Smooth Sailing
Sailing
News By A Sailor For Sailors!
In
Association with:
Texwise Musto Carribean Suit Competition
Vasco Mauritius Race Open Meeting
Maritzburg Radio Boat Club News
Two Jules Verne Trophy Attempts Underway
IRC For The 2004 Sydney Hobart Race
With a good deal of interest in the event and confirmed participation
from several top yachts already the organisers of the 2004 Inhaca Race received a further boost last week with MACS Shipping coming on board as the title sponsor for the race.
The race will now be known as the MACS Inahaca Race 2004
and is due to start off Inhaca Island at 10:00 on 9 April 2004. At present it
looks like the race will be the battle of the 42 footers with 5 Fast 42's
entered and a possibility of another 2 Fast 42's and one or two
Leisure 42's still to come. The organisers are hoping to get 20 entries in the race from
the racing yachts, cruising yachts and the catamarans. The MACS
INHACA RACE 2004 will be sailed under the Zululand Yacht Club PHRF handicap
system with provision made for one design classes and an IRC class if there are
4 or more boats in a class or with a IRC handicap. The big plus to the race is
to get up to the Island a week before and spend time fishing, snorkelling,
eating the locally prepared seafoods and just relaxing and enjoying time on
the island. For more details on
the race please contact Don Voysey on
083 777 2957 or Heather at the ZYC race office on 035 7880256.
The winner of Texwise’s Musto Caribbean Suit Competition was Tiffany Humphries who entered the competition at the Texwise stand at the recent Round the Island Race. The suit is breathable, stylish & practical so I am sure that Tiffany will be staying dry and looking good on and off the water in the near future! For more information on Texwise or their extensive range of products visit their website at www.texwise.co.za.
The Mykonos Offshore
Regatta takes place this coming weekend with
the first part of the event being an offshore race on Friday from Table Bay to
Langebaan. The organisers sent us the following update on this year’s event:
“The Mykonos Offshore Regatta remains one of
the most popular regattas in the Western Cape. Sailed from Royal Cape Yacht
Club and hosted by Club Mykonos Resort and Casino, it is an ideal venue for
some fast sailing and great partying with true West Coast hospitality thrown in
for good measure.
Dates
this year are:
Friday
13th February 2004 – Downwind Dash from RCYC to Club Mykonos,
Saturday 14th February 2004 – Bay Pursuit Race starting at 10h30 and
finishing at approx 16h30. Prizegiving Party on the Marina Terrace at Club
Mykonos with live band, Haywire, providing the “joll”.
The
big and beautiful Warrior, owned by Phil Gutsche from Port Elizabeth, sails
down every year and stirs up the big boat class with veteran Rick Nankin in the
driving seat. Auto Atlantic Thunderchild is also a regular campaigner, and can
boast of sailing every Mykonos Regatta except for the years when she sailed the
Cape to Rio races.
The
2003 Class One winner, Picasso, a Sovereign 54 skippered by Hylton Hale and
ably assisted by a young and keen crew will be back again this year to defend
their title. New kid on the block, Naledi the new J120 owned by Felix Scheder
Bieschin is eager to show what she can do in Class One. The L34 Class, always a
strong fleet, will be sailing in Class One this year, and the boat to watch
will be Sensation, skippered by Mark Sadler who will be sailing his heart out
to beat the big boys. Korean Motors Jika, a J&V ¾ tonner owned and sailed
by Dale Kushner, will be sure to try to make Mark’s job a difficult one.
The
S A Navy will be making their presence felt with two entries for Mykonos 2004 –
the Fast 42 MTU Fascination of Power and Spirit of the Fleet (ex Get More Fun)
will be putting in a serious challenge I Class 1, and the bar talk is that
there will be a couple of serious “rock stars” lending a hand to make these
boats get up and fly….. hmmm………..interesting!
In
Class Two, the smaller but no less competitive boats will be trying to oust the
J27 Hill Billy, from the front of the fleet where Peter Hill sailed a wily
campaign last year to secure a comfortable lead and take home the silverware.
With
miles of blue water in Saldahna Bay and Langebaan Lagoon to play in, the fleet
of 50 plus boats will sail a 25 mile pursuit race on Saturday, with the
smallest boat starting at 10h30 in the morning, followed by the rest of the
fleet, and last but not least, Warrior, who will thunder around the course and
make it look like a walk in the park!
