Smooth Sailing
Sailing
News By A Sailor For Sailors!
In association with Royal
Natal Yacht Club, Henley Midmar Yacht Club
& Eikos Risk Applications
So the website is up and running and judging
from the volume of comments I have received a good number of you have already
had a look. There are two things to remember as far as the site is concerned.
The first is that not everything will run as smoothly as clockwork all the
time, especially in these early stages. If you come across any problems or
errors please let me know about them straight away in order that I can fix
them. The second thing is that although the newsletter comes out twice a week
the web site is going to be updated on a far more regular basis. Those of you
who have checked back more than once in the last 48 hours will have noticed
that the news is being updated as and when things change and the information
becomes available to me. So check back regularly!
The biggest regatta on the
go at the moment is the South African Optimist Selection Regatta being held in East London. The regatta started on Wednesday with
two light air races sailed followed by two even lighter races on Friday. At
this stage the regatta is being led convincingly by East London sailor Brett
Stirk who has won all of the four races sailed so far by an impressive margin.
In race four he left a gap of eight minutes between himself and the second
placed boat with the result that only 12 of the 29 strong fleet managed to
finish with the time limit. With the regatta set to end on the 8th
only there is still a long way to go and a lot of sailing to be done, hopefully
also a good chance for some wind to come through allowing the sailors to have
some yacht racing rather than drifting. For more information, results and
reports on the action go to the Racing Reports page on the Smooth Sailing web site. The top three overall and the
positions of the top KZN sailors are as follows:
1st Brett Stirk ELYC
Border
2nd Justin Onvlee
RYC Eastern Cape
3rd Sam Waterson ELYC Border
8th James Hogg PYC
KZN
12th Rudi McNeil PYC KZN
14th Michael Bissett PYC
KZN
Wednesday evening saw the final Wednesday Evening Fun Race of the season taking place.
A moderate north easter, clear skies and a good fleet on the water saw to it
that the season ended with a bang. The party afterwards was an even bigger bang
with loads of cheap Windhoek Draft on the go. Only two of the three starters
finished in the racing class however all the cruising class yachts finished and
judging by the results the race here seems to have been closer than that in the
racing class. The results of the final race of the season were as follows:
Racing Class Cruising Class
1st Ocean Sailing Academy 1st
Legionaire
2nd Ladybird 2nd
Element
3rd
Raine
There is Dinghy Racing scheduled to take place
tomorrow afternoon with RNYC running racing on the deep water course. The first
of two scheduled races for the afternoon is set to start at 14:00. This is a
re-run of the racing which was cancelled a couple of weeks back and is the last
dinghy racing of the season.
One of the errors which
crept onto the web site early on was that I had assumed that Sunday’s Keeler Racing was to be run by RNYC. This
is not the case at all and in fact PYC will be hosting the day’s racing with
their Jockey Series taking place on
Sunday. This is also the fourth weekend of the L26 Lipton Selection
Series and not only can we look forward to some more close racing on the water
but there may even be one more boat on the start line with Harken set to join
the fray. As usual the cats are more than welcome to join in for a bit of
racing. Race one of the day is scheduled to start offshore at 11:00.
For a bit of inland sailing
this weekend I see from the HMYC Calendar
that there is a long distance race scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at Midmar.
With the 9-Hour race drawing nearer it is nearly time for those who are serious
about winning and beating off the strong Gauteng contingent to start
contemplating a few days sailing on the dam to get in tune with the local
conditions!
With a bit of sailing to be
done in Durban this weekend you will no doubt be wondering what the Weather is going to do. For
Saturday’s Dinghy Racing we can expect a moderate to fresh south westerly wind
which should die as the afternoon progresses. There could well be some rain
early in the day but don’t let this put you off as it is set to go away by the
afternoon. Sunday will see clearer skies but still with some could and the
chance of some light rain. The wind will start by swinging to the south east, east
and then north east. Sounds like it might be a bit fickle and on the light side
though. For more information, detailed forecasts and synoptic charts visit www.weathersa.co.za.
With the fleet still in port now there is little to report on in the Volvo Ocean Race until the crew changes start. These have started early for some though with Ross Field announcing that he will be stepping off News Corp to take a shore based role. Field injured his back early in the race and has yet to recover fully. Field, who is no spring chicken at 52 years of age says that he is tired of being in pain all day on board the boat and having to take pain killers four times a day. The other crew member leaving News Corp is watch captain Steve Cotton. Cotton, who was also responsible for some of the tactical decisions seems to be taking the fall for the boats poor performance in the last leg. More crew changes are expected from the other teams next week as the start of the next leg to Baltimore draws nearer.
For more information and the latest standings visit the race web site at www.volvooceanrace.org.
The maxi catamaran “Orange” continues to around the world on her Jules Verne Trophy attempt. Currently in the Southern Ocean, just off the southern tip of New Zealand she is enjoying the hard running conditions and is surfing at around 30 knots of boat speed on the huge swells which characterize that part of the ocean. "We're really hauling," exclaimed Bruno Peyron during the chat session today, which only lasted a few minutes the reception was so bad. "We have done some sprints of 36/37 knots in the surfs today and we're expecting quite a gale tonight because we're going to be crossing an active front. We have just taken in the third reef"" And while 40 knots are currently blowing across the little orange dot on the chart, the boys are expecting 50 in the hours to come.
