I eventually asked her if she meant that we talk in circles, and she said, well, yes, that is what I mean. She said that when one of us asked her how she was feeling at the wheel, she said that she thought to herself she was feeling nothing, she was bloody concentrating on steering the boat.

Colleen responded with the next line which turned into a huge conversation, that the British are all repressed so that is why she thinks we talk too much, and that just as many Brits are in therapy, but that no one is allowed to know about it, etc., etc. All I remember discussing yesterday was how many Pringles we had left - when we should abandon the race, and how much longer the trip was back to the club.

At any rate, it was a frustrating day and though we weren't going to do well (or so it seemed), it was hard turning back when the race was called since we had put so much time in. We returned to the dock, and re-packed the spinnakers, filled the water tanks (left empty to decrease our weight), put on the dodger, cleaned the lines, and headed to the pool.

The closing banquet was nice - we sat with a couple from my home state (from Tucson, to be exact) and who are the proud owners of "Aussie" the Rat obtained in Australia. Fortunately, Aussie was at home during dinner. Redwings was not called up to the platform for any awards, though the German boat, Master Blaster (who won the regatta), felt we deserved best female crew. We were the only female crew (well, not all, as Aaron pointed out), but it was a compliment well-meant nonetheless since most crews numbered 8-12 people with very few women present. We will have some extra strength on board for the King's Cup - the Redwings mystique attracted quite a few people interested in crewing with us. Aaron has a waiting list that he is working from as a result.

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