Smooth Sailing
Sailing
News By A Sailor For Sailors!
In
association with Hood Sails, Royal Natal Yacht Club, Henley Midmar Yacht Club
, South African
Hunter Class Association and Sailing
KZN.
We
have a whole lot of information in Smooth Sailing today
including something a little different, a review of a new piece of sailing
gear. The Keyhole Trapeze System is a new development aimed to improve the
safety of dinghy and cat sailors sailing trapeze boats. The system is so good
that it should become and automatic standard item for all trapeze boat sailors!
But don’t just take my word for it, read the review below for the whole story.
The
Cape to Rio Race started on Saturday and while it was a sad to see such a small
fleet heading off across the Atlantic the coverage that the race has generated
in the media has been fantastic and can only be good for our sport. The
documentary style package which was aired last night on M-Net Supersport was one
of the better local yachting productions I have seen and, especially from a
non-sailors point of view, I think it did well to paint a very good picture of
the race and the sport of sailing. While the actual coverage of boats sailing
and the start was fairly minimal the program as a whole certainly was good.
Keyhole Trapeze Harness System
Keep The Cup –
RNYC Leo Caney Series
HMYC
Partington Long Distance Series
JJ Giltinan
Trophy For 18-Foot Skiffs
A recent return to dinghy
sailing after an extended break has finally given me the chance to test a
fairly new innovation in the dinghy world. For as long as trapezes have been
have been a part of small boat sailing the Trapeze hooks, built into the harnesses worn by the sailors,
have posed a threat to both man and boat. The threat to man has been a lot more
serious than many may have realised. A little less that a year ago a Tornado
sailor lost his life during a regatta in Europe when his trapeze hook got
caught up in the rigging of his boat during a capsize. He was not the first to
die in this manner and others have come perilously close with some miraculous
escapes and tragic deaths having been documented. Following a trapeze hook
related near death experience of a close friend, Australian skiff guru Julian
Bethwaite, best known as the designer of the 49er and 29er, set about working
out a safer trapeze system. The end result is a system, which employs a bobble
on the end of the wire and a plate with a keyhole on the trapeze, hence the
name, Keyhole Trapeze System. Most importantly there are no hooks sticking out to
snag on ropes or rigging or to prod holes in the boat or foils during a
capsize. As with all Bethwaite products the system is well designed and has clearly
been through a rigorous testing program prior to it’s being released. The
buckle that attaches to the harness is made in two versions, an aluminium one
and a carbon fibre one. The carbon version is manufactured in Pretoria by Brian
Lion-Cachet at Carbonology and it was through Brian that I was lucky enough to
get my hands on the system to try out. Brian is in fact making the carbon
buckles for the international market and has already exported consignments to
Australia, Switzerland and the UK. The buckle itself is a work of art with the
outer layer in a carbon Kevlar weave giving it a very exotic and high tech
look. It is very strong and solid whilst also being considerably lighter than
the stainless steel spreader bar, which was originally in my harness. My
harness is of the made to fit nappy type, not ideal for this buckle which looks
like it was designed with the intention of it attaching to a set of straps on
the harness. No problem for me though with the old spreader bar removed and the
new buckle easily attached by Clyde at Texwise Natal. The buckle comes with two
bobbles attached to a heat shrink covered wire strop. When playing with around
with the parts, as one does, I had been a little concerned that the fit of the
bobble into the keyhole was a little tight. When finally on the water this
proved to be a completely unnecessary concern. While the technique is slightly
different slipping the bobble into the keyhole is as easy as slipping the hook
into the loop in the old system. Since I had always favoured the narrow loops
in the old system I may have had to make less of an adjustment of technique
than others used to the bigger loops but nonetheless I don’t think that this
should really be an issue for anyone. The bobbles and their pre-made strops
worked perfectly and are easy to attach to any trapeze system. In the last two or three weeks I have used
the system on two different boats and had no bother at all in moving the
bobbles and strops from boat to boat. As an all round good idea and a downright
safer way of going sailing I would recommend this system to everyone sailing
trapeze boats. It is relatively cheap and easy to change to and offers a huge
safety advantage over the previous system. The system will work on all trapeze
boats from dinghies to cats. An illustrated version of this article with
pictures of the harness, buck and the bobble system has been posted on the Smooth Sailing web site at www.smoothsailing.co.za/carbonology.html. For addition reading on
and pictures of this system you can read all the background to the design on
the Bethwaite Design web site at http://www.bethwaite.com/bethwaite/accessories/keyholetrap.html. More importantly though,
to order yours now contact Brian Lion-Cachet on 083 631 5387 or at blion@iafrica.com. The complete system, including carbon buckle and two bobble
systems retails for R480-00 and is available now.
