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Sunday January 13, 2013

HiFi finally shed bridesmaid’s tag in style at Langkawi Regatta

By K. RAJAN

LANGKAWI: Favourites HiFi did not compete in the 10th and final race but still won the Racing Class category in the 11th Royal Langkawi International Regatta.

HiFi, skippered by Neil Pryde and who have been participating in the regatta since 2003, finally shed their bridesmaid’s tag in style yesterday.

HiFi could afford to forgo the 10th race after accumulating an unassailable 21 penalty points from nine races to capture the coveted Prime Minister’s Challenge Trophy.

Hong Kong yacht Jelik finished second with 30 penalty points while Singapore’s Walawala 2 ended third with 31 penalty points.

“We knew what we had to do today ... we went for a clean race and got the job done,” said the 73-year-old Pryde.

“We were in a good position on points, so we were very confident of winning. We’re extremely happy to have finally won after trying for a long time.

“The weather was on our side this time and we performed well. We’ll return to defend our title next year.”

Uranus, which created history by becoming the first Malaysian yacht to finish third last year, had to settle for fourth place under skipper Mohd Razali Mansor.

Another Malaysian naval yacht, Utarid, ended the five-day regatta in a disappointing fifth place after a promising start.

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