Smooth Sailing
Sailing
News By A Sailor For Sailors!
In
Association with:
Host
City for 2007 America’s Cup Announced
Clipper Round
The World Race 2005
Durban Keeler
Safety Inspections
The Host City for the 32nd
America’s Cup, which will take place in 2007, was announced earlier today with
Valencia in Spain coming out on top. Valencia was chosen ahead of Marseilles,
Naples and Lisbon after a selection process that has gone on since shortly
after Alinghi won the cup earlier this year. When Alinghi won the cup there was
much jubilation that it would be sailed for in Europe for the first time and
speculation that this would lead to a record number of challengers. That
initial euphoria has made way for a more sober reality though and it is looking
increasingly like there will be fewer challengers for this cup match than there
were for the last. One of the reasons for this is that the two biggest
syndicates, Alinghi and Oracle, both have the majority of their staff, and
certainly their sailing teams contracted and employed. It seems that there are
few sailors out their with cup winning ability who are not employed by one of
these two. Both have the vast resources of billionaires behind them and it
seems that there are few who are going to be able to raise the kind of money
required to match them. Seasoned campaigners like Dennis Conner have already
stated that they wont be there for the next cup match with Conner’s Stars And
Stripes boats just having been sold to an new Italian outfit. Also out is the
Prada team who suffered from temperamental leadership in the last event. With
the host city now announced it shouldn’t be long before we see who is and isn’t
serious about the next America’s Cup. For more information visit www.americascup.com.
Saturday was just
another awesome afternoon for Dinghy Sailing on Durban Bay. A moderate
southwesterly breeze and a good length windward leeward course made for some
exciting racing. It all started a little late after the rugby went into extra
time but no one seemed to mind with possibly the biggest fleet of the season
taking to the water. Despite the late start two races were sailed and the long
summer evening meant that everyone was off the water long before the sun went
down. It was a great afternoon’s racing and one which has certainly got
everyone who was there itching for more next week. Hopefully there will be even
more boats on the water next time round! Sailing next Saturday will again be
hosted by the RNYC who are running the first round of their new dinghy series
so it all starts over again!
Conditions for Sunday’s Two-Handed Race for Keelers were extremely pleasant with a very light southerly breeze and a flat
sea. This meant that boat handling skills weren’t put to the test as much as they
might have been although the their boat speed skills were seriously tested as
they tried to get the best out of their boats in the light airs. An excellent
fleet of 17 boats took to the water for the race. Of these 6 were in the racing
class, 4 were micro multihulls and 7 cruisers so there was a good spread. The
light conditions meant that it was a slow race for some with the last of the
cruisers taking nearly four and a half hours to finish the race. The winners in
each of the classes were as follows:
|
Racing |
Container World Challenge |
Terry Flynn & Andrew Tarboton |
|
Micro-Multihull |
Magic Dragon |
Bill Ellens |
|
Cruising |
Raine |
Brain
Barry Millar |
The
full results are available on the Smooth Sailing Racing Reports web page.
The Clipper 2005 Round The World Yacht Race was formally launched to the media at a
function at the Royal Natal Yacht Club in Durban last night. Race Director
Colin De Mowbray made a presentation detailing the history of the event and the
organiser’s plans for the 2005 race. It is envisaged that the race will cover
15 legs although many of the ports of call have yet to be finalised. The course
will take the fleet from Europe to Durban, down to Freemanlte, Australia, then
up to China and Japan, across to North America, down the American West Coast
and through the Panama Canal before heading up the East Coast and then back
across to Europe. Its quite an epic journey and certainly not a common route
for a round the world race to follow. The up side of this is that a lot of
cities like Durban that don’t often get to host races of this nature will have
the chance to host the fleet. The Durban City Council and it’s promotional arm,
Durban Africa, have negotiated a deal with Clipper Ventures that will not only
see Durban included as a stopover in the race but also means that one of the
yachts taking part will be named after the city. This presents an amazing
opportunity for the city to promote itself in each of the stopover ports along
the way so the marketing value for the city is enormous. For the 2005 race a
fleet of identical new 68-foot yachts is being built in China. Each of the
yachts will be crewed by an amateur team who will be paying for the privilege
of being on board. Its not a cheap ride though at £28 500-00 for the whole
race or a mere £6 000-00 for one of the shorter legs. The yachts will be
skippered by paid professionals who are selected by Clipper Ventures for the
job. While I it is hoped that they will find a suitable South African candidate
there are no guarantees so it could well be that the Durban entry is skippered
by a foreigner. So while this race doesn’t really offer much for the yachting
enthusiast other than the interest of seeing a fleet of big boats in Durban, it
should offer some benefits for the local yachting industry. At the end of a
long leg from Europe to Durban I would think that the fleet would need a fair
bit of maintenance from which the local industry should benefit. For more
information on the race visit www.clipper-ventures.com.