Following the death of Austrian Tornado sailor Johannes Haeupl last weekend there has been some healthy debate on a number of internet sites and newsletters regarding Small Boat Safety. Some of the comments have been very interesting. Several leading skiff sailors have called for the mandatory life jacket rule to be done away with in these classes. They feel that the nature of capsizes in these high performance classes is such that there is often a need for the sailor to swim down and away from the boat which the life jacket clearly prevents. There is also the option of inflatable life jackets, some of which are very good, but are not widely used. Certainly these are easy to deflate in an emergency. The carrying of knives on the water has also been discussed at length and it is clear that this is something that all trapeze boat sailors should do. The best suggestion here is to have a pouch, with a Velcro seal, built into the trapeze harness in which a knife is carried. There seems to be no doubt a knife on board the boat would have saved Haeupl’s life. He was eventually cut free from under the trampoline and his harness only 20 minutes after the boat had capsized! While the discussion is all very healthy it is only worth anything if sailors take it to heart and put into practice the practical measures which have been discussed.
The last week has been a Torrid Time for
sailors and their boats. Petit Prince went down off East London, Prodigy
suffered a damaged keel off Maputo, Husky started to sink in the bay and ended
up going down on the slipway and that is just locally. Internationally things
have not been much better and there is news this morning of two big mishaps. Yesterday afternoon Josh Hall's Open 60
Gartmore was dismasted on a delivery trip back to France, where she was
expecting to take part in the Open 60 circuit this year. At the time the yacht
was lying 450 miles NW of Cape Finisterre and conditions were reported as being
40 knots from the west northwest.
Hall and his two crew have got rid of the
broken mast and have erected a jury rig. They are currently making 2-3 knots
towards the Spanish coast. At present there are no details about why the
dismasting occurred, although some will no doubt suspect her hi-tech PBO
rigging. Worse news for the British maxi Leopard. On Tuesday her rudder
broke - it is believed there was a problem with one of the bearings - which
caused the boat to take on a considerable amount of water. A Mayday was put out
and several ships stood by, but at the time the crew believed they had stemmed
the flood.
However on Wednesday morning the MRCC in
Falmouth had a discussion with the crew about the deteriorating weather
conditions. At 1237 the call was made to abandon ship. The seven crew were
later transferred to the tanker Kurzeme via liferaft. They left Leopard
at 1813GMT and were all safely brought on board at 1858GMT.
At present an EPIRB is still signalling Leopard's
position while a tug is due to rendez-vous with her at 1800 tonight (Friday).
Whether the tug will find her afloat remains to be seen.
Notices of Race are available for the following Regattas:
Regatta Venue Dates
Halcat
KZN Champs Island Sailing
Club, Durban 13 & 14 April
RC
Laser KZN Champs Durban
Model Boat Club 13 & 14
April
9-Hour
50th Anniversary Race Henley
Midmar Yacht Club 3 & 4 May
Laser
Masters Island
Sailing Club 25 &
26 May
NCS
Regatta Point
Yacht Club, Durban 28 June to 5
July
Vasco
Da Gama Race Maputo to
Durban 13 July
2003 Cape to Rio Race Royal Cape Yacht Club 11 January 2003
If you would like a copy simply send me an e-mail at hethcot@iafrica.com and I will forward the NOR for whichever regatta you are interested in to you.
Non-Sailing Events at Henley Midmar Yacht Club:
50th Anniversary Dinner Saturday 1 June @ 18:30 HMYC
Hunter Raffle Tickets R100-00 each. Contact Dave Claxton to secure your place in the
draw.
For more details or to book your place contact Dave Claxton on 082 455 1071 or at function@iafrica.com.
The following adverts have been added to the Classifieds page of the Smooth Sailing Web Site this week.
Sprog
DP Hull
Sail No. 1032
2 Suites of Sails
2 Rudders, one fixed one lifting
All bearing blocks
4 Year Old mast
R6 000-00
Contact : Andrew Heathcote
Cell: 083 783 8805
Tel: 031-250 5100 (Work)
Email: hethcot@iafrica.com
Sprog
DP Hull in good condition
Equipped for racing
SAS Measurement Certificate
Contact: Deborah Wallis
Work: 031- 364 1220
Cell: 083 628 5392
E-Mail: dwallis@boecorp.co.za
Gypsey
Or similar family sailing dinghy
Contact: Bruce
Steenhuisen
Cell: 083 301
3865
Mirror Dinghy
In reasonable
condition
Contact: Kay or
Graham
Phone: 031-762 1504
Andrew Heathcote
Mobile : +27 (0) 83
783 8805
Fax : +27 (0) 31 563
8805
This newsletter is
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subject matter contained herein is entirely of a yachting orientated nature or
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This newsletter is kindly distributed courtesy of FFS Refiners (Pty)
Ltd.