Smooth Sailing
Sailing
News By A Sailor For Sailors!
In
Association with:
Optimist African Champs Cancelled
Justin Onvlee Wins Laser 4.7 World Champs
Team Shosholoza In The Swedish Match Tour
Russell
Coutts Fired
Mauritius To
Durban Race News
Smooth Sailing recently had the
opportunity to talk to top international yachtsman Mike Joubert who was helping out on board Shosholoza
in between his international commitments. Joubert who has competed in two Volvo
Ocean Races, on board Brunel Synergy and Assa Abbloy is one of the most highly
regarded bowmen in international yachting circles and enjoys the enviable job
of being able to sail on board the type of boats that the rest of us just dream
about! Although he wasn’t able to give us any details when we spoke, Joubert
will be taking part in his third Volvo Race next year. We spoke to him about
Shosholoza, the Volvo Race and why he looks forward to going back into the
Southern Ocean again! To read all about it though you will have to head over to
the Smooth Sailing web site where the interview is posted at www.smoothsailing.co.za/joubertinterview250704.asp.
The 2004 Optimist World Championships finished in Salinas, Equador, last
weekend with the South African team turning in a fairly predictable set of
results. The highlight of the regatta insofar as the South Africans were
concerned has to be Taariq Jacobs win in race 11 of the regatta. Jacobs also
managed a 10th in race 14 but that was pretty much it as far as the
good results were concerned. Jacobs ended the regatta in 115th
position with Rudy McNeil not far behind in 124th. After that the
next best SA sailor was Wayne Watkins in 175th place. Its fair to
say that on the whole these results are not encouraging. Now I know that I am
not going to be popular for saying this but given the vast expense and effort
that goes into getting these sailors to the Opi Worlds shouldn’t we be
expecting better results? Reality check, none of our sailors finished in the
top 50% of the fleet and 3 of our 5-member team finished in the bottom 25% of
the fleet. Now consider the price tag, somewhere in the region of twenty-five
to thirty thousand rand per sailor and that’s probably on the conservative
side. One final thing to consider, none of these sailors pay their own way, it
all comes out of parents pockets. And of course I haven’t taken into account
the cost to all the parents whose offspring don’t go to the worlds but compete
in all the selection regattas in the hope that they might secure themselves a
spot. When it comes to the worlds themselves the team is well coached and
managed but its probably all too little too late, well its certainly been that
way this year and last! The benefit of the experience is also limited only to
those 5 sailors who go to the regatta, and it is a very real benefit. While I
do question the value of this exercise I am not going to deny the huge value in
both sailing and life experience terms that the sailors who go to the regatta
get out of it. What I do think though is that the vast financial resources that
are committed to the worlds trip every year could rather be better spent at
home and to the benefit of more sailors. For a fraction of the cost of getting
selected and going to a worlds a top coach could be brought out for a month or
two, run coaching clinics throughout the country and benefit all the sailors in
the class. This would also remove the intense pressure that surrounds the
selections for this event. I am sure that in the long run we would be creating
more better sailors and possibly be putting in place the means to keep them in
the sport longer. Therein lies another point to consider, of the sailors who
have represented SA at Optimist Worlds in the last decade, how many are still
active in the sport? I don’t know but would bet that it’s less than 50%! I am
sure that this would be better for the sport and the Optimist class on the
whole! Of course we should still be sending sailors to the worlds, but only in
instances where we see a sailor or two who has the talent to make it right to
the top. The reality is that they are not that difficult to spot, it just
requires and independent third party to make that call, I am sure that it can
be done! The South Africans are currently positioned as follows in the regatta:
|
124th
|
Rudy
McNeil |
439
Points |
|
115th
|
Taariq
Jacobs |
416 |
|
175th
|
Wayne
Watkins |
654 |
|
208th
|
Daniel
Moreau |
800 |
|
210th
|
Andrew
Collier |
807 |
Follow the regatta online and view the full results at www.salinasyachtclub.org/optiworlds/index.htm.
