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4 May 2005 The 2005 Nelson Mandela Bay Isuzu Week ended a lot more quietly than it started with the final race sailed in a pleasant, building easterly breeze. The conditions on the final day were memorable for being as good as the conditions on the first day had been bad. This was a regatta, that when is started on Sunday the 24th of April, didn't get off to the best of starts. Sunday was windy; in fact it was too windy. It wasn't helped by a very long wait on the water for the race committee to get the start sequence underway. Gusts of 35 plus knots from the southwest and an average wind speed that couldn't have been much less than 30 knots meant that survival was the order of the day. That really isn't any way to go yacht racing, especially on the first day of a regatta. Even more so when the championship classes, J22s and Hobie 16s aren't racing, and the majority of the Class 1, 2 and 3 fleets are more cruising than racing orientated boats and sailors. The net result is that while some made it around the course most didn't event start, of those who did few finished, and the damage count was huge. So, with one race sailed, more than half the fleet already had their discard! Now I really don't want to be seen to be slagging off the race management, but I think that when things are wrong someone has to say so and I am. The decision that led to the first race of NMBI Week being sailed was a very bad one. Bad for the regatta this year, bad for many competitors final result, not to mention their cost of competing and bad for next year's organising committee when they try to garner entries for the 2006 event. In an event such as this regatta organisers should be doing everything possible to get as many boats and sailors on the water and once they are there ensure that they have as good a time as possible. Regattas should be run for the majority of competitors. Yesterday that didn't happen and it was only a very small minority that had a good time. Really, who is that good for? Those who did make it around the course though had an awesome sail. In IRC Class 1 Nicholas Mace's ILC 40 Gumption got off to a flying start. She led Phil Gutsche's Warrior, a yacht nearly twice her size, in the early stages of the race. It wasn't to last though and a blown out main saw Warrior clinch the win both on the water and on corrected time. In Class 2 ABYC's Lipton Cup entry, ABYC Challenger put in the kind of polished performance that one would expect from a Lipton Cup contender to win on IRC corrected time by a massive margin. Second in this opening race went to Richard Rath's Beneteau, La Chevalier, her best performance of the regatta. By Monday the championship classes were ready to race as well. The Hobie 16s, sailing their Nationals, were sailing on their own course and largely had very little interaction with the bigger boats during the course of the week. With most preparing for their world championships that are due to be sailed at the same venue in October this year there were an impressive number of new boats and very focused sailors on the water for the week. The J22s, also sailing their nationals, were out on the main course with the big boats. Having had all of Sunday to get rigged and ready while the wind howled out on the ocean the 12 competing Js were ready and raring to go come Monday morning. The second day of the regatta dawned with another westerly wind blowing although this time with much less strength than the previous day. While the Hobie fleet left the beach pretty promptly to enjoy some excellent looking sailing in conditions that were windy, but not that windy, the race management team kept the keeler fleet in the harbour. Perhaps they erred on the side of caution after the previous days heavy winds but this was another bizarre decision. The forecast was for the breeze to remain moderate, which is did, and a call to the port control tower at 10:30 in the morning revealed that the wind hadn't gone over 23 knots in wind speed. Pretty playable by comparison to the previous day's conditions. Still it was pretty much midday before the fleet eventually headed out, by which time the Hobies had already sailed two races! By the end of the day they had sailed a third race and their regatta was off to a flying start. Bill Lee's Farr 38 Chinook entered the Class 1 fray on Monday, having had to withdraw from Sundays race with gear problems. She immediately set about what turned out to be a weeklong domination of the IRC fleet winning the second race of the regatta, as she would all the rest. With their mainsail back in one peace Gumption was able to get one back on Warrior to be second behind the Farr 38. In Class 2 ABYC Challenger were as good as they had been the previous day winning comfortably again, this time from young Justin Onvlee at the helm of his dads J27. These two occupied the top two places on both IRC and the Club PHRF in Class 2. The J22 fleet got off to an entertaining start with close racing that would be a mark of their regatta throughout the week. Graham Baker on Blue Jay was enjoying a promising start to the regatta at the front of the fleet when he managed an unfortunate broach that saw Blue Jay relegated to third place behind Tony Money's Jabberwock and Paul Thompson's Alfa Romeo. Tuesday, sadly, produced no wind, and consequently no racing. The fleet headed out onto a windless sea. There they spent most of the day waiting for wind and being occasionally drenched by rain. While the rain eventually cleared the wind didn't come and the fleet soon headed for the moorings and an early afternoon in the bar. By Wednesday the weather looked more promising but there was by now some urgency to get in races for the J22 class. It was just a little strange to me that the majority of the boats were kept on the moorings while the J22s were sent off to bob around on the windless ocean early in the day. They sailed one race in some pretty marginal conditions before the rest were called out by which stage the wind had picked up a little but, but only a little. Eventually a light easterly breeze filled in nicely and allowed a pleasant race to be sailed. The wind never really got above 10 knots for this one although it was pretty consistent in direction. It was certainly a test of concentration for the skippers and crews as they tried to eke out an advantage of their rivals in the difficult conditions. For classes 1, 2 and 3 the timing was near perfect as they sailed their race in the height of the breeze for the day, finishing and heading for home just as it started to die again. No such luck for the J22s though, who, having started ahead of the Class 1 boats, started a 3rd race while the rest headed for home. Still they got a race in so had managed 3 on the day. It was a good day for Ewald Sternagel, sailing with only one crew member instead of the usual two, who enjoