Smooth Sailing
Sailing
News By A Sailor For Sailors!
In
Association with:
The
big news today is that we now have the Notice of Race for the 2003 NCS Regatta available online for you. The NOR
includes all the vital details about shipping, camping, catering and everything
else you need to know about this great regatta. The NCS Regatta has, in recent
years established itself as the biggest and best keel boat regatta in SA with
big fleets, competitive racing and the best sailing conditions available.
Durban in winter is stunning and who will forget the near perfect conditions
and huge schools of dolphins that made last years regatta so memorable. With
this years event preceding the Lipton Cup we can expect a huge and very
competitive fleet of L26’s on the water as well as a good mix of other classes.
Now is the time to start making your plans for this not to be missed regatta.
To download your copy of the Notice of Race for the 2003 NCS Regatta go to www.smoothsailing.co.za/ncs03nor.html.
McCarthy
Toyota Inhaca Island Easter Race
Optimist
African Championships
With the closing date for discounted entries for the McCarthy Toyota Inhaca Island Easter Race now having past there are seventeen entries for the race. Interestingly this includes six cats, a
type of boat that we often don’t see raced in SA which is a pity since so many
of them are built and sold here. The balance of the fleet is made up of six IRC
and five PHRF entries. For those of you who have missed the early entry
deadline but still wish to take part in this great race don’t despair, you can
still get an entry in, albeit with the late entry fee penalty, provided that
you do it before the 9th of April. It is worth it though. The full
entry list is posted on the Smooth
Sailing Upcoming Events page.
At last the Sharks hit form this weekend giving the Cats a
good thump on their home turf. Not only did they win but there performance was
also very convincing and gives one a little hope that they can pull off a few
victories when they head off for the overseas leg of the tournament later this
week. After a good win and a short break the team will be firing on all
cylinders and with the halfway mark of the tournament only just having been
reached there is still a chance that they could get themselves into the semi
finals.
The Optimist
African Champs got
underway in Port Elizabeth yesterday with the first three races sailed. In a
day of freshening conditions the South African team dominated challenged only
by two Americans. In the third and freshest race of the day only 26 of the 54
competitors finished with seventeen of those 26 not having started. I am not
going to make any friends by saying this, but I think that this really is an
overrated competition and I think it could be strongly argued that the SA
Nationals provide a stronger fleet with far more competitive racing throughout
than this regatta has. Nonetheless I think that there is some value in it as it
is at least exposing the sailors to international competition, which in itself
is a good thing. I was interested to see that the girls scored a big victory
over the guys in the third and windiest race of the day by taking the first two
races. Even more interesting, the regatta is being led by a girl, SA’s Phillipa
Baer. The regatta continues until Friday. Below is a report from the event. You
can find the full results on the Smooth Sailing Racing Reports page.
“SA
Optimist Team off to a strong start!
Yesterday
(Sunday) saw the first day of racing of the Optimist African Championships in a
beautiful WSW breeze. The wind built
from 15 to 22 knots over the three races, with the strongest gust being
recorded at 27 knots. Clearly our team
was in their element in these conditions.
In addition to the breeze, the short steep chop challenged
everyone. Hitting one or two bad waves
upwind translated to a 3 to 4 boat length loss. But more troublesome were the side on waves on the reach which,
when weren’t being surfed, had a nasty habit of swamping even the leading
boats. Needless to say, seasoned
surfers and lightweights made enormous gains through surfing on the run.
54
competitors make up this year’s African Championships fleet, representing 8
African countries (Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Seychelles, South Africa,
Uganda and Zimbabwe) and USA.
The first race was won by an American sailor, Cameron Cullman. Positions 2-6 were taken by our SA boys and girls: Sam Waterson ( Border), James Largier (WP), Phillipa Baer (EP), Aaron Larkens (KZN), Justin Onvlee (EP) respectively, America’s Morgan Wilson (girl) was 7th, Rudy McNeill (last year’s event winner) was 8th , followed by Morocco’s Hamza Lboukili in 9th and Algeria’s Fatima Mahmondi (girl) completed the top ten. Six South Africans in the top ten was a promising start. Ten competitors did not finish Race One due to breakages or difficulties with the wind conditions.
Race
Two was taken by Borders’ Sam Waterson who was absolutely thriving in the
breeze. Phillipa Baer finished second
after leading most of the race. Aaron
Larkens was third, followed by Cameron Cullman (USA) in 4th and
Justin Onvlee in 5th.
America’s Morgan Wilson took 6th, while SA’s Robert Jones
(NVL), Brett Stirk (Border) and Alexander McClarty (WP) finished 7th,
8th and 9th respectively. Algeria finished 10th again, but this time it was
Islam Benhadj. Nineteen boats were
unable to complete this second race- well, PE is known as the ‘windy city’!
The
third race of the day was the windiest and started with a diminished fleet – 17
DNCs!! Justin Onvlee sailed a great
race, crossed the line first, but was sadly OCS. This meant that Phillipa Baer, another big breeze reveler claimed
first place, followed by USA’s Morgan Wilson in second. Howzat? Girls first and second! Aaron Larkens was 3rd, Sam
Waterson 4th, James Largier 5th, Cameron Callman (USA) 6th,
Rudy McNeill 7th, Algeria’s Idriss Bouhadda 8th, Ruth
Saunders (WC) 9th and Alexander McClarty 10th. A great domination by SA with 7 sailors in
the top 10 in a vastly reduced fleet of 26!
