Smooth Sailing
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News By A Sailor For Sailors!
In
Association with:
RNYC Albatross
Series For Keeler
SAP Cape
To Rio Race Participants View
Around
Alone Race Another Dismasting
Around Alone
Race Position Update
The Inhaca Island Easter Race is getting closer and closer which hopefully means that
competitors are getting better and better prepared. While the race organisers
are still wondering where some of the entries are with precious few complete
entry forms having been received, they have some good news in that they have
secured the main sponsor for the event. The Zululand branch of McCarthy Toyota
have decided to back the event for the second year running. They are situated
in Empangeni and have over the years supported many sporting events in the
Zululand area. Other sponsors for the race include Bay Marine Tools, Plannet
Communications and Pro Blast and PJ Painters. The closing date for entries for
the Inhaca Race is now only 18 days away, on the 28th of March.
Entries received later than the 28th will be subject to an
additional entry fee, which wouldn’t be a nice thing to have to pay at all. For
those of you thinking about leave and some of the logistics of the event, let
me help you out a bit! All you need is four days leave and you can have nearly
a week on the island. Leaving Durban or Richard’s Bay on Friday the 11th
of March you shouldn’t need much more than 48 hours to get to the island,
weather permitting of course. That should give you Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
and Thursday on the island. Then on Friday the race heads off to Richard’s Bay,
again 48 hours should see you get there comfortably, and you’ve still got
Monday, which is also a public holiday, to recover and be ready for work on
Tuesday! Thinking of it in those terms this might be a better idea than you had
originally though don’t you think? Get your copy of the Notice of Race,
containing all the relevant details off the Smooth Sailing Notices of Race page.
Sunday’s Keeler Racing offshore Durban,
the RNYC’s Albatross Series, took places in a fresh north easter with
a bumpy sea. Once again the L26 fleet was far smaller than it should have been,
something, which is beginning to become a little bit of a worry given that
Lipton is only four months away. On the bright side though it seems that the
racing was fairly close and it was good to see Jerome McLoughlin’s Harken
return to competitive action after a fairly lengthy break. The break didn’t
seem to hurt them though and they managed to break Orion Zephyr’s extended
winning streak which cant be a bad thing at all. Also looking good was the cruising
fleet with four boats out on the water again. The regular participation of
cruisers in the Sunday races is something that we haven’t seen in Durban for
ages and I really do hope that this sustained interest continues and spreads to
other boats. The cruising fleet sailed one race on a fairly long course that
took them to the fairway marker and back while the racing fleet enjoyed two
round the cans races in the same time. The results of the days racing are as
follows:
Race 1 Race
2
1st Orion Zephyr
Craig Millar 1st Harken Jerome McLoughlin
2nd Harken Jerome McLoughlin 2nd Orion Zephyr Craig Millar
3rd
Dockleveller Nigel Miln 3rd Dockleveller Nigel Miln
1st Electron
2nd Misbehaving
3rd Chatur
4th Big Blue
At Midmar on Saturday the Hunter fleet put in some serious training for their Nationals,
which are now just two weeks away. It sounds like the standard of sailing in
the fleet has gone up in leaps and bounds while some serious HMYC talent has
taken the opportunity to have a crack at the Hunter title. To date 23 entries
have been received for the regatta with at least ten more expected. By the time
the fleet assembles itself on the start line I think that you will find some
serious talent ready in amongst the contenders. One thing is for sure, this
will be no easy regatta to win! It remains however an east regatta to sail.
There are plenty of Hunters around the place and they are all pretty
competitive with relatively little effort. All it will take is a few phone
calls and you too could be on the start line for some of the best racing to be
had in SA. For more information get your NOR off the Smooth Sailing Notices of Race page
or visit www.hunterclass.com. The final chance to put in some practice for the Hunter
Nationals is this Sunday when HMYC will be running a pursuit race. This race
will start at 11:00 with a pre-race briefing at 10:00 and should see pretty
much every HMYC Hunter sailor as well as a few visitors out on the water.
