Smooth Sailing
Sailing
News By A Sailor For Sailors!
In
Association with:
RNYC High
Tech Piping Dinghy Series
Duncan Ross
Crossing Drakes Passage
Saturday’s RNYC High Tech
Piping Series Dinghy Series confirmed two things. Firstly that the majority of Flying
Fifteen sailors either don’t read Smooth Sailing or didn’t believe me when I
said that the race would start on time. They should have believed me! If it
weren’t for the race officer’s generosity in switching the starting order on
the water all but on of the Flying Fifteen fleet would have missed the first
race of the afternoon! The second thing that is confirmed is that lack of
knowledge, and more importantly understanding and application of the Racing
Rules of Sailing, is not limited to the RC Laser fleet. Watching the combined
Sprog and Laser class starts was very entertaining with all manner of crashing
and bashing and general disregard of the rules going on. It wasn’t just limited
to the starts though, there was some pretty interesting stuff going on at the
marks too, in particular the weather mark. Perhaps its time for a rules in
action seminar! Other than the crash and bash though it was a very pleasant
afternoons racing with two races taking place in a dying northeasterly wind. If
anything the breeze got a little light towards the end but that is not a bad
thing as pretty much all of the fleet stayed out for both races. There were
good turnouts all round with the 29ers, Lasers, Sprogs and Flying Fifteens all
making strong showings. On a boat per boat basis though the 29ers are doing the
best with only two of the entire Durban fleet not making it onto the water for
the last two weekends. With six boats sailing regularly now this class is
suddenly enjoying some good regular racing. As the most modern dinghy class in
action on the bay it would be good to see some further growth taking place in
it. I discovered another problem in the Laser fleet when getting the results
for Saturday’s racing, no body seems to be able to keep track of who is who in
the fleet with sails and sail numbers changing with alarming regularity. A
number of solutions are being considered though it seems most likely that in
future the Lasers will have to register their names and sail numbers for the
afternoon before leaving the dinghy park to go racing. Perhaps though another
look at the bow number system may be in order too though! The series results
after two races are as follows:
29er
1st Rob & Andrew Tarbotton 2 Points
2nd Thor & Richard Weddell 5
3rd David Andrews & Andrew Heathcote 6
Flying Fifteen
1st Patrick Harris & Jeremy Kriek 2 Points
2nd Mike Wright & Darren Hinett 4
3rd Ian West-Lewis 7
Sprog
1st Gregg Hurter & Coral-Anne Ellens 2 Points
2nd CJ Milln 5
3rd Howard Loveday 7
Laser
1st 64987 2
Points
2nd 157678 7
3rd 165611 7
This coming Saturday’s Dinghy Racing in Durban is in
the form of the first round of the PYC Class Champs, the premier dinghy series
of the season and one which always attracts a good turnout of boats. Racing is
set to start at 14:00 with two races scheduled for the afternoon on the
deep-water course.
The Royal Natal Yacht Club
will host Wednesday Evening Fun Racing this week. Racing is set to start at 17:30 and will be
followed by the regular ripping party on the lawns at the club. Hopefully the
participation in the racing fleet by some more regular cruisers will
materialise, which it didn’t do last week, or perhaps we will discover that it
was all just a load of hot air! With any luck that won’t be the case. And with
a little more luck the weather will play ball again and we will have another
fantastic evening both on the water and on dry land afterwards.
Next weekend sees the country’s biggest sailing event,
the Round The Island Race taking place at LDYC on the Vaal Dam. This is one of
those not to be missed events on the local sailing calendar. It attracts boats
of all shapes and sizes and come to think of it, sailors of all shapes and
sizes too! The main race takes place, well at least starts bright and early on
Sunday morning but there is racing all weekend with the first round the cans
race taking place on Friday afternoon followed by more racing on Saturday and
then the long haul around the island on Sunday. In between there are loads on
the go at the club with plenty of food, drink and entertainment. The parties at
this regatta are legendary so don’t forget to pack that hangover kit when
getting ready to go! The race record
stands at just over an hour and there is a significant incentive to get around
the course in less time than that so if the weather is right it could become a
high speed dash for cash amongst the faster boats, especially the bigger cats
and skiffs. Last years event attracted somewhere in the region of 500 entries
of various shapes and sizes and this years should be no different. For more
information on the regatta or to download your copy of the Notice of Race or
entry form visit www.ldyc.co.za and if there is still any
doubt in your mind as to whether you should get yourself to this one, doubt no
more and take my word for it, get to this race!
Given the support that the RTIR is attracting from Durban
sailors it has been decided that there will be No Keeler Racing this coming Sunday, the 2nd
of February. The second round of the RNYC’s Leo Caney Series had been scheduled
to take place but this will instead happen in a few weeks time. Smooth Sailing
will keep you posted and let you know when this series will be re-sailed in due
course.
Interest in the Inhaca Island Easter Race is already gaining
momentum, helped in no small part by the organisers, the Zululand Yacht Club,
throwing out a big challenge to some of the Durban based sailing schools. The
biggest challenge of all has gone out to the Ocean Sailing Academy, current
holders of the trophy, which they won last year on their L34, Kindred Spirit.