All
In all a good day at the office for SA.
Phillipa Baer and Sam Waterson are tied for 1st place
overall, each having a 1, 2 and 4.
Aaron Larkens is third with consistent positions of 5, 3, 3. Sixth place is occupied by James Largier (3,
11, 5), Rudy McNeill is 7th
(8, 15, 7), Robert Jones is in 8th (12, 7, 16), Brett Stirk is 9th
(14, 8, 13) and Alex McClarty is 10th overall (17, 9, 10). Eight South Africans in the top ten – Hope
we keep it this way! Ruth Saunders is
14th overall (21, 16, 9), Jessica Hogg is 18th (26, 12,
23), Justin Onvlee is 19th (6, 5, OCS – looking forward to that
discard!), Karen McClarty is 23rd (23, 24, 25), Joshua Saunders is
24th (27, 27, 26) and Daniel Moreau is 28th (16, 14, DNF-
Daniel had a asthma attack and unfortunately could not finish the race – he was
in the top ten at the time)
The
team is happy, excited and looking forward to today’s racing. It is chilly, drizzling and very light right
now – so we wait to see what the day’s racing delivers.”
The following report on last Saturday’s MRYC League Regatta was submitted by Des Fairbank:
“MRYC held a 36”
Shipmate League event on Saturday and attracted 12 enthusiastic skippers.
Unfortunately Neil Young who is on top of the handicap league was trying out a
different radio and ended up not being able to sail. The wind was almost ideal
and blowing straight down the canal when it was stable and when it was not it
came from all sides.
Caroline
Stevens was sailing her normal boat but it has now been fitted with the new
fiberglass fin and rudder. Whilst she did not finish high up the boat
definitely had more speed and the demand on these conversions has increased
dramatically.
The
results after nine races were as follows:
|
Scratch |
|
Scratch |
H/Cap |
Net |
|
Pos. |
|
Points |
Pos. |
H/cap |
|
1st |
Des Fairbank |
9 |
3 |
-0.7 |
|
2nd |
Robin McIntosh |
43 |
2 |
8.0 |
|
3rd |
Keith Gerson |
46 |
7 |
-11.2 |
|
4th |
Robbert Stenner |
11 |
6 |
-10.1 |
|
5th |
Peter Stenner |
41 |
1 |
23.7 |
|
6th |
Guy Bompas |
46 |
8 |
-14.3 |
|
7th |
Martin Stevens |
50 |
11 |
16.2 |
|
8th |
Anthony Metcalfe |
54 |
9 |
-14.4 |
|
9th |
Caroline Stevens |
59 |
5 |
-2.9 |
|
10th |
Luke Wagner |
63 |
4 |
-1.4 |
|
11th |
Graham Keir |
76 |
10 |
-14.6 |
The net handicap is the amount by which each
skipper has sailed better or worse than his handicap. Theoretically every one
should have a net H/cap score of 0 each event. From the above Peter Stenner net
h/cap score of 23.7 sailed considerably better than his handicap and this can
be attributed to the fact that he spent a week working on Nikki Sprunt’s boat
and sailed it for the event. Does not say much for his own boat!!! The –14 net
H/cap scores reflect skippers sailing worse than their handicap. Handicaps are
recalculated after each event and are based on the best three scores in the
last four regattas.”
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
KZN Clubs |
December
2002 to July 2003 |
|
|
Royal
Natal & Point Yacht Clubs |
March to
May 2003 |
|
|
Island
Sailing Club |
5 &
6 April |
|
|
Durban
Radio Boat Club |
12 &
13 April |
|
|
Saldahana
Bay |
18 to 21
April |
|
|
Inhaca
Island to Richard’s Bay |
18 April |
|
|
PYC
Beach Site |
18 to 21
April 2003 |
|
|
Henley
Midmar Yacht Club |
26 to 28
April |
|
|
Henley
Midmar Yacht Club |
3 May |
|
|
East London Yacht Club |
26 to 30 April |
|
|
Zululand
Yacht Club |
14 to 16
June |
|
|
Point Yacht Club |
28 June to 4 July |
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.
FOR SALE
“JACK THE
LADD”
A high
performance racing boat with a large cockpit
Boat is on
trailer in Cape Town
Lightweight
racing construction
Optimised
keel for heavy winds
Complete with
outboard 6 Hp Mariner and remote tank
No. 1, No. 2
No. 3 and storm Jib
Mainsail
Large light
wind spinnaker
Heavy weather
spinnaker
Depth and
speed instruments
Duall compasses
Price R
125 000-00
Contact:
Peter Hill
Cell: 083 384
5924
Email: hillbilly@global.co.za
29er
2 rigs
New main and Jib
Dolly, Harness
Extra line
R27000-00
Contact: Thor Proulx
Cell: 073 278 0758
E-Mail: thor_proulx@yahoo.com
Including spinaker
On new road trailer
All in reasonable
condition
Offers on R2 500.00
Contact: Mark Spooner
Cell: 082 558 6032
E-mail: spooner@intekom.co.za
Andrew Heathcote
Mobile: +27 (0) 83 783 8805
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