The
Sharks sucked
again on Saturday taking a sound thrashing from the Waratahs. According to this
mornings paper the coach seems to think that there were a whole lot of positive
things in this game and while he might be right, they did a lot of things well,
they still lost. It’s a problem, which seems to be permeating through our sport
as a whole with the other Super 12 outfits and our cricket teams both at
national and provincial level not showing that killer, win at all cost
instinct. That after all is what professional sport is all about isn’t it? Next
week the Sharks take on the Hurricanes, again at the Absa Stadium in Durban.
With a long trip down under looming in the not so distant future the Sharks
really need to capitalise on the home ground advantage and get as many points
on the board as possible.
Wednesday
Evening Fun Racing is to be hosted by the
Royal Natal Yacht Club this week and will be sponsored by Bavaria Brau! Post race
entertainment will be by C-Major promotions with Rob Maine-Baillie making all
the noise. The fun race starts at 17:30 for the Racing fleet and 17:35 for the
cruisers. The turnouts for the last few Wednesday’s have been really great and
I look forward to seeing even more boats on the water this week.
We all followed the 2003 SAP Cape To Rio Race, either through the updates in Smooth Sailing or via the race web site.
That was the outsiders point of view, Colin Becker, the only Durban sailor to
do the 2003 SAP Cape To Rio Race, wrote us this personal account of his
experiences on the race:
“Only
having got a spot on Maiden, a 58 foot former Whitbread boat, a few days prior
to the start meant that the time before the race passed by in a bit of a
blur.
The
few days before the start were so rushed, sorting out my life and helping sort
out a disorganized boat. On race day we
were frantically stocking it with food, so much food! Running to and from the boat with packets and baskets was made
difficult by the many friends of sailors and curious spectators crowding out
the pontoons at RCYC. It was an
enormous event in Cape Town - hundreds of spectator craft filled Table Bay,
thousands of people lined the shores and hills and about six helicopters
circled the fleet snapping shots of the most eye-catching yachts.
The
race started on 11 January 2003 and we crossed the finish line on 4 February at
3:53am local time in Rio de Janeiro. So
23 days 16 hours is a very long time to be isolated from the world, but we were
in our own world inhabited by fifteen people.
After the first few days I thought I would get really bored by the end
of it, but once we got to know the others and the boat, time flew by and there
were few moments with absolutely nothing to do. There were some really interesting people and being with
foreigners made it almost like a holiday in many places. Everyone was so different yet we were all
there for a common goal. There were
three girls and that kept the language of the men fairly clean.
Maiden
is much bigger than anything I have raced before, and different in many
ways. Built in the early 80’s, some
systems are old-fashioned and not-so-high-tech compared to modern racing
yachts. It was designed for ocean
racing though and has everything required for that. The boat was sailed by Tracey Edwards and her all-female crew in
the 1989-90 Whitbread, the first such crew to circumnavigate the world, and they
did remarkably well winning two of the legs.
It is a 23 ton, 58 foot, aluminium yacht with a 50-foot waterline
length. The deck layout is such that
the main hatch is furthest back; wheels further forward with instruments; then
snake pit and winches (15 of them!); jammer cleats; life rafts; mast and
shrouds; then foredeck with baby stay.
The inside design seems to utilise space well and is set up for racing –
no fancy finishes or comfy couches.
From the back there is a lazarette; space with ceiling hooks for hanging
gear; heads; roomy nav. station including a bookshelf (yes with books!) and CD
player; galley; racks of baskets of food; twelve stacked bunks (even long
enough for me); engine room with water maker below the mast; then a big sail
locker in the bow.
Living
on board Maiden with fourteen others was something different. There is no private space, always someone
within a few meters. But that meant
there was always company, someone to chat to.
