Well every regatta is normally remembered by the highs and lows, and the 2004 version of the kings cup will be no exception, especially while the highs were pretty high, the low point was almost the bottom of the barrel.

Bells Bungalows' are definitely for the budget conscious, 200 baht a night, or around $5, for a clean room, friendly critters, and a cold shower is pretty good. Buy the end of the regatta quite the number of sailors had made it their home. The really good thing was the walls were so thin you could talk to the bungalow next door from your bed with no raised voices. This was quite the bonus when deciding if it was time to get up yet, or just planning a social occasion at the bar. Only two minutes walk from the luxury Kata Beach Resort, its 5000 baht rooms, and Kings Cup central on the island of Phuket.

Sunday saw a practice on the water in my boat for the regatta, a Phuket8 sports boat. 24ft long, 10ft wide, nice carbon fiber mast, and a retractable bowsprit that articulates 30 degrees either side of center for the huge asymmetrical spinnakers.
All in all this is a super fast, twitchy, and unforgiving boat, but do it right and you will have a grin from ear to ear.

Monday and the first race unfortunately did not live up to expectations. A distance race out into the Aderman Sea to the south of Phuket, wind about 15knots. But a large part of the first race was a white sail reach, something that an overpowered sports boat just doesn't do well at, but it got worse, much worse. During the first reach we were in close proximity to a J120 when our boat had a problem which resulted in the J120 colliding with us in a rapid series of events. Sandy was sitting close to the shrouds with her legs hanging over the rail, while I was next to her facing inboard in order to actively trim the jib.
As I said it was rapid, as suddenly I looked over my left shoulder to see the bow of the J120 6ft from our side at a speed later determined as about 9 knots. The bow just missed me, however Sandy was hit a glancing blow as she struggled to get off the rail, and with a 10 ton race boat behind it, that's all it would take.

The following is what I remember, and is very much in the first person, not because I was doing all the work, everyone was busy but I am vague on the details of their role as I was only focused on what I had to do to keep us afloat and alive.
After giving my head a shake I looked down to find two of my crew in the water, lines everywhere, a lot of broken fiberglass, and a certain knowledge that Sandy was badly hurt. Out boat was still pinned to the front of the J120 by our own sails which were still set, and I could see Bob in the water next to Sandy trying to keep her head above water as the J120 bow started to bash up and down in the swell. Seeing the only way to clear the boats I pushed both their heads underwater while I pushed the bow over the top of them both and to leeward which cleared the boats and also revealed a large hole in the wing of our boat.
With our large angle of heel due to both the jib and main cleated on the wrong side Sandy was pushed/pulled/jerked into the boat, but the hole was still underwater and the necessary sheets were still wrapped around Bob in the water.

Up until this point in my sailing career I have never needed to cut a line in a critical situation, and ironicly today was one of the few days I had a knife in my pocket, than in a crew bag downstairs. After cutting the main sheet, vang, and uncleating the jib, the boat leveled out and I ducked downstairs to see how fast we were sinking. With a fair bit of trepidation, actually I was shitting myself, with lines and carnage all over the place, the last place I wanted to be was downstairs. Luckily due to the construction of the wing on the Phuket8, the hole into the main hull was only the size of a coffee cup,and not a huge issue. I released the main halyard, and cut the jib halyard due to a tangle in the line (both are located at the base of the mast down below), went back upstairs and helped Bob into the boat cutting the mainsheet (again) and traveler in the process. I left Bob to deal with Sandy and plucked the handheld VHF out of the webbing pocket and tried to contact the race committee, the fasted way to get help as I could see.
Although at this point I was in quite an elevated state of adrenalin, and I am sure nobody could understand the first rapid-fire message for help. The second call a few seconds later scored more results, also as by this time they had received a radio report from another boat that had stopped to help as soon as the crash occurred. The actions of this boat were fantastic, immediately dropping sails and throwing us a tow line, this would prove critical later in the day, as well as being a radio relay vessel backing up our handheld VHF's short range.
At this point as we were being towed to the beach some 20min away, Bob and I concentrated on Sandy while the skipper and Kiro managed the boat and the tow. The ambulance that I had requested via radio had made it to the beach, and although in serious pain, but with no visible injuries and very little shock, Sandy seemed stable for the moment. However having seen the seriousness of the impact right next to me we still didn't want to move her without a back board, and asked for the medics to come out to the boat. The only really scary part was just before they arrived she started to have trouble breathing, which turned out later to be caused by the massive internal bleeding in her abdomen and diaphragm. It was only later that night did we learn she had three breaks in her pelvis, a fractured ankle, and during two operations had 30 pints of blood before the bleeding was stopped.
The urgent actions of everyone getting her to the beach counted more that we realised at the time...20 minutes after she reached the hospital she went into shock and stopped breathing.

