Smooth Sailing
Sailing
News By A Sailor For Sailors!
In association with Royal Natal Yacht Club, Henley Midmar Yacht Club
, South African
Hunter Class Association and Sailing
KZN.
www.smoothsailing.co.za
A fairly short and to the point
newsletter today concentrated on nothing but racing reports. With a couple of
regattas on the go for the next few days keep and eye on the Smooth Sailing web
site where we are updating the results as they come in.
On Friday we will be publishing the
final edition of Smooth Sailing for the year with the first edition of the new
year set to come out on Friday the 3rd of January. In the interim
though the web site will continue to be updated with regatta news, in
particular news of the Sprog Nationals which will be taking place at Midmar
between Christmas and New Year.
Hunter
KZN Champs & Flying Fifteen Nationals
The Hunter KZN Champs and the Flying Fifteen
Nationals took place offshore Durban this weekend with the racing taking
place in idyllic conditions. When the conditions were not idyllic there was no
racing! Not a bad way to have a relaxed regatta. A good-sized fleet of 12
Hunters and 12 Flying Fifteens took part in the regatta with both fleets
fielding a good number of very competitive boats. The regatta got underway on
Saturday with race officer Dave Rushton making the most of a light easterly
breeze to get in three good windward leeward races. The breeze was very light,
never getting much above six knots, and the sea relatively flat although a
small swell accompanied by some chop made conditions difficult, especially
going to weather. With clear blue skies and bright sunshine the heat and sunburn
were one of the bigger factors out on the water and there were certainly some
very burnt individuals back in the club after sailing that evening. Sunday
produced a fresh westerly, which blew slightly harder than the forecast had
predicted and kept the fleet on the moorings. It was touch and go as to whether
racing could have taken place or not but ultimately the race officer’s decision
not to send the fleet to sea was in the best interests of the fleet on the
whole. Certainly there would have been some carnage and there were definitely
those who were happy not to have to pit themselves against the elements that
day. Monday brought with it the tail end of a westerly, which died away fairly
quickly and then swung to the east. The breeze looked at one stage to settle
and build from the north east but it never really happened and once again light
weather racing was the order of the day. With the wind never really getting
above six knots and the seas being quite flat it was definitely a day for the
light weather specialists again. Another three windward leeward races were
sailed before the fleet headed home. In the Hunter class the battle at the
front between Chris Frost and John Brookman was a tough one with Chris, on
board a brand new boat from Fast Yachts in Durban, prevailing. In the Flying
Fifteen fleet Patrick Harris was fairly dominant winning five of the six races
sailed to take first place from Peter Morgenrood. A few pictures from the
weekend have been posted on the Smooth Sailing web site while the full official results
have been posted on the Sailing KZN site. Meanwhile the top three places in
each of the classes were as follows:
Hunter KZN Champs:
1st Chris Frost & Barry Hundley 16 Points
2nd John Brookman & Sara Fulcher 19
3rd Tony Cockerill & Jason Urbach 20
Flying Fifteen Nationals:
1st Patrick Harris & Jeremy Kriek 5
2nd Peter Morgenrood & James Kier 9
3rd Mike Wright & Darren Hinett 18
The Junior Nationals got underway at
Aeolians Club on the Vaal Dam on Sunday, well, nearly on Sunday, actually it
was Monday by the time there was any racing and a lot of racing there was at
that! Race officer Rob Wilcox certainly gave the sailors a long day on the
water with five races in good breeze. Tuesday was a little less breezy with
only two races sailed on either side of a very large and vicious thunderstorm.
At the time that I spoke to my Man on The Spot, Rob McCrystal, yesterday
afternoon it sounded like there was more of tent repairing and drying out going
on than anything sailing related! Worse still it sounded like there may have
been another thunderstorm on the way! The turnout for the regatta seems to be
pretty good with 61 Optimists and 37 Dabchicks taking part. As of last night
the Optimist fleet had sailed seven races while the Dabchicks had done six.
