Smooth Sailing
Sailing
News By A Sailor For Sailors!
In
Association with:
The Official Web Site of the 2003 Lipton Cup
Watch
The Start At Royal Natal Yacht Club
The fourth race
of the 2003 Lipton
Challenge Cup saw the
Dalys Insurance team from the Theewater Sports Club cement their position at
the top of the regatta standings with their third win of the event.
Yesterday’s race was
sailed in extremely light conditions that saw several of the challengers to
Dalys lead fall by the wayside. The light conditions were clearly to the liking
of the Transvaal Yacht Club’s entry, Rote Hexe. Skippered by Ewald Sternagel,
this Gauteng team clearly enjoyed the light conditions finishing second in
today’s race. However, slow progress saw Principle Race Officer, Jimmy
Melville, shorten the course after a lap and a half.
Third place went to the Royal Natal Yacht Club’s entry, Orion
Challenger, which sailed well in the light and flukey conditions to stay ahead
of the chasing back. Hot on their heels at the finish was Sieraj Jacobs on
Bound For Gold sailing for the Port Owen Yacht Club. Bound For Gold came from
behind on the final leg of the race making up several positions before the
finish.
Royal Cape Yacht Club’s Greenlight, in second place overall last
night, needed a good race today to stay within striking range of the regatta
leader. Greenlight struggled in the light conditions only managing sixth place,
dropping down from 3 points off the lead to 8 off, although maintaining her
second position overall. Instead of fighting for overall victory in the final
race tomorrow, Greenlight now finds herself in danger of losing her second
place to the RNYC’s Orion Challenger, who are just one point behind her in
third place.
After Wednesday’s strong winds, yesterday’s conditions were light
and flukey with the fleet spending three hours on the water waiting for the
wind to come through. It took three attempts to get racing underway with the
fleet pushing hard and several yachts over the line early on the first two
attempts.
At the third attempt the fleet got away cleanly and headed off up
the first windward leg. It was slow going though. Most chose to tack away and head out to sea early in search of
more wind. With a fairly large swell still running after Wednesday’s strong
winds it was tough going out to sea and the crews struggled to keep their
yachts moving over the swells. Concentration and patience are vital to get the
best out of these conditions and it was the Dalys Insurance and Rote Hexe teams
who capitalised on this. These two occupied first and second places at the
first mark of the course and held their positions until the finish.
Behind them things weren’t as settled with a number of changes
taking place on the final leg to the finish. Bound for Gold made the biggest
gain moving from around tenth into fourth spot while Lipton Yellow Label,
sailing for the Bluff Yacht Club, was probably the biggest loser dropping six
places from fifth to eleventh!
Today is the final day of the regatta with one or two possible
races on the cards. This is allowed at this stage of the event, however given
the prevailing conditions, it would seem unlikely that two races will be
sailed.. In the event of a single race, Dalys need to ensure that they don’t
finish more than nine places behind Greenlight should Greenlight win this race.
Given their form recently, this seems unlikely, with the stage set for Dalys Insurance
to win the Lipton Cup for the Theewaters Sports Club for the third time.
The first three positions in race four of the regatta were as
follows:
1st Dalys Insurance TheewatersSports Club Mark Sadler/Rick Nankin
2nd Rote Hexe Transvaal Yacht Club Ewald Sternagel
3rd Orion Challenger Royal Natal Yacht Club George Amoils/Martin Lamprecht
The overall standings after four races are as follows:
1st
Dalys Insurance Theewater
Sports Club 5 Points
2nd
Greenlight Royal
Cape Yacht Club 13
3rd Orion Challenger Royal Natal Yacht Club 14
Keep an eye on
the Smooth Sailing Lipton Cup web site for the final report and
results, which will be published just as soon as they become available.
The Orion
Vasco Da Gama Race starts
in Maputo on Sunday afternoon. This year’s race starts at 15:30 in the
afternoon, a late start in order to get the fleet out of the bay with the tide.
Sailing against the strong currents that run in Maputo Bay is almost
impossible, especially if the winds are light. At present the fleet is
scattered along the coast between Richards Bay and Maputo with some already
safely at anchor in Maputo. The delivery trip has been a tough one with strong
headwinds hindering the fleet. Seasickness seems to have been a common problem
throughout and one yacht even returned to Durban yesterday with a large number
of her crew having been severely ill.
The majority of the fleet though are in or around Maputo. Looking at the
excellent Race Tracker, which you can link to off the race web site, it seems
like some have stopped off at Inhaca for a taste of the island life before
heading into Maputo on Saturday morning. With delivery crews on most yachts the
many of the race crews will be travelling up to Maputo on Saturday morning by
bus after the Lipton Cup. The bus trip should be fairly festive and will get
the crews to Maputo just in time for the pre-race party on Saturday evening. If
last years was anything to go by this one should be a ripper! Those of you
watching from home must not fail to take advantage of the excellent Startrack
Race Tracker. Through this system you will be able to watch the race from the
comfort of your own home. Yacht positions will be updated on the internet at
regular intervals and will keep you in the picture throughout the race. To find
the race tracker go to www.vascodagama.co.za and the hit the Startrack button on the
right of the screen. Provided that we can find and internet connection Smooth
Sailing will send out a pre-race update prior to the start of the race on
Sunday.
Royal Natal Yacht Club will be showing the start of the Orion Vasco Da Gama Race "live" on the Internet on Sunday
13th at 15:30. Plus the Race Officer on board the Bridge boat in Maputo
Bay will also be "Live" a few minutes prior to the start, giving
updates on the weather, breeze and the sights and sounds of the start as 22
boats jostle for position, and then take you through the starting sequence.
Listen to the countdown and instructions called by the Bridge, hear if YOUR
boat is called OCS or if there is a general recall because of over-eager
skippers. The Club has thrown open their facilities for all and sundry wishing
to see the start of the race. Get there earlier and enjoy their
traditional Sunday scene with great grub, pub and entertainment to boot. What
better way to watch the start than to have a quiet Sunday afternoon braai on
the lawns and a few drinks!
Andrew Heathcote
Mobile: +27 (0) 83 783 8805
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