The time has come for the annual Keel Boat Safety Inspections to take place in Durban. These are vital
in order to ensure that your boat remains registered with the port and cleared
for sailing offshore Durban. Both the Point and Royal Natal Yacht Club will be
doing their safety inspections on the morning of Saturday the 29th
of November. The relevant inspection and registration forms are available from
either of the yacht clubs. It is worth remembering that when the boat is
inspected the Ship’s Radio Licence, Radio Operators Licence and Liferaft
Certificate need to be on board. For more information about the safety
inspections please contact either the Point Yacht viable locally.
The schedule of Sailing on TV for the next few days is as follows:
|
Watersports World |
Supersport
2 |
20:00 |
Monday
24th |
|
Watersports
World |
Supersport
2 |
06:00 |
Tuesday
25th |
|
Watersports
World |
Supersport
1 |
14:00 |
Tuesday
25th |
|
Watersports
World |
Supersport
2 |
21:00 |
Monday
1st |
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 |
|
Hout Bay to St Helena Island |
29 November 2003 |
|
|
Victoria Lake Club |
29 & 30 November 2003 |
|
|
Point, Royal Natal & Zululand
Yacht Clubs and Club Naval, Maputo |
December 2003 to July 2004 |
|
|
Spionkop Boating Club |
6 & 7 December |
|
|
Royal Natal Yacht Club Christmas Regatta - Flying
Fifteen Nationals & Hobie KZN Champs |
Royal Natal Yacht Club |
13 to 16 December |
|
Stillbaai Yacht Club |
13 to 16 December |
|
|
Royal Cape Yacht Club |
13 to 17 December |
|
|
Stutterheim Aquatic Club |
13 to 20 December |
|
|
Henley Midmar Yacht Club |
13 to 16 December |
|
|
Henley Midmar Yacht Club |
27 to 30 December |
|
|
Theewaters Sports Club |
27 to 31 December |
|
|
Lake Denys Yacht Club |
30 January to 1 February 2004 |
|
|
Glendee Yacht Club |
1 & 2 February |
|
|
HMYC 9-Hour Endurance Race |
Henley Midmar Yacht Club |
21 February |
|
Point Yacht Club |
20 to 22 March |
|
|
Hoedjiesbaai Beach, Saldahna Bay |
9 to 12 April |
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.
FOR SALE
3282
Supreme
racing condition, excellent racing record
Very recently
re-decked and refurbished
Custom made
brand new main and jib (Hyde Sails) together
Custom
engineered foils
Paul Green
mast, new dolly & top cover
Outstanding
racing deck layout.
R 12 000
Contact Peter
Funke
Cell: 072 245
0154
Home: 012-344
2438
E-mail: pfunke@xsinet.co.za
Sail No 735.
Lying at
Manten Marina.
Full set of
sails including spinnaker and pole.
Interior in
mint condition,
3.9 HP Volvo
Penta outboard sail motor included (Good running condition).
All sheets
new. Various safety equipment.
R19 000-00
Cell: 082 876
8366
Phone: 01-
868 5355
E-mail : markc@mdm-eng.co.za
Laser
Barely used
R15 000-00
Contact: Neil Burnett
Cell: 082 552 6436
E-Mail: neil@speakersofnote.co.za
WANTED
Contact:
Wilhelm Herbst
Phone: 011-324
0850
E-Mail: wherbst@msq.co.za
Preferably
diesel & 2nd hand
8 to 12 hp
Contact: Andrew
Heathcote
E-Mail: andrew@smoothsailing.co.za
Any Condition.
Preferably well used.
(To keep the price down.)
Contact: Trevor Emmett
Cell: 082-555 0162
Mail: trevor@test-a-relay.co.za
Hull
with/without trailer and sails
In the
Gauteng area
Graham Danney
073 236 0495
Andrew Heathcote
Mobile: +27 (0) 83 783 8805
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