Smooth Sailing
Sailing
News By A Sailor For Sailors!
In
Association with:
The Official Web Site of the 2003 Lipton Cup
Due to a technical
glitch on the mail server Friday’s Smooth Sailing doesn’t seem to have reached
the majority of subscribers. We think that the problem is sorted out now so hopefully
this issue will reach everyone that it should. All the important stuff from
Friday’s issue has been included in this one so you shouldn’t be missing out on
anything.
Thinking back on the
year so far there has been loads of sailing of all kinds around the country and
outwardly it would appear that our sport is in good shape. Thinking about it
more deeply though I don’t think that this is the case at all. It appears to me
that while some events attract good interest sailing at club level is not in a
good state at all. This appears to be even more the case when it comes to
dinghy sailing. From my own experience in Durban and talking to sailors from
Gauteng it seems that weekend club racing is in dire straits and simply not
attracting the numbers that it should. Club racing should be the cornerstone of
our sport. It should be the entry point for everyone wanting to take part in
sailing, something that the sport desperately lacks at present. A broad base of
sailors taking part at club level will have the knock on effect of
strengthening our sport at provincial, national and international level.
We are coming up to the
time of year when club calendars for the forthcoming season are decided and new
committees elected. Countrywide I think that we need a greater focus on club
sailing in the next while. We need the clubs to actively run and promote
regular weekend racing whether it be open to all classes or more focused on a
particular class. It is from here that we will strengthen and grow the sport.
In their planning I think that the clubs and classes also need to be sensible
when it comes to calendar planning. There is a fine line between having too
little and too much sailing and I think that we often tend on the too much side
of things. This means that there are more events that are less well supported.
We end up with club volunteers putting in loads of effort for fewer boats as
the events tend to be less well supported. One or two well-supported monthly
events have to be better than four weekends of small fleets, far more rewarding
for both the sailors and the organisers. Getting this balance right is one
thing. Next we need to make sure that the events are well supported and this is
up to not just the club, but also the classes and the individuals who do the
sailing. The Nautical Nomads Society, whose second annual regatta is coming up
in October this year have adopted and interesting marketing approach. Anyone
who sailed last year and wants to sail this year needs to bring along another
boat, that’s the entry criteria and also the kind of rational that we need to
apply to our club sailing. If everyone who is actively taking part brings
someone else along the growth will be phenomenal.
Food for though? I hope
so! If we are to achieve positive things for our sport it needs a collective
effort but mostly an effort from the entry level up. Club sailing is the entry
level to our sport. How about we make this coming summer a big one for club
sailing?
As always if you have
anything to add e-mail your thoughts to me at hethcot@iafrica.com.
Greg Barker’s
49er Europeans Report
505
Worlds
The Sailing KZN Colours Dinner has had to be postponed due to a clash in dates with
the Northvaal Keeler Champs. We will let you know just as soon as the new date
is announced.
The 29er Nationals took place this weekend in Durban. Sadly only six boats took part
in the regatta, fewer than had been expected. Nine races were sailed with Rob
and Andrew Tarboton dominating with seven firsts and two second on their
scorecard. With no racing taking place on Friday, the first day of the regatta,
due to strong winds the nine races were sailed in two days. Being able to sail
so many races in such short time is one of the great things about skiff racing
and something that regular dinghy sailing just doesn’t offer. I find it quite
sad that this class has not taken off as it should have in South Africa. It
showed such promise early on yet has failed to live up to it. Ten of these
boats were sold before building even commenced locally and as many as sixteen
boats have been built in this country. Internationally the class has grown
amazingly fast and has proved popular with both youth and adult sailors around
the world. There are several reasons why the 29er is a great boat to sail, it
is fast, fun, exciting and relatively cheap. It is an ideal boat for a
youngster to climb into after an Oppie and teaches loads more skills and is way
more exciting than the single hander options on offer. There are enough boats
in the second hand market in SA at the moment that can be picked up for twenty
odd thousand rand that price cannot really be a factor. Around the world the
trend in dinghy sailing is towards skiff type boats. In SA the 29er is the only
skiff type boat that we have. This in itself should have been enough to ensure
growth in the class locally. I would be interested to hear the thoughts of some
sailors out there as to why this class isn’t as attractive to SA sailors as I
think it should be. Drop me a line at hethcot@iafrica.com if you have any thoughts to add. In the
meantime the results of this weekend’s 29er Nationals were as follows:
|
1st |
Rob
& Andrew Tarboton |
9
Points |
|
2nd |
Matthew
Bronner & Howard Loveday |
15 |
|
3rd |
Michael
Pammenter & Jof Heathcote |
23 |
The Sharks got off to a great start in the Currie Cup on Friday whipping the
Eagles by 43 points to 10. It was just the kind of comprehensive display that
the side needed to start off the competition and hopefully a sign of things to
come. They will need to maintain their good form in the coming weeks though.
