Smooth Sailing
Sailing
News By a Sailor For Sailors
In Association with:
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PYC
Jockey Series & KZN Lipton Selection Series
Your
Weekend Weather
according to the SA Weather Service
is going to be as follows:
Durban & Richard’s Bay: Saturday will be 27 degrees and cloudy with a moderate
northeasterly wind during the day and a light northwesterly at night. Sunday
will be 29 degrees and clear becoming partly cloudy later in the day. The wind
will be a moderate northeasterly.
Midmar: Saturday will
be 26 degrees and sunny with a light northerly wind blowing. Sunday will be
fine and clear becoming partly cloudy later in the day with a 20% chance of
morning mist. The wind will be a light northerly but a light southeasterly
should blow in the afternoon.
Vaal Dam:
Saturday will be 26 degrees and cloudy with a light northwesterly wind blowing.
Sunday will be 28 degrees and fine with a light southwesterly wind blowing.
Cape Town:
Saturday will be 25 degrees and fine but partly cloudy in the south early in
the day. The wind will be a moderate southeasterly. Sunday will be 26 degrees
and fine with a moderate southeasterly wind blowing.
A
fresh westerly and a chilly overcast evening greeted the fleet for this weeks RNYC Wednesday Evening Fun Sail sponsored
by SAB and Hansa. A relatively small fleet of 11 cruising and 2 racing boats
took to the water in the wintery conditions, proof if ever we needed it that
summer really is over. Still, I guess we would consider it to have been a
fantastic evening if we lived in the northern hemisphere. Anyway, the fleet
sailed off and enjoyed an hour or so of racing on a very shortened course in a
brisk but dying breeze. It was all good fun not to mention a great excuse to
head back to the club for drinks and the party afterwards with the Hansa girls
doing a great job of serving cold beer all round. Now the time for Wednesday Evening Sailing has all but passed, in
fact there are only two, that’s right, two Wednesday Evening Fun Sails left.
Next week’s will be the final PYC evening with RNYC hosting their final evening
of racing the following week. So, make sure that you have it clearly marked in
your diary, the last Wednesday Evening Fun Race of the season takes place on
Wednesday the 7th of May. The results of yesterdays race were as
follows:
Racing Class
1st Ladybird Simonis Cat Andrew
Dolloway
2nd Bandit Simonis
Cat Brent Latter
Cruising Class
1st Aquilla Trapper 28 Phil
Downing
2nd Close Again L34 Andrew
Heathcote
3rd Cracker L26 Andrew
Murray
The full results including the corrected
times have been posted on the Smooth Sailing Racing Reports web page.
Dinghy Sailing in Durban
on Saturday is to be hosted by the PYC and will be the next round of their
Jockey Member Cup Series. Racing is set to start at 14:00 and should be taking
place on the deepwater course. For more details I suggest you contact the PYC’s
Sailing Coordinator, Seton Thompson, on 031-301 4787.
The Sharks
take on the Auckland Blues tomorrow in the next tough game on their overseas
tour. While they have had a pretty good tour so far with one win and a narrow
loss the chances of beating the Blues are slim. The Blues are the form team of
the Super 12 and look to have too much talent and class for this Sharks team,
especially playing away from home. Nonetheless I am sure that the Sharks will
put up a strong performance and perhaps they can spring a surprise. The game
will be televised live on Supersport with kickoff at 09:30.
Sunday
sees the first round of the PYC’s Jockey Commodore
Series taking place offshore Durban in
conjunction with the fourth round of the KZN
Lipton Selection Series. There are now only
nine weekends left until the NCS Regatta starts and that’s a week before
Lipton. Without even worrying who they are going to be sailing for or how they
are faring in the selection series it really is time for the pace and intensity
of the training in the KZN L26 fleet to step up a gear. I really am hoping to
see a good turnout of L26’s on the water this Sunday. There should be at least
8 boats out there and with any luck the racing will be hard, fast and close.
The first of two races for the day is scheduled to start at 11:00. While my
major emphasis is on the L26 fleet this is not to say that the racing is
limited to them. All other keelers, both racers and cruisers are more than
welcome to take part. Wouldn’t it be nice to see a fleet of 15 or so boats out
on the water on Sunday!
The following report on last weekends Dart
18 Nationals was sent to me by Noel Holman but written
by June Morris:
“The KPMG
Dart 18 Nationals were held at Port Owen from 18-21 April. The competitors and their families stayed at
Stywelyne Holiday Resort, an ideal place to launch the boats and socialize with
fellow Dart sailors.
Thirty
boats participated, two of which were sailing solo. The first race got underway on Good Friday, 18th
April, although the winds were to prove not so “good”. Nevertheless, 2 races were sailed in light
NNW winds. On Friday night there was a
fantastic welcoming cocktail party for the sailors and their families at Port
Owen Yacht Club, where West Coast hospitality is at its finest. The Mayor came along for the occasion and
gave a brief talk on the history of Velddrif.
