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Published on September 29, 2007

The 2007 the Phuket King's Cup Regatta is gearing up for another strong showing from the world's racing community, with high-profile confirmations coming in and the list growing every day.

This year's event will be held from December 1 to 8 to celebrate His Majesty the King's 80th birthday. Another exciting year of races is expected.

Last year saw a record turnout of more than 100 boats and around 200 international and domestic media representatives. Competition was strong and sporting, with a lot of old rivalries being retested.

"We are expecting a strong racing class again this year with Hong Kong entries from Nick Burns and Fred Kinmonth sailing Mandrake, Sam Chang's TP52 Freefire, Frank Pong's Jelik, and Neil Pryde's redesigned hi-fi already confirmed," says Simon James, the regatta's race management director. "These will be joined by the newly launched DK46 from Port Dixon and South African Philipp Gutsche's new yacht, commissioned especially for this years event."

Gutsche and his crew are known in the racing community for winning the Mauritius-to-Durban race last year. He has also won the South Atlantic Race.

The regatta organiser also hired Australian Race Officer Tony Denham of the Sydney International Regatta to look after Racing Classes this year and hope to give them the best series.

In the premier class, Ian Nicholson's Intrigue returns, along with Hans Raimans Yasooda. Adding to the excitement, this year watch out for Bob Yapps' new speed machine Yo Mo. In Sunsail One, Christian Eshenburg and the teams from Germany will return to compete for the trophy, which they won in 2005.

There will also be a good spread of boats in both IRC and Multihull classes with leading charter companies Sunsail and Elite Yachting already full for this year's event.

"Each year we try to add something new and keep it fresh for our returning competitors," says James - the race director. "This year's race courses will include passage races, around-the-cans, Olympic trapezoids and courses taking boats around outlying islands.

We have a number of race management personnel returning this year, after an absence last year, and I'm confident the standard of racing and on-water management will be very high."

Entry is open until November 9, however the Race Committee may consider later entries in special cases.

For racing inquiries, contact Simon James at racing@kingscup.com. The regatta website is KingsCup.com.