For me eating became something to occupy time as well as fill my
stomach. We had Joel, who loves
everything to do with food, preparing us the most amazing meals. Being in a small galley instead of a
restaurant kitchen constrained Joel to the extent that he couldn’t go and buy
some particular rare herb (that none of us had heard of before, and none of us
would notice in the food anyway, for some foreign dish he had read about and
wanted to make) that he had forgotten to get when he did the huge task of
calculating and shopping for all our food in the last three days we were in
Cape Town. Otherwise he could make
anything and we were treated to a unique feast every evening, including beef
stew on day 20, seafood paella, a Thai chicken dish, ice cream, pancakes etc. When one’s turn came around, washing the dishes
was a huge mission with so many utensils used by our cook and fifteen of
everything else. I couldn’t stand up
straight in the galley (and most of the boat) so an hour in there was rather
exhausting.
The
sailing was pleasant most of the time, broad reaching under spinnaker for 80%
of the race. Once we were away from the
African coast and Benguela current we had little storms blow over most days,
bringing about half an hour of welcome rain and twenty to thirty knots
wind. Unlike some of the other yachts,
we never sailed through 45-knot squalls and rough seas. Helming was a pleasure and something I would
look forward to on my watch. I helmed
for between two and four hours a day and would like to have done it for
longer. Sometimes the wind stayed constant
for many hours, so any gybe, sail change or even spinnaker pole adjustment was
something to get excited about. The
change of limited scenery would bring a welcome variation to the monotony. The times when the wind, or lack of it,
varied greatly meant we were frequently changing the set-up, and happy to do
so. Being in a race I wanted to push
the boat harder, myself being more competitive than most of the others. So the people were fairly relaxed but
Spaniard Alberto and I would always look for ways of making the boat go
faster. All the sailors had very
different sailing backgrounds and were good in particular areas, so I learnt
about other methods of doing things and various attitudes towards racing and living
in general. I also realized that the
standard of sailing in South Africa is not bad at all.
On
the routing side, we sailed furthest of all the boats, 39000 miles. After a slow start we took a while to sail
around the North-East of a big high-pressure system, got into the trade winds
early and had days of constant fresh wind.
Our “gamble” to go north seemed to be paying off. We caught up with the fleet but somehow went
straight into the next high, through the “H” on the chart! That meant more than three days sitting on a
glassy sea with floppy sails. Crossing
the meridian wasn’t really a big thing but it excited us, as did any unique
event. When we had less than 1000 miles
to go people started talking about getting back to reality on land and then
back home. Excitement grew as we approached
Ilha da Trindade, an island to be passed to port as a mark of the race
course. A few rocky islands appeared on
the horizon, ending weeks without sight of land. A few days later came the distant glows of oilrigs off the coast
of Brazil. We were averaging eleven
knots approaching Cabo Frio, a peninsula of the mainland a few hundred miles
east of Rio, and kept the speed up until just outside Guanabara Bay at Rio de
Janeiro. The city looked beautiful from
the sea even though it was night. As we
sailed towards the Sugar Loaf, we didn’t realize we would view the city from
the sea for so long. Five miles from
the finish the wind died completely and it took five hours for a little breeze
to blow over the hills and drive us over the line. At one stage the yacht was actually moved backwards by the
outgoing tide at the river mouth. Those
hours were desperately annoying – we were all ready to get to shore to party
but instead had to wait. Numerous sail
changes would not change the situation, stressing my tired mind out. I helmed for the final hour or so and up to
the finish which felt special, I think it was the first time since the start
that we were beating and even put in a few tacks. Getting onto land and into a shower was a good feeling. The Rio Yacht Club is a huge luxurious
property with numerous facilities.
There
was usually a positive mood or vibe amongst the crew. There were no personality clashes and every one got on well. But naturally, as the days went on, little
things irritated us all and there were times when I wanted to escape from that
confinement. The last third of the race
was characterized by greater wind changes, and wind strength more extreme at
both ends of the scale. The days we
didn’t have a breath of wind were frustrating, especially knowing that all the
boats to west of us still had wind, and those to east were getting closer.
