10

The great Neptune

10

F s j, . Island Adventure.

gust of wind. He looked like he was enjoying himself immensely.

Where I had previously clung to the hope that we could tame “tall grass”, I now faced reality and asked Scott and Alice to find a new owner for her.

My new mistress, a Taipan 4.9, arrived in time to be a Christmas gift to myself and was duly christened “Grok this!”. Her name is derived from a fictitious Martian word invented by Robert Heinlein for his novel, “Stranger in a Strange Land”, and is not related to “Grog”, an historical English naval term.

“Grok this!” vs “tall grass”

Before we could take to the water with “Grok this!”, Vic and I had to learn how to raise her mainsail which comes without an halyard. It took us about three months to get it consistently right. My work-enforced habit since the 1990s has been to maximize precious sailing time at Singapore’s Best Kept Secret whenever the opportunity presents itself. Learning to raise the Taipan 4.9 mainsail forced a more leisurely pace, resurrecting my 1980s pattern of enjoying friendly chats – occasionally extending into installments over several weekends - with fellow sailors when rigging and unrigging our respective boats. Numerous valuable tips on sail-trim, rigging and maintenance were exchanged. Thus did each Taipan owner’s personal experiences add to our communal knowledge:

“No need to use that expensive

Teflon aerosol lubricant on your sail,

man. Just rub candle wax on the

luff and let the sun melt it in!”

“…somehow, it seemed effortless

when Scott demonstrated how to

do it.”

“…here’s the piece of computer

mouse pad I told you about, for

slipping under the shackle at the

head of your Taipan 4.9’s mainsail,

so that the ring will stay vertical

when you rotate the mast with the

hook at the top to engage it …”

Vic and I were elated with “Grok this!” when we finally put her through her paces. She is 102kg fully-rigged sans spinnaker, faster than “tall grass” and infinitely smoother to helm. Oh, what a sweet mistress! Flying a hull no longer brings trepidation. We regained trust in our old sailing instincts. Meanwhile, the new owner of “tall grass” was so enamoured that he brought her with him when he left Singapore for home. Ah, one man’s meat… Angkor What?

Catching the sunrise at Angkor Wat is supposed to be a mystical experience. During the lull when Vic and I were still figuring out how to raise the mainsail without Scott’s assistance, my wife and I took a short holiday to Siem Reap to sample the sunrise for ourselves.

Arriving in the pre-dawn chill, we monopolised the quiet spiritual majesty of the vast temple complex.  Soon, however, busloads of tourists began disembarking and

Using a lead boat’s mainsail which stood out because of its prominent blue and while horizontal stripes, as our moving mark, we lazily followed it until Scott zoomed up in a powerboat to re-direct us to the beach where other cats were making landfall. It transpired that the vessel whose mainsail we were following was headed for Pulau Tioman, not Desaru. Had we not been intercepted by Scott, that trip could have ended up being more exciting than planned for…

Things continued to go well with “tall grass”. Then, while heading towards Angler Buoy on port tack in moderate winds near the Changi Naval Base, her new mast unexpectedly buckled into a figure “7”! I was in a foul mood as I submitted yet another set of insurance claim forms, and wondered if “tall grass” was indeed a lemon. Eventually outfitted with her third set of rigging and another new mast, “tall grass” was ready for us to test the adage, “third time lucky”. Vic and I signed up for the Changi-Nongsa Regatta. Our lack of regular sailing time often meant that we would try to learn a course 30 minutes before heading for the Start line. Our modus operandi was to eyeball the list of participants and try to guess who would most likely finish first or second, and follow them. At worst, we’d be non-contenders but there was an outside chance that we could be second or third, too. So, we were in high spirits when we sped for Nongsa, close behind the two cats in the lead. We were double-trapezing and sailing well. Best of all, we’d not capsized. All our work in tuning “tall grass” was paying off!

Our elation quickly became bemusement when we took the lead. Now there was no one to follow and we had no idea which direction would bring us to Nongsa! Luckily, we had been spotted heading off course by the rescue boat which soon roared up with Scott, shouting directions. His words were borne away by the strong winds. We presumed his pointing gestures meant Nongsa was “…that way (fools)!” and duly changed course.

A sudden gust hit just when we swung back onto the trampoline and unhooked our trapeze wires; “tall grass” flipped onto her side. Vic and I landed on her mainsail. The brunt of the impact travelled up my outstretched arm and exploded deep in my left shoulder. The pain forced the breath out of me.

