Smooth Sailing
Sailing
News By A Sailor For Sailors!
In
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Results
Regatta Scoring Programs
Sangoma Race
Durban to Richard’s Bay
Keeler
Racing Offshore Durban This Sunday
The Laser
Masters Regatta took
place this weekend at Durban’s Island Sailing Club. While the fleet was for
some reason not as big as anticipated some good quality racing took place
nonetheless. Conditions for the weekend were very light which will have suited
the old bullets who didn’t have too hike out too hard, something I am sure that
many of them will be feeling very relieved about this morning! In very light
southerly winds the racing was very close and tactical. Certainly on Saturday
afternoon when I watched there were some huge wind switches and huge windless
patches out on the course. While smaller than expected, with 21 boats on the
water, the fleet was still seriously competitive with at least one general
recall while I was watching. The top places in the regatta were as follows
while the full results have been posted on the Smooth Sailing Racing Reports web page:
1st Grand
Master Ed Howard
1st Master Henry
Payne
1st Appie
Master Richard Bate
The RC
Laser Duzi Day Regatta
which took place yesterday was also a light wind affair with six races sailed
in what sounds like fairly marginal conditions. This is nothing new for this
venue and I think that every time the fleet has ventured here the winds have
been extremely light. This one is not all about the sailing though with the
picnic lunch playing a big part in the day’s proceedings. In between lunching,
snacking and drinking, six races were sailed. Des Fairbank managed to win most
of them and wasn’t far off the front in the ones that he didn’t win, leaving
the rest of the 19 boat fleet to fight it out over the minor placings. You can
find the full report on the regatta on the RC Laser web site at www.rclaser.co.za. The top three places overall were as
follows:
1st Des
Fairbank 6 Points
2nd Harry
Ellens 10
3rd Terry Flynn 23
The SPA Olympic Classes Regatta came to an end yesterday after four days of highly
competitive sailing. While the sailing looked great I cannot tell you just how
good I found their web site to be with the results updated immediately after
the sailing was over, good quality pictures and excellent race reports. If you
didn’t take a loot at the web site while the regatta was one, do yourself a
favour and have a look through it now, it really is worthwhile. The two South
Africans at the event both did really well, improving their positions
throughout the regatta, which is always a good thing. Gareth Blankenburg got
ended up in 8th position by the end of the regatta with ten races
sailed for the Lasers. While this is not quite as high as he has got himself on
previous occasions it is a great result in a really top quality fleet. at one
stage Gareth was lying 13th overall and did really well to pull
himself back into the top ten with a 2nd and a third position in the
final two races. We have a great picture of Gareth in action at the SPA Regatta
on the front page of the Smooth
Sailing web site. 143 Lasers were entered in the regatta. In the 55-boat
49er fleet Greg Barker finished in 39th position, a better result
than he has had in any of the regattas I have kept an eye on him sailing in
this class. He also improved well throughout the event and ended with a 9th
place in the final silver fleet race. To put in perspective just how tough the
49er fleet is, Sydney gold medallists in the 470 class, Mark Turnbull and Nick
Partridge finished just two places ahead of Greg in 37th place. The
full results are available on the regatta web site at www.sparegatta.org.
In the course of gathering Results to publish on the web site I come across an amazing variety
of results programs, some good, some very bad. There are several results
programs in operation around the place while a good number of regatta
organisers simply make use of an Excel spreadsheet. Its often all very
complicated, confusing and sometimes, quite frankly messy. There is a simple
alternative though, Sailwave. It is clean, simple and easy to use. The
results are published in HTML format, which means that pretty much anyone can
read them, they are easy to post on a web site and what’s more you can include
all your sponsors logos, club burgees and other information without any hassle
at all. Sailwave is easily downloaded from www.sailwave.com and doesn’t take much time to download or
install on your computer. It also doesn’t take up much space so will not affect
the performance of your computer in any way. If you, or your club haven’t
already got a copy of Sailwave, do so now, you will never look back. This is
not a paying advertisement but rather and attempt by me to try and get some
consistency into the area of results programs. Some time ago there was word
from SAS of insisting on a single program for scoring regattas, I am not sure
what has come of this but would like to recommend that regatta organisers
everywhere take a pro-active step and start using this program. It will make
your lives easier and mine too!
With the IRC KZN Champs just around the
corner and a number of boats needing to be delivered from Durban to Richard’s
Bay for the event a great opportunity presented itself for the re-sailing of
the Sangoma Race from Durban to Richard’s Bay. The re-sail
will take place on Saturday the 7th of June with the start off
Addington Beach at 11:00 in the morning. This is because one of the potential
entrants is a Jo’burg based crew and the start time will give them a fair
chance to join in the race. The Sangoma Race is part of the highly prestigious
Sailing KZN Blue Water Series and it is hoped that a good entry in this race
will ensure that the series is revitalised after the first couple of races on
the schedule didn’t happen for various reasons. Off the top of my head I can
think of five boats that should potentially take part in this race and I am
sure that there are a couple of others that I haven’t already considered that
should be there. We will publish the official NOR just as soon as it becomes
available but in the meantime should you require any further information please
contact Pat at the PYC on 031-301 4787. A race back to Durban to coincide with
the IRC fleet being delivered back to Durban for the NCS Regatta is also in the
pipeline for the 21st of June. We will also let you know once we
have more details of this one.
