Smooth Sailing
Sailing
News By A Sailor For Sailors!
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From tomorrow onwards there is a heap of sailing taking place around
the country with several regatta starting tomorrow and even more getting
underway on Wednesday. These are taking place all around the country so
wherever you live there is almost no excuse for not taking part in one of them.
Actually, I can think of one valid excuse as I will not be taking part in any
of them, which is not very good at all, but sometimes these sacrifices have to
be made! There are at least five national championships taking place amongst
these events, which is also a good thing. It would be interesting to know just
how many sailors are taking part in all these regattas, perhaps that’s
something I will try and work out while I am not sailing this coming week! Just
through the sheer number of events that are taking place our sport would appear
to be in a healthy state. This cannot be a bad thing and I hope that we are
able to capitalise on this general upswing and make it grow even further. After
all, summer is only just starting!
ISAF Sailing
World Championships
Maria
Cha IV The Word’s Largest& Fastest Racing Monohull
Your
Weekend Weather, according to the SA Weather Service, will be as follows:
Durban
& Richard’s Bay: Saturday will
be 25 degrees and cloudy becoming partly cloudy with a chance of afternoon and
evening thunderstorms. The wind will be a light northerly but a moderate
southwesterly in the afternoon. Sunday will be 20 degrees and cloudy with a 40%
chance of occasional rain. The wind will be a moderate southwesterly.
Midmar: Saturday will be 24 degrees and partly cloudy
becoming cloudy with a chance of afternoon and evening thunderstorms. Sunday
will be 18 degrees and partly cloudy becoming cloudy with a 30% chance of
afternoon and evening rain. The wind will be a light southeasterly.
Vaal
Dam: Saturday will be 28 degrees and
fine with a moderate northwesterly wind blowing. Sunday will be 25 degrees and
fine with a moderate southwesterly wind blowing.
Cape
Town: Saturday will be 16 degrees
and cloudy with a 60% chance of morning and evening showers. The wind will be a
strong northwesterly. Sunday will be 17 degrees and partly cloudy with a strong
southeasterly wind blowing.
Tomorrow, Saturday, sees the final round of the UNYC Winter Series being sailed on Durban Bay. After last weeks terrible
bout of cold rainy weather this Saturday looks to be vastly improved. There
will be good breeze and it will be a bit overcast but nothing like as ghastly
as last Saturday so there is no reason for anyone not to get themselves and
their dinghy onto the water. In the Flying Fifteen Class in particular things
are set for a titanic battle with Peter Morgenrood and James Kier set for a
thrilling showdown with Jeremy Kriek and Patrick Harris. Last Saturday
Morgenrood and Kier broke Kriek and Harris’s 14 race winning streak. Tomorrow
they will be looking to continue their own purple patch and win the series.
With most Sprog and Laser sailors not having sailed last weekend both these
classes remain pretty open but there should be some good racing nonetheless.
The first of two scheduled races is set to start on the bay at 14:00 sharp.
Racing is on the deepwater course with the bright yellow L26 Galactica once
again doing committee boat duty. Prize giving will follow after racing in the
UNYC Caprice where the cheapest non-shebeen beer in Durban will once again be
on sale! See you there!
The
Sharks take on Griquas at the Absa Stadium in Durban
tomorrow afternoon. Once again this is a game that the Sharks should win easily
but they shouldn’t be too complacent, as Griquas have put in some good
performances this season, most notably when they beat the Lions. Having turned
in a relatively poor performance last weekend the Sharks will be keen to
impress the home crowd tomorrow afternoon. Kick off is at 15:00 and the game
will be televised live on Supersport. Going sailing is probably a better option
though!
The Durban Opening Cruise takes place on Sunday morning and looks to be one of
the events of the year in Durban. The list of dignitaries is quite impressive
and includes the mayor of Durban who will be taking the salute along with the
Commodores of the PYC and RNYC on board the catamaran Sapristi. All yachts
taking part need to gather in the mustering area, which is to the east of
T-Jetty, near the new wharf construction that is taking place. Sapristi will be
on station at 11:00 when the sail past will start, led by the PYC’s well known
committee boat, Husky. She will be followed by the PYC keeler, dinghy, junior
and rescue fleet followed by the RNYC and ISC and BYC fleets also in that
order. After the sail past there will be a fun race on the Wednesday evening
course with a dinghy start at 12:00, a racing keeler start at 12:05 and a
cruising keeler start at 12:10. From 14:00 onwards there will be a braai on the
deck at PYC’s Charlie’s Bar with a selection of meats and salads available.
There will also be live music by the band Gatling. All in all it should be a
good days sailing and entertainment and one that should be attended by all
Durban yachties! See you there.
At the ISAF Sailing
World Championships racing has started in all the classes in which
South African sailors are taking part. In the Laser fleet Gareth Blankenburg
started off well with a second in the first race of the regatta but managed
only a 20th in race two to leave him in 40th position.