The
first five or so nights were cold but not wet, a warm top and thin trousers
being sufficient. The remaining days
and nights were increasingly hotter and no weather gear was necessary. Rain felt great as it rinsed the salt off
our bodies. The final ten days were
boiling hot. Any shade on deck was
quickly taken up by the most uncomfortable person at the time. I battled to sleep as the sweat flowed off
my body in the all-day sauna down below.
A bucket of seawater was the only means of cooling down.
We
trailed a fishing line most of the time but were only fortunate to catch one
fish. It was a Dorado and made an
excellent meal on the second day. We
saw schools of fish for a few days after the start, but none after that. Dolphins swam in our bow wave on one
occasion and were seen in the distance on another. Having seen so much off the coast of Natal, I was quite
disappointed with the amount of sea life we encountered. I did however for the first time see a huge
turtle a few meters away. More and more
birds were seen as we neared land, and a sign that we were very close was the
forgotten appearance of a fly!
Rio de Janeiro is a beautiful city, really vibrant and a
really exciting place to be in. Many
bright green and rocky mountains emerge in and around a vast number of
high-rise buildings; several small islands shoot out of the sea a few hundred
meters off the coast; the skies are clear and the nights warm. The people in Rio are friendly and helpful,
but not knowing Portuguese makes communicating very difficult. The local cocktail is caipirinha – made with
a fair amount of potent cachaca (cane), chopped up lime, sugar and ice. It is tasty, powerful and cheap - very
popular among locals and tourists alike.
Brazilians are crazy about football and there are people playing that
and volleyball on beaches day and night.
Nightlife is incredible – between 11pm and 4am every
pub/club/café/market is buzzing with activity.
In the popular areas there are crowds standing, drinking and talking in
the streets as inside is too small and stuffy.
Many well-traveled people I knew who were there said it is surely the
best city they have ever been to. “
In the Around Alone Race Disaster struck class two competitor Derick
Hatfield on Spirit of Canada when he was dismasted off Cape Horn during a large
storm. At the time of the incident the wind was blowing in the region of 70
knots and the waves were getting up to 40 foot in height. Hatfield's story is pretty amazing: It was sometime
mid-afternoon when the wave
that had his name on it came up from behind. "I have lost the
timeline a bit," Derek said.
"I was so exhausted that I could hardly think, but when I heard the wave I
knew that I was in trouble. I was not as big as some of the others, but it was breaking and it made
a huge roar as it approached the boat.
In seconds we were falling down the face of it until the bow dug in and then we
pitch-poled. The boat went straight up and then fell over sideways. I was at the back of the boat and
got flung forward, and the next thing I
knew I was in the water under the boat." Spirit of Canada had just
undergone the worst possible scenario; an
end-over-end capsize. The boat slammed down trapping the skipper
underneath it. Derek continued his story. "I heard the water gurgling and
knew that I was under the boat, then all of a sudden I heard explosions. Loud
explosions that reverberated through the water and I knew in that instant that
the mast was breaking. It was unreal. Gurgling water and huge bangs. Suddenly
without the mast the boat came back upright and I was dragged back on
deck." Hatfield estimated that he was under the boat for about 15 seconds.
Had the mast not broken who knows if it would have ever come back up again and
how Derek would have got out from underneath the boat. It boggles the mind to
think about it. During the pitchpole the keel had come loose. It had already
been a problem, but now the whole thing was loose and banging around. Hatfield
is now safely in Ushuaia in southern Argentina. There was no mast, no sails or
rigging. The keel problem needed to be resolved. The electronics were ruined.
"I could not think how we could get back in the race given where things
stood," Derek said. "But then I opened my email and started to talk
to people and I am amazed and gratified by the outpouring of support we have
been getting. It's overwhelming. There is still a lot to do, but I am starting
to feel the littlest bit confident that we might just be able to get back into
the race. - Excerpts from a story by Brian Hancock. Read the full story: www.aroundalone.com.
