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.
Keep The
Cup Campaign RNYC Leo Caney Series
Your
Weekend
Weather
looks like it should be as follows:
Durban & Richards Bay: Saturday will be hot and humid at 30 degrees with
partly cloudy skies and a moderate northeasterly wind. Sunday will be even
warmer at 32 degrees and again humid with partly cloudy skies. There is a 20%
chance of thunderstorms in the early evening and at night. The wind will be a
moderate northeaster becoming a southwester sometime during the evening.
Midmar: Saturday will have a maximum temperature of 27 degrees with
partly cloudy skies after a bit of morning mist has cleared. The wind will be a
light to moderate northwesterly. Sunday will be warmer at 30 degrees and partly
cloudy with a 20% chance of afternoon thunderstorms. The wind will be a
moderate northwesterly.
Vaal Dam: Saturday will be a hot day at 31 degrees with partly cloudy
skies and a moderate northerly to northwesterly wind blowing. With the
exception that the temperature is set to reach 31 degrees Sunday will have
exactly the same conditions.
Cape Town: Saturday will be a cool day at 24 degrees with partly
cloudy skies becoming cloudier throughout the day. The wind will be a fresh
northwesterly. The conditions on Sunday will be the same although there is a
60% chance of rain throughout the day.
The L26 Match Racing
Series
continues this afternoon with two of the big gins of the Durban fleet set to
slug it out in a best of three match. Craig Millar’s Orion Zephyr is up against
Harry Ellens on Parental Guidance. During last season’s club racing these two
were the outstanding performers with plenty of speed and aggression on the
start line. Those of us who are watching look forward to this continuing this
evening. The match is set to start at 16:30 with the video of the racing to be
played in the PYC Bar after sailing. If you can’t make it out onto the water to
watch then you should definitely make it into the bar for the recording, this
should be a cracking match.
Saturday’s Dinghy Racing is in the form of the Johnson Cup
Pursuit Race.
Sailed around a course that is basically a tour of the bay this event sees the
fast boats starting long after the slower ones with the first to the finish
being the winner. In a perfect world, and with perfect handicapping the entire
fleet should arrive at the finish simultaneously! This never happens though but
it is always and interesting race and certainly one that pretty much anyone can
win. The race is open to all classes of dinghy, cats and even small keelers,
should any of them wish to take up the challenge. In order to facilitate
handicapping of the fleet individual entries are a necessity and need to be in
by around 12:30 I would assume. Pop across to PYC during the morning to get
yourself entered, I am pretty sure that entry forms will be available from
reception at the club. The race will be followed by the prize giving in
Charlies Bar where the trophy will be awarded, full as usual with a mix of
champagne and other interesting stuff for all to consume.
Sunday sees the “Keep The Cup
Campaign”
getting underway with the first round of the RNYC’s Leo Caney Series for keelers. Racing is set
to take place offshore with the first of two scheduled races getting underway
at 11:00. Craig Millar has been working hard to motivate the L26 fleet and by
the sound of things there could be as many as 10 or 11 of these on the water.
This racing is not limited to the L26 class of course with the results
calculated on handicap as well as a class basis. So, given that the forecast
has suggested a perfect day for offshore sailing on Sunday, wouldn’t it be
great to see a whole host of keelers out there racing, not just the L26 fleet?
The thing to do after
sailing will be to head over to the RNYC Lawns where a considerable amount of activity will be on
the go. RNYC are going out of their way this Sunday to have a good Family Fun Day. As well as the regular
braais and live music there will be a jumping castle to keep the kids
entertained just before they have to think about the horrors of heading back to
school. There are few better ways to spend a Sunday afternoon than on the RNYC
lawns so I look forward to seeing a whole lot of you there.
Now speaking of the RNYC Lawns, they were absolutely packed
on Wednesday evening after the first Wednesday Evening Fun Race of the New Year. This was by
far the best fun race of the season; the weather was absolutely perfect, warm,
cloudless sky and a perfect ten or so knots of breeze. There were loads of
boats out on the water, more than I have seen on any Wednesday so far this
season. More so though there were loads of people at the after party on the
RNYC Lawns afterwards. Prior to Xmas I had bemoaned the fact that no-one seemed
to be hanging around for the parties afterwards, well this was certainly not
the case this week with a fantastic crowd enjoying the great atmosphere and
facilities at the RNYC. Now if only the weather can be this good to us for the
rest of the season! Adding to the spectacle on the water was the sight of RNYC
Rear Commodore Willy Van Der Verre’s new Shearwater 45. This recently launched
boat looked absolutely splendid on the water and performed very well too
winning the cruising class. Do I see a handicap adjustment in the near future??