It won’t only be the Richard’s Bay skippers though that are out to put one over
the Ocean Sailing boys, there are several Durban based owners and skippers who
will be wanting to put this team behind them, after all, Kindred Spirit did
also win the Vasco Race. The race organisers are also hoping that some of the
other Durban based sailing schools will be coming along to try and topple the
champions off the mantle too, after all, there has to be some marketing
leverage to be gained from being the fastest sailing school in Durban! On a
more serious note though the time to start planning for the trip is now. There
is after all more to this event than just the race, it provides a great
opportunity to enjoy a few days on the island, languishing in the sun and
generally enjoying the island life! For more information on the race download
the Notice of Race from www.smoothsailing.co.za/inhacanor03.html.
The KZN L26 Class Association in association with greenlight are pleased to announce
that they will be holding an L26 Training Weekend on the weekend of the 14th,
15th and 16th of February. This on and off the water
session will be conducted under the guidance of Dave Hudson and Rick Nankin,
neither of whom should need any particular introduction to Smooth Sailing
readers. Both are highly experienced and extremely successful skippers, not
just of L26’s but of all sorts of boats. The weekend has been arranged in order
to further the competitive development of the Durban fleet which, while it has
improved considerably in pace in recent years, is still somewhat lacking by
comparison to the Western Cape boats. With the Lipton Cup to be sailed in
Durban in July this year it would be a tragedy if the Cape boats came and won
the cup in our waters. The travelling to Lipton has long been one of the more
popular excuses for not wresting the cup from the Cape stranglehold. There will
be no such excuse this year since there is no better place to win a regatta
than in your own back yard! The exact schedule for the training weekend has yet
to be confirmed however those interested in participating should contact Chris
Rudham on 082
5723 201 or
Rick Parker on 072
2444 548.
Duncan Ross, best known to many South
African’s as the Tornado skipper who campaigned for the Sydney Olympics under
the Cape Apples banner with Mark Schwegman as crew, is off this week on an
amazing adventure. Scheduled to get underway last Saturday, the 25th
of January, Duncan and Roberto Pandiani are undertaking a voyage across Drakes Passage to Antarctica on board a
Hobie Cat. Drakes Passage is the stretch of water between the southern tip of
South America and Antarctica, the southern tip of South America being Cape
Horn. The boat that they will be undertaking the trip on is a specially built Kevlar
Hobie 21 with additional buoyancy and watertight bulkheads. While they will be
carrying EPIRB’s and other locating and safety equipment they will also be
accompanied on the passage by a guard ship which should add to their sense of
security, if you can have a sense of security on a trip like this that is! All
in all it looks like being one serious adventure, certainly something quite out
of the ordinary. They have a very good web site covering their adventure as it
unfolds, visit www.travessiadodrake.com.br,
make sure that you select the
English option as the site is in both English and Portuguese. Smooth Sailing
will keep and eye on their progress and let you know how things go.
The first two
boats on the water have now finished the SAP Cape To Rio Race. Adrenalina Pura,
the Brazilian cat, followed Nicator into Rio late on Sunday evening. There was
a bit of drama near the finish as the boat was on a collision course with a
tanker for a short period of time. Luckily the excitement came to nothing and
the boat slipped safely across the finish line. As seems to be the case for
most sailing this race the final miles to the finish were particularly painful
for the crew with the final 90 miles taking 24 hours to complete. The third
boat on the water, Morning Glory, looked set to finish at around 10:00 this
morning. It hasn’t been a happy race for the favourite and unless the following
pack slows considerably her miserable handicap position is not going to change
for the better. At present she is lying only 11th place on the IRC
rating system. The race is at present still being led by the two fast 42’s,
Baleka and Investec with the RCOD Suidoos 2 in third place. At the last
position update Suidoos 2 had 455 miles to go with the Fast 42’s having nearly
double that distance to cover. So, a lot could change as the smaller boats gets
closer to Rio and it will be interesting to see if the 42’s are able to
negotiate the lights winds off Rio more effectively than the RCOD. 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 Investec Fast 42 Sean
Cummings
3rd Suidoos 2 RCOD Gawie
Fagan
4th Madiba Racing Team Leisure 42
5th Diel One
Off Benard Diebhold
An unfortunate e-mail appeared in my inbox this weekend regarding a
Stolen Laser. It is sad to hear of something like this
happening and I hope that should the boat appear on a piece of sailing water
that you are on that you will let either myself, or the owner, whose contact
details follow the description of the boat below, know where and when you saw
it! The boat was described as follows:
“The boat number is 117491 it has a
yellow orange and red stripe running along the length of the hull with the name
"totally laid back" near the bow on both sides and on the transom.
There is a yellow line on the center of the deck and a small oval repair has been
done in the cockpit.”
The boat was stolen from
the Florida Yacht Club during December. It is owned by Gordon Hammond who can
be contacted either on 0832795439 or at dhammond@iweb.co.za.
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.
In good
condition
Contact: Jim
Ferguson
Cell: 082 564 4037
‘Getafix’
22 Foot Sport boat
Lively performer under
asymmetrical kite
In good sailing order
On road trailer with
new axel
Comes with moulds for
fiberglass sections
Price Negotiable
Contact: Graham Rose
Cell: 083 251 0485
E-Mail: grose@pixie.co.za
Overhauled in 2001
Rigged for racing
New Hood Sails
New Ronstan Deck Gear
R21 000-00
(Negotiable)
Contact: Kathy Manten
Cell: 083 632 1963
E-Mail: manten@lantic.net
Andrew Heathcote
Mobile: +27 (0) 83 783 8805
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