Saturday’s final round of the RNYC Sunsail
Series took
place in near perfect conditions with a 10 to 12 knot north easter and bright
sunny skies making for ideal conditions. A fantastic fleet of boats took to the
water for the afternoons racing although I must say that I was a little
concerned that the rate of attrition was so high. Anyone would have thought
that it was blowing 20 knots judging by the number of dinghies back in the boat
park after the first race. Those who stayed enjoyed a second race in equally
good conditions although there was a slight delay in between with the wind
shifting around a bit, something that is very unusual for Durban bay! At the
prize giving in the RNYC Foredeck bar afterwards the prizes were handed out to
the winners by Sunsail’s representative and chief instructor, Lars. The support
of sponsors like Sunsail is invaluable and is one of the reasons that dinghy
racing is able to happen on Durban bay without any entry fees and with great
prizes and laid on drinks and snacks at the prize giving. The class winners in
the Sunsail Series were as follows:
Flying Fifteens Lasers
1st Patrick Harris & Jeremy Kriek 5 Points 1st Rick Parker 6
2nd Mike Wright & Darren Hinett 6 2nd Denny Moffatt 30
3rd Hemrah Gokal & Kevin Crampton 11 3rd
Andrew Walford 33
Sprogs
1st Mark Flack & Trish Kilburn 5 Points
2nd CJ Milln & H Strydom 6
3rd Paul Notcutt 8
Wednesday Evening Fun Racing kicks off again on
Wednesday with the first round of the new year hosted by the RNYC and sponsored
by South African Breweries. The fun race starts at 17:30 for the more serious
racing fleet and 13:35 for the cruisers. The sailing will be followed by a
great big party on the lawns with loads of the sponsors product and music and
entertainment by Rob Maine-Baillie.
The “Keep The Cup
Campaign” gets
underway offshore Durban this Sunday with the first keeler racing of the new
year, the first rounds of the RNYC’s Leo Caney Series. Hemraj Gokal is lined up
to be the race officer for the day and two races are planned with the first of
these set to start at 11:00. It should be a good days racing and I look forward
to seeing a big fleet, not just of L26’s, but of all boats out on the water.
