Smooth Sailing
Sailing
News By A Sailor For Sailors!
In
Association with:
Isalnd
Sailing Club Inter Club Dinghy Challenge
Safaricom
Fireball World Championships
Your Weekend
Weather according to the South African Weather Service will be as follows:
Durban & Richard’s
Bay: Saturday will be
cloudy early with a 20% chance of rain then partly cloudy and cloudy and humid
later in the day. The maximum temperature will be 29 degrees and the wind will
be a moderate northeasterly. Sunday will partly cloudy and humid with a maximum
temperature of 31 degrees and a moderate northeasterly wind blowing.
Midmar: Saturday will have early morning mist and then be
partly cloudy for the rest of the day. The maximum temperature will be 27
degrees and the wind will be a light northeasterly. Sunday will warmer at 30
degrees and partly cloudy with a light westerly wind blowing.
Vaal Dam: Saturday will be cloudy becoming partly
cloudy with a 30% chance of showers during the day. The maximum temperature
will be 28 degrees and the wind will be a light southwesterly. Sunday will be
partly cloudy with morning fog and a maximum temperature of 28 degrees. The
wind will be a light northeasterly.
Cape Town: Saturday will be a fine day at 28 degrees
with a fresh southerly wind blowing. Sunday will be a fine day at 25 degrees
with some high level cloud and a fresh southerly wind blowing.
Since the last edition of Smooth Sailing there has been no further
racing in 31st
America’s Cup Match. Race
four was scheduled to take place on Thursday morning but light and very switchy
winds made life difficult for the race officer who felt that he could not set a
fair course under the conditions and so he abandoned racing for the day late in
the afternoon. This has led to the usual questioning of the race officers
impartiality and in fact he has come under quite considerable criticism for his
actions in the last day or so. In the meantime Team New Zealand, in an effort
to improve their tactical performance on the water have brought Frenchman
Bertrand Pace into their afterguard at the expense of Hamish Pepper. This after
skipper Dean Barker admitted that during the start sequence for race three
there had been some confusion amongst the afterguard as to which side of the
line they should be starting. As it turned out the mistake that they made in
this period, letting Alinghi get the right hand side of the line and missing
the first shift, cost them the race. Hopefully Pace will be able to lift their
tactical performance and put them ahead of Alinghi in the next race. Race four
is scheduled to take place on Saturday morning, at 02:00 SA time. The
television schedule for the next three races in the match is as follows:
|
Date |
Time |
Race |
|
Saturday 21/02/03 |
12:00 – 14:30 |
Race 4 |
|
Sunday 22/02/03 |
02:00 – 04:30 |
Race 5 Live |
|
Sunday 22/02/03 |
12:00 – 14:30 |
Race 5 Repeat |
|
Tuesday 24/02/03 |
02:00 – 04:30 |
Race 6 Live |
|
Tuesday 24/02/03 |
19:00 – 21:30 |
Race 6 Repeat |
Remember that
all this is on ESPN, channel 33 on DSTV. If TNZ don’t win one of races four or
five then the match will end at race 5 which would be a pity for all of us who
like watching this sailing. Remember that the series is the best of nine races
so the first one to score five points wins. Currently the score is Alinghi 3,
Team New Zealand nil! For more information visit the America’s Cup web site at www.americascup.yahoo.com.
This
Sunday sees the sailing of the RNYC’s annual Rob
Allen Memorial Race. Generally very well
supported this race is expected to attract a very large fleet of racers and
cruisers and will be run on a pursuit race basis which should suite the sailors
of both. The only requirement is that you need to enter in advance and this can
be done at the RNYC. At present there is an entry list on the downstairs notice
board in the club and all this requires is that you fill in your name a boat
details. On Sunday morning you can enter at reception at RNYC. It requires a
slightly early start and entries need to be in by 09:00 for handicapping
purposes. There will be a briefing downstairs at RNYC at 09:30 at which the course
and starting sequence will be explained. The first start will take place
offshore at 11:00. The course is likely to be from a start line off Addington
beach, to a mark off the Umgeni River mouth, then to a mark off Umghlanga, from
there to the fairway marker then back to the mark off the river mouth and then
to the finish off Addington Beach. This is however dependent on weather
conditions and the final course will be confirmed at the briefing, which is why
it is vital that everyone attend. Being a pursuit race the start sequence will
see the slower boats starting well in advance of the faster racing machines. In
the last pursuit race the cruisers finished some time after the racers so the
handicapper has made an adjustment to the ratings that should make it a whole
lot harder for the racers to catch the cruisers and will hopefully mean that
everyone is in with a shout at the finish. This should be a great event and I
hope to see everyone from the most laid back of cruising sailors to the most
serious or racers including the L26 fleet out on the water. As you can see
above the weather conditions for the day will be perfect so there should be no
excuse for not sailing. The race will be followed by a prize giving on the
lawns at RNYC. Rob Maine-Baillie will be providing the live entertainment for
the afternoon. Cats are welcome to join in as well however should remember that
they also need to enter and get a start number! For more information or to put
in your entry telephonically contact Nicky at the RNYC on 031-301 5425.
Also on Sunday the Island
Sailing Club are running the first round of
their Dinghy Interclub Challenge. The series is open to all classes of dinghy and all
sailing clubs, be they yacht club teams or school sailing clubs. The series
will be scored using the ISC’s handicapping system so it should be interesting
to see how the results pan out across the classes. Two races are scheduled for
the day and the first of these is set to start at 12:30 in the Maydon Channel,
just of Charlie Crofts. The course will be displayed on the back of the
committee boat so sailors can launch from the yacht mole as well as ISC. After
racing there will be a braai and prize giving down at ISC. For more information
contact Villette Pretorious at villette@iafrica.com.
