Des Fairbank sent us the following report on the Keith Mackay Interprovincial Regatta, sailing in the Radio Controlled Marblehead Class, which was sailed at the Durban Radio Boat Club last weekend:

“Whilst many of the MRYC members were sailing in the HMYC 9hr others joined the Durban Radio Sailors to compete in the Radio Marblehead Inter Provincial sailed at the Blue Lagoon. The event is known in Radio Circles as the Keith Mackey Event and the trophy was donated by one of the founder members of the then MYASA (Model Yacht Association of South Africa.). The first event was sailed in 1995 and is always sailed over two days. Originally it was sailed as an individual event until after lunch on the Sunday when the top three skippers from each Province then sailed six races under team racing rules. Another idiosyncrasy of this event was that it was sailed on the home waters of the previous winner. Over the years both of these conditions have been changed and it is sailed in the Transvaal and KZN alternately. The Cape also entered a team one year and this year we had a team from the Orange Free State. Scoring is also slightly different now and the event is sailed as an individual and at the end the scores of the highest equal number of skippers from each Province is added together to get a team score.

The event attracted nineteen Marbleheads with four from the Northvaal, five from the OFS and ten from KZN. Sailing got under way on time at 13h30 on Saturday with a moderate North Easterly. Everyone had at least their B rig on although there was the odd C1 rig for a short while. Marbleheads are allowed six rigs three of which are the full area with different aspect ratio sails and the other three are reduced area. A typical Marblehead wardrobe would have an “A” , “B” and “C1” as full area measured rigs and a “C2” and “C3” with the sixth rig dependent on the anticipated wind strength. It might be an “A2” if predominantly light winds are expected or a “B2” if strong winds are expected.

The pond is a little small for the Marblehead and so the 19 boat fleet was split and we sailed two fleets using HMS. This seemed to cause some confusion for our OOD Ian Scott and his assistant Beth Brockbank as Ian last sailed a radio boat before the introduction of this system.

After six exciting heats the wind eased quite a bit and everyone changed up to “A’ rigs. The last four heats of the day were sailed in light but almost ideal conditions.

Sunday was not the same and the ten o’ clock start was delayed until a direction could be established. The first four heats were sailed in drifting conditions then the wind shifted to the South and South West which is not an ideal situation on the pond especially for the longer faster Marblehead. A zig zag course was set and the last eight heats were sailed before sailing stopped at 14h15.

After twelve races made up of twenty-four heats and four skippers from each Province to count the results were as follows:

Teams Results
1st RSKZN 142 Points
2nd OFS 264
3rd Northvaal 470

Individual Results
1st Des Fairbank RSKZN 18 Points
2nd Peter Simons RSKZN 24
3rd Andrew Doyle OFS 37
4th Shaun Carrol OFS 38
5th Joe Robbertse RSKZN 47

Sailing stopped at 14h00 and Sheldon and his wife Pam provided wors rolls for the competitors which went down extremely well for those travelling back to the Transvaal and OFS straight after the prize giving.

One of the most enjoyable Keith Mackey events to date.”