Still on Optimists, I was interested to see that the Optimist African Champs, which had bee set to take place in
Algiers from the 18th to the 28th of August, were
cancelled late last week. The reasons cited for the cancellation of the event
included organizational difficulties and a lack of entries, with only 35
sailors having been entered in the regatta. The South African team that was to
have attended this regatta will now instead be taking part in the Optimist
European Champs, which are set to take place in Sandhamn, Sweden, from the 7th
to the 18th of August. The Africans was a relatively new concept
however was never really as competitive as one might have hoped it would be. In
fact it often looked to me like the South African Nationals was a harder
regatta to win than the Africans. While my concerns regarding the expense,
value of the experience versus the results that we are likely to achieve remain
the same as stated above I do think that when the money is being spent, its got
to be better spent on the Europeans than the African Champs. There is no doubt
that the standard of sailing at the Europeans is infinitely higher than at the
African Champs. If the aim of the exercise is to help these sailors prepare to
compete in a World Championships in a year or twos time then the European
Champs are definitely a far better regatta for them to be attending. The South
African Team that will be attending the Europeans is as follows:
David
Eastman & Matthew Shaw (Western Cape)
Claire
and Emma Walker and Vincenzo de Gennaro (KwaZulu-Natal)
Tim
Gibbons and Tim Forson from Gauteng (Northvaal)
Coach:
Rob Walker (KZN)
Manager
Angela Leigh (KZN)
When reporting on the Volvo ISAF Youth Worlds in the last issue of Smooth Sailing I
completely missed the fact that we also had a team competing in the multihull
division. Sailing a Hobie 16, complete with asymmetrical spinnaker, Oliver and
Evan Hobson finished 9th in the 11 strong fleet. To see the full
results visit the regatta web site at www.worldyouthsailingpoland.com.
South Africa’s Olympic hopeful Gareth
Blankenburg ended last weeks Laser European Champs in Warnemunde, Germany in 9th place. After lying 4th
in the early stages of the regatta Gareth endured yet another slump in the
second half of a major event that saw him slide down the table. The slide
started with a black flag in race 5 that was followed by a 26th and
a 36th in races 7 and 8 before he ended the event on a positive note
scoring to seconds in the final two races. Gareth definitely has the potential
to finish at the front but he does have an alarming tendency to slump after a
good start to a regatta. Hopefully this is something that he will be able to
work out and get over in the Olympic Regatta that takes place next month. For the full results visit the regatta web
site at www.laserchampionships.org/eur04/.
The big news of the week, and by far the biggest
international success that South Africa has had for a while, was Justin
Onvlee’s win in the Laser 4.7 World Championships. Below is a full
report on the regatta, a compilation of the daily reports sent out from the
event by Rob Onvlee:
Opening Ceremony
“For
the opening ceremony of the 2004 Laser 4.7 Worlds a short speech was given to
the competitors, in both English and Italian. A representative from each
country was then called to collect their flag and a signboard with their
country's name on. Once all +28 countries were ready, the parade began!
Following a marching band, we walked through some of the oldest streets of
Riva. We eventually made it to a city square where the mayor of Riva gave
a short speech to all the teams. When he finished, we made our way back to the
Fraglia yacht club for the reception. Free pasta and drinks were had by all,
teams and supporters alike. This may sound great, but after a week of nothing
but pasta, with even the boys' lunch pack consisting of pasta, we weren't
really hungry!
Race Day 1:
Justin Onvlee; 1st & 1st
Michael Bissett: 7th & 20th
Aaron Larkens: 10th & 10th
Sean Heydenrych: 23rd & 28th
For
the first race the team experienced 15-knot winds, and for the second race it
dropped to about 10 knots. The entire team had good boat speed upwind, but
lacking in the downwind (Lacking meaning: same speed as everyone else).
Unfortunately Aaron was protested and was dealt with arbitration. The
competition has been tough. With the 280 Laser 4.7’s spread over 4 different
fleets (+70 boats per fleet) the team had to fight hard for their
well-deserved positions!
Race Day 2:
Race
Results
Overall Positions
Justin:
1st & 2nd
1st
Sean:
4th & 3rd
36th
Michael:
19th & 21st
49th
Aaron:
14th & 15th
53rd
About
10 knots of wind today, picking up to 15 knots in the late afternoon. Very
inconsistent and switchy in the first race, but settled down for the second.
The boys were pleased with most of their results. However our day
started on a bad note when Aaron arrived at our hotel door
announcing some parts had been stolen from our charter boats! Aaron
had his Frederickson mainsheet block stolen, as well as some bungs from
the other boats! 83 Euros later, Aaron was ready to start sailing
again! Today the boy’s free lunch was something we'll never forget! At
first we thought we saw ice creams in the fridge, but when we looked closer we
saw they were Kono- Pizzas! This amazing lunchtime snack is made up to look
like an ice-cream cone, but really it's a mini pizza base that has been rolled
into the shape of a cone with all the cheese and pizza toppings inside!
