&
Seen Heard
Revisited
With a nose for adventure, the Sari Timur cruises again,
this time in the all new Raja Muda Regatta’s Classic Class.
Mark Blasky regales you with her trials and triumphs.
W
e had planned to start cruising
n e x t ye a r, b u t c h a n g e d o u r
minds during the Raffles Marina
Classic series where we learnt of
this year’s Raja Muda Regatta’s brand new
Classic Class open only to boats over 30
years old. This meant that we would have
to scramble to get ready as we had work
commitments until 31 October. Our
initial departure date was 5 November
— to give us ample time to play
on the way up to Port Klang and
the start of the Raja Muda.
However on 3 November, a
massive lightning storm
affected a number of
boats in the Marina
and we were not
immune. A few
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thousand dollars and a couple of days later,
we left for Port Klang.
In Klang, we waited for what was left
of our crew to arrive, which they did, in
time for the kick-off party on the 13th.
The next day started by clearing Sari
Timur out of the Klang dock… and I mean
literally clearing. During the night, a huge
amount of garbage had collected between
her and the pontoon. We finally got out
to the start line to find no wind but the
strong currents Klang is famous for. The
latter was running in the right direction
and the committee was going to start us
in a drift contest.
Class Six has a no-engine rule. This
proved interesting for seven old ladies. Six
of us made the start drifting more sideways
than anything and expecting the wind to
turn on any moment. About 20 minutes
later it did, with about 17 knots from the
right direction, and the boats were off. The
Classic Class was slated as Class Six for
the play on words (Class Six = Classics…
get it?). We were given a start two hours
earlier than the remaining faster classes
so that we could finish the roughly 90-
mile leg without keeping the committee
waiting too long after the other boats
had finished. Shortly after the wind
began, we noticed Sari Timur was
not performing the way she
should. The steering was
playing up and of course,
one of the side effects
from the lightning is that Eveline sailing
we lost our rudder angle
indicator.
Class Six had several
gates along the way which
allowed the boats to get
some results in the event
of a non-finish. Though
we had these problems,
we were making the first
gate in good time and were
within 5 miles of the second
gate when the wind just
dropped off completely.
Luckily we were in good
company as four of our
class were around us, but we were in a
bit shallow and kept trying to ride the
tide with a tack out to deeper water. This
proved very interesting and after about
three 360s and nearly hitting one of our
competitors with the stern of our boat,
we noticed our steering had fixed itself
and whatever we had been carrying had
finally fallen off.
When the tide turned against us, we
quickly dropped the hook and sent a diver
over the side, in the middle of the night,
to check the rudder and the prop. We still
had one plastic bag hanging on to the prop
(complete with a cardboard milk carton
inside!) and a bit of cutting and sawing
got the rest of the plastic off the prop.
The crew then made a decision that if the
wind didn’t come back by midnight, we
were going to motor the rest of the way.
And that was what we did. In hindsight,
it was a bad decision as the wind started
up again around 2 AM and we could have
made the second gate, thus giving us a
third on the leg instead of a fifth.
Pulau Pangkor was the overnight stop
and the party there was quite nice. The
same cannot be said about the weather in
the morning though. A large squall came
through and stranded a bunch of people
on the beach including one of our crew.
Needless to say we had to retire from this
race as we could not get to the start line.
The leg to Penang had loads of wind all
pretty much on the nose — not great
for the old boats. Our competitors
had torn sails and broken bits
Sari Timur in Pangkor
Sirius 1935 sailing
on their boats, so being
forced to drop out was
probably a better plan in
the long run.
The next inshore race
was called off due to lack of
wind. But the last overnight
passage was ever yone’s
favorite as winds turned
favourable and everyone
was having a fun trip up
to Langkawi. Even though
we ended up second to last on the leg,
we were finally in good spirits.
The next day was the last race which
was an inshore race. There were only two
finishers from our class as the winds died
on the homeward leg. Sirius 1935 crossed
the line 3 minutes after the time limit; Coup
de Soleil and us had less than a half-mile
to go when the final gun sounded. All in
all, everyone was in a partying mood and
the crew of Sari Timur finally realised that
we are now cruising again.
Those of you with classic yachts of your
own be sure to mark your schedule for
7th - 9th August – The ever popular
Raffles Marina Classic Boat Regatta.
Mark and Pauline Blasky, long term members of Raffles Marina and
stalwarts of the local sailing scene have embarked on an extended
cruise abroad their classic yacht SARI TIMUR. As they progress along
their route they will keep us all updated with occasional articles
for Nautique! As well as acting as roving/floating ambassadors for
Raffles Marina.
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