Smooth Sailing
Sailing
News By A Sailor For Sailors!
In
Association with:
The Official Web Site of the 2003 Lipton Cup
RC
Laser Which Buoy Must I Go Round Regatta
The 2003 Orion Vasco
Da Gama Race came to an official end
last night with a fantastic prize giving at the Royal Natal Yacht Club. It was
a fitting end to a great event. The race was slower than it has been in
previous years with no records broken. The fleet encountered light winds for
most of the race with only the slower boats having a good run between Richard’s
Bay and Durban on Tuesday and a fresh northeasterly wind. Prior to that though
it was all fairly pedestrian. The race started on Sunday afternoon with the
tide still running in meaning that it was easier to be late for the start than
over the line as was the case last year. A light easterly breeze of around four
to six knots was blowing, which gave hope to all that it would be a long
downwind slide home. It wasn’t to be the case though. The beat out of the bay
of Maputo was a tricky one. There was advantage to be gained from picking both
the current and wind shifts correctly. The start was largely uneventful with no
yachts early on the line. The only excitement came when Madiba, a Leisure 42,
rear-ended Sensation, an L34, right next to the committee boat. There was a bit
of a crunch but it was a low speed collision and little damage done. Madiba did
her penalty immediately before continuing racing. Surprisingly it was the Mum
36 Ballyhoo Too that made it out of the bay first leaving several faster yachts
in her wake. It took until late that night for the entire fleet to clear the
bay and head off down the coast. Pretty much the entire fleet headed straight
down the beach on the first night hoping to capitalise on the expected land
breeze. At this time of year it is fairly certain that it will happen and it
did. A pleasant 8 to 12 knots of bitterly cold breeze carried the fleet down
the coast on a two sail reach. Those with tight reachers were probably able to
carry kites, on our L34 we certainly weren’t. Monday morning saw the land
breeze fade and turn to the south where it settled for the day. This called for
a big decision, head offshore or stick to the beach. As always there are
varying schools of thought. Personally, we stuck to the beach and I don’t think
it did us much harm. Perhaps heading further out would have been better but we
still didn’t do badly in there and the scenery was pretty anyway. That has to
be one of the advantages of racing on the coastline actually; it is amazingly
beautiful. The beaches and dunes really are something to see and on a stunning
sunny day such as Monday really worth seeing. Keeping us company on a
relatively flat sea were dolphins and a few whales, actually more whales than
dolphins by the end of the race. Monday night saw the southerly wind fade away
and the land breeze kicked in again after and hour or so of dead calm. Some who
had gone out to sea during the day stayed there though and they seemed to make
big gains on those who had gone inshore for the night. Judging where the
advantage can best be gained from the current or the land breeze is a tricky
thing and hard to get right at the time. Tuesday morning saw most of the big
boats bunching up in a windless hole off Durban while further behind we enjoyed
the land breeze, again 8 to 12 knots, swinging to the northeast without dying
and increasing in strength! With kites up the smaller boats rushed towards home
closing in all the time on the slower boats. Orion Express eventually crossed
the finish line around midday. She was followed by Prodigy, the Fast 42 45
minutes later with Orion Flyer taking third place. The big race was for handicap
honours though and the smaller boats dominated here. While the slower yachts
had the advantage of the wind filling in from behind on the final stretch into
Durban the Mount Gay 30, Enzer Betelgeuse, was so well placed on the water that
this was less of a factor for them. Enzer Betelgeuse made the most of the light
conditions that prevailed during the race and finished well up on the water.
Back on the moorings early and with a safe lead the crew were left to wait and
see if anyone still on the water could beat their corrected time. On Close
Again, an L34, we gave it a good crack but just couldn’t get to the finish fast
enough missing out by just 400 odd seconds on corrected time! List of prize
winners awarded prizes at the prize giving was as follows:
MARLOW TROPHY - FIRST L34 ACROSS THE FINISH LINE
CLOSE AGAIN
WOODCRAFT TROPHY - 1ST STADT 34 ACROSS THE FINISH
LINE
ROSA VIENTO
RICHIE MCDONALD TROPHY - 1ST PYC YACHT ACROSS THE
FINISH LINE
CLOSE AGAIN
RNYC RESCUE TROPHY - 1ST RNYC YACHT ACROSS THE FINISH
LINE
ORION EXPRESS
TRANSVAAL YACHT CLUB TROPHY - INTER-CLUB COMPETITION
ROYAL CAPE YACHT CLUB
THE PREMIERS CUP - 1ST KZN YACHT ON CORRECT TIME
CLOSE AGAIN
CASA TROPHY - 1ST KZN YACHT OVER THE LINE
ORION EXPRESS
PAPER BACK TROPHY - 1ST IN CRUISING DIVISION
VCR 90.6 FM
BARENS TROPHY - LINE HONOURS - 1ST BOAT HOME
ORION EXPRESS
NSRI TROPHY - 2ND ON IRC HANDICAP
CLOSE AGAIN
WILBUR ELLIS TROPHY - 1ST ON IRC HANDICAP
ENZER BETELGEUSE
For the full results visit the race web site at www.vascodagama.co.za. A more detailed race report and full results
analysis will be posted on the Smooth Sailing web site by Monday.
