heh... alrighty... gonna do some serious writing now... coz its regarding one of my biggest passions... Sailing!!! yup yup... im talking about the 8th Singapore Straits Regatta... a 5-day sailing affair held frm the 16th-20th of January... which involved 3 of S'pore's major sail clubs... the Republic of Singapore Yacht Club, Raffles Marina and Changi Sailing Club... and the beautiful Riau Yacht Club in Batam...
Day 1 saw the fleet race from the RSYC to Raffles in Tuas... a race which i missed, coz i had to attend something called school and lectures... but i joined from Day 2 onwards.. which proved to be great sailing! we did a passage race from Raffles to the beautiful marina in Nongsa Point... spent Day 3 there, and sailed yet another passage race back to CSC on Day 4... the last day was spent on local waters just off Changi...
now on to the more important bits... i sailed the straits on "Cassandra"... a gorgeous Beneteau 50... and she's totally splendid!! she has the works of a totally serious racing boat... hehehee... snacks and beer aplenty (great thanks to Raffles International for the 200 bottles! Cheers Michael!) i think i can safely say that we were the only boat that had music blasting through the passage races!! and one of the media who sailed with us said that we were the first (in his line of experience, anyway)! but it was great fun!!
the skipper, Chris Schuler, was excellent! best skip ever! and i'm not just saying that... he knew his stuff... and he knew how to get his crew to do it! a point to note is... he never actually shouted at the crew at all... there wasn't much yelling on board Cassandra, except in the beginning when we were still getting used to each other... and the only time Chris ever threw his temper was when the silly people on the markboat started shifting the mark in one of the windward/leeward courses... we hadn't even rounded it yet!! so there we were... all of us shouting and waving at them... when Chris just went "We haven't crossed yet, you fucking idiots! Leave it alone!" needless to say, those in the cockpit with skip were stunned! heh... wadaya know? Chris was one of us too!! hahah... turns out the race committee abandoned the race... *grumble*
next... the wonderful crew!!! it's wonderful how the group of us bonded over those few days of intense sailing! there were pple frm France and the UK... Germany... and only 2 Singaporeans... Penny, Steph, Caroline, Guilaume, Michael, Tileman, Ken... all deserve a mention! it was totally wonderful... we girls even managed to squeeze in gossip sessions during passage races!!
needless to say... no battle (and the racing waters were most definately battle fields) is complete without war wounds!! yours truly had planty to boast about... especially this one just below the knee... where i had 3 small bruises that joined together to form one ginormous (read: jai-nor-mous) bruise! all on board have suffered similiar fates... the girls even vied with each other for the award of "Most Wounded Crew"! i'm thinking penny won hands down! but what takes the cake in all the wounds i saw was Andrew -The Dogs II- Steadman's! the poor guy had a HUMONGOUS orr-che (bruise) on his hip! and i was told it took him nearly a month to recover... so i reckon top prize should go to him!
another point to note was the free flow of beer... sponsered by Brewerkz! beer was flowing non-stop... even to the extent that when i requested for a cup of coffee (well, one can't be guzzeling beer the entire day, can they?), i was told they it was out, and got handed a cup of ice cold beer instead! *shakes head* you can't say i didn't try! hahaha...
met loads of great people during the regatta too... *big hugs* to all on board The Dogs II, Joan Marie (Cassandra's biggest competitor), Temptest and Jangan Main Main (Don't Play Play ahh!)!!
oh... did i add that WE WON!!! CASSANDRA WON!!! YAY~!!! (no shame...) haahahaa...
i'll have to say that the straits has given me tons of wonderful memories... and it has renewed my passion in sailing... i had a wonderful 4 days of good, intense sailing... and i'm definately in a hurry to repeat the experience... so the next time an opportunity like this arises again... there's no need to ask what my decision will be, eh? hehehe... tough call, but i think i'm definately gonna take leave (read: skip) from school! heee...
hmmm... so till the next race... "Who let the dogs out??"
Day 1 saw the fleet race from the RSYC to Raffles in Tuas... a race which i missed, coz i had to attend something called school and lectures... but i joined from Day 2 onwards.. which proved to be great sailing! we did a passage race from Raffles to the beautiful marina in Nongsa Point... spent Day 3 there, and sailed yet another passage race back to CSC on Day 4... the last day was spent on local waters just off Changi...
now on to the more important bits... i sailed the straits on "Cassandra"... a gorgeous Beneteau 50... and she's totally splendid!! she has the works of a totally serious racing boat... hehehee... snacks and beer aplenty (great thanks to Raffles International for the 200 bottles! Cheers Michael!) i think i can safely say that we were the only boat that had music blasting through the passage races!! and one of the media who sailed with us said that we were the first (in his line of experience, anyway)! but it was great fun!!
the skipper, Chris Schuler, was excellent! best skip ever! and i'm not just saying that... he knew his stuff... and he knew how to get his crew to do it! a point to note is... he never actually shouted at the crew at all... there wasn't much yelling on board Cassandra, except in the beginning when we were still getting used to each other... and the only time Chris ever threw his temper was when the silly people on the markboat started shifting the mark in one of the windward/leeward courses... we hadn't even rounded it yet!! so there we were... all of us shouting and waving at them... when Chris just went "We haven't crossed yet, you fucking idiots! Leave it alone!" needless to say, those in the cockpit with skip were stunned! heh... wadaya know? Chris was one of us too!! hahah... turns out the race committee abandoned the race... *grumble*
next... the wonderful crew!!! it's wonderful how the group of us bonded over those few days of intense sailing! there were pple frm France and the UK... Germany... and only 2 Singaporeans... Penny, Steph, Caroline, Guilaume, Michael, Tileman, Ken... all deserve a mention! it was totally wonderful... we girls even managed to squeeze in gossip sessions during passage races!!
needless to say... no battle (and the racing waters were most definately battle fields) is complete without war wounds!! yours truly had planty to boast about... especially this one just below the knee... where i had 3 small bruises that joined together to form one ginormous (read: jai-nor-mous) bruise! all on board have suffered similiar fates... the girls even vied with each other for the award of "Most Wounded Crew"! i'm thinking penny won hands down! but what takes the cake in all the wounds i saw was Andrew -The Dogs II- Steadman's! the poor guy had a HUMONGOUS orr-che (bruise) on his hip! and i was told it took him nearly a month to recover... so i reckon top prize should go to him!
another point to note was the free flow of beer... sponsered by Brewerkz! beer was flowing non-stop... even to the extent that when i requested for a cup of coffee (well, one can't be guzzeling beer the entire day, can they?), i was told they it was out, and got handed a cup of ice cold beer instead! *shakes head* you can't say i didn't try! hahaha...
met loads of great people during the regatta too... *big hugs* to all on board The Dogs II, Joan Marie (Cassandra's biggest competitor), Temptest and Jangan Main Main (Don't Play Play ahh!)!!
oh... did i add that WE WON!!! CASSANDRA WON!!! YAY~!!! (no shame...) haahahaa...
i'll have to say that the straits has given me tons of wonderful memories... and it has renewed my passion in sailing... i had a wonderful 4 days of good, intense sailing... and i'm definately in a hurry to repeat the experience... so the next time an opportunity like this arises again... there's no need to ask what my decision will be, eh? hehehe... tough call, but i think i'm definately gonna take leave (read: skip) from school! heee...
hmmm... so till the next race... "Who let the dogs out??"
posted by Lynette at 7:24 am
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