VARUNA, the ancient Thai god of the sea, finally smiled on the Ninth Phuket King's Cup Regatta and as the wind blew the big boats flew, with Jon Wardill's Australian Maid revelling in the conditions to record her first win of the series. After three races in frustratingly light conditions yesterday's 20-25 knot nor-easter was just what the skippers of the bigger racing class boats had been praying for, but the day still belonged to Ray Roberts' Australian flyer Millenium whose second place was enough to wrap up the King's Cup. With two wins and a fourth from the first three races, Roberts has an unbeatable points advantage even if he should be forced to use today's final race as his discard. Without discarding any of the races to date - each competitor can discard their worst result before the final points are tallied - Millenium has 7.50 points while both Jenny III and Big Buzzard have eight points with a race discarded. Singapore owner Jeffrey Leow was again bitterly disappoint, if philosophical, about the turn of events which yesterday ended his hopes of defending the King's Cup he won in Jenny III last year. 'We lost it to a bad call on a sail choice,' Leow said. 'We put up our big reacher on the third leg but when we got on the line to the mark it was just too tight to carry that much sail. 'We were blown more than half a mile below the rest of the fleet and had to make a bare-headed change to out number three headsail which cost us a good five minutes. That was the end of the race for us.' Australian Maid set the tone for the race in the beat to the first turning mark and by the time the spinnakers had been cracked for the short, tight reach to the second mark Wardill had settled in to what was to become a fascinating duel with Bill Glasson's Big Buzzard. After almost three hours of jousting, Australian Maid held a meagre 35-second lead to the line, but it was enough to become the first of the racing class yachts to record a line honours-handicap double with a 40 second corrected time win over Millenium. Big Buzzard finished third on handicap with opening race winner Gotcha (Ron McIntosh) finding form again in the heavier conditions to grab fourth place. Hong Kong skipper Peter Churchouse is poised to win the Ocean Cruising class overall division after adding a second yesterday to his previous three wins in Moonblue. Churchouse and Hans Rahmann in Master Blaster, yesterday's winner, have dominated the division and with discards applied Moonblue leads by 2.50 points, enough of a margin to guarantee him overall victory without racing today.
