Vietnam Funcup 2012 – Report

The 2012 Funcup Poster with a shot from the last year´s Worldcup Slalom.

Read now the report by Drew Parsons:
As the sun sets, the boards and sails are washed and stacked away its time to reflect back on the 13th annual Fun Cup at Jibe´s Mui Ne, which was held on the 3rd and 4th of February 2012. Since the beginning Pascal Lefebvre has been organizing the event. In 2011 he as well organized the first PWA Worldcup at Mui Ne. The PWA should have seen a tourstart in Vietnam as well in 2012 in February or March. But due to some political reasons the 2012 tourstop got moved to the end of the calendar, November 30th till December 8th 2012. But still he made the Fun Cup happen.

The skippersmeeting at the Jibe´s Beach Club (Pic: Pascal Lefebvre).

The whole event ran perfectly or should I say ‘sailed’ perfectly. Blue skies and sunshine, a steady 20 plus knots of wind and a good mix of 12 nations, all happy to battle it out for the prestige of getting their name on the cup. All the ingredients for a great two days of windsurfing.

A tight figth at the first mark of the race course (Pic: Pascal Lefebvre).

The Fun Cup is a steady fixture on the Mui Ne events calendar and always attracts a great crowd of windsurf enthusiasts, who eagerly cheer on their friends whilst sipping a few cold Saigon Beers in the glorious weather. This year’s slalom race was all about speed and skill and required a certain amount of bravery too. After two days of competition the riders were all battered and bruised, the ‘Round Robin’ format meaning that competitors had to race up to six races over the two days, only the buzz of the race keeping them going.

Sergej Chaika from Vladivostok, Russia tunes his gear before the race (Pic: Pascal Lefebvre).

The Men’s event was won by Gilles Tanguy from France, who had looked very fast throughout the competition. Sergei Chaika from Russia, Vladivostok came in  second and Alexy Karachevtsev from Russions finished third. Both Russians live while the wintermonths in warm and windy Vietnam and work at a Russian windsurfing Center. At the award ceremony Gilles was given a beautiful N.O.A watch , Sergei a Starbaord and 3rd claimed a Severne sail. Read more about the winner here

The winner Gilles Tanguy from France crosses the finishing line in Vietnam (Pic: Pascal Lefebvre).

The Women’s competition was won by Lucy Odillo Maher from Australia, improving on her runners-up spot from last years cup. She works at the Jibe´s center and can train her skills on a daily basis Second spot was claimed by Kim Chi Tran, who is the first Vietnamese lady to enter the Fun Cup! After four months of hard work and practice Chi can look back at a job well done in claiming 2nd place. Third place went to Deborah Khoo from Singapore, who spends many month while wintertime at Mui Ne. The ladies also received prizes courtesy of the event sponsors, this time in the shape of a Starboard Windsurf board, a Severne sail and one year full membership to Jibes.

The top three ladies at the pricegiving ceremony (Pic: Pascal Lefebvre).

Local windsurfers Tien Truong Ky and Nguyen Van Rot are also worthy of a mention as they finished a respectable 6 and 7 place, and I’m sure they will look to improve on this next year.

Cyril Moussilmani and Ben van der Steen, who train and test in Mui Ne at the moment, were guests only and watched the event from the beach as there will not happen any PWA racing in February 2012 (Pic: Pascal Lefebvre).

The awards ceremony was a great way to wind down from the events of the previous two days. The awards were handed out by Mr Ba Head of Sport department for Bhinh Thuan province, also a few lucky guests were winners of a prize draw, prizes ranging from bottles of bubbly to all you can eat in ice cream. As the wine and trays of canapés flowed the guests were treated to some traditional Vietnamese dancing preformed by a local dance group, followed by some less traditional dancing by all the competitors and organisers on the Jibes dance floor . It was a very fun night and we look forward to next years Fun Cup, which will happen for the 14th time.

Local ladies had fun at the beach (Pic: Pascal Lefebvre).

Jibe’s would like to thank Schneider Electrics, N.O.A, Starboard, Le Fruit, Wharehouse, Fanny Ice Cream, SEL and Full Moon Resort who are sponsors of the Fun Cup for their continued support. All proceeds and profits from the Fun Cup will go to the Ham Tam Orphanage of as it’s been raising money for several years now. That´s a great job, we would say!