Henley Midmar Yacht
Club’s
second round of their Partington Long Distance Series, which took place on
Saturday, was sailed in very light conditions but by a very good fleet of 13
boats. Two Darts and a Theta competed alongside a good fleet of ten Hunters and
added a bit of variety to the proceedings. Due to the light conditions the race
went on a little longer than expected with the last boat finishing in a little
under three hours. The sailing sounds like it was a little on the difficult
side with big wind shifts and holes throughout the course. Nonetheless it
sounds like a fun afternoon was had by all with the results as follows:
Line Honours: Handicap:
1st Kyle DeWet Dart 1st Fritz Von
Klemperer Hunter
2nd Rob Macintosh Dart 2nd G Kier Hunter
3rd Fritz Von Klemperer Hunter 3rd
Dave Claxton Hunter
The Duffin Trophy Regatta at VLC attracted a fleet of
nine 505’s and very little in the way of wind. What there was happened to be
very switchy and gusty so not the best of sailing conditions. Nonetheless four
races were sailed on Saturday and two on Sunday. The racing sounds for the most
part like it was fairly tight with no single boat dominating the races. The top
three places were as follows:
1st Graeme Willcox and
Alan Haylett 8 Points
2nd Rob Willcox and Ditmar Herrmann 10
3rd Tony
Murray and Kobus Holtzhauzen
16
It is almost Round The Island Race
time again and because this is quite a big weekend away it requires a little
planning in advance. The Round The Island Regatta takes place on 31st
of January and the 1st and 2nd of February at LDYC on the
Vaal Dam. Now this is a regatta that it pays to enter before the closing date
for entries because doing so gets you and your crew free entry into the LDYC
grounds for the weekend. Remembering that entry into the grounds includes
camping and this is a very good deal indeed. The closing date for early entries
is in fact January the 19th, which is Sunday this week! For those of
you who haven’t been before, make a plan to get there because the RTIR is one
of those not to be missed events on the sailing calendar, in fact it is the not
to be missed event on the sailing calendar! For more information on the event
visit the LDYC web site at www.ldyc.co.za.
Six races have been sailed so far in the 2003 Mirror World Championships in Tasmania, Australia. The South African teams have had mixed fortunes to date but a fairly relatively well. The conditions sound like they have been tricky with a strong tidal movement and short steep chop adding to the difficulties of dealing with a big fleet, something that the South Africans definitely wont be used to. At this stage of the regatta the fleet seems ot have settled in a bit and the results have become fairly constant but some of the higher placed SA teams, those in the 20’s and 30s, of which there are three at present, could all make good moves up the fleet with some positive results in the next few races. While the regatta is being led at present by an Austrailain team the tops spots are largely dominated by the Irish and British crews who are occupying four of the top six spots at present. I have received a couple of e-mails from the team including updates from each of the skipper’s daily. These are too long to publish here so have been posted on the Smooth Sailing web site at www.smoothsailing.co.za/rsamirror.html. The regatta has a very good web site that you can find at www.mirrortas.org.au. In addition the South African team have their own e-mail address, rsamirror@hotmail.com for those who wish to e-mail them words of encouragement. The results standings after six races are as follows:
1st D Moore & M Wilson AUS 15
Points
2nd B Collins & F Hughes IRL 17
3rd C Clayton & C Martin IRL 21
22nd W Zevenster & W Watkins RSA 103
35th A Sampson & N Baigrie RSA 154
37th B & R Robinson RSA 155
41st T Thornton & C Dracos RSA 183
53rd G Cairncross & S Kemp RSA 243
56th K Miszewski & T Jacobs RSA 261
61th K Shallcross & S Brown RSA 285
68th T Gibb & M Thornton RSA 309
77th D Zevenster & A Collier RSA 337
The JJ Giltinan Trophy Championships for 18-foot
skiffs came to an exciting end on Sunday with an unlikely victory
eventually going to the defending champions, American Howie Hamlin sailing
General Electric. The British RMW Marine team had led virtually the entire
regatta and looked a dead certainty for the title however they seemed to choke
on the pressure in the final race when all they needed to do was stay on the
tail of the American skiff. General Electric needed nothing worse than a second
place with RMW Marine finishing four places back at least in order to secure
the title. It wasn’t happening for most of the race and with the Brits having
finished strongly all week the ball looked to be firmly in their court.