By the time we righted the cat, Vic had suffered a pulled muscle and I was the one armed-helmsman. There was no doubt about the route to Nongsa, however. We had only to follow all the other cats racing there ahead of us.Ignoring our aches and pains, we sailed into the small man-made lagoon where the other cats were being dragged ashore. As in past races, a boisterous night of good-natured revelry accompanied dinner before we retired painfully to our hotel room.

The next day, our most spectacular capsize occurred when we sailed out of Nongsa. I misread the rows of marker piles and strayed out of the dredged channel. Just as Vic and I got

ready to fly a hull, “tall grass” hit something with a loud bang and I slid off the trampoline into the sea. I found myself standing in waist-deep water still holding the mainsheet in my right hand, watching it stretch ahead to her traveller as “tall grass” canted onto her port hull. Vic was trying in vain to maintain his balance on the starboard hull as it rose higher and higher into the air until “tall grass” was floating on her side. The piece of plank that I thought had been the cause of the collision turned out to be the bottom half of the starboard daggerblade which had broken off on impact! We struggled onto the port hull, too weak to right her, as she bumped along a mound of rocks. Our plight had been spotted and the Changi Sailing Club-Scott McCook Rescue Service was activated to tow us back to the beach. Vic and I returned via ferry to Singapore, leaving “tall grass” to be sailed back to the Club once a replacement daggerblade was available.

Fate (unkindly?) decreed that “tall grass” performed perfectly when a new daggerblade arrived and helpful sailors helmed her back to the Club.

For several weeks, in between physiotherapy sessions, I nursed a very sore shoulder and depressing thoughts about being too old for cat sailing. The new Mistress

While recovering from our respective injuries, Vic and I recalled seeing Louis cavorting with his new toy, a svelte Taipan 4.9 catamaran whose hulls literally sang a high-pitched vibrato whenever her sails caught a

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If you were one of the group of people who signed up for the second Neptune Regatta and withdrew at the last minute, you really missed out on a truly remarkable opportunity!

When the idea of a race to the equator was muted a few years back, I was skeptical as “that is the doldrums you know. That is one area of the world that provides the most headache to any of the great circumnavigators”... Well Tudor John a his team “have proven two hundred years of nautical history wrong by having wind all the way down and all the way back!”

From the moment you receive the Sailing Instructions you will be impressed. Alex ‘Ferret’ Voss has put together the most comprehensive set of instructions I’ve ever seen. Just collating the data was a massive exercise and then chasing that up with numerous recce’s into the region just to make sure everyone would be safe! Ferret I have known for his entire sailing career indeed I was with him on his first outing! But I did manage to scare off the other three people that were on the boat with us that day! Ferret has stuck with it and gone on to become the best navigator in our

region so I knew we were in good hands.

It is a colossal undertaking and one would imagine that there is a huge team of professionals behind it all. But there isn’t! Think of Tudor John and a ‘few’ of his buddies and you pretty much have the team! It really goes to show what some enthusiasm and a lot of passion can do. How Tudor bears the weight of the world on his shoulders I will never know!

The idea for the Race to the Equator came about at a brain storming session that involved alcohol. That was three years ago and now they have successfully completed Version 2 of this great event. The Nautical significance is of course, sailing across the Equator and a passage through King Neptune’s Kingdom. Strangely, King Neptune looked a lot like a guy I know!

King Neptune plays a central role in the long-standing tradition of the Line-crossing ceremony. When ships cross the equator, "Pollywogs" (sailors who have not sailed across the equator before) receive subpoenas to appear before King Neptune and his court (usually including his first assistant Davy Jones and Her Highness

Amphitrite and often a list of ‘charges’ is read before them before a ‘sentence’ is cast. In the 19th century and earlier, the line-crossing ceremony was quite a brutal event, often involving beating the pollywogs with boards and wet ropes and sometimes throwing the victims over the side of the ship, dragging the pollywog in the surf from the stern. In more than one instance, sailors were reported to have been killed while participating in a line-crossing ceremony.

Thankfully in our modern sanitised life, it has be watered down and the ceremony is now largely a bit of fun to pay some respect to Neptune and his realm of the deep. But in fact, the Equator is not deep and in our instance on the Line it was just twenty metres deep, that’s not a lot.

