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This weekend I had the pleasure of
taking part in the annual Round The Island Race at the Lake Denys Yacht Club.
One of the things that struck me during the course of the weekend was that at
this event there are arguably more social sailors than out and out racers.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of seriously good racing sailors who take
part in the race, but there are even more social sailors. These sailors simply
enjoy the event, its atmosphere and the sail around the island. They aren’t out
to win; they are just there to have a good time and a fun sail. Now the RTIR
has to be the biggest sailing event in South Africa, probably Africa on the
whole actually and maybe even the southern hemisphere and it is mostly the
social sailors who boast the numbers so much and help make it such a big event.
This leads me to ponder two questions. Firstly, does our sport have enough of
this type of event, events that attract such a wide and diverse range of
sailors, create a massive mix of people and undoubtedly does a huge amount for
the popularity of our sport. Judging by both the turnout and my experiences at
this event over the years there is clearly a great deal of merit in an event
that is more about having fun than anything else. Secondly, does our sport do
enough to promote itself to these social sailors? Surely some of those who
sailed socially this weekend will see the fast racing machines, get the urge to
go faster and grow into serious racers themselves. Perhaps if we were focusing
more on growing our sport at a social level we would indirectly grow it at a
more serious racing level as well through this knock on effect. At a time when
our sport could desperately do with some growth at a racing level perhaps we
could achieve this through the less obvious route, promoting social sailing.
Just
my thoughts though, let me know what you think by e-mailing me at hethcot@iafrica.com.
Russell
Coutts Breaks The Silence
Greenlight
KZN L26 Training Weekend
The 2003 Round The Island Race, which took place this
weekend, was, as we have come to expect, a fantastic event. 506 boats entered
this year’s race, which has to make this the biggest sailing event in the
country and give it some standing in international terms. LDYC once again put
on a great event despite the lack of a title sponsor this year. The Friday and
Saturday night parties were festive affairs, as one would expect at any event
at which so many yachties are gathered! As well as the sailing there were a
good number of stalls out in front of the club selling things ranging from food
to boat spares and even whole boats in one instance! Saturday’s sprint races in
the morning were reasonably well attended although it does surprise me how many
relatively serious sailors make the trip to the event yet choose to sit on the
lawn with their boats rigged rather than sail these races. The main tune-up
race in the afternoon was well attended as usual. A port bias in the line made
for a very interesting to watch keeler start with a great deal of crashing and
banging going on at the pin end. For the fourth Vaal Dam regatta in a row I saw
the same high profile keeler getting involved in a start line collision, which
was clearly their fault and leads me to wonder about the competence, or is it
attitude of some crews! The dinghy start was a little less chaotic while the
race itself, around a trapezoid course, was interesting to say the least. Some
radical windshifts and changes in wind strength, in particular a huge puff out
of one side of the course that lasted only a minute or two, made for tactical
racing. It was all quite fun and certainly a good opportunity to get used to
sailing a small boat with some many bigger boats and so much bad air around.
Sunday morning dawned grey and overcast with a thunderstorm raging only a short
distance from the dam. This seemed a little odd as thunderstorms often seem to
be more evening than early morning things. I have a feeling though that the
insides of many peoples heads felt just like that thunderstorm looked. This
race seems to start terribly early, more so for those who really went big at
the party the night before, and there were quite a few of those around! The
breeze looked promising, ten knots or so from somewhere between the dam wall
and the island so early on it looked like it might have been a straight leg
there and back. Shortly after the keeler start though it started to swing to
the right making the leg to the island more of a true beat. It also died a
little, make that a lot, so it was by no means a quick sail up to the island.
In fact it was quite a tough beat with the left hand side of the course seeming
to pay the most. In the last stretch those dinghies that were far enough to the
left were able to fly their kites down to the island. Up the back stretch the
breeze was fairly good and certainly at the time I went around we had some good
breeze and a lively little beat at the top end of the island. At the top of the
island it was spinnakers up for a tight reach home to the finish. Most didn’t
quite make it all the way back to the finish with their kites up but I think
that those who hung on the longest may have done the best. In such a diverse
fleet it is hard to tell who will have done enough to win on handicap but as it turns out this year was definitely a
cat race. So much so in fact that they got away with the top 14 positions
overall. That’s the way it goes I guess! The first three dinghies were 29ers in
15th,17th and 22nd places while the first
keeler was Marc Hammik’s new Simonis 35, Ciao Bella, with Harry Ellens on the
helm, in 16th place. The full results are now available on the LDYC
web site at www.ldyc.co.za, in the meantime the top
three positions on corrected time were as follows:
1st Prindle 18 Barry
Stevens
2nd Tornado Sport Eric
Cook
3rd Hobie 16 Mike
Herald
Des Fairbank sent us the
following piece on Saturday’s Maritzburg Radio
Yacht Club League Regatta, which
took place on the Duzi river:
“14 Skippers including two from DRBC
arrived at the Duzi on Saturday for the second League event of the year.
Unfortunately the two Wagner boys had to attend a compulsory school cricket
match. After all the shouting and in correct calls at the last event it was
decided to spend 15 minutes addressing a few rules prior to sailing. Keith
Gerson addressed the starts and a few important issues at the windward mark.