Preparations for the 2003
Winter Flotilla Cruise continue with the first of the skippers
meetings set to take place at the RNYC on Tuesday the 25th of
February. The main speaker at this meeting will be Nuno Quartin who will be
leading the cruise up the coast. Nuno is a well-known sailor who is very
experienced in sailing this part of the coast line having grown up in
Mozambique where he spent a lot of his time sailing, diving and spear fishing.
He has an intimate knowledge of the coastline between Durban and Inhaca and
will be chatting to skippers about all sorts of details including where it is
planned for the flotilla to stop along the way. Even if you are not yet
committed to going on the cruise this is a good opportunity to meet some of the
people who are and hear all about it from the man who will be leading the way.
The meeting is set to take place at 18:00 and to confirm your attendance or for
any other queries please contact Rob Upton on 083 771 4187.
There was a big fright for the Kingfisher
crew this week when they hit a submerged object while blasting along at break
neck speed in their Jules
Verne Trophy record
attempt. The object broke a piece off one of their dagger boards and also
damaged one of the rudders with the result that they had to slow the boat down
to effect repairs. So once again the boat is going slower than it should be
while the crew are likely to be a little more on edge as they head further
south and into the iceberg zone. At present Kinfisher is nearly four hours
behind the record time set by Orange and some 60 hours behind the pace of
Geronimo who is ahead of her on the water. Geronimo in fact continues to have a
good run and has just set a new record for the passage from the start line at
Ushant to Cape Horn of 40 days, 16 hours and 16 minutes. They took one and a
half days off the previous record and are now heading for home as they make the
trip back up the Atlantic. This is the tricky bit of the passage and in the
next week it will be interesting to see if they can maintain their record pace.
For more information visit the Kingfisher web site at www.teamkingfisher.com or the Geronimo web site at www.grandsrecords.com.
The warm-up to the Safaricom Fireball
World Championships, Fireball international week, took place in Kalifi,
Kenya this week. British sailors dominated the small but competitive fleet
taking the top four places with a lone Irish boat in fifth place. The 32-boat
fleet was made up of boats from Britain, Ireland, Switzerland, France and
Kenya. The world champs proper take place next week. Judging by the pictures on
the web site the venue looks stunning and it seems to me to be a pity that more
crews have not taken the opportunity to sail at this unique venue. For more information visit the regatta web site at www.fireballkenya.org.
In the Around
Alone the fleet are now
enjoying the hard running conditions in the Southern Ocean and blating along
downwind at good speeds. To be honest nothing too exciting has happened on the
water and the same boats seem to be occupying the same positions as usual. In
fact the leaders in boat classes seem to be vastly superior to their rivals and
both are enjoying comfortable leads and superior boat speeds at the front of
their packs. The positions on the water in both classes are as follows:
CLASS 1:
1. Bobst Group-Armor Lux Bernard
Stamm 3977 miles from finish
2. Solidaires Thierry
Dubois 150 miles behind leader
3. Hexagon Graham
Dalton 285 mbl
4. Tiscali Simone
Bianchetti 339 mbl
5. Ocean Planet Bruce
Schwab 468 mbl
6. Pindar Emma
Richards 536 mbl
CLASS 2:
1.
Tommy Hilfiger Brad Van Liew 4709 miles from finish
2.
Everest Horizontal Tim Kent 455 mbl
3.
Spirit of Yukoh Kojiro Shiraishi 611 mbl
4.
BTC Velocity Alan Paris 913 mbl
5.
Spirit of Canada Derek
Hatfield 1170 mbl
For more information and
daily position reports visit the event web site at www.aroundalone.com.
The following Dart
Catamaran was Stolen from the Transvaal Catamaran Club. Should you come across it
please contact John Churchill on 072 171 2646 or at john.Churchill@ibuscon.co.za. Details of the boat are as follows:
Dart 18 Catamaran
Registration number: MWZ101
GP
VIN number: AAPV0079450011508
Colour: Grey
Distinguishing features: Bicycle
& Dolly Mountings, off road trailer
Tyres (no trailer box)
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 |
|
|
Club
Mykonos |
21 &
22 February |
|
|
Henley Midmar Yacht Club |
1 & 2 March |
|
|
Sterkfontein Dam |
1 & 2 March |
|
|
Glendee
Yacht Club |
15 &
16 March |
|
|
The
Sailing Center, Simon’sberg Navy Base, Simonstown |
20 to 22
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 |
|
|
Henley
Midmar Yacht Club |
3 May |
|
|
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.
10% Shares in
Prout Cat
5 Shares Available
Totaling 50% of yachts
value
Well Appointed cruiser
Lying in Durban
Contact: Rob Black
Cell: 082 640 8731
E-Mail: jbtrade@yebo.co.za
Boat is sound but a
little heavy, excellent entry-level craft
Standard rig Tornado
with trailer and launching dolly.
Sport rig available at
additional cost
Contact: Gavin Davies
Cell: 082 447 6479
Work: 031-709 3879
E-Mail: gavin_davies@scottbader.co.za
WANTED
Conact: Andrew
Heathcote
Cell: 083 783 8805
E-Mail: hethcot@iafrica.com
Preferably
fibreglass
Price approx.
R2000.00 or less
Contact:
Mykee
Cell: 084 734
3309
E-Mail: mykee@mweb.co.za
Starter Boat
Reasonable condition
R4000/R4500 neg. once
viewed.
Preferably with Dolly
but no road trailer required.
Contact: Arthur
Bertram
Tel: 072 194 7337
Fax: 032-945 4778
Email: pbera05@kearsney.com
Preferably in Durban Area but not essential.
Andrew Heathcote
Mobile: +27 (0) 83 783 8805
This newsletter is
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Please note that the views
contained in this newsletter are those of the authors concerned and in no way
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