Aboard the Gillier’s SingaLoc “3 hulls 4 5 people”... A ceremony was elaborately prepared to accept a few pollywogs into the realm. In true French style, a bottle of champagne was prepared and laid on the deck in preparation. As their ceremony drew to a close the cork mysteriously popped itself with an amusing fountain of bubbly spurting over the deck! Seemingly Neptune had seen fit to help himself!

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There are many regattas that we can take part in. But, the Neptune Regatta is one of

few regattas in the world that has some real nautical significance! But beyond all the

challenges of racing to the equator you become privy to a sojourn through time and

history to be delivered onto an island that few humans

have ever set foot on. This is a privilege of the highest

order and yet a double edged sword at the same

time, because ‘we’ have found it. The Neptune

Regatta is a life adventure and it came about

because of this man... Tudor John, we take our

hats off to you for having the shoulders to bear the

weight of the world to create a most remarkable

sailing event that will be etched in peoples minds for

the rest of our lives...

Thank you Tudor, the Neptune Team, Mount

Gay and Harry’s Bar!

the 2012 Mount Gay Neptune Regatta.

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We certainly are lucky to be living in Singapore that lies between one and two degrees of the equator and especially to be bordered by the expansive Indonesian archipelago with it’s unfathomable number of islands. The best educated guess puts it somewhere near 16,500 islands many, like Neptune Island, are uninhabited!

The Neptune Regatta winds its way down through the Riau Islands of Batam, Bintan and Lingga. This province is not to be confused with the Riau Archipelago which extends northeast into the South China Sea encompassing the Natuna Islands and their rich oil deposits. It then extends westward to the Karimun group that are nestled between Singapore and the southern tip of Sumatra. It is a vast estate that in years gone by was in fact the capital of the Malay world.On account of Bintan Island's strategic location

on the India-China trade route, it has inherited a rich history. Along with the local ethnic Malays and the Bugis, domination by the Portuguese, the Dutch, the Arabs, and the British at different times has been a part of Bintan's rich history. Many local internal feuds between the Malays and Bugis, and battles in the sea, with and between foreign invasion forces, have been part of Bintan's history and the surrounding straits.

Chinese chronicles have mentioned that Batam was inhabited by 231 AD. Bintan came under the control of the Malacca Kingdom from the 13th century. Later, the Sultan of Johor ruled from here and his reign lasted till the 18th century.

Riau Islands were central to the greater Malay kingdoms or Sultanates, known as the 'Malay World', which had its control from eastern

Sumatra to Borneo. For centuries, Riau was the home of Malay and Orang Laut people who settled in Bintan. These two communities formed the backbone of most Malay kingdoms from the time of Srivijaya to the Sultanate of Johor. They had full control of trade routes going through the straits. Later migrants from China and Indo-China came here and settled. After the fall of Melaka, Riau islands became the centre of political power of the mighty Sultanate of Johor or Johor – Riau, based on Bintan island and was considered the centre of Malay culture.

From the 12th to 13th century, the Srivijaya Empire of Sumatra held sway over Bintan island. Sri Tri Buana, a member of the royal family of Palembang had visited Riau Islands in 1290. The Queen of Bintan met him and made a strategic alliance. They moved with a "flotilla of 800

vessels to Bintan" where Sri Tri Buana became the king. However, Bintan and its straits got the reputation as a pirate haven due to the Malay pirates who seized many ships, forcing them to the port to trade and or loot the cargo. Hundreds of ships of Malays forced Chinese ships returning from the Indian Ocean to their ports in Bintan. Those who resisted were attacked. Large quantities of Chinese ceramics have been recovered on Bintan.

Bintan first became politically important when Sultan Mahmud of the fallen Sultanate of Malacca fled to Bintan and created a resistance base there after Malacca was taken by the Portuguese forces in 1511. The Portuguese eventually destroyed the stronghold in 1526, and after a few years the Sultanate founded a new capital back on the Malay Peninsula and continued to develope from there.

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Today on Pulau Blanding you can still see shipwrights making boats in a manner that has barley changed since the beginning of time... okay so they have a few new hand

tools and really dodgy extension cords!..

Today if you take the time to dig around the surrounding islands you can still find traces of a by gone era. But you might have to dig pretty hard just like ex-CSC member Mike Hatcher did to discover the Nankin Treasure some years back. When the Nankin treasure haul went to auction at Sotheby’s it was worth an untold amount well about 50 million pounds really. The closest you might come to seeing the treasure now is with the Pro Sail Asia team that won a Nankin plate many moons ago... But that’s another story.

