ILCA Thailand National Championship at Royal Varuna Yacht Club
by Marcel Dubbelman 7 Feb 09:24 UTC
27-28 January 2024
ILCA Thailand National Championship at Royal Varuna Yacht Club © K. Saksiri Subying
This event was well attended by an impressive international turnout. In total 77 sailors attended, a majority Thai Nationals and others spread out between the three fleets:
- 15 Koreans (strongest turnout in the ILCA 7 with 9 sailors)
- 9 Chinese Taipei (six in the ILCA 6 class)
- 10 Singapore (seven in the ILCA 4 class)
- Other nationalities included; 3 from Japan, 2 from Great Britain and Sweden, 1 from France.
The record turnout was achevied despite Thailand's top ILCA 7 sailors were in Australia for the ILCA Men's World Championship this week, and our top ILCA 6 sailor also being away having just finished the ILCA Women's World Championships. Also the two recent varunians who have recently qualifed for the Olympics in ILCA 6 & 7 were taking a well deserved break.
However aeolus (god of the winds) was not much awake during this weekend, so it did challenge the ubiquities Varuna Team consisting of our respected Race Officers Lawnin Crawford, Nattawut 'Oat' Vongrak and Santi Kanchanabundhu on board the iconic red starting vessel as well as the active Varuna staff on the water.
No discards in scoring were recorded with 4 races completed and all points counted per the Sailing Instructions.
This did not dampen the enthusiasm experienced in the Varuna Clubhouse where all sailors united Sunday early afternoon for a generous prize-giving, sponsored by Element Six, who is the Thai builder of possibly the fastest ILCAs around.
Many of Thailand's 22 ILCA 4 sailors are moving up from the Optimist class, and showed why the Thai sailors are among the world's best in this class. The ILCA 4 National Champion, Prin Subying, was the 2023 Optimist National Champion.
Also on the podium in the fleet was Grace Montgomery who outperformed several Olympians when she raced for the first time in the ILCA 6 in the Asian Sailing Championships in December, finishing fifth overall in the highly competitive fleet.
In the ILCA 7 National Champion and 1st Overall: THA's Bowonnan Chanram
In the ILCA 6 National Champion, Top Female and 2nd Overall: THA's Puttaraksa Imraksa
ILCA 6 1st Overall: Singapore's Kenan Tan
ILCA 4 National Champion, Top Female and 1st Overall: THA's Prin Subying
ILCA 4, 2nd Overall: THA's Chanatip Tongglum who tied with Prin at 13 points but dropped to 2nd as she had won two races, and had a 2nd before a poor finish in the final race of the regatta.
Even though ILCA 4 fleet was dominated by the Thai Nationals, credit should go to Singapore's Nicholette Wee Wen Lee for finishing as the 2nd female, with a 4th overall.
ILCA 7 saw 21 participants, and tough battles in the 1st four places. If Lee Kwangyeon did not have an UDF he would have shared a podium place. But in the end it was the 18 year old Bowonnan Chanran from Thailand that took the 1st place, closely followed by Bo Jeong in 2nd. In fact places 2,3,4 were all reserved for the Korean Sailors who trained with the entire Korean National team at the great conditionas at Varuna a week prior to this event.
Full results including masters results are available in On Line Notice Board here
This was a wonderful - international - event again at the Varuna, enjoyed by all who exchanged the comfortable veranda for the sea.