Meanwhile Bernard Stamm on Bobst Group Amor Lux overcame
huge odds to cross the finish line first in leg five of the Around Alone Race. A 48 hour time penalty for stopping to receive outside assistance
means that second over the line boat, Thierry Dubois Solidaires, will win the
leg but Stamm will be pleased, and Dubois more than likely gutted, that Bobst
Group Amor-Lux was able to overhaul them before the finish. Despite not winning
the leg officially this means that Stamm has now crossed the finish line of
every leg of this race in first place. For Stamm the next 48 hours will however
be a bit stressful. He needs the third and fourth placed boats to finish
outside of this time in order that he scores a second overall for this leg and
thereby retains a healthy points lead in the race. A third or fourth place,
which at the time of writing is looking less and less likely, would make the
points gap going into the final stretch of the race a little too close for
comfort. On the water Pindar, Tiscali and class two entry Tommy Hilfiger are
all fighting light winds as they edge their way towards the finish line in San
Salvador. The latest standings are as follows:
Class 1:
1st Bobst Group Amor-Lux Finished
2nd Solidares Finished
3rd Tiscali 397
miles to finish
4th Pindar 529
5th Ocean Planet 1608
6th Hexagon 2342
Class 2:
1st Tommy Hilfiger 661 miles to finish
2nd Everest Horizontal 1636
3rd Spirit of Yukoh 1692
4th BTC Velocity 2363
5th Spirit of Canada 2907
For more information and
the latest standings visit the race web site at www.aroundalone.com.
The weekend weather was a little kinder to
Geronimo on her Jules Verne
Trophy with good breezes
propelling them along at a good rate of knots again. By this morning they were
once again ahead of the record however the feeing seems to be that they will be
unable to stay ahead of it with some light conditions ahead again. Compounding
the problem, on this leg of the course Orange, the record holder, had some
particularly good days, which Geronimo will battle to match in the next few
days. They could still do it but it is all looking a little touch and go at the
moment. For more information or to follow the
boat’s progress a little more closely visit their web site at www.grandsrecords.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 |
|
Various
WC Dinghy Clubs |
September
2002 to March 2003 |
|
|
Various
KZN Clubs |
December
2002 to July 2003 |
|
|
Glendee
Yacht Club |
15 &
16 March |
|
|
Royal
Natal & Point Yacht Clubs |
March to
May 2003 |
|
|
Point
& Zululand Yacht Club’s |
14 March
2003 |
|
|
The
Sailing Center, Simon’sberg Navy Base, Simonstown |
20 to 22
March |
|
|
Henley
Midmar Yacht Club |
20 to 23
March |
|
|
HBYC Admirals Regatta Incorporating the L26
Western Province Champs |
Hout Bay
Yacht Club |
20 to 23
March |
|
Aeolians
Club |
21 to 23
March |
|
|
Club
Mykonos |
21 to 23
March |
|
|
Durban
Radio Boat Club |
12 &
13 April |
|
|
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.
Comfortably
fitted cruiser with many extras
Outboard and
road trailer
Well
reinforced with extra stowage etc
Has sailed up
Amazon
Moored at
Midmar
R14000 onco
Contact:
Martin
Cell:
0826401222
Or
Caroline on
0725182874
033- 3451796
Work
Hunter Class
2 suits of
sails
1 brand new
North suit
Recently
refit
Great
condition
R12 500 ono
Contact: Kim
Wilkinson
Phone: 011
373 6610
E-Mail: kimw@ampnet.co.za
WANTED
Ideally with
Venter trailer
Price
negotiable
Cape Town or
environs
Contact Neil
White
Cell: 082
9225517
E-mail: Kwhite@mweb.co.za
Second hand Laser
In
good condition preferably with dolly, cover and radial rig
In
Western Cape area.
Price range R10 000 to R12 000.
Contact: Stephen Flesch
Tel: 021 705 4317
Cell: 083 229 3581
E-mail: sflesch@iafrica.com
Andrew Heathcote
Mobile: +27 (0) 83 783 8805
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Please note that the views
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