Brice Keen recorded a 34th and a 35th in the two races
sailed, which Paul Willcox got a 39th and a 41st. Nearly
180 Lasers are sailing in this regatta with the fleet currently being split up
into groups for the qualifying rounds before being split into gold, silver and
bronze fleets. Its still early days though in a tough regatta and I am sure
that we will see some big place changes before the finals start. In the Star
class, in which 83 boats are sailing, Charles Nankin and Marc Largesse are
currently lying 62nd overall. This is after 6 races in which they
have recorded a 33rd, 32nd, 29th, 33rd,
28th and a 16th. There are 72 boats sailing in the
Tornado class where Duncan Ross and Roger Hudson are lying in 35th
place after two races. They have finished 38th and 28th
in the two races sailed so far. According to reports I have read on the net it
sounds like conditions have been near perfect with 15 to 18 knot winds. It does
however sound like the wind is not that steady with some of the top contenders
admitting to having got their strategies very wrong at times. You can follow
the regatta on the web at www.cadizworlds2003.com.
In San Francisco the America’s Cup holder Alinghi is doing
battled in a unique one on one regatta with the challenger of record for the next
cup match, Oracle, in the Moet Cup. This is a series of match races taking
place on the San Francisco water front, arguably one of the worlds best
spectator venues for sailing. With these two yachts racing directly in front of
the city with the Golden Gate Bridge and the infamous Alcatraz Island in the
background it is certainly quite a spactacle. What makes this series even more
interesting is that it is being sailing in two halves with an Owner/Driver
Series and a Pro-Driver Series. Two races are being sailed on each day of
racing with the owners, Ernesto Bertarelli and Larry Ellison taking the wheel
in the Owner/Driver Series while the hired guns, Chris Dickson and Jochem
Schuemann in the Pro-Driver Series. In the Pro-Driver Series Alinghi has had to
come from behind to level the series at two wins each after four races while in
the Owner Driver Series Oracle is currently two one ahead. The aim of the
regatta is to keep their teams active in the downtime between America’s Cup
matches, to continue their research and development programs and to maintain
long term interest in a class that has until now only really been active for
six months every four or five years. There are some fantastic images from the
regatta on the Golden Gate Yacht Club’s web site at http://ggyc001.securesites.net/moet. For something a
little more out of the ordinary though you can log onto http://cams.exploratorium.edu/CAM2/. This is the web site of a web camera that has
a view of the boats heading up to and rounding the windward mark. You need to
check it out pretty late at night though as San Francisco time is quite a long
way behind SA time!
At the Royal Natal Yacht Club there is a lot on this weekend. Tonight, Friday the
19th of September they are having a Piano & Cocktail Evening
with Ashley Roberts playing from 19:00 to 21:00. The full ala carte menu will
be available for diners so this should be one of the better dinner venues in
Durban tonight! Another reason to consider dining at the club tonight, or any
other time this weekend is that the Seafood Special is almost over. If you
haven’t taken advantage of this fantastic deal yet do so before its too late. A
fine platter of prawns, calamari, line fish, langoustines and mussels with a
complimentary bottle of Drosty-Hof Extra Light or Graca for only R90-00 per
person, this is really not worth missing.
Maria Cha IV, the worlds largest, and possibly fastest racing monohull was launched
recently. The 140 foot twin masted schooled boasts the latest in high tech
gadgetry and unlike her predecessor, Maria Cha III, which was a high
performance, well appointed cruiser, this boat is an out and out racing
machine. Her program involves many record attempts and she will be making an
attempt on the Transatlantic record in the next month or so. Mostly though she
is an exceptional boat to look at and has been extensively photographed in the
last few weeks. To see some good quality images of this impressive beast of a
yacht in action go to http://www.thmartinez.com/. Its well
worth your while as this is the web site of world-renowned yachting
photographer Thierry Martinez and is packed with impressive images.
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 |
|
GBYC & FBYC |
23 & 24 August & 20, 21,
24, 27 & 28 September |
|
|
Aeolians Club |
20 to 22 September |
|
|
False Bay Yacht Club |
20 to 28 September |
|
|
False Bay Yacht Club |
20, 21, 24, 27 & 28 September |
|
|
2003 Nationals for 36" Shipmate, IOM and RM
Class Radio Yachts |
Henley Midmar Yacht Club |
20 to 27 September |
|
Sterkfontein Dam |
24 to 28 September |
|
|
Royal Natal Yacht Club |
24 to 28 September |
|
|
Saldanha Bay |
24 to 28 September |
|
|
Denysville Aquatic Club |
24 to 28 September |
|
|
Henley Midmar Yacht Club |
3 to 5 October |
|
|
Hout Bay Yacht Club |
4 October |
|
|
Chelmsford Boating Club |
4 & 5 October |
|
|
Various Clubs |
10 to 12 October |
|
|
Simon’sberg Naval Base,
Simonstown |
10 to 12 October |
|
|
Nautical Nomads Society |
25 & 26 October |
|
|
Albert Falls Yacht Club |
Changed to 15 & 16 November |
|
|
Seal Point Yacht Club/Manten
Marina |
25 & 26 October |
|
|
Durban Radio Boat Club |
8 & 9 November |
|
|
Hout Bay Yacht Club |
15 & 16 November |
|
|
FBYC & HBYC |
22 November |
|
|
Hout Bay to St Helena Island |
29 November 2003 |
|
|
Spionkop Boating Club |
6 & 7 December |
|
|
Royal Cape Yacht Club |
13 to 17 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 andrew@smoothsailing.co.za.
WANTED
Contact: Julian Verbeek
Cell: 083 410 5978
E-Mail: JVBeek@anglogold.com
Andrew Heathcote
Mobile: +27 (0) 83 783 8805
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