The Eagles are most certainly one of the weaker teams in the competition.
Looking at the form that some of the other sides, especially the defending
champions, the Bulls, showed on Saturday, good form will be required throughout
in order to end with the trophy in hand.
Greg Barker sent us the following report on the 49er European Championships, which took place in Laredo, Spain last week and his
international campaign in general:
“The
49er European Championships and the 29er World Championships were held in
Laredo, Northern Spain from 12-19 July. My team mate and I decided against the long
drive and organised to have the boat and gear towed alongside 11 other British
49ers in a pantechnicon of two trailers. The advantage of flying in was that we
arrived at the regatta venue with a few days for preparation, including some
good sailing practice.
Laredo proved to
be an excellent sailing venue. Launching took place from the lagoon from where
we would sail out to sea via the river mouth to either Alpha or Bravo race
area. The 29er fleet were sailed further offshore on a separate course. For the
qualification series, the 49er fleet of 95 boats was initially divided into 4
fleets of approximately equal strength.
Day
1 of racing brought a moderate onshore sea breeze of about 10 knots. We were
drawn in the red group sailing on Alpha course located near to the Yacht Club
beach adjacent to the lagoon mouth. The tide played an important role in the
racing, not only for laylines and starts, but also in shallow areas of the
course where encountering a wave train could seriously ruin your day. The left
hand side of the course was favoured on the beats with a wind bend and
increased pressure under the cliffs of the river mouth. We had 3 steady races
(positions of 16, 15, 14) with no major mistakes but felt that we had a tough
draw and looked forward to the next series of racing after regrouping.
Day
2 of qualification saw strong, gusty offshore winds of 15-25 knots moderating
later in the day. Having been regrouped into blue, we had excellent starts at
the pin end and selected the correct side of the beats to get into some really
good positions. Positions of 14, 11 and 9 proved good enough to get us into the
Silver group after qualification (fleet divided into gold fleet of 25, silver
fleet of 35 and bronze fleet of 35). Although we were pleased to have made the
cut in such a competitive fleet, we had left plenty of points out on the race
course with a capsize in the final race and some gear problems with our
spinnaker cleat in the first couple of races.
Day
3 of racing proved expensive for us (positions of DNF, DNC and 28). On a day
with onshore breeze of 15-20 knots and big waves offshore on Bravo course, we
had a capsize during an over ambitious gybe hoist at the weather mark,
resulting in broken battens and a torn mainsail. As a consequence, we collected
maximum points for the first 2 races of the day. Having just made it back to
the race area for the final race of the day, we sailed steadily until the final
downwind, when we had a pitchpole and lost several positions. The standard of
racing in the Silver fleet in these conditions was high. Unlike in the bronze
fleet, it is clearly not good enough to simply stay upright and achieve good
positions by overtaking those who capsize.
Day
4 of racing for the Silver Fleet was a light wind day. With 35 boats on a short
start line there was no room for manoeuvre and advisable to reserve your place
on the line at least 2 minutes before the gun. In the first couple of races the
left hand side of the beat was clearly favoured so keeping clear air on
starboard tack after the start was really important. After a couple of
extremely sub-optimal starts, we found ourselves towards the back of the pack
at the windward mark, but fought back in both races to get 24 and 26. In the
final race we found good lanes of clear air on the first beat and a couple of
good lifts to reach the weather mark in the top 15, and showed some good speed
to overtake to finish 11. After 2 discards this left us in a final position of
56, leaving several professional teams behind us.
The
European Championships proved to be a good test of boathandling, strategical
and tactical ability and saw 12 good races sailed in a variety of wind, sea
state and tidal conditions. I was pleased with our performance in the
qualification series, as we had made a conscious effort to take a more
aggressive approach to qualification. It was good to make the grade for the
silver fleet. The DNC day once again proved the importance of flawless
boathandling and gear reliability. Apart from that day we had a consistent
series with some good starts (whilst avoiding the ever-present black flags) and
no disaster races.
