The
marina is full. There must be 20 rally boats, the Malaysian Maritim
fleet, four race boats and the handful of residents. The rally and
race boats are here for Borneo International Yacht Challenge 2014; a
combination of day races and long passage races from here to Labuan
island and then from Labuan to Kota Kinabalu.
This
morning we went to the local hotel, race HQ, to register, collect our
T shirts and goodie bags and to do clearance with Customs and Port
Captain who had travelled for our convenience.
In the
afternoon Prakesh from Port Admiral marina who is the co-ordinator
led us through the race start rules. For people like us who have
never raced it was all new; different flags to indicate start minus 5
minutes, minus 4 minutes (engines off), minus 1 minute, no wool on
your spinnaker (???). Hopefully the mists will clear when we're
close to the start line on Monday morning. Most of the cruisers are
opting out of racing around the buoys tomorrow. We're brewing a new
batch of beer which can't be shaken up so not for us. We might have
a go at the 100 mile challenge to Labuan, try to sail as much as we
can. In the race motoring is allowed in the Cruiser section,
otherwise we'd still be out there when the next event begins!
There's a rule of any boat which sails 100% beats someone who motored
and then there are 20% motoring, 40% motoring.....No doubt the
handicapper understands it. We had to give our vital statistics to
the measurer for our handicap. How else could you compare a Volvo
estate with a racing whippet?
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