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.
Two things pleasantly surprised me this
weekend. One was to see a fleet of nearly fifteen boats offshore on Sunday for
the first of three club races for the day. That a good number of these were
non-racing boats was even better and I hope that this is a trend that
continues. After all, there are a whole load of cruisers who sail round the
Wednesday evening course each week, why shouldn’t they extend this to sailing
around the offshore course on a Sunday in much the same manner.
The
second thing was, on Sunday afternoon, to hear a cruising fleet skipper discuss
his impending move into the more serious racing fleet. This sort of ‘filtering
up’ is exactly what should be happening to make our sport and the ranks of our
more serious racing sailors grow. While it is fair to say that not all sailors
have the ability or the desire to be more than a social sailor there are others
who do and it is good to see them making the step up and striving to improve
their performance. I hope that this is something that we see more of in the
future.
Keep
The Cup Campaign RNYC Leo Caney Series
Maritzburg
Radio Yacht Club News
Friday afternoon’s L26 Match Racing between Craig Millar’s Orion
Zephyr and Harry Ellens’ Parental Guidance was a hard fought affair with some
intense pre-start manoeuvres. The best of three match took place in a moderate
northeasterly breeze, pretty much perfect for match racing. In the first race
of the match Zephyr got the better of the start and was able to sail away to a
comfortable win. In race two Parental Guidance got the better of the start
imposing two penalties on Zehpyr who chose to take these immediately after the
start. Zephyr could not recover from the early set-back and despite closing the
gap considerably never got to within striking range of Parental Guidance. In
the deciding third match Zephyr made a crucial mistake by entering the starting
area early thereby incurring a penalty. Parental Guidance then managed to
impose a further penalty on her before the start. Immediately after the start
Zehpyr unloaded one of her penalties and then proceeded to try and chase
Parental Guidance down. This she couldn’t do with the result that Parental
Guidance won the match 2 – 1. The next round of the series will take place in
two weeks time.
The Johnson Cup Pursuit Race was sailed on Saturday in a
light southerly breeze, the first time in ages that a pursuit race has been
sailed on the southerly course in Durban bay. A good and varied fleet turned
out for the regatta with Sprogs, Lasers, 26ers, Flying Fifteens, Hobies and
Tornados all well represented. The handicapper’s job for a race like this is
never easy and on Saturday it was made even harder by the wind dying shortly
after the first start. This severely disadvantaged the faster boats whose
performance in the lighter winds is not as extraordinary as it is in the
fresher stuff. That is the nature of this kind of race though. Heading up the
last windward leg the lead was held at various times by a Flying Fifteen, a
Laser and two different Sprogs. The beat was fairly tactical, not just in terms
of getting the wind shifts right, but also avoiding the shipping movements,
something that some achieved better than others! In the end it was Paul Notcutt
on his Sprog who slipped through ahead of Ian West-Lewis on his Flying Fifteen
and Penny McPherson on her Laser. The rest finished in drips and drabs but
while they may not all have been as close as would have been nice, there were
no complaints to be heard afterwards. It was after all one of the nicer
afternoons sailing of the season so far. The prize giving was held in the PYC
Bar after sailing with all who were there helping to dispatch with the contents
of the trophy in good time!
Sunday saw a brisk start to
the “Keep The Cup Campaign” with the RNYC’s Leo Caney Series taking place in a fresh
northeasterly breeze and some big waves. I was very encouraged to see not only
a strong fleet of 8 L26’s on the water for the first race but also 6 cruising
boats. This really is a good thing, the racing after all is not only for the
serious guys but provides a good opportunity for those less competitive to
battle it out with others of similar standing. The more of this the better and
I hope to see the trend continuing throughout the season. While the cruisers
only hung around for one race, which is fair given the conditions, the L26’s
battled it out through three close fought races. Harry Ellen’s Parental
Guidance, with Rick Parker on the helm, was victorious in two of the three with
victory in the second race of the day going to Craig Millar’s Orion Zephyr.
These two fairly well dominated the day with the rest of the fleet fighting it
out for the minor placings. The second round of the Leo Caney Series will take
place on Sunday the second of February. In the meantime the results after the
first round were as follows:
L26
1st Parental Guidance Harry Ellens 4
Points
2nd Orion Zephyr Craig
Millar 5
3rd Harken Jerome
McLoughlin 12
Cruising Class
1st Solar Wind
2nd Ocean Sailing Academy
3rd Helena
The Maritzburg Radio Yacht Club
held its first league regatta on Saturday afternoon on the Duzi. The entry was
one of the highest for many years with 13 36” Shipmates on the water. The wind
was however not playing ball and was swinging through 180 degrees at times
although there was always wind. Keith Gerson opted to loan his boat to Scott
Munro a Hunter Sailor for the afternoon. Scott sailed extremely well
considering it was his first attempt with a Radio Yacht and ended up third
overall at the end of the afternoon. The result of the afternoon is that we
need two more boats, which now brings the waiting list for 36” Shipmate kits up
to 5. The results after nine races and one discard were:
Des
Fairbank 8 Points
Robert
Stenner 24
Scott
Munro 31
The availability of boats and kits has now become a major issue and
it was agreed that an approach must be made to Peter Simons to find ways of
getting these boats on the water. If there is anyone out there who knows of a
36” Shipmate not being used please contact Des Fairbank on 0832890962 or at des@carpet.co.za.