Still on the subject of big boat sailing
in Durban and this coming weekend the PYC’s Rose Bowl Series for Keelers is taking place. This is the last club racing in Durban
before the IRC and L26 KZN Champs and also the NCS Regatta. With any luck this
means that there will be a good turnout of boats on the water, both L26’s and
others on Sunday. Once again there could be as many as five or six big boats on
the water and an equal number of L26’s. I hope that the Durban yachties make
the effort to make this the biggest turnout of the season. Racing starts
offshore at 11:00 on Sunday morning with two races planned for the day.
The organisers of the Orion Vasco Da Gama Race have confirmed that measuring for those yachts still without
IRC Certificates will take place this coming Friday, the 30th of
June, from 08:30 in the morning. Yachts will be measured and weighed at a cost
of R600-00 per yacht. This includes the measuring and crane costs. Remember
that it’s a one off cost, once your yacht is measured that’s it, it doesn’t
have to happen again. Another thing to remember is that for measuring the boat
has to be completely empty, nothing that is not part of the boat itself should
be on board, and that includes spare sheets, cutlery and crockery, tools. Water
and fuel tanks should also be all but empty. If you are one of those that need
to get your boat measured please contact Sandy at the Sailing KZN office at sailsa@hit.co.za to confirm that you will be there.
Something else that has been confirmed is that the organising committee have
laid on a bus to ferry competitors from Durban to Maputo on the morning of
Saturday the 12th of July. This will be a free service. The bus will
return to Durban on Sunday the 13th of July after the start of the
race so delivery crews can use it to get home. Please be aware that you need to
book your places on the bus by the 15th of June. Do this by
e-mailing Sandy at sailsa@hit.co.za.
The NCS
Regatta is also just
around the corner and to help minimise your excuses for not sailing this wonderful
event we have added a Crew
Finder page to the
Smooth
Sailing NCS Regatta
site. With any luck this should provide you with a simple, easy to use forum
either to find crew to sail with you on your boat or, if you are looking for a
ride, to find a boat for you to sail on. To date there are already twenty odd
entries for the 2003 NCS Regatta. Once again this promises to be the premier
regatta on the sailing calendar, great weather, good sailing, hopefully a few
dolphins again! Sound good? See you there!
Looking a little further ahead and to a date that all Durban
yachties need to put in their calendars now. The NSRI Barrel will take place on Sunday the 22nd
of June. This year the Barrel will undergo a major change with the shore based
activities taking place at the RNYC. The NSRI Barrel is a fundraiser for the
NSRI, the most important cause for any yachtie to contribute to. Remember, if
you get in trouble on the sea, it is the NSRI that you are going to be relying
on to get you home safely. I was recently in Empangeni for a weekend and when
browsing through the local paper found a story on page two of a yacht having
been rescued off Richard’s Bay and towed to safety by the NSRI. It can happen
anywhere, any time and to anyone! Back to the barrel though, the format of
which will follow the traditional pattern with a bay race, to be sailed on the
Wednesday Evening course, with the start at 10:30, followed by an afternoon of
festivities and entertainment on the lawns at the RNYC. As well as live music,
braais and an open bar the traditional raffle will take place from 14:00
onwards. For those of you who don’t know the NSRI will be on patrol both on and
off the water selling raffle tickets on the day. Masses of prizes have already
been donated and will be raffled on the day so you not only do you stand to be
giving your money to a good cause but you could win something really worthwhile
too!
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 |
|
|
Albert Falls Yacht Club |
31 May & 1 June |
|
|
Zululand Yacht Club |
14 to 16 June |
|
|
Point Yacht Club |
14 to 16 June |
|
|
Albert Falls Yacht Club |
14 to 16 June |
|
|
Point Yacht Club |
28 June to 4 July |
|
|
Durban Offshore Challenge Incorporation the Mirror
& Laser Youth KZN Champs |
Point Yacht Club |
28 June to 4 July |
|
Point Yacht Club |
4 to 11 July |
|
|
UCT Yacht Club, Zeekoeivlei |
2 & 3 August |
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
Designed by America's
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These sails will make
you win the Nationals.
Main & No 1 Genoa
R8 250-00
Contact: Tony Strutt
C/W rowlocks and oars.
E-Mail: anthonya@rdi.co.za
2,3metre
stingray
4 HP Suzuki
motor
R5 000-00
onco.
At Vaaldam,
Deneysville.
Contact:
Liesel
Cell:
0839629209
Sail # 3416
Du Toit Hull
1 Main, 2 Jibs
Foil Bag, Dolly and boat cover
R9 000-00
Contact: Nicholas Pratt
Cell: 082 418 4401
E-Mail: prittn@yahoo.com
WANTED
Laser
In good condition
In Gauteng or KZN
Contact: Andrew Heathcote
Cell: 083 783 8805
E-Mail: hethcot@iafrica.com
Preferably
with radial rig
In reasonable
condition
Contact:
Louwrens Toerien
Phone (W) 021
936 7814, (H) 021 880 1749
E-Mail: louwrens.toerien@za.didata.com
Andrew Heathcote
Mobile: +27 (0) 83 783 8805
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