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The Ocean Marina Yacht Club is situated about 10 km south of Pattaya just past the Ambassador City complex.
It is a very exclusive club offering superb facilities to its members and guests including it’s own sheltered mooring marina with berthing facilities for up to 500 yachts, plus a magnificent clubhouse.
In addition there is a multi-story 5 star hotel adjacent where visitors may stay whether they wish to participate in the sailing or just spectate.
In mid January the club celebrated it’s 8th year of existence by staging a multi-race regatta spread over two days.
The Pattaya Otter was fortunate enough to be invited by his press colleague Allan to join him in covering the Saturday races, and found that being part of the official ‘press pack’ provided several distinct advantages.
Firstly instead of just viewing the racing from the waterfront, we were instead ushered about a luxury cabin cruiser which took us out to the starting point of the main event.
This was a long distance event for mulit-crewed larger yachts incorporating several classes both single and multi-hulled.
We had a superb view of the start, and then followed the race for some distance before returning to shore, leaving them to continue for several further hours.
On our return to dry land, we were taken to the clubhouse and there in one of the several restaurants we found a free buffet lunch laid out for us.
After tucking into this and at the same time enjoying a superb view of the whole marina from the panoramic window, we then proceeded again to the jetty, where this time we were given the use of a small speedboat to help us cover the other shorter distance races.
I should mention at this time that conditions were not ideal for sailing with partially cloudy skies and a light variable wind, and with just a smattering of light rain in mid afternoon.
Nevertheless we witnessed some enthusiastic racing in these minor classes, including a large number of children racing in the small Optimist dinghies.
Again after covering these races for part of the afternoon and witnessing the finish of several, plus the return of the first of the main race craft, we were returned to the clubhouse, this time for afternoon tea and cakes.
And another leisurely interlude took place as we viewed all the boats either docking or in the case of the smaller craft, coming ashore on the beach.
Then it was time for the prize giving in the grounds of the complex, complete with barbecue and cocktail reception - in which again we were permitted to participate, plus also a cake cutting ceremony followed by a firework display..
The prizes for the winners and runners-up in all the various races and classes were then presented by Thailand Admiral of the Fleet, Khun Thaveesak. Although the first craft home was the wonderfully painted and decked-out ‘Phuket-8 Alakazam’, it was severely handicapped and the overall winners were declared to be the crew of the large mono hull ‘Magic Roundabout’. But all seemed happy and satisfied with the result.
After which, we finished off a superb day out with a few glasses of wine - total cost for the day, absolutely zero.
An assortment of photos taken at the event follow.
To view any of the above photos in full size, just click on it.
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