Surprisingly though they faded fast in the second half of the race, dropping to
sixth by the finish after running comfortably in the top three early on. With
General Electric crossing the line in second place overall victory became
theirs by a slender 0.35 points. After a tough series the South African entry,
Clynton Wade-Lehman’s Sunday Telegraph, ended up 15th overall,
getting back on track to a degree with an 11th and a 9th
in the final two races. For the full results 18-foot skiff web site at www.18footers.com.au. The final
results after 7 races are as follows:
1st General
Electric Howard Hamlin USA 28.7
Points
2nd RMW Marine Rob
Greenhalgh GBR 29.05
3rd Total Recall Tony
Hannan AUS 32.4
4th Express Post Hugh
Stodart AUS 42.7
The SAP Cape To Rio Race started on
Saturday in difficult conditions with the wind fading away completely shortly
before the start. This left many of the boats bobbing around in Table Bay for a
long time while making no progress at all. Not a good way to start a long race
like this one! The start of the race was well supported with a huge number of
spectator craft out on the water and several helicopters buzzing around. In
fact Table Bay looked a little chaotic and it is perhaps surprising that there
were no collisions. Once out of the bay the fleet seemed to make reasonable progress
on the first night with the favourites Nicator and Morning Glory making the
best of the going so far with the Australian yacht Helsal 2 being the surprise
package. She has made good ground in the first 48 hours and leads the race on
handicap. The best way to follow the fleets progress is on the race web site,
which has a very good fleet position viewer that will come in handy as the
fleet crosses the Atlantic so be sure to keep any eye on it at www.capetorio.org.
Finally there is some close racing taking place in the Around Alone Race. With the first two class one boats already
safely in port the remainder of the class one fleet has suddenly closed up a
lot. Tiscali and Hexagon are only 17 miles apart and involved in a neck and
neck battle to get to the finish of leg three first. They are at present only
170 miles from the line and should finish late today or early Tuesday. On board
Tiscali Simone Bianchetti is struggling, he has run out of food and is nearly out
of water and certainly both these factors will be willing him on towards the
finish in a big hurry. Meanwhile Pindar and Ocean Planet are also suddenly a
whole lot closer although this is in no small part due to Pindar having to sail
along with a severely damaged mainsail. Class Two leader Tommy Hilfiger has in
the meantime accelerated towards the finish, overtaking both Ocean Planet and
closing down fast on Pindar. For more information including the latest reports
from the boats visit the race web site at www.aroundalone.com. The current standings are as follows:
Class 1:
Bobst Group Amor-Lux 0
Soldaires 0
Hexagon 171
Tiscali 188
Pindar 274
Ocean Planet 300
Class 2:
Tommy Hilfiger 0 282
Everest Horizontal 1035 1318
Spirit of Canada 1239 1522
Spirit of Yukoh 1329 1614
BTC Velocity 1897 2180
After two races in the final of the Louis Vuitton Cup things are not looking good for the
Oracle BMW team with two fairly severe losses to Alinghi. Confidence in the
Swiss camp must be very high at this stage with their unbeaten streak against
the Americans continuing unabated. In the first race the Swiss seemingly sailed
away from the Americans with better boat speed and height. While they still
looked faster in the second a boat handling error Cost Oracle BMW dearly just
as they were looking to get themselves into contention again. They trawled the
spinnaker and added to their woes by breaking their spinnaker pole in the
process. Although they managed to hang in fairly close to Alinghi for the
remainder of this race they never really looked a real threat. The match
continues this week and it will be interesting to see if Oracle can get themselves
back into the game. Watch how things progress on the regatta web site at 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
Port Owen River
Race Port
Owen 25
January
Round The Island Race Lake Denys Yacht Club 1
& 2 February
NNYU Interclub Challenger –
Leg 4 Glendee Yacht Club 15 & 16
March
Hunter Nationals Henley Midmar
Yacht Club 20 to 23 March
MACS 24 Hour Challenge Milnerton Aquatic Club 21 & 22
March
IRC KZN Champs
(Announcement) Zululand Yacht
Club 21
to 23 March
Western Province Dinghy
Champs Saldahana Bay 18 to 21
April
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
Two Laser
Rudders & Mast
Also Second hand sails
For Michaelhouse
sailing club
Contact: Rainer von Schlichting
E-Mail:
raisch@mhs.kzn.school.za
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
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