The feed back at the end of the days sailing was that it had helped
considerably and was something that we will do at every event. We also
introduced a handicap system for the first time. Handicaps were calculated
based on history and using a formula from Roger Stollery in the UK. MRYC has
decided that a skipper will have to have sailed at in at least three events
before his handicap is calculated. Handicaps will be up dated by taking the
average of the highest three scores of the last four events. The sailing takes
place normally and at the end of the day a new figure is calculated and the
difference between this and the Handicap is the points achieved. Ideally if
everyone sails as per their handicap everyone should end up on 0. From the
results it appears to be working and the league will now be scored from the
Handicap results. The racing took place in a moderate but extremely variable
wind. This contributed to some frustration a few results were turned around on
the last beat. The results of the top seven after eight races was:
Scratch
1st Des Fairbank 10 Points
2nd Norrie Taylor 20
3rd Robert Stenner 25
Handicap
1st Anthony Metcalf +11.1
2nd Martin Stephens +4.4
3rd Peter Stenner -2.6
A very interesting result and looks
like a good system. Time will tell.”
With the America’s Cup Match only due to start on
the 15th of February it should all have been quiet from Auckland for
the time being. This has not been the case though with former Team New Zealand
skipper and now Alinghi skipper Russell Coutts Breaking The Silence on the reasons
for his and other key members of TNZ’s defection to other teams after the last
cup match. Coutts released a very thoughrough statement on the affair at a time
when one would have expected his full concentration to be on preparing for the
big match in two weeks time. Coutts’ statement is sure to provoke a heated
response, especially from the former trustees of TNZ of whom he does not paint
a very positive picture, in the next few days. In the meantime, for those of
you who are interested in the politics of sailing, visit www.louivuittoncup.yahoo.com for the full
story.
The main IRC contenders in the SAP Cape To Rio
Race are all now safely in Rio. The Gauteng Fast 42 Baleka currently
sits on top of the IRC results and it seems unlikely that any of the boats
still on the water will be able to topple them from this spot. With only two
days left until official finishing cut-off time on Wednesday it seems that a
number of boats may not reach Rio as officially classified finishers which is a
pity but also indicative of the light conditions along the way. This years race
has been a good one for the 40 footers with the Leisure 42 Madiba Racing Team
occupying second place behind Baleka and ahead of her sister ship, Investec.
All three of these are Durban built boats which is a feather in the cap for the
rapidly growing Durban boat building industry. I hope that the race promoters
who made a big thing of the benefits of this race for the Cape boat building
industry note that in their press releases! 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 Madiba Racing Team Leisure 42
3rd Investec Fast 42 Sean
Cummings
4th Diel One
Off Bernhard Diebold
5th VCR 90.6 FM Gitana 43 Gerrie
Bocshoff
In
the two Jules Verne Trophy attempts underway at present the two
boats are fairing quite differently. Way down in the depths of the southern
ocean, below 50 degrees south in fact, the trimaran Geronimo is steaming along
and is now three days ahead of the present record. Meanwhile in the north
Atlantic the boat which holds the present record, now renamed Kingfisher, is
not having such a speedy sail. In fact they seem to be stuck in an area of
light winds at present that looks like it could last until late on Monday
night. So, while Geronimo has set a steaming pace and seems to have had the
weather spot on for their trip so far Kingfisher has not been so lucky. Still,
there is still a long way to go and anything can happen on such a treacherous
trip. For more information visit the Kingfisher web site at www.teamkingfisher.com or the Geronimo web site at www.grandsrecords.com.
In Durban this weekend the Greenlight KZN L26 Training Weekend is taking place. Commencing on Friday
evening the weekend will involve both on and off the water session conducted by
Dave Hudson and Rick Nankin. The weekend is aimed at helping the more serious
L26 crews get onto the pace with Lipton 2003, which is being sailed in Durban
in July, in mind. For more information contact either Rick Parker on 072 244
4548 or Chris Rudham on 082 5723 201.
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 |
|
Various
WC Dinghy Clubs |
September
2002 to March 2003 |
|
|
Various
KZN Clubs |
December
2002 to July 2003 |
|
|
Henley Midmar Yacht Club |
1 & 2 March |
|
|
Glendee
Yacht Club |
15 &
16 March |
|
|
Henley
Midmar Yacht Club |
20 to 23
March |
|
|
Club
Mykonos |
21 to 23
March |
|
|
Milnerton
Aquatic Club |
21 &
22 March |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Saldahana
Bay |
18 to 21
April |
|
|
Inhaca
Island to Richard’s Bay |
18 April |
|
|
Henley
Midmar Yacht Club |
26 to 28
April |
|
|
Zululand
Yacht Club |
14 to 16
June |
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.
Cell: 082 564 4037
‘Getafix’
22 Foot Sport boat
Lively performer under
asymmetrical kite
In good sailing order
On road trailer with
new axel
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
WANTED
To be used
for diver training purposes.
No motors
required.
Will collect
if still accessible on site.
Contact:
Grant Trebble
Cell: 083 446
1447
E-Mail: gtrebble@iafrica.com
With lifting keel or
centerboard
On trailer.
About 20 foot.
Contact: Max Ozinsky
Cell: 082 414 7147
E-mail: maxo@anc.org.za
With trailer, turbo
Kit
And all necessary
accessories for fun sailing.
Contact: Chris Oberem
Cell: 082 373 2397
(JHB)
E-Mail: Chris@demaplastech.co.za
Needed urgently
Suitable for a
Fireball dinghy
For the Round The
Island Race.
For sale or on loan
Contact: Jeff Dell
Cell: 0827077166
E-Mail: jeffm_d@hotmail.com
Andrew Heathcote
Mobile: +27 (0) 83 783 8805
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