Very different and highly enjoyable!
Race Day 3:
Race
Results
Overall Positions
Sean:
9th & 17th 38th
Justin:
DNF & 1st 1st
Aaron:
3rd & 3rd 25th
Michael:
20th & 13th 59th
A
brilliant days sailing, with 15 to 18 knots. The SA team has achieved good
results and are still motivated to do well. Justin had to retire from race one
today when his tiller came apart in the heavy winds. He quickly found a
replacement and he was back on his way, winning the next race! Aaron
consolidated nicely with two thirds. Sean and Michael also consolidated and are
sailing well. At this stage they are all heading for the gold fleet, which
will be decided after today’s racing. At the moment they are sailing in
four rotating fleets, of + 70 boats, depending on their results today
they will be put into either the gold, silver, bronze or emerald fleets;
and continue to sail in these fleets for the remainder of the regatta. The
South Africans are very well organised with their launching, having
selected a launching area away from the crowd! Some of the other teams
have not been so lucky! World War 3 nearly broke out yesterday, with the
French and the Australians fighting over parking space for their boats.
Both adults and children were getting involved! Those Aussie kids know how
to swear!!
Race Day 4:
Today
was a very frustrating day! Light and switchy winds with an average temperature
of over 30 degrees. No racing was had. A thunderstorm built up over Riva
town, causing very strong winds to come raging down the mountain cliffs
into the centre of the lake. + 40-knot winds were experienced. All 280
competitors were herded to the cliff face and were instructed to capsize
their boats. Sailors sat on their capsized hulls and waited for the storm to
pass. When eventually it did, it took the wind with it and everyone was sent
home! It's all up to the last days racing, with the first race starting at
8am. This means the wind direction is reversed and very little
practise has been had in these conditions. Our boys will be out early tomorrow
morning (around 6:30am), checking out the course. They will be looking
out for prevailing winds, etc.
Race Day 5:
Race
Results
Aaron:
5th & 41st
Michael:
43rd & 24th
Sean:
3rd & 29th
Justin:
1st & 1st
Final
Overall Positions
Justin:
1st
Aaron:
15th
Sean:
29th
Michael:
51st
The final days racing was held in stormy conditions, with winds of 12 to 20-knots. Two races were sailed on the Northerly wind, which is the morning wind, in a different part of the lake. We were up at 05:15 and left the shore at 6:30 this morning. We arrived at the start with the committee boat, as they were setting up the start line. We then proceeded to map the course, working left and right. A big advantage to us was that the other boats only arrived just before the start and were unable to gain this course knowledge. All four of our boys sailed in the gold fleet for the first time, as yesterdays racing was cancelled due to a storm. The first mark rounding saw three SA sailors in the top four. Sean lead, followed closely by Justin and Aaron. The second top-mark rounding saw Justin leading the fleet by 40 metres, finally finishing 100 metres ahead, followed by Sean in 3rd position and Aaron in 5th. Race two was accompanied by 20-knot winds. With big, awkward chop and lightning and thunder surrounding the start line, some of our boys were unable to get a good, clean start. Lots of barging and bumping was taking place. Justin was able to get a clean start. Being 3rd around the top mark, he was followed closely by the Slovenian in 4th. At the second top-mark rounding Justin worked a starboard lift coming up to the mark, and rounding it 30 metres ahead of the fleet. He continued to increase the gap to about 60 metres till the finish.”
To follow the regatta more closely visit the regatta web site at www.laserchampionships.org/47wor04/.
At the Volvo Open European Yngling Championships sailed in Holland last week the South
African team of Dominique Provoyeur, Lucy Norton and Penny Allison finished the
regatta in first place in the silver fleet. This equates to 41st
overall in the 79 boat fleet which is no mean feat considering that this was
their first regatta in the class. We hope to bring you a detailed report from
Dominique in the next edition of Smooth Sailing. For more information visit the
regatta web site at www.yngling.nl/ec2004index.php.
