6 October 2003

The Eastern Cape Dinghy Championship saw a good entry of 90 boats, considering we had to compete with the False Bay Spring regatta as well as the Laser worlds and the Northvaal Junior Championship. It was the first time that the Northvaal had their Junior Championship during this week end which traditionally is the date used by the Eastern Cape.

The weather once again played its part in making this a very successful event. On Thursday the race officer, Richard Stephenson, managed three good races. On Friday the winds came after lunch and we managed on good race but the second became a drifter and many competitors did not make the cutoff. Saturday started earlier and 2 races were had before lunch. The third race had to be shortened due to a dying wind. Sunday morning started early with a fresh wind of 15 knots and two good races were sailed to complete 10 races.

32 Optimists took to the water with some very exiting racing throughout the fleet. The top 4 places were contested by three Redhouse Yacht Club sailors and Taariq Jacobs from ZVYC.

Taariq had a fantastic event. Wayne Watkins, Josh Saunders and Andrew Collier fought it out for the next three places. It was amazing to see how the skills of these sailors have improved since the last regatta. Taariq, Wayne and Andrew all took part in the Mirror World Championship in Tasmania in January this year and you could see how strong their confidence was.

The Extra class had 12 boats on the water with a very strong contingent from ZVYC. Davey James and Stephen du Toit fought it out for the first place and tied on 13 points each after the 10 races. Davey won it in the tie break. Third was David Rae followed by Andrew Ward from RYC.

16 Dabchicks took part with Finn Fitzsimons nearly making a clean sweep. Duncan Mathews and Ross Dyer followed respectively.

In the Laser class we had Rob Meek in top form. D Larkins was second. The next 3 places were closely contested till the last day between Morgan Evans, Andrew Thompson and Diether Zevenster. After the last day’s 2 races in a fresh breeze, they finished third, fourth and fifth respectively.

The Laser Radials were also closely contested between Jim Foot and Chris Seifart. They also finish on 13 points each but Jim took the honors on the tie break.

The Laser 4.7 was won by Justin Onvlee with Aaron Larkins closely on his tail.

In the Mirror Class Fuad Jacobs with Francois Strydom had a good tussle with Nigel and Sue Smithie but managed to stay ahead to win the event. Robert Dann and Ryan Hadley were third. A very good event for them as the first juniors.

Much effort was put into getting the Eastern Cape event to the stage where we have a multi class event and for the second year in a row it was a great success. Parents and friends want to take part with all their friends. This creates a great vibe and we hope to keep it going and to grow the event with more classes.