The now legendary
prize giving party on the Marina Terrace at Club Mykonos will round off a
superb weekend, and the only thing left to do will be to start planning the
2005 Mykonos Offshore Regatta!”
The Race Organisers of both the 2004 Vasco Da
Gama Ocean Race and the proposed 2005 Mauritius to Durban Race are hosting an
open meeting on Thursday 12th February. This will take place at 18:00 in Royal
Natal Yacht Club’s the Trafalgar Room. Topic of discussion is an update on this
year’s Vasco Race and the Mauritius to Durban race in 2005. Prospective
entries as well as persons with experience in previous Mauritius to Durban
Races (Race organisation specifically) are welcome to come along and make
suggestions. For more information contact Dave Claxton directly at function@iafrica.com.
Des
Fairbank sent us the following news from the ever-active Maritzburg Radio Boat Club:
“The
Maritzburg Radio Yacht Club sailed their third 36” Shipmate League on Saturday
afternoon.
An excellent turnout of twelve skippers and still with several regulars
not present. We are waiting for the day when we will have everyone who has been
sailing in the last three months all on the water together. We could see twenty
boats on the water shortly. Unfortunately this will not happen in the next few
weeks as I have two boats at home after the weekend to have new fins and
rudders fitted. I have removed one fin and busy preparing the hull. I have said
a few times already that in the time it takes do the conversion I could have
put a new boat together. Saturday was overcast to start with a light variable wind
which after three long races disappeared altogether. It picked up enough to
enjoy a further three races before the heavens opened and we packed up for the
day.
Results after six
races:
1. Des 5
2. Keith 7
3. Guy 14
4. Robert 19
5. Richard 21
6. Robin Mc. 22
7. Anthony 23
8. Martin 25
9. Neal 30
10. Caroline 31
11. Robin 45
12. Alex 47
As a result of
the Keith Mackey and HMYC 9 Hour there is a break in MRYC activities until
Saturday 28 February.”
The Henley
Midmar Yacht Club’s 9-Hour Race takes place in only two weeks time,
on the 21st of February. The closing date for early entries is
Friday the 13th of February, which is four days away. Those who fail
to get their entries in before then will find themselves making a R50-00
donation to the NSRI although that is not entirely a bad thing! Word from HMYC
is that we can expect a sizeable fleet of Hunters, always strong on their home
waters, while there should be a good number of dinghies of various shapes and
sizes from around KZN. This is one of the more sociable sailing events on the
calendar and attracts a wide variety of boats all racing for the same trophy on
a handicap basis. Some sailors may be a little concerned at the water level in
Midmar Dam, which has been precariously low of late. The good news however is
that the dam is now up to 41% full and that’s at the new level. Where the water
is now would have been about 50% at the old level so while it is still by no
means full there is plenty of water to sail on. There will be some great prizes
on offer at this year’s event while the bar and canteen will be open all
weekend. Braai fires will also be available on Friday and Saturday evening on
the verandah outside the bar. For more information download the Notice
of Race from the Smooth Sailing Notices of Race web page.
An
interesting round the world race of sorts started this weekend with two
attempts on the Jules Verne Trophy,
for the fastest yacht to sail around the world, getting underway. Saturday saw
Steve Fossett’s catamaran Cheyenne, formerly known as Playstation, setting off.
She was followed on Sunday morning by Olivier DeKersauson’s trimaran Geronimo.
Both are aiming at the current record of 64 days that was set by Bruno Peyron
on Orange in 2002. Both DeKersauson and Fossett have taken advantage of a good
weather window to get their record attempts underway. DeKersauson is openly
saying though that he is only committed to starting the record attempt and that
if the weather patterns don’t play ball he will happily turn back to the start
and wait for a better window. Both Cheyenne and Geronimo are currently
experiencing light conditions with Cheyenne averaging 12.5 knots after the
first two days of her voyage. This shouldn’t be much bother to the crew at this
stage. They know that there is a long way to sail and speeds are sure to
increase as they head further south. Both boats have their web sites on which
one can track their progress and it will be interesting to see how they go as
they head south down the Atlantic. While both are very large and powerful boats
it will be interesting to see how they fare against one another. Geronimo is a
trimaran and a far newer vessel than Cheyenne, which was probably the first of
this generation of maxi catamaran to be launched. What could make things even
more interesting is that the current record holder, Bruno Peyron, is apparently
itching to get cracking on a record attempt of his own in his newly launched
124 foot cat, Orange II. Having been launched late last year, and being
significantly bigger than the previous Orange, Orange II should be comfortably
faster than both Geronimo and Cheyenne. That doesn’t mean it’s a sure thing
that she will be quicker than them around the world though. Only 30% of Jules
Verne record attempts are successful! We will keep you updated as things
progress but in the meantime check out the following interesting web sites:
Cheyenne’s Web Site: www.fossettchallenge.com
Geronimo’s Web Site: www.trimaran-geronimo.com
World Sailing Speed Record Council: www.sailspeedrecords.com
The
Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, hosts of the annual Rolex
Sydney to Hobart Race made a major announcement this weekend when
they confirmed that the overall winner of the 2004 race would be the IRC
Handicap winner. According to the commodore of the CYCA the
decision was taken in light of the growing number of IRC measured yachts in
Australia and the similarly declining number of IMS measured boats. This is
another feather in the cap for IRC, which continues to grow around the world.