What is important now is that in the Selat Riau where a raging tide flows you have Pulau Batam to the west and Pulau Bintan to the east as you plunge southwards towards The Line!

For the racing fleet history matters little except for the accuracy of the charts of the area some of which

were penned in the 1890’s! Strong currents and treacherous snake between the islets, islands and shoals. Thankfully Ferrets numerous recce trips identified the clearly marked the sharp bits!

At the skippers briefing Ferret kindly explained that the chart datum had been altered. This now meant that the difference between the old charts and now meant that the Riau Group had moved by about one nautical mile. Now that should surprise a few sailors that still use the old charts!

In today’s modern world, a few clicks and an app’ download means that you can have a ‘chart’ delivered right into your smart phone or tablet! Navioics is the one to go for and it is as detailed to a level that definitely rivals the charts of 1894! By posting Cat 3 Safety Regulations the organisers curtailed most attempts at short cutting

navigation matters and ensured that everybody had proper paper charts onboard, just in case.

Nongsa Point Marina is the gateway to the Riau Province. NPM was recently spruced up and given new docks and a vastly upgraded hotel block and so, the fleet gathers in its comfortable confines before the main event. Nongsa Point is a welcomed respite from the constant sailing we do in the rich milo waters around Changi. As you head south the visibility of the water steadily improves. The day we all ventured out of CSC we were treated to a glimpse of the Clipper Fleet that had just started and were heading for China, some weeks to the northeast... Better them than me!

The entrance into Nongsa Point is not to be confused with the channel that is for the high speed ferries. If you haven’t done this

before, make sure you line up the west entrance and not the east entrance.

Unfortunately the world’s gloomy outlook on the economy meant that a few boats pulled out of Ver. 2 at the last minute sending some plans hay wire. Like the group of Russians that flew in to charter a Thai boat called Siren and not to be mistaken for a trimaran called Siren. Whimpishly the skipper of Siren (THA) decided not to sail down and left the ten Russians looking for some other plans to fill the holiday with!

From CSC O’Blue Eye’s, Melissa 3 rounded out the keelboat entries while Kaze 3, SingaLoc, The Dash and Siren formed the multihull division that looks like becoming the Coastal One Design Class for the following Neptune Regatta. So thanks to Glen and Wendyl for proving that the earth is not really flat beyond Angler Buoy!

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Preparing a boat for a challenging race is not easy but more difficult when there are mutiple boats being prepared with all the necessary gear. At first the Cat 3 Safety list looks long and unfathomable but at the end of it, we now have what are probably the best equipped Corsair Dashes on the planet!

This is unquestionably due to the inclusion of the Raymarine E7 that has just been launched onto the market. Apart from doing boring tasks like navigating the E7 can perform the essentials as well. This includes directing music from your iPOD and you can even use the screen to play back DVD’s! See, essential for those long trips! Of course on a small boat battery life becomes an issue. So in the case of the multihull fleets newest member, Siren has a full specification US military solar panel that seems to juice up the battery in a short period of time.

The other essential on ‘long’ sailing trips is of course food and water. Thankfully the Neptune Team had catered for the entire fleet and so all that was really required onboard was enough supplies for the race down and the race back. This meant that the Neptune Team lugged a total of twenty two tonnes of gear to the island and proudly an extra half tonne back as the policy is to not leave anything behind. Remember, leave only footrpints!

As the skippers briefing was conducted by he who digs tunnels

for a living, skippers were briefed on the tidal streams “if you aren’t past the narrows by 3pm, you aren’t going to be past the narrows until the next tide” is certainly good incentive to keep the boat speed up.

The premium IRC fleet and the trimarans formed the racing fleet and would head directly to Neptunes Island for the finish of Leg One. Meanwhile, the PY and Cruising class would stop their Leg One at Pulau Keras about half way down for an overnight stop before continuing Leg Two the next morning. Now you begin to see the complexity of the race. Two schedules to cater for the fleet is quite intensive from an administration point of view.

A mass start was conducted for the entire fleet. This was great to take part in as all sorts of boats and starting strategies lined up. Some on the line and some not! kukuKERRchu and stunning Kerr 40 was one of the first off the leeward end of the line with a gaggle of trimarans trying desperately to hang onto her million dollar wake.