The results of the evening’s race were as follows:
Cruising Class:
1st Peperuka Shearwater
45 Willy Van Der Verre
2nd Aquilla Trapper
28 Phil Downing
3rd Chatur Theta Greg Challis
Racing Class:
1st Dockleveller Supplies L26 Nigel Milln
2nd Parental Guidance L26 Harry Ellens
3rd Wild Thing L26 Terry Flynn
The Island Sailing
Club committee have been hard at
work to ensure a full calendar of club events for the rest of the summer at
their Bayhead based club in Durban. Starting on the 25th of January
they are holding an Open Day for the general public. The aim of the day is to
allow newcomers the opportunity to go sailing and see what the sport is all
about. This is often something that is quite difficult for non-sailors to do.
They have also proposed an interesting Interclub Challenge, for
which they have sent out invitations to all clubs in the Durban area. This
event will take place over a series of Saturdays with the first of these being
the 23rd of February. The rest take place at roughly monthly
intervals. Teams of three boats can compete with the results being scored on a
handicap basis allowing all manner of dinghies and cats to take part. The event
is open to teams from all clubs and schools. For more information on these and
other events on the ISC calendar contact either Paul Risdale at plantsaplenty@worldonline.co.za or
Villette Pretorious at villette@iafrica.com.
The 2003 Mirror World Championships ended in Tasmania, Australia on Wednesday with the South African teams
faring very well on the whole. The regatta was in the end dominated by the
Irish who fought it out for the overall title right until the last race with
the margin between first and second being only one point in the end. The top
South African boat did well to finish 24th in the 92 boat fleet.
Conditions for the regatta sound like they were brilliant with moderate breezes
and only the chop on the water making life difficult for the competitors. Sadly
the reports from the skippers seemed to dry up after the first day, but I am
sure that next week we will be able to bring you a synopsis of the regatta from
the point of view of one of our skippers. For more details and the full results
the regatta has a very good web site that you can find at www.mirrortas.org.au. The final results after
10 races are as follows:
1st C Clayton & C Martin IRL 23
2nd A Woodward & J Bendon IRL 24
3rd G & L Collings AUS 28
24th W Zevenster & W Watkins RSA 169
36th B & R Robinson RSA 252
38th A Sampson & N Baigrie RSA 274
44th T Thornton & C Dracos RSA 320
51st K Miszewski & T Jacobs RSA 373
56th K Shallcross & S Brown RSA 395
60th G Cairncross & S Kemp RSA 411
67th D Zevenster & A Collier RSA 468
72nd T Gibb & M Thornton RSA 507
In the SAP Cape To Rio
Race the fleet has been making steady of not slightly sedate progress
in light to moderate winds. Those who headed further north early seem to have
fared better than those who headed out west. The trimarans Nicator was one of
those who headed west early, paying dearly for it by becoming becalmed for a
period of time during which she surrendered the lead on the water to Morning
Glory, a boat which by rights she should be steaming ahead of. In the last 24
hours though the boats to the southwest have done more miles, clawing back some
of the lead held by their opposition. On handicap the small RCOD, Suidoos 2
continues to lead the way. She started a week before the bigger boats and seems
to have made the most of better weather conditions for that week.
Notwithstanding this though she is certainly putting in a good performance
though after nearly two weeks at sea I wonder how her crew are feeling on such
a small boat? For more information visit the race web site at www.capetorio.org. The top five
places in the IRC Handicap fleet are as follows:
1st Suidoos 2 RCOD Gawie
Fagan
2nd Investec Fast 42 Sean
Cummings
3rd Baleka Fast
42 Alec Schon
4th Morning Glory Maxi Hasso
Platner
5th Fascination of Power Fast 42 John
Martin
In the Around
Alone Race the last two
Class One and the first Class two boat all finished within two hours of one
another in the closest finish yet in this race. Brad Van Lieuw on Tommy
Hilfiger decimated the Class Two fleet with his nearest opposition more than a
thousand miles behind at the time that he finished. This was Van Lieuws third
leg win out of three and at this stage it really doesn’t look like any of the
other class two competitors have what it takes to match his performance on the
water, much as seems to be the case with class one leader Bobst Group Amor-Lux.
Keep track of the rest of the class two fleet as they finish in the next week
or so on the race web site at www.aroundalone.com.
After five races the score in the Louis Vuitton Cup is Alinghi 4, Oracle BMW 1. It could so
easily have been so different though with Oracle having thrown away at least
one win through an elementary error. Nonetheless the racing has been extremely
close on the water in all but the first match and certainly the Oracle BMW boys
are not giving up without a fight. They scored a big win in race five and then
in race six held the lead at the first weather mark for the first time in the
series. Sadly they couldn’t hold on to it and ended up losing this race by a
mere 13 seconds. Does it get much closer than that? Alinghi now need to win
only one more race to take the match and advance to the Americas Cup match
against Team New Zealand. This puts the pressure right on Oracle BMW who now
cannot afford even the slightest slip if they are to keep their chances alive
it. So it could all be over by this time tomorrow, or, they could live to fight
another day. 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.
Good systems
New suit of Hyde Sails
R20 000-00
Cell: 083 278 2510
Home: 011-622 5128
E-Mail: anthony.parker@kpmg.co.za
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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