Very early
on Saturday morning, strange things began to happen – The boats couldn’t wait
for the sailors to wake up and at 4 a.m. they decided to go off on their
own! What had happened was that there
was an extremely high tide which came right up to the fence where the boats
were parked and they began drifting off to sea. If it hadn’t been for the quick action of Jens Oelbuttel who was
eagerly running around trying to wake everybody up, they would have been in Rio
by now. Waking the sailors up proved to
be quite a task, although Nick
Kirkbride must keep his wet suit by the side of his bed as he was up and out in
a flash. Nick and two other Dart sailors even paddled out to sea without a sail
in search of two boats. Jens Oelbuttel
and Edgar Morris, 2 Dart sailors and Pat Wessons of POYC went out after them in
a rescue boat and returned, just as dawn was breaking, with the wayward Dart,
which apparently was looking somewhat like the Marie Celeste when they
found it, 5 km out to sea.
No racing was held on Saturday - not because everyone was exhausted from the escapades of early morning but there was no wind, quite heavy swells and big dumpers on the beach so it was decided to hold the SAIDA annual general meeting instead, which was followed by a braai and an auction at Port Owen and a variety of fines were handed out by Tim Stirk of Dart Vader fame.
On Sunday
it was a delayed start due to fog but five races were fitted in whilst a brisk
westerly was blowing. The day ended
with a snoek braai at Port Owen in their new built boma.
On Monday
they awoke to great sailing conditions and the course was set close to shore
which allowed the families and spectators to view the racing. The proceedings ended with prize-giving at
POYC with lots and lots of prizes thanks to the sponsors, the main one being
KPMG who came along at the last minute with fantastic support. Thanks also to Namibian Breweries, Belco Electrical, Jamela-Tek, Sales Hire,
Fowkes Brothers, International Tube Technology, Boland Printers, Lost Horizon,
Simonsvlei Wine, Hot Sex Liqueur, Nampak Tissue, Samsonite Luggage, Craft Box
and last but not least Collins Fibreglass, the manufacturer of the Dart 18
Catamaran.
The
overall winner was Noel Holman and Nicholas Holman.
The
results for the first 10 places were:
1st
Noel Holman/N. Holman Selected to
represent SA @ DART Worlds
2nd
Ben Mienie/B. Holman Selected to
represent SA @ DART Worlds
3rd
Lionel Harley/K. Scott
4th
Tim Stirk/B. Stirk
5th A. Morse(UK)/C. Wishaut
6th
Jan Yntema/E. Yntema
7th
Peter Swales/S. Zachariah
8th
Hermon Konighoffer/E. Stuyck
9th
Harold Holman/I. Stirk
10th
G. Gradwell/J.Gradwell
Hearty congratulations to you all and special congratulations to Andy Morse who came all the way from the United Kingdom to take part and enjoyed himself so much he says he is coming back every year. “
Not
that many of you will, but don’t forget to make sure you are ready for the HMYC 9-Hour Race, which takes place on
Saturday the 3rd of May. That is less than two weeks away, not this
coming weekend but the next one so if you haven’t started making your plans yet
you need to get into action really quickly. Already 31 entries have been
received for the race, 4 more than at the same time last year and there were of
83 boats on the water for that one so I guess that we can anticipate the same
number again this time round. Remember that this is a great event for both
serious and social sailors alike. The atmosphere at the club is just great and
you don’t have to be on the water to be part of the action. On a more serious
note though don’t forget that 9 hours is a fair bit of sailing, especially if
there is a reasonable breeze. While the crew will be getting regular breaks at
between shifts your boat won’t so make sure that you give it a good service
before the big race next weekend. Check out those high wear and tear items in
particular rudder pintles, you will find it a whole lot more fun if you can get
through the race without any boat breakages. For more information on this event
visit www.geocities.com/hmyc_racing/9hr.html.
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 |
|
|
Henley Midmar Yacht Club |
26 to 28 April |
|
|
Witbank Yacht & Aquatic Club |
26 to 28 April |
|
|
East London
Yacht Club |
26 to 30 April |
|
|
Henley Midmar Yacht Club |
3 May |
|
|
Theewaters Sports Club |
1 to 4 May |
|
|
Durban Radio Boat Club |
11 May |
|
|
Royal Cape
Yacht Club |
16 to 18 May |
|
|
Zululand Yacht Club |
14 to 16 June |
|
|
Point 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
In reasonable
condition
R1000 onco.
Contact: Mark
Phone: 031-767 1909
Cell: 083 556 7212
Highly manoeuvrable
fast fun boat.
Lifting keel
On trailer
Ready to race or cruise
R50 000-00
Contact: Trygve Roberts
Cell: 083 658 8888
E-Mail: info@autolink.co.za
WANTED
Sprog
Good
Condition Fibreglass Hull
Preferably
in Durban
Up to R6
000-00
Contact:
Tim
Cell: 083
277 4763
Flying Fifteen
Good racing Condition
Contact: Paul Changuion
Tel:
082 773 4375
E-Mail: paul@wildweb.co.za
Sailing Dinghy
Suitable
for beginner (child age 7yrs)
Durban
and surrounds.
Contact: Pieter
Phone:
031-266 4910
Fax:
031-266 4910
Email: liz@toptots.co.za
In good condition.
Contact Max Ozinsky
Cell: 082 414-7147
E-Mail:
maxo@anc.org.za
Andrew Heathcote
Mobile: +27 (0) 83 783 8805
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