Spectacular Opening

Competitors representing nine countries from three continents have assembled on Wong-Amat Beach, near Pattaya in Thailand for the 2006 King Power Raceboard World Championships. The opening night was a spectacular occasion with more than 800 people attending a gala evening hosted by Raimon Land and Northpoint.

Racers from Europe – including Julien QUENTEL (FRA), Riccardo GIORDANO (ITA), Patrik POLLAK (SVK) – will be up against respected Asian sailors such as Derrick MENEZES (IND), Tak Sum WONG (HKG) and Phanuthat RUAMSAP (THA).

Also competing for the host nation are Napalai TANSAI (THA) and Arun HOMRARUEN (THA), who next month will be representing their country in the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar.

Surprisingly, no ‘hybrid’ raceboards have been registered, instead a mixture of traditional ‘longboards’ – F2, Fanatic Mega Cat, Mistral Pan Am, and Mistral One Design – and the ‘new generation’ longboards such as Exocet Kona and Starboard Phantom Race, which have also been provided for charter.

The real talking point on the beach is the Exocet Warp 380 – conventional board in length, but unconventional in most other ways!

These are exiting times in the development of the class!