Most
importantly, the last couple of years of 49er racing have been a major learning
curve for the team. We have gone from being backmarkers in the UK fleet (consisting
of about 40 active teams) to regularly finishing in the top 5 at UK circuit
events. At an international level, our performance has improved as our
experience of these events has grown. Having spent most of my dinghy sailing
life as a singlehander, the team aspect of the campaign has been challenging
but also rewarding. We have reached the stage where a further leap in
performance will require us to sail professionally, as I believe that we are
doing as much as possible on an amateur basis at the moment.
The
campaign is now winding down and we will probably sell both boats in the near
future. Below is a summary of our international results to date in 2003:
Hyeres Olympic Classes Regatta:36
(of 53) Silver Fleet
Spa Olympic Classes Regatta: 39 (of 55) Silver Fleet
Kiel Week for Olympic Classes: 56 (of 78) Bronze
Fleet
European
49er Championships: 56 (of 94) Silver Fleet
Our
qualification for the World Championships is currently hanging in the balance.
In the meantime, I will be competing in the 9er International Open in Plymouth
with my Knysna Yacht Club teammate, Mark Gale, because my regular front man is
starting a time-consuming new job in neurosurgery on Monday. I plan to return
to Cape Town next year to study my MBA, but look forward to the possibility of
more competitive sailing at an international level in the forthcoming years.”
The 2003 ISAF Youth World Championships ended in Madeira, Portugal on Saturday. The South
African team faired reasonably well in this regatta. They certainly didn’t set
the event on fire but all recorded reasonable results and were competitive in
the middle of the fleet. Certainly they all showed that they have the potential
to be competitive at international level, which is encouraging. In his second
youth world championship Laser sailor Richard Hutton-Squire performed the best.
With some time left in the youth category our other both Megan Clayton and the
Robinson brothers have a good opportunity to build on their efforts at this
regatta. In being competitive in this event the Robinson’s had the toughest
task in that they had never seen a 420 much before the regatta started. They
are fortunate that they had the opportunity to train in the UK before the
regatta under the guidance of one of the UK’s top yachtsmen. The value of
training time such as this cannot be understated and is something that South
African yachtsmen competing overseas all too often miss out on. It also
confirms that it is possible for sailors to be competitive internationally in
boats that they have not been exposed to locally. The ISAF Youth Worlds is an
event that carries a great deal of prestige internationally with some countries
putting a great deal of effort into their team preparation for the regatta.
While SAS has in the past sent a coach to this event with the team this is
something that has not happened for the last few youth worlds. Committing a
coach to the team as far as possible in advance of the regatta, having him or
her work with the team beforehand and then at the event would probably go a
long way towards improving our results at this event. Is anyone listening?
Maybe it can happen for next years ISAF Youth Worlds which are set to take
place in Poland. The South African team positions after eleven races are as
follows:
|
Laser Boys |
Richard Hutton-Squire |
22nd (33 Entries) |
|
Laser Girls |
Megan Clayton |
18th (24 Entries) |
|
420 Boys |
Ricky & Brennan Robinson |
19th (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
Hobie 14 Worlds are took place in Germany last week as part of the
Travemunder Woche Regatta. There were 67 entries in this Hobie 14 class
including Philip Du Toit from South Africa. Philip flew the SA flag high
finishing 6th overall at the end of the 11-race regatta. He started
well with a 2nd in race one and a 3rd in race three but
was caught short in the fifth race when he was late for the start, along with
several other boats, when the wind died between races. He then recorded another
2nd place in race 7 but seemed to struggle a little after that only
getting into the top ten again in race 10 when he was 9th. South Africa has a good track record in the
Hobie class and it is good to see it was continued at this regatta. Sixth place
in a world championship is an extremely good result. You can find the full
results from this regatta at http://www.travemuender-woche.net/start.phtml.
The 505 Worlds are taking place in Malmo, Sweden this week after
the pre-worlds which were sailed last week. In the 6 race pre-worlds series
Zimbabweans Patrick McCosh and Dennis Lapham placed 21st overall
with South Africa’s Albrecht Holm and Warwick Han in 34th place.