The first stage of the course takes the fleet on a short fetch along the top of Batam before turning south into Selat Riau. Here the waters from the South China Sea rush through the narrow confines creating a challenging stream that can assist or stop you in your path. But it is not as intense as what lays further south!

Pulau Batam Pulau Rempang Pulau Galang

Singapore Straits Selat Riau The Cauldron

Nongsa Point Marina

Start time: 0900 hrs 1400 hrs

strong tidal flows... overfalls...

direct distance: 75 nautical miles

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KukuKERRchu was first to haul up the big kite and so became first to enter Selat Riau and pulled away from the pack. In Selat Riau the next bunch of boats were the Dashes that were eagerly pursuing each other. Three Dashes headed at great haste towards the Bintan side while a lonely Siren stayed tucked along the Batam coast look for a respite from the tide. Hours later, it looked as though the Batam side might be favoured until the tide kicked in then the Batam side payed off. But such are the challenges of racing ‘long’ distance.

Selat Riau passed Lobam Island where I remember Andrew Chan getting a dose of double malaria on one of our early-days cat adventures. Selat Riau comes to an end at the southerly tip of Galang Baru, the last of a series of islands connected to Batam by a rather extensive bridge network. So yes, what we took hours to cover could have been done in a car in a much shorter period - but where’s the fun in that!

Now you enter THE Cauldron! On the chart this is marked as nice little wave shaped symbols demarcating an area of overfalls. What is not readily apparent from the chart is just how expansive this area is. As you drive into it you expect it to get a little bumpy. The speed bumps gradually appear and almost put a halt to any forward motion. It feels something akin to be in a washing machine except that it goes on and on. A few boats tried to sneak around the edges some to with

varying degrees of success. Sitting on Siren would could see that the 40‘ long Kerr was punching through a lot better than our much short 24‘ hulls. At the southern end of the cauldron “Neptunes knuckles” pop up at of the sea and here was some of the most spectacular currents, overfalls, whirl pools and eddies that many of us had ever seen! Not exactly treacherous just in massive proportions. The mighty Kerr was halted in this area as we were when we hit it! Now it must be said that the wee trimarans a quick enough boats but we estimated that the current here in the southerly quarter was at least 6 knots. It was so strong that a small standing wave was breaking along its northern face. Spectacular are the forces of nature at work as the Java Sea and the South China Sea converge upon one another.

KukuKERRchu popped out of the current while the rest of us battled for out turn to slip out of the ‘river’. One by one the fleet did but a cunningly sailed Dash had taken about 4km out of us by going extreme west ducking out of the torrent alongside an island. After 8 hours the race was on again!

The next ‘challenge’ came at what we thought was an extremely narrow channel before Neptune Island. We had been told that in Version One, competitors were jibing through a very narrow pass before making the turn to Neptune’s Island. With daylight now gone we were being treated to a full moon. It is fantastic

to sail under a full moon, it is just like heading down a highway with one exceptionally bright light to mark the way!

Of course having a bright chart plotter in the cockpit makes it easier. With The Dash on our tail we were skirting right along the coral shelf that fringes the island. A perfect night sail... Spinnaker up... Boat shifting right along... Finish line coming up... We can almost smell the grill... Then WHACK! The boat goes from about 9 knots to zero in a boat length... Air bags deploy... and we spin into the wind! Thinking that we might be there for a while, we were preparing to drop the spinnaker and find a way off the shelf when suddenly the little tri’ was free and we were off again! Now that’s the great thing about a trimaran, even if you manage to smash the main hull the ‘spare’ hulls will keep you up and sailing! The next day’s inspection revealed that we had indeed hit a shelf that had knocked a hole about the size of a fist into the alloy daggerboard. The alloy had absorbed the impact as planned and the was no further damage to the hull or casing.

The finish line was between the jetty and the committee boat crossed westwards in darkness. With KukuKERRchu resting on anchor already we picked our way closer to shore and dropped the anchor. We had arrived and after ten hours of racing The Dash was just ten minutes behind... A great days racing!

Pulau Pengelap Neptunes Knuckles

The Equator

Selat Pengelap

1600 hrs

Pulau Buaya

1600 hrs

Pulau Blanding NEPTUNE ISLAND

1900 hrs

strong tidal flows...

The LINE

eddies and whirlpools...

