Smooth Sailing

Sailing News By A Sailor For Sailors!

 

In Association with:

Royal Natal Yacht Club

Henley Midmar Yacht Club

Hunter Class

Hood Sails

Orion Vasco Da Gama Race

Sailing KZN

 

The Official Web Site of the 2003 Lipton Cup

 

After a period of hectic local activity things will quieten down for the next while. Still, as I removed a host of NOR’s for events that had already taken place from the web site a heap more appeared in my inbox! With one lot of sailing out of the way you can already start planning for the next big event. One that has got a mention elsewhere in this newsletter is that for the South Star Short Handed Race. This looks like an interesting event and is certainly something that we haven’t seen in SA for quite some time. For other events that may be of interest to you check out our Notices of Race list.

 

The Orion Vasco Da Gama Race was good for a number of reasons not the least of which was that it proved once again what a good system IRC is. After the better part of two days racing yachts were separated by only minutes in the final results. Of the top three yachts, the winner, Enzer Betelgeuse, is a modern all out racing design, a Mount Gay 30. Second placed Close Again is an L34. Designed 20 odd years ago she is a cruiser/racer, probably more of a cruiser by today’s standards and certainly no flyer. Third placed Spilhaus is a classic yacht, a Swede 55. Although she sports some serious looking Kevlar sails she is an extremely well appointed yacht down below with no compromises to the crews comfort.  The only thing these yachts really have in common is that they were sailed well. IRC sorted the rest out. I think it really is quite something that we have a handicapping system that so efficiently and equally rates such different types of yacht and can provide us with such good racing. I really hope to see this system continuing to spread throughout South Africa.

 

South Star Short- Handed Race

Advertisement Marina Manager

Sailing KZN Colours Awards

Laser 4.7 Worlds

ISAF Youth World Championship

49er European Championships

RC Laser WBMIGRR

Muira Bullsheet # 3

RNYC Members Draw This Friday

UCTYC Student Yachting World Cup Campaign

Notices of Race

Classifieds

 

Amongst the Notices of Race that have been posted on the Smooth Sailing web site recently is one for the revived South Star Short Handed Race. This race is being resurrected after and absence of 20 years and will take the fleet from False Bay to the Island of St Helena. The race is open to all IRC Rated Yachts of 7 meters in length or more and crewed by one or two sailors. Short-handed sailing is something that has not been seen in South Africa for quite some time. With the renewed interest in offshore racing that we are experiencing at the moment now is about as good a time as any for this race to be resurrected. The course for this race is a good one for short-handed racing, a nice 8 to 10 day downwind sail. Already there has been considerable interest in this race with 5 paid up entries received as follows:

 

Peter Roeloffze

Hot Ice

Mount Gay 30

Piet Scheepers

Crystal Spray

Farr 38

Wayne Badenhorst / Danny Bankenberg

African Renaisance

Farr 40

George de Beer

Morning Glory

Sadler 32

Ant Steward

TBA

TBA

 

For more information download your copy of the NOR from the Smooth Sailing Notices of Race page or contact Tom Ambrose at tonard@telkomsa.net.

 

The following is an Advertisement:

 

Marina Manager

 

Durban Marina Association requires a Manager. This is not a post for the faint hearted, nor is it a “retirement post”. This full time post requires a mature, dynamic and energetic person. The successful candidate will be selected for his/her broad range of management skills, including an understanding of engineering matters, and the ability to:

 

·        Implement and manage a long-term maintenance program.

·        Plan and manage the financial affairs of the Association.

·        Manage and motivate a tightly knit, small team of staff.

·        The temperament to successfully deal with the customers and visitors to the Marina.

 

A marine background or a knowledge and experience of pleasure craft would be an added advantage.

 

Only written applications and correspondence posted to:

                       

“Marina Manager”

                          P. O. Box 1734,

                          Durban,

                          4000.

 

will be entertained.

 

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.

 

Justin Onvlee finished strongly in the Laser 4.7 World Championships in Cesme, Turkey on Friday. Justin won the ninth race of the regatta eventually ending 17th in the 48 boat gold fleet. Eleven races were sailed in the series. This is a good result for one of South Africa’s up and coming young sailors in a class that has not been widely sailed here. It also bodes well for his future in international sailing that he can be competitive at the top of international fleets at a young age. For the full results from this regatta visit http://www.laserinternational.org/47wor2003/index.htm.

 

The 2003 ISAF Youth World Championships started in Madeira, Portugal on Saturday. The South African team has made a fairly good start to the competition with some solid results. Four races have been sailed in the first two days lively conditions with 15 to 20 knot winds reported. South Africa teams in the past have battled to do well in this regatta with the possible exception of when the regatta was sailed in South Africa. It certainly doesn’t look like we are going to win any medals at this regatta but at the same time all our sailors certainly look competitive so hopefully we can look forward to some good race results along the way. The South African team positions after four races are as follows:

 

Laser Boys

Richard Hutton-Squire

20th (33 Entries)

Laser Girls

Megan Clayton

19th (24 Entries)

420 Boys

Ricky & Brennan Robinson

18th (26 Entries)

 

The regatta has a really great web site at http://www.isafyouthworld2003.com/. It is well worth taking a surf past this one if you have some time. It is a quick easy site to use with some interesting features including two web cams and a chat room as well as quick downloading results and pictures.

 

The 49er European Championships ended in Laredo, Spain this weekend. A fleet of 94 boats turned out for this event amongst them South African Greg Barker sailing with his regular crew Diederik Bulters. Greg recorded by far his best result yet on the 49er circuit with finishing 56th in this regatta. Not only did this regatta attract all the top sailors but with the world championships drawing closer most sailors will have been looking to hit top form at this one. For more information including the full results from this regatta visit http://www.rcnlaredo.es/ingles/paginas/campeonato.html.

