The annual Phuket Invitational - the brainchild of superyachts services specialist Graham Frost - is one of the few opportunities that owners, skippers and crews of these power and sail behemoths of the sea have to get together and swap yarns and - just as importantly - demonstrate their sailing prowess. While cocktails chill aboard the motor yachts, crews are invited aboard their sail-powered counterparts for a day of racing. And few things take the breath away so much as seeing those big sails tack and gybe, battling for position across the bay.

This past year was particularly notable. To begin with, the gods of the sea blessed the event with 20 to 30 knot winds - something the entire Phuket sail racing season, including the King's Cup and QEB Phang Nga regattas, was to enjoy.  Aside from that, the Invitational involved a congregation of remarkable vessels representing the full history of superyacht design. Among those of particular note: the 34 metre schooner S/y Yanneke Too, built in 1995, and the 43 metre ketch S/y Sylvia, launched in 1928 - both from superyacht builders C&N, and both of them living proof that classic design is ageless.

Also in attendance were the 50 Metre Perini Navi ketch S/y Perseus, out of the yard in 2001. and the 33 metre Great Lakes motor yacht M/y Maid Marion. Having left more than her fair share of adventures in wake since the 1931 New York launch, the later vessel now sails off Phuket under the Aman Cruises banner.

A total of 160 metres of superyacht mad this the largest official gathering of its type ever to grace the region. But Graham Frost sees this as just the beginning. Fifty metres is now the international minimum standard for superyachts, with larger and more impressive craft coming out of the yards every year. With many superyachts now eschewing the usual stomping grounds of the Med and Caribbean in favor of more adventurous, less crowded and truly exotic locales, Phuket makes an obvious choice of destination. Few other sailing grounds offer this outstanding variety of natural scenery combined with safe and calm waters year around.

Frost began his SEAL superyacht support services company 11 years ago in response to regular quizzes from skippers regarding Phuket's marine industry services. He launched the Invitational four years ago to bring together those skippers and owners who happened to be anchored in the area during the high season. A-list superyacht builder Feadship came on board the following year as principle sponsor, and the event has never looked back. Today, Frost says, "There are anywhere between 12 and 18 superyachts around Phuket during the season ... Owners are shipping their yachts out here by the transporter."

Staging the Invitational, together with its annual cocktail and dinner party at Le Royal Meridien Phuket Yacht Club, is a breeze for frost, at least in comparison to the many other unusual, sometimes tricky, requests he has to deal with from the traditionally demanding superyacht fraternity. From organizing landing permission for private jets or flight permission for on board helicopters to Immigration and Custom clearances and putting trained masseuses aboard, Frost claims to be able to handle everything and anything, including getting permission for the first superyacht to travel up into Burma's Mergui Archipeligo. Frost's biggest challenge came last year, when - with 48 hours notice - he was asked to organize a New Year's Eve circus aboard one yacht. Elephant included. On Phuket, anything is possible.