Rudolph Holm and Leon Prinsloo were 4 places back in 38th place, one
place ahead of Tony Murray and Kobus Holtzhausen in 39th. Hans
Rogotski and Peter Roos, who didn’t sail two of the races, ended in 49th
position in the 66 boat fleet. The worlds proper started on Sunday with 85
boats entered. Three races have been sailed so far in mostly light conditions
on the first day in which two races were sailed and fresher conditions on the
second day when only one race was sailed. Previous world champions Wolfgang
Hunger and Holger Jess of Germany, who won the previous worlds sailed in Europe
two years ago, lead the fleet after three races with two firsts and a second.
This gives them a comfortable 8 point lead over second placed Brits, Ian
Pinnell and Steve Hunt. Top South Africans at this stage are Hans Rogotski and
Peter Roos who are in 52nd position. The regatta continues until
Friday and you can follow the progress on the web at http://mss.m.se/vm505%202003.htm. The top three and the South
African positions after 3 races are as follows:
|
1st |
Wolfgang
Hunger & Holger Jess |
GER |
4
Points |
|
2nd |
Ian
Pinnell & Steve Hunt |
GBR |
12 |
|
3rd |
Howard
Hamlin & Peter Alarie |
USA |
19 |
|
52nd |
Hans
Rogotski & Peter Roos |
RSA |
156 |
|
57th
|
Patrick
McCosh & Dennis Lapham |
ZIM |
168 |
|
58th
|
Tony
Murray & Kobus Holtzhausen |
RSA |
168 |
|
68th
|
Albrecht
Holm & Warwick Han |
RSA |
197 |
|
75th
|
Rudolph
Holm & Leon Prinsloo |
RSA |
216 |
Also
taking place at the moment are the Optimist World Championships, which are being sailed in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain. This is the
second largest Optimist Worlds ever with 221 entries, of which 35 are girls,
taking part. Racing started on Saturday and to date 5 races have been sailed,
all in 10 to 12 knots of wind. For the latest news and results from the regatta
visit http://www.optiworld.org/ioda-news.html. The top three and the South
African positions after 5 races are as follows:
|
1st |
Greg
Carey |
GBR |
22
Points |
|
2nd |
Niklas
Dackhammar |
SWE |
28 |
|
3rd |
Ryutaro
Kawai |
JPN |
33 |
|
171st
|
Rudi
McNeil |
RSA |
255 |
|
178th |
Brett
Stirk |
RSA |
267 |
|
183rd |
Aaron
Larkens |
RSA |
276 |
|
197th |
Alexander
McClarty |
RSA |
298 |
|
206th |
Sam
Waterson |
RSA |
307 |
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 |
|
UCT Yacht Club, Zeekoeivlei |
2 & 3 August |
|
|
Denysville Aquatic Club |
8, 9 & 10 August |
|
|
Albert Falls Yacht Club |
9 & 10 August |
|
|
Pretoria Sailing Club |
9 & 10 August |
|
|
Transvaal Catamaran Club |
23 & 24 August |
|
|
Hout Bay Yacht Club |
11 to 14 September |
|
|
RCYC & HBYC |
11 September |
|
|
HBYC & FBYC |
12 September |
|
|
2003 Nationals for 36" Shipmate, IOM and RM
Class Radio Yachts |
Henley Midmar Yacht Club |
20 to 27 September |
|
RNYC Windhoek Regatta |
Royal Natal Yacht Club |
24 to 28 Septembet |
|
Henley Midmar Yacht Club |
3 to 5 October |
|
|
Chelmsford Boating Club |
4 & 5 October |
|
|
Various Clubs |
10 to 12 October |
|
|
Nautical Nomads Society |
25 & 26 October |
|
|
Albert Falls Yacht Club |
25 & 26 October |
|
|
Hout Bay Yacht Club |
15 & 16 November |
|
|
FBYC & HBYC |
22 November |
|
|
False Bay to St Helena Island |
29 November 2003 |
|
|
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
Flash
Optimist
-- No Limits
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Sail No RSA
1144
White with
dark blue trim.
Immaculate
condition, complete and ready to sail .
Includes
galvanised dolly, spare sails, spare bouyancy bags,
McSon
original foils,spare rudder blade and top cover.
R 6 000-00
Contact:
Victor Hassan
Cell: 082 654
6919
E-mail: woodwork@absamail.co.za
Andrew Heathcote
Mobile: +27 (0) 83 783 8805
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