The Neptune Experience

“more challenging than you think it is going to be” - Nigel Signal, Siren. (We’re not

sure if he meant the regatta or sailing with Scott!

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The good thing about arriving after dark was not knowing what the island really looked like. You’re just intent on getting cleaned up and fed! “Neptune Island” lies just 7nm from The Line and so stepping ashore was a nice feeling and there to greet us was trusty old Harry! Harry’s Bar that is with a welcoming rum punch! Can you imagine, this is the ONLY Harry’s at the Equator and just for the shear effort of being there, Harry’s goes way up in my books!

Tudor’s Royal Marine buddies had set up camp and that is also a remarkable effort. Tent city was set up on the north shore. Harry’s Equator Bar and the cook house were on the southern side. Derek would had flown all the way from the UK the previous day, was cooking up a storm. While the cruising fleet overnighted at Pulau Keras the racers would spend a comfortable night nestled within stones throw of the Equator.

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it is the most unique regatta on the planet!... Imagine sailing here and then having windward leeward course on the equator... Like a dream, only better!..

So imagine waking up to this view, the world’s largest infinity pool! Most of the comments from everybody centered around “why do we travel so far when some of the clearest waters are right on our doorstep”! True, it is hard to imagine that this idyllic setting is just a hop skip and a jump from Singapore. For a little effort you can truly be rewarded with a real slice of paradise for yourself. The atmosphere is astonishing clear so the colours are vivid!

The beauty of visiting Neptune Island is the marvelous sense of open space. It takes a little while to get used to but once you are immersed it grows upon you. But the best bit is... You can only get here by boat and you need to be pretty self reliant except in our case, we had Tudor and his team.

There are no mosquitoes on the island. It is a completely clean environment. The nice bit is we know where it is. The

sad bit is ‘we’ have visited it. It is truly rare in this day and age to find a treasure like this.

So while the cruising boats were making their way down from Pulau Keras and through the Cauldron, the racing fleet had a couple of windward leeward courses right in equatorial waters. What a treat! Balmy tropical airs allowed the two races to be conducted according to schedule. kukuKERRchu, Men at Work and Riki Tiki Tavi or Tiki Ravi as the Singapore Immigration boat is fond of calling her, battled in the race division while the four Dashes clashed with one another.

Slowly and steadily the cruising and classic classes showed up and soon enough there was a whole crowd in Harrys at the Equator. Obligatory rum sundowners were followed by burgers and bangers... It doesn’t get much better than that!

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Day three on Neptune Island involves the Equator Sprint. Seven nautical miles downwind with a mass start is made more interesting by having the southbound leg and northbound leg run as two separate sectors. The winner for the day is those with the shortest elapsed time when both sectors are added together. This is done so that participants have enough time to conduct their own festivities. It also can be used as a strategy as starting later might offer a different wind pattern, as was the case on this day.

The Dash was one the first boats to charge off with a 2 hour 10 minute

time back to the island. The Gillier’s SingaLoc departed somewhat arrears of this and clocked a 1 hour 45 minute time handing them the day in the multihull class while KukuKERRchu munched up to windward claiming the day for the IRC division.

But the day belonged to King Neptune and the right of passage from Pollywog to Shellback. It might go down in history but the youngest Shellback was Simon Piff’s daughter who at 22 months has set the record!

Day Four on The Island is a day-off with a tour of nearby Pulau Blanding

in order. A short fishing boat ride away and you are delivered into a real remote fishing village. Two years ago, the village of 1200 inhabitants did not have running water. Each day the boats were dispatched to nearby Pulau Buaya to collect water for the whole village.

Thanks to the Neptune Team and their ceaseless energy, Pulau Blanding now has piped in water. So there you have it, if you take part in the Neptune Regatta a large chunk of your entry fee goes towards improving the lives of the villagers in the area! As you can see, it is a great event for many reasons the least of which is

it might just be a twelve hour sail south from singapore....

challenging sailing in superb surroundings.

The walk around the village on Pulau Blanding revealed a neat and tidy settlement except for, the signs of modern wrappers in the water. Unfortunately it will require a long education process to stop all the litter ending up in the ocean but things must start somewhere.

I feel confident that Tudor’s delivering pipped water to the villagers is just the beginning of a vital direction towards enhancing village life. There is a school on the island that had just

received a new teacher and the lesson of the day was all about the lap top computer. Last year, Becky MacLaren swapped Facebook addresses with some of the friends she made while at the event. THey have remained as Facebook friends ever since. So island life while remote is not totally cut off. Entertainment comes in the form of satellite TV which seemed to be wired up in an also entertaining method.