Meanwhile part of the Shosholoza America’s Cup Team are getting their first taste of competition against some of
the sailors they will be up against in the America’s Cup in 2007. Geoff Meek,
Ian Ainslie, Marc Largesse, Mark Sadler and David Rae are in Portugal at the
moment where they have been competing in the Portuguese Leg of the Swedish Match Tour. For those of you unfamiliar with the
Swedish Match Tour, this is a match-racing series with events at exotic venues
around the world, big prize money and some of the best match-racing skippers on
the planet. Many of the Americas Cup teams, al the really serious ones at
least, have teams taking part in the tour events, which are by invitation only.
Russell Coutts, Ed Baird, Peter Holmberg, Bertrand Pace and Peter Gilmour are
just some of the big names taking part in this particular tour event. For the
first time on the tour was using its custom built and designed Swedish Match
40’s. These heavy displacement boats look very much like scaled down AC boats
and seem to have met with approval from all the skippers taking part. Team
Shosholoza battled in their first outing on the tour and were eliminated after
the repechage round for the quarter final, having won only two of their matches
along the way. This leaves them in 10th position in the 12 boat
regatta. Judging by the reports though they weren’t completely out gunned
though and were able to hold their own losing by only small margins in some
instances. Still I am pretty sure that they will be a bit disappointed with their
result but will have come away with bucket loads of new knowledge. The match
racing on the Swedish Match Tour is of the highest standard just getting in and
doing much better than they did is next to impossible. And before any Opi
parents want to know why this effort hasn’t got the same treatment from me as
our Opi worlds results, well, Russell Coutts, Peter Holmberg, those guys are
the best sailors in the world, figure it out!! For more information on the tour
visit www.swedishmatchtour.com.
Meanwhile the rest of the Shosholoza team have been hard at work back in Cape
Town where Shosholoza is being prepared to be shipped back to Europe. Team
Shosholoza will be taking part in the first of the Pre-America’s Cup Regattas
in Marseilles, France, in September. This will provide them with their first
opportunity to match their skills against the defender, and potential
challengers for the cup in 2007. Following on from the Louis Vuitton Act 1, as
the regatta is called, the team will be taking part in Louis Vuitton Act 2, to
be sailed in Spain a month later. It is expected that all the big guns will be
out at both these events with Alinghi, Oracle BMW, Emirates Team New Zealand
and the French Le Defi and K-Challenge teams expected to be taking part. Don’t
expect too much by way of results from Shosholoza in either of these regattas
though as they will be sailing the oldest boat on the water and in a class
where development equals boat speed this means that they are definitely not
going to be the fastest on the water. What they will gain though is invaluable
experience, something that this team is desperately short of. Shosholoza has
already been taken out of the water and is being prepared for shipping at the MSC
Container Depot in Woodstock. Getting the boat there was a pretty eventful
exercise with the boat nearly not fitting under the Woodstock Bridge. This
cause some delay to rush hour traffic, something that must have had road ragers
like myself fuming! After the two regattas in Europe Shosholoza will be
returned to Cape Town where she will undergo some fairly serious modifications
before the team get her back on the water in January 2005! For more information
on the campaign visit www.sachallenge.com.
One of the big guns who wont be at either
of the Pre-America’s Cup Regattas in Europe this summer is the man who has
virtually made the America’s Cup his own in the last decade, Russell Coutts. Coutts was fired by his Alinghi team
earlier this week after a dispute that has been simmering for some time reached
boiling point. Coutts was apparently unhappy at the role he found himself in
with Alinghi for the defence of the cup. The widely held view is that Coutts
wanted to have a greater say in the organisation of the defence, favoured a
different venue to the one chosen by Alinghi for the defence and also wanted
more radical changes to the design rules for the boats for the 2007 Cup.
Instead of allowing Coutts to play the role he wanted Alinghi boss Ernesto
Bertarelli left Coutts to run the sailing team while one of his long-time
business associates, Michael Bonnefous, was delegated to run the defence. Its
been no secret for some time now that there was serious friction between
Bertarelli and Coutts with the most obvious sign being when Coutts failed to
take his place at the helm of Alinghi in the recent Moet Cup in the USA. In
true America’s Cup style though Bertarelli, who recently boasted that he had
drafted his contracts better than Team New Zealand, from whom Coutts defected
to Alinghi before the last Cup, slid through a rule change preventing anyone
who has worked for a syndicate for more than 180 days, sailing for another
team. This retrospective rule change has effectively side-lined Coutts from the
next cup and was clearly done with his imminent firing in mind! Its all quite
entertaining stuff for those of us watching from the side lines and a reminder
of why the America’s Cup is regarded by many as more of a sailing soap opera
than a sailing regatta!
