Sponsorship

Cabaret 5

for the past 4 years CRS (L) now JCC Re have sponsored Cabaret 5, a 27 ft First Class 8 Yacht competing in the     Royal Selangor Yacht Club (RSYC), Port Klang, Cruising Yacht Race series. JCC Re CE Jeremy Camps is the owner and skipper of the yacht. Cabaret 5 has enjoyed considerable success in the various racing competitions of the RSYC and currently is the overall champion (Raja Muda Trophy) - for the third successive year, and holds the One Fathom Bank Trophy, the Pangkor Laut Trophy and the Sembilan Trophy. During the season we will be reporting on Cabaret 5's progress in the series and other events.

A brief description of Cabaret 5 - built in 1984 by Beneteau Boat Builders, Le Havre France - she belongs to a so-called "one design" First Class 8 class of boat - there are a thousand identical boats mainly in France who can compete against each other on identical terms. She was shipped to Singapore in 1984 and joined the RSYC fleet immediately. Jeremy is the 4th owner, the other 3 being French, Australian and German respectively. She was abandoned by the previous owner a sea captain, the story being that he won the lottery in Germany - a huge amount of money and left immediately - true or not it sounds good. She was left on the mooring for nearly 3 years before being taken out of the water by RSYC. Jeremy bought her in poor condition to reconstruct her. It was a great tribute to the builders that the hull was in good condition - all the wood parts had to be replaced, as well as various other parts and the instrument all of which came from France or UK. After this refurbishment she was to her proud owner as good as new. Jeremy had liked her from the start because of her sleek racing lines although off shore her lack of free board does require gentle handling. However we have been out in very rough conditions in particular off Langkawi and although uncomfortable she is safe.

In order that yachts of different size can compete with each other there is a handicap formula (IRC) calculated by the Royal Ocean Racing Club in England and applicable worldwide. Each yacht has one - it is expressed as a "time correction factor" and is applied to the elapsed time of each yacht after completing the same course. Cabaret's Time Connecting Factor (TCF) is 0.914 which means that the time taken to sail the course is multiplied by this. Her great advantage lies in the fact that Cabaret is 20 years old and there is an age allowance incorporated in this which increases every year - without this the rating would be 0.96.

Royal Selangor Yacht Club are about to start the 2006 season with an interesting array of competitions and regattas. The Club is reverting to the 2004 system of a Platu One Design series to be sailed on Saturday s with the IOR Cruiser series on Sundays. Each year there are 3 series with the overall winner decided over the aggregate results of the 3 series. There will be a "handicap" series running parallel with the main series by which a penalty of 5%, 3% and 1% is imposed for each 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. These are cumulative and by the end of the series most boats will have achieved some success. This series will also be sponsored by JCC Re.

The courses sailed are in confluence of the Klang River close to North Port round a series of nominated buoys either navigation or laid by the Club Race Officer. Racing is usually made more interesting by the appearance of various large ships mainly container who contrary to international maritime law have right of way of sailing boats and this they use mercilessly on our small boat 5 real cowboys of the sea. Part of the art of navigation is to judge what is going to happen i.e. to decide which side to go. One of the highlight will be the Merdeka Weekend Regatta at Pangkor Laut / Pangkor Resort as well as team racing against the Singapore Yacht Club and the Ambassadors Trophy for which Ambassadors of different countries will be invited to join the yacht who will race under the patronage.

Cabaret will take part and we will post reports on the racing. The new MUI 'YACHTINSURE' insurance scheme designed to provide insurance for all yachts in Malaysia (the first of its kind in recent years) will also bring increased security to all involved.

Jeremy Camps

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