Thankfully she is alive, and when we visited her in intensive care she was smiling with incredible sprit, and on her way to what should be a full recovery, however that will still be many months away.
Interestingly the rumors started almost straight away, and being involved in a major incident and hearing the conclusions from some people when they hadn't yet realized that I was sitting there as it happened was quite revealing. From three people unconscious, to boats sinking, it was all there, and after a real short time I got sick of the question, "so what the hell happened?". In answer I could only say, "I think I know what happened, as to the why, I don't know".
It was a very surreal situation hearing people talk about something that happened right next to me, and as I didn't have a scratch on me, just a memory of the day, is seemed like it never happened, just a dream I had that everyone else seems to know about.

So here I was at the Kings Cup, which only the day before had been full of promise, now had a broken boat, and injured crew. For Sandy and for me, I still wanted to keep sailing, so I set about getting myself another ride, and why not start at the top.
The Mandrake crew, most of who I knew from the Raja Muda needed extra hands for the windward leeward racing the next day, and so I began sailing in the top racing division. A distance race on Vida a Benetau51 was up the next day, and the last two days of windward leeward racing were on a DK46 called Drumstick. In the final race of the Kings Cup, Drumstick and Ulumalu were in a match race for 4th place after Yo!, Mandrake, and Neil Prydes Hi-Fidelity fought it out for the top three spots.
In one of the most fought for races I have ever been involved in, Drumstick and Ulumalu swapped the lead no less than 4 times during the race, both having technical boat problems, ours being halyard problems and a shredded asymmetric spinnaker, both finding ways to get back into the race.
In the end we beet Ulumalu by just over a minute. Not a bad way to finish sailing the Kings Cup, definitely better than the way I started.

Sailing is not the only thing the Kings Cup is known for, the social events are something else again. Coming fresh from the Raja Muda I thought i was well looked after, that was just the beginning. While the Raja Muda had lunchtime starts, and drinking to the wee hours safe in the knowledge that you could sleep in the next morning, the Kings Cup is almost opposite.

Racing starts at 8:30am, meaning a 7am departure from the beach in longtail boats to the fleet anchored in the bay. Racing is normally finished and back on the beach by 2pm at the latest, just in time for lunch at a seaside restaurant, and from there to the Ska bar under the tree with its reggae music, and more cold beer. After this I always planned for and felt like a afternoon nap, but it never happened, it was always bungalow for a cold shower and fresh clothes, and back to the next event on the list, a list made up of with the major sponsors of the Kings Cup.

At the start of the event I received a plastic pass to get me into all these events. Imagine that, a social calendar for a week, somewhere you knew everyone else would be turning up to, it even had the times when you had to be there, and of course it was all free. If a party was at a different location, free busses would collect us and drop us back. This is the lifestyles of the rich and richer, and I have to say its really fun, as each resort, be it the Phuket Hilton, the Royal Orchid, or the Boathouse Restaurant would be committing commercial suicide if they didn't throw a party worthy of their reputation, and we ate and drank it all in.

Of course Phuket has the other end of the spectrum, and while the sailing and most of the events were at either Kata or Karon Beach, Patong is the party zone upholding the Thailand reputation. After the official functions a fleet of tuk-tuks loaded with drunk sailors exhorting more speed from the drivers of these miniature vehicles as each one vied to be first to the bar. The drivers of course took to this like fish to water and pretty soon there were three abreast passing maneuvers carried out with aplomb and not a hint of apprehension. No Tuk-tuks were harmed in this activity, but we sure did get to the bar fast.

After a night of bar hopping, and steady stream of people headed for home in the small hours of the morning, only to get up at 6am ready for the next days racing... So while I didn't get a result on the race course, I managed to sail with three of the top race boats in Division 1, had offers to sail on many more, and made some great friends. And this is just the start of the Asian Yachting Circuit. From here there is a race from Phuket to Singapore, followed by Singapore Straights Regatta, then north into the South China Sea for events in Hong Kong, Vietnam, Brunei, and back to Thailand in Koh Samui, along with several more events till the next Kings Cup....

For warm water sailing, I have been wearing nothing more than a t-shirt and shorts for my entire time here, with good wind, fun people with fantastic food and great culture, as well as being cheap cheap cheap...this is where its at.