Wednesday Evening
Fun Racing
this week will be hosted by the PYC with the racing fleet set to start at 17:30
with the cruising fleet five minutes later. Of late is has become popular for
racing boats with crews looking for a more sedate evening on the water to sail
in the cruising fleet. Now in a complete reversal it seems that two cruising
boats will for the first time this week be entering into the heated competition
of the racing fleet to see how they fare. All season long Aquilla and Chatur
have been enjoying a ding-dong battle at the front of the cruising fleet. While
they have done a fair amount of place swapping they have dominated the first
two positions in that fleet. Feeling that it is time to let someone else win
perhaps while also testing their skills and boats against the more serious
boats and crews, both are set to be seen on the racing start this coming
Wednesday. It will be good to see how they go and also interesting to see who
picks up the mantle in the cruising fleet in their place. Hopefully others will
follow in time!
The Notice of
Race for this year’s Inhaca Island Easter Race has just been
released and is now posted on the Smooth Sailing web site. The race, which is
organised and run by the Zululand Yacht Club in Richard’s Bay, is also part of
the Sailing KZN Blue Water Challenge. The race is scheduled to start off the
north end of Inhaca Island and ends in Richard’s Bay, a distance of some 210
nautical miles. In recent years this race has attracted a good mix of serious
racing and cruising boats. It provides a great opportunity for crews to spend a
few days on Inhaca enjoying the island life before racing back to Richard’s
Bay. For those less serious about their racing the event also provides a good
opportunity to do the trip both ways in the company of other boats, making the
trip a whole lot less stressful. The prevailing wind at this time of year is
from the northeast so the race is more often than not a downwind ride. This
does however place a premium on finding the right gap in which to head up to
the island. The race itself will be handicapped using both IRC and PHRF
although it should be noted that only yachts competing under IRC are eligible
for the Sailing KZN Blue Water Series. The 2002 Inhaca Race was won by Robbie
Dove on the Ocean Sailing Academy’s L34 however I am told that this year the
Richard’s Bay contingent are going to be pulling out all the stops to ensure
that the silverware is returned to what they feel is it’s more rightful resting
place north of the Tugela river! That challenge in itself should be enough to
stir some of the more competitive Durban yachties into action so there should
be a few strong challenges from this end of the world too. From now until the
start of the race Smooth Sailing will keep you informed with more details of
both the race and the facilities available at Inhaca as well as updates as and
when the entries come in and of course coverage of the race itself when it
happens. In the meantime should you require any further details get yourself a
copy of the Notice of Race from www.smoothsailing.co.za/inhaca03nor.html or contact the
race secretary, Yvonne Kemp, on 035-788 0256 or at zlyc@intekom.co.za.
Competitors on
the SAP Cape To Rio Race have not been blessed with the best of
conditions. In fact it has been a decidedly pedestrian race so far very little
wind and no one in the fleet making any outstanding mileage. It looks fairly
certain that the race record will remain fairly secure and, unless things
change fast, it also looks fairly certain that nearly half the fleet will still
be at seas when the prize giving takes place in Rio on the 5th of
February. On the bright side though at least nothing dramatic is going on and
the sailors are all having a nice leisurely sail across the Atlantic. It is
hard to pick a winner at this stage with some boats making big moves up and
down the placings although the RCOD, Suidoos 2 has been remarkably consistent
in her fight to stay at or near to the top of the table. 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 Baleka Fast
42 Alec Schon
2nd Suidoos 2 RCOD Gawie
Fagan
3rd Investec Fast 42 Sean
Cummings
4th Diel One
Off Benard Diebhold
5th Morning Glory Maxi Hasso
Platner
So it’s all over for the Oracle BMW
America’s Cup team after Alinghi beat them 5 – 1 to win the Louis Vuitton Cup and advance to the America’s Cup where
they will face Team New Zealand. The Louis Vuitton Cup final was a hard fought
affair, perhaps a little closer than the final result might indicate. There is
no doubt that Alinghi was the stronger of the two and by far the best prepared
of all the challengers to go on and meet team New Zealand next month. The
Americas Cup match itself starts on the 15th of February and should
be a very interesting affair, Alinghi in their basically conventional boat
against Team New Zealand and their “Hula”. The match will be a best of nine
series. With a month to go before the cup match itself there is still some
speculation that the Alinghi team may try and impliment their own version of
the “Hula” before the match starts. While this seems unlikely anything is
possible in Cup game. In the next few weeks Team New Zealand will wrap up their
final preparations as they prepare to defend the cup against a strong team led
by their former leader and including several of their former team mates. While
there is no racing to follow for a while now it is worth taking a surf past the
Team New Zealand web site when you get a chance. You will find it at www.teamnewzealand.com. It is a good web site packed with
information about the team and the progress they are making towards the cup.
Have a look and see for yourself.
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
Inhaca Island Easter
Race Inhaca Island
to Richard’s Bay 18 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
This newsletter is
distributed free of charge to anyone who chooses to subscribe to it. The
subject matter contained herein is entirely of a yachting orientated nature or
that which may be of interest to yachtsmen.
Please note that the views
contained in this newsletter are those of the authors concerned and in no way
reflect the view or policies of any of Smooth Sailings associate clubs,
sponsors or advertisers.
To be added to the mailing
list send a blank e-mail to sailing.join@ffs.co.za.
To be removed from the list please send a blank e-mail to sailing.remove@ffs.co.za.
All submissions are welcome. News of any club or yachting related
event should be sent to hethcot@iafrica.com
for publication.
Smooth Sailing is kindly distributed courtesy of FFS Refiners (Pty) Ltd.