Sunday sees a return to
small boat sailing with the RC Laser Which Buoy Must I Go Round Regatta taking place at the Durban Radio Boat Club. This
popular regatta uses possibly the most complex handicapping system ever
devised. When it comes down to it though its fairly easy to work out which mark
you are meant to be rounding although a little more difficult to understand why
sometimes! The other good thing about this regatta is that you will end up with
a seriously good stock of telltales on your sail, certainly enough to last the
rest of the year! Racing is set to start at 10:30 down at the pond so be there
by at least 10:00 to collect your stock of tell tales and work out which mark
of the course you are really meant to be rounding! For more information on this
regatta or anything else to do with RC Lasers visit www.rclaser.co.za.
It has been a long time since Sailing KZN awarded KZN Colours but this is
all about to change. In line with their policy of providing the best possible
service to yachtsmen and keeping on top of all the admin and more that the
Sailing KZN office should do, the KZN colours points have recently been tallied
up. It is a number of years since KZN Colours have last been awarded and some
of the points which have been tallied up go back a very long way. The first
Sailing KZN Colours Ceremony in about as long as anyone can remember, will take
place on the 8th of August at the Point Yacht Club. The function
will be a formal one with a sit down dinner at a cost of R90-00 per person.
Booking is essential and can be done by contacting Sandy at the Sailing KZN
office on 031-301 3078. Sailing KZN intend making this function an annual one.
Not only will this prevent a backlog of awards such as we have now but will
also create an incentive to sail competitively in the big regattas during the year
and score enough points to get colours. Also to be awarded at the colours
dinner will be the trophy for the Sailing KZN Blue Water Series. This offshore
series included the Inhaca Island Easter Race, the Sangoma Race and the Orion
Vasco Da Gama Race. We will publish the results of this series next week.
Internationally
the Laser 4.7 World
Championships were sailed in Cesme,
Turkey this week, with the regatta ending today. South Africa’s Juston Onvlee
is taking part in the regatta and has sailed well throughout the week. after
seven races Justin was lying in 30th position having recorded three
top ten results with his best being a 5th in race 4. In a 98-boat
fleet this is a very impressive result. For more information visit the event
web site at http://www.laserchampionships.org/47wor03/index.htm.
The 2003 ISAF Youth World Championships start in Madeira, Portugal today. South Africa is
being represented at this regatta by Ricky and Brennan Robinson in the 420
class, Megan Clayton in the Laser Radial and Richard Hutton-Squire in the
Laser. All have been training hard and will be looking for good results in this
regatta. Racing starts tomorrow and you can follow the event on the web at http://www.isafyouthworld2003.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 |
|
Point Yacht Club |
25 to 27 July |
|
|
UCT Yacht Club, Zeekoeivlei |
2 & 3 August |
|
|
Albert Falls Yacht Club |
9 & 10 August |
|
|
Henley Midmar Yacht Club |
3 to 5 October |
|
|
Chelmsford Boating Club |
4 & 5 October |
|
|
Albert Falls Yacht Club |
25 & 26 October |
|
|
Spionkop Boating Club |
6 & 7 December |
|
|
Glendee Yacht Club |
1 & 2 February 2004 |
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
Boat in reasonable
condition
With spinnaker main
and jib.
Photos available on
request
R750.00
Contact: Mark Spooner
Cell: 082 558 6032
In Pietermaritzburg
WANTED
For 30 foot yacht
Contact: Ian Williams
Cell: 082 655 0874
E-mail: nest@yebo.co.za
Andrew Heathcote
Mobile: +27 (0) 83 783 8805
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