Thailand-based British skipper David Lindahl kept an almost perfect record on his boat La Samudra over the four days of racing to win the top honours in the top-flight IRC1 class after some close tussles with the other boats in the class.

Fast keelboat La Samudra finished first in five of the six races contested at this year regatta, and in the only race he didn't win, he finished second.

New Zealander John Vause, who is also based in Thailand, fought tooth and nail on his boat Ruby Tuesday and won the second race of the regatta, but finished a close second behind Lindahl in the other five races and second overall on handicap.

Keith Garry, who skippered Beaux Esprits, finished third overall and third in every race except yesterday, when the poor conditions pushed him back into fifth.

Former world junior sailing champion Scott Duncanson was the only skipper to finish the regatta with a perfect record of six wins from six races on his boat Somtam Express, which was racing in the very competitive Sportsboat class.

Duncanson's boat, a Phuket 8, was designed especially for the waters off the resort island, and is one of several which race regularly in the local regattas.

The Australian finished in front of Jim Poulsen's Lee Marine Vino and Wade Lewis' Team Simpson Marine.

Fierce competition was also seen in the IRC2 class, which ended with the two leading boats level on points after six races.

Last year's champion Minx, sailed by Mick Kealy, was declared the winner after a count back to beat Stuart Crow on Cinders. Jim Kane finished third overall on his boat Chetak.

The fastest boats at the regatta were the new Firefly catamarans, which are designed and built in Phuket. The newest of these, named Chi Machine, was only launched a few days before the regatta started, and made a winning debut.

Chi Machine's owner Marc Cudennec, the Hong Kong-based Asia-Pacific manager for Elle magazine, won four of the six races in the Multihull Racing class, but the real winners were a large group of children at nearby Takua Pa.

The funds raised in sponsorship for his boat - he is aiming to raise US$50,000 (Bt1.9 million) before the Phuket King's Cup Regatta in December - are going to the Tsunami Relief Fund for the Children of Takua Pa.

Close behind Chi Machine was another Firefly, Moto Inzi, which finished second overall after some very close racing in great conditions.

John Stall, who sails Charro, was not quick enough to catch the first two boats but finished a credible third in every race in the Multihull Racing class to finish third overall.

The bigger and heavier Multihull Performance Cruising class was won by Chris Runnegar on Chameleon, with Bob Mott's Kilo second and Jerome Perignon's Aliocha third.

Alan Parkhouse

The Nation

Phuket