“The organizers of the above race take pleasure in
announcing the Official launch of THE MAURITIUS TO
DURBAN OCEAN CLASSIC YACHT RACE 2005.
Grand Baie Yacht Club, situated in the Grand Baie
area of Mauritius, is the Official Host Club,
and the Royal Natal Yacht Club, Durban South Africa, is the Official Welcoming Club.
The Mauritius to Durban race has a long and successful history, and it
is envisaged that the task of acting as Welcoming Club, shall be shared on a rotational
basis between the two Clubs which have a historical tie with the race, being
the Royal Natal Yacht Club and the Point Yacht Club.
A Web Site
has been launched to publicise the
Race, distribute necessary facts and documentation, as well as peripheral
information such as special travel offers for supporters, entry sponsors, and
families. This can be found at www.mauritiustodurban.com .
As regards the Race, the provisional start date is
September 10th, 2005.
Exciting developments which can be confirmed at this
time are;
·
STARTRACK – the satellite tracking system used in the Vasco da Gama
races shall be available for the 2005 Mauritius to Durban race. The company also advises us that they will
included an sms system which will work via satellite, as well as a software
package which will calculate IRC Handicap positions in real time, as the race
happens.
·
MSC SHIPPING – Captain Salvatore Sarno has confirmed that MSC will be in
a position to provide a shipping service. Details of this will be found on the
web site soon.
The Notice of Race will be posted by no later than 1
November 2004, in the meantime we ask all potential participants to pledge
their entry via the web page as soon as possible, as by doing this our Sponsors
get to see the potential size and make-up of the event.”
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 |
|
|
University of Cape Town Yacht
Club |
31 July & 1 August |
|
|
Newcastle Aquatic Sports Club |
7 to 9 August |
|
|
Transvaal Yacht Club |
7 to 9 August |
|
|
Pretoria Sailing Club |
7 to 9 August |
|
|
Pretoria Sailing Club |
7 to 9 August |
|
|
Durban Radio Boat Club |
7 to 9 August |
|
|
Zululand Yacht Club |
7 to 9 August |
|
|
V & A Waterfront, Table Bay |
20 to 27 August |
|
|
Maritzburg Radio Boat Club |
21 August |
|
|
Seal Point Yacht Club |
11 & 12 September |
|
|
Denysville Aquatic Club |
22 to 26 September |
|
|
Theewaters Sports Club |
23 to 26 September |
|
|
Zululand Yacht Club |
1 to 3 October |
|
|
Henley Midmar Yacht Club |
2 & 3 October |
|
|
Henley Midmar Yacht Club |
16 & 17 October |
|
|
Redhouse Yacht Club |
22 to 24 October |
|
|
Hermanus Yacht Club |
11 to 18 December |
|
|
Royal Cape Yacht Club |
4 January 2006 |
The Smooth Sailing Classifieds are a free service for private advertisers only. This service is not available to any commercial enterprise or service provider. To place an ad, e-mail the details to andrew@smoothsailing.co.za.
FOR SALE
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Hawse
Cell: 083 648 0163
Posted:
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Cell: 083 653 8468
Posted: 30/07/04
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Cell: 083
7499166
Posted: 30/07/04
In good
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Cell: 082 459 7221
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Cell:
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Tel:
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Posted:
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Ready to race
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Contact Alex
Schon
Cell: 082 806
0918
Posted:
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Thompson 7
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Cell: 082 806
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Posted: 12/07/04
5 In Various
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Cell: 084 574
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Posted:
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WANTED
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Contact Rob
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Cell: 082 323
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E-Mail: robstenner@mweb.co.za
Or
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E-Mail: des@carpet.co.za
Posted: 30/07/04
In Cape Town
Contact: Craig
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E-mail: butcherc@xsinet.co.za / bplus@xsinet.co.za
Work: 021-449
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Cell: 082 878
5394
Posted:
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Contact: Kevin Powell
Cell: 082 573 5638
Posted: 06/07/04
Andrew Heathcote
Mobile: +27 (0) 83 783 8805
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