He did however comment, “Whilst the IRC
rule has now has gained international recognition through the International
Sailing Federation (ISAF), it was not designed as a rating rule for grand prix
boats and is not an open and transparent rating system. Thus the CYCA does not
see it as a long term replacement for IMS as the handicap category for the
Tattersalls Cup.” It will be interesting then to see how long IRC stays in
favour with the organisers of this race but given the apparent lack of any suitable
alternatives I would be that IRC would be in for a pretty long time! IRC is
already well established in South African and is, by my experience, the only
reliable and fair system in use in the country today. For more information on
IRC go to www.rorc.org.
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, Royal Natal & Zululand
Yacht Clubs and Club Naval, Maputo |
December 2003 to July 2004 |
|
|
Club Mykonos, Langebaan |
13 & 14 February |
|
|
Sterkfontein Dam |
14 & 15 February |
|
|
Henley Midmar Yacht Club |
21 February |
|
|
Vaal Dam |
21 & 22 February |
|
|
Milnerton Aquatic Club |
28 & 29 February |
|
|
Benoni Sailing Club |
28 & 29 February |
|
|
Henley Midmar Yacht Club |
13 & 14 March |
|
|
Point Yacht Club |
20 to 22 March |
|
|
Mossel Bay Yacht Club |
20 to 22 March |
|
|
Island Sailing Club |
27 & 28 March |
|
|
Zululand Yacht Club |
9 April |
|
|
Point Yacht Club Easter Regatta Including Sprog, 505
& Dart kZN Champs |
Point Yacht Club |
9 to 12 April |
|
Hoedjiesbaai Beach, Saldahna Bay |
9 to 12 April |
|
|
Algoa Bay Yacht Club |
24 to 30 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
Good condition.
New centreboard.
Includes two sets of
sails, dolly and boat cover.
Also included is an
unlicensed road trailer.
On view at Benoni
Sailing Club.
R6 500-00
Contact: Leon Stander
Cell 082-873-6611
Work: 011-817 9300
Home: 011-817 1836
Complete new
paint
New sheets
genny ok spinaker ok main old
Has all
extras motor cusions etc
R20 000-00
Parked on
shore at TYC
Contact: Ken
Bishop
Cell: 083 631 3856
Fully
equipped for extensive blue water cruising
27HP Yanmar
engine.
Includes
chain mooring in Durban.
R350 000-00
Contact Don
Sellars
Cell: 072 354
9724
E-Mail: donsellars@absamail.co.za
In very good
condition
Lots of
extras and one year old motor
R89 000-00
Contact: Leo
Harford
Phone:
021-465 5548
Cell: 082 923 6126.
Contact: Hennie
De Villiers
'CRACKER'
R60 000-00
Includes sails
Trailer and mooring
Contact: Andrew Murray
Phone: 031-467 8190 (a/h)
Wooden Extra
in racing trim for sale.
Condition
excellent, made by Stephen du Toit.
Kept
permanently indoors and seldom sailed in past few years.
R9 500-00
Includes
spare sails, dolly and cover.
Contact: John
Sibbald
Work 021-762
5067
Home: 021-786
3012
Cell: 082 658 2490
2 X full sets
of sails
Boat totally
recently refurbished thus in mint condition
Lying
Haartbeespoort Dam
R45 000-00
including mooring
Contact:
Geoff
Cell: 083 321
1485
Magic Box
Composite Hull
Recently refurbished
Includes licensed
trailer and dolly, sails and cover
Won 2001 Nationals
R8 000-00
Contact: Kim Davies
Cell: 082-780-8357
E-Mail: timbercuisine@wol.co.za
WANTED
Hobie 16
Any condition.
Contact: Lorraine
Cell: 084 611 4889
Contact: Simon Waterkyn
In
Gauteng area
Contact: Niel Ellingson
Cell:
073 224 0945
Optimist
In sailing condition.
Will pay cash.
Contact: David Untiedt
Cell: 082 8881734
Andrew Heathcote
Mobile: +27 (0) 83 783 8805
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