With a long week still ahead and half the races sailed already there is sure to
be a slightly more relaxed pace for the rest of the regatta with shorter,
easier days on the water. The full results to date are posted on the Smooth
Sailing web site at www.smoothsailing.co.za/juniornat02rslts and will be
updated each day as soon as the latest results are received, but in the
meantime the top three places in both classes are as follows:
Optimist:
1st Brett Stirk East London Yacht Club 11 Points
2nd Bronwen Klaas Pretoria Sailing Club 25
3rd Aaron Larkens Point Yacht Club 29
Dabchick:
1st Andrew Tarbotton Henley Midmar Yacht Club 10
Points
2nd Finn Fitsimons Zeekoeivlei Yacht Club 21
3rd Peter Funke Traansvaal Yacht Club 22
Down in Cape Town
the Table Bay Week is currently underway. The regatta seems to be a
fairly small one this year with only 9 IRC Class One entries and 12 IRC Class 2
Entries with 3 non-IRC boats taking part. Within IRC Class 2 five L34s are
being scored on a fleet basis, which adds a little bit of interest to the
regatta. It is actually quite sad to see what used to be one of the bigger
regattas in the country having shrunk so far. With the Rio Race just around the
corner one would really have expected a bigger fleet for this event. The latest
results available on the RCYC web site at www.rcyc.co.za show that only
three races have been sailed so far with the overall leaders as follows:
IRC Class1:
1st Just Fun Geoff Meek Mount
Gay 30
2nd Bally Hoo Too Iain Park-Ross Mumm
36
3rd Orion Express Ellian Perch ILC
40
IRC Class 2:
1st Hilly Billy Peter Hill J27
2nd Lapwing Jennifer
Burger L34
3rd Sensation Craig Millar L34
L34:
1st Lapwing Jennifer
Burger
2nd Sensation Craig Millar
3rd Spectrum A. James
The final results of the Monarch Assurance Governors Cup Race were as follows:
1st Our Diane – Monarch
Assurance Simonis 35 Rian Leisegang
2nd Pintado Muira
30 Richard Moseley
3rd Jika Epson Printers Judel Vrolik 34 Joe Van Der Westhuizen
For more information visit the official race web site at www.thegovernorscup.com.
The Around
Alone Race fleet left
Cape Town on Saturday and have made fairly rapid progress south towards the
roaring forties. Once again Bost Group Amor Lux, in class one and Tommy Hilfiger
in class two, have opened up early leads over their rivals and look
unstoppable. It is a pity that this should happen so early in the race and
given that it follows the pattern of the previous legs one wonders what it
might take for the running order to change. For the latest positions on the
water visit the race web site at www.aroundalone.com.
Prada’s challenge for the Louis Vuitton Cup came to an abrupt end on Monday when they ran out of time in their
semi-final clash with One World. Despite not having sailing the full quota of
races due to too many days having been missed along the way. According to the
regatta rules the team leading at the time wins the match and that is exactly
what happened here. One World now go on to meet Oracle BMW in the semi-final
repechage round. The winner of this match will go on to meet Alinghi in the
final of the Louis Vuitton Cup. For more information visit the regatta web site
at http://www.louisvuittoncup.yahoo.com/.
Our Notices of Race page on the Smooth Sailing has all the NOR’s available to us. If you
have a regatta coming up and would like to make the NOR available online then
e-mail it to hethcot@iafrica.com and it will be posted and
listed in this newsletter. To get your copy simply click on the name of the
regatta you are interested in below:
Regatta Venue Dates
Western Cape Points Series Various WC Dinghy Clubs September 2002 to
March 2003
KZN Optimist Grand Prix Series Various KZN Venues November to
January
Sailing KZN Blue
Water Challenge Various KZN
Clubs December
2002 to July 2003
Junior Nationals Aeolians Club, Vaal Dam 14 to 21 December
Sprog Nationals Henley
Midmar Yacht Club 27 to 30 December
Stadt 23 Western Province
Champs Theewaters Sports Club 28 & 29 December & 4 & 5
January
AFYC Fun Regatta 2002/2003 Albert
Falls Yacht Club 31
December & a January
2003 Cape to Rio Race Royal Cape Yacht Club 11 January 2003
NNYU Interclub Challenger –
Leg 4 Glendee Yacht Club 15 & 16
March 2003
IRC KZN Champs
(Announcement) Zululand Yacht
Club 21
to 23 March 2003
Western Province Dinghy
Champs Saldahana Bay 18 to 21
April 2003
The Classifieds has been updated on the Smooth Sailing web site. Take a surf past to see what is for sale or sought after in the wanted column. To place an ad, e-mail the details to hethcot@iafrica.com.
One trailer with
box
New mast, sails
and standing rigging
R17 000-00 ONCO
Contact: Tim
Cell: 083 570
0222
Fireball Dinghy
Complete, in good
condition & on road trailer
Preferably fiberglass
‘wide hull’
JHB or Northern OFS
Contact: Jeff Dell
Cell: 082 707 7166
E-Mail: jeffm_d@hotmail.com
Andrew Heathcote
Mobile: +27 (0) 83 783 8805
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Please note that the views
contained in this newsletter are those of the authors concerned and in no way
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