The village revolves around fishing and so the power generated is first directed to the ice maker and then to household use with a basic system.

Most interesting was the boat building industry. It seems little changed apart from the hand tools available. All the boat plans reside in the mind of the naval architect. His skills are simply handed on to the next generation in a time honoured fashion.

The village had the nicest Pos Polisi ever with a true waterfront office but we never saw a uniformed officer and would imagine that there’s not much need for one! A ferry from Tanjung Pinang visits the island on a fortnightly basis but apart from that, the island community is left to its own devices and systems.

...but it is a whole world removed!.. And you thought parallel universes could co-exist...

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Nongsa Point Marina

BATAM

REMPANG

GALANG

BINTAN

Pulau Keras

the Cauldron an area

of strong under

currents, overfalls and

whirl pools

Pompong

P. Buayathe GAP

Neptune Island

75 nm P. Keras. Overnight

point for Cruising and

Classic Class

The GAP. Narrow

confine but the

preferred route

6.5 knots of tide at the

bottom of The Cauldron.

Stops boats in their

tracks!

Pulau LobamP. Lobam famous for

giving Andrew Chan

double malaria!./.

Strong tide

Super strong tide

START 9AM Nongsa Point Marina

FINISH 7PM Noeptune Island

WINDS: 6 - 15 knots NNE

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anyone entering this event should be willing

to take on the spirit of the adventure on a

remote island without any resources...

AS FAR AS RACING GOESit is an interesting mix of passage races and short courses but overall has the feel of a car rally and its special stages. The mass starts on the passage races are great fun with all and sundry taking part.

Winds averaged 10 knots for the entire week which was enough fuel to ensure people made the stops in good enough time.

With the change in format, Sarab Singh’s record time of 11hours to The Line will forever remain a piece of history. In 2012 THE race to Neptune Island was cleaned up by KukuKERRchu an impressive racing yacht indeed.

In the IRC Division comprising KukuKERRchu, Men At Work and Riki Tiki Tavi, the powerful Kerr 40 won 5 from 7 races and generally was last seen at the start line! Last year’s winner was Men At Work were hard at work trying to keep up the pace set by KukuKERRchu.

The Dash One Designs had a bit of dueling going on. On the return race after 11 hours and 49 minutes just 60 seconds separated the first two boats. For the first 2 hours of this race, all 4 Dashes were swapping tacks all the way up the side of Pulau Buaya with no one wanted to relinquish a position.

Race 1 is from the start at Nongsa Point to Neptune Island. Race 2 and 3 are short course in pearlescent equatorial waters. Race 4 is a two part event with a southbound race to the equator and a northbound event back to the island. The times for both sectors being added to gain the days results. Race 5 see’s the whole fleet head north to Nongsa. Race 6 and 7 are windward/leewards conducted in Nongsa

Waters. Overall an intoxicating mix of challenge, thrill and adventure.

The plans for next year include moving the event back into the Chinese New Year festive period. This will mean less people have to take time off from work and should see the number of participants increase.

Hopefully more of Singapore’s growing 40 footer fleet will try to dislodge KukuKERRchu’s winning crown and we know that the Corsair Fleet is intending to field 10 One Design’s into the event. Within the Dash Fleet this year was Ray Waldron who flew in specially from Sydney. Marco Belonje flew down from Bangkok. Both are expert sailors and both will be back in 2013. But the biggest reward for distance covered is ‘Pappy’ Gillier who flew all the way from France to sail with SingaLoc. After years of pestering, Pappy never felt the incentive to visit the family in Singapore but, after mentioning an adventure to the equator and back, he was on the next flight!

As Captain Marty says in his detailed reoprts at asianyachting.com, “anyone entering this event should be willing to take on the spirit of adventure on a remote island without any resources.”

If you say winners are grinners then KukuKERRchu, The Dash, Kay Sira and O’Blue Eyes are definitely grinning but it is the kind of eventh that everybody comes away from with their “take aways”. For most,the personal satisfaction of completing a nautical milestone will be reward enough.

Thanks to Mount Gay, Harry’s, the Neptune team and especially Tudor and Ferret for having the balls to devise such a great event.

For full results visit asianyachting.com

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