 

The RC Laser Which Buoy Must I go Round Regatta took place at the Durban Radio Boat Club yesterday. The event attracted a good fleet of 21 boats, all keen for some RC sailing after a fairly long break. A westerly wind made for some difficult sailing on the pond, as it often does, although the handicap system worked well mixing the fleet up at all the mark roundings. Ten races were sailed, which makes for a good mornings racing, and by all accounts a good time was had by all. The results show that the fast guys still managed to get through to the top of the fleet but they certainly had to work harder than usual to get there. The top three places overall were as follows:

 

1st

Des Fairbank

27 Points

2nd

Lex Brockbank

33

3rd

Terry Flynn

38

 

The full results of this regatta have been posted on the Smooth Sailing Racing Reports web page. The next RC Laser regatta will be taking place at the Henley Midmar Yacht Club and promises to be a really special event. For more details on this and anything else to do with RC Laser sailing visit www.rclaser.co.za.

 

The Muira Bullsheet, the interestingly named newsletter that the class association has been putting out this year, has proved very popular with Smooth Sailing readers with many copies being downloaded from the Smooth Sailing web site. The third edition of this newsletter has now been posted on the site and can be read at www.smoothsailing.co.za/muirabull3.html.

 

The next Royal Natal Yacht Club Members Draw takes place this coming Friday evening. With a bit of advanced warning this time hopefully more members will be able to get themselves down to the club this Friday.  Diarise it now and head down to the club after work on Friday! The draw will take place in the Brittania Room at 18:00 and you have to be there to win! You also have to have a ticket and if you don’t have one yet get your now by calling Nicola at the RNYC on 031-301 5425.

 

The University of Cape Town Yacht Club have got a project underway to send a team of sailors to compete in the Student Yachting World Cup later this year. The regatta is to be sailed in JOD 35’s, with 8 crewmembers on board of which two must be female. The regatta takes place in Agde, France from the 25th of October until the 1st of November. By taking part in the regatta UCTYC will be the first African team to compete in this event. They will be up against 18 other teams including last year’s winners, Erasmus University from Rotterdam, Holland. For more details of the regatta, the UCTYC team and visit http://sportsclubs.uct.ac.za/yacht/sywoc/.

 

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

29er Nationals

Point Yacht Club

25 to 27 July

UCTYC Frostbite Series

UCT Yacht Club, Zeekoeivlei

2 & 3 August

Northvaal Keel Boat Champs

Denysville Aquatic Club

8, 9 & 10 August

Northern Natal Open Cat Champs

Albert Falls Yacht Club

9 & 10 August

Northvaal Sprog Champs

Pretoria Sailing Club

9 & 10 August

Northvaal Laser Master

Transvaal Catamaran Club

23 & 24 August

2003 Nationals for 36" Shipmate, IOM and RM Class Radio Yachts

Henley Midmar Yacht Club

20 to 27 September

KZN Youth Champs

Henley Midmar Yacht Club

3 to 5 October

Chelmsford Longhaul

Chelmsford Boating Club

4 & 5 October

NNYU 3-Star Challenge

Albert Falls Yacht Club

25 & 26 October

South Star One/Two Short Handed Race

False Bay to St Helena Island

29 November 2003

NNYU Interclub Challenge Leg 3

Spionkop Boating Club

6 & 7 December

NNYU Interclub Challenge Leg 4

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

 

Volvo MD11C
 With Gearbox
Good working order
R25 000-00
Contact: Chris Bonnet
Phone: 031-307 7944
E-Mail: bonnet@yachtsman.co.za

 

THETA 27 "Blanc De Noir"

Moored at Manten's Marina – Vaal Dam

Brand new main and genoa - great shape

Sail #90

R60 000-00

Contact: Russell Campbell

Cell: 0836754454

E-mail: russell.campbell@liberty.co.za

 

Telana - 31ft, cruising Miura.

Launched in 1994

Competed the 1996 Cape to Rio Race.

Moored at the Royal Cape Yacht Club

In excellent condition.

Features include:

Beach & teak interior;  anti-fouling treatment;  built-in fridge & loo;  colour TV;CD shuttle;  hot and cold pressurised water;  de-salinator;  chart nav;  radar; SSB;  auto-helm instruments;  gas stove and braai;  18hrse.pwr. Volvo Penta engine;  rounded deck;  Doyle sails;  Luma self-tailing winches(240's;230's; 216's);  mast by Spar Craft with double-spreader rig and life raft.

R480 000-00 neg

Contact Feona Boock

Cell: 083 346 6977

Phone: 021-683 7326

E-mail: boocck@mweb.co.za

 
Flipper sailing dinghy

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

 

Wind Vane or Self Steering Device

For 30 foot yacht

Contact: Ian Williams

Cell: 082 655 0874

E-mail: nest@yebo.co.za

 

 

Andrew Heathcote

hethcot@iafrica.com

www.smoothsailing.co.za

Mobile: +27 (0) 83 783 8805

 

This newsletter is distributed free of charge to anyone who chooses to subscribe to it. The subject matter contained herein is entirely of a yachting orientated nature or that which may be of interest to yachtsmen.

 

Please note that the views contained in this newsletter are those of the authors concerned and in no way reflect the view or policies of any of Smooth Sailings associate clubs, sponsors or advertisers.

 

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All submissions are welcome. News of any club or yachting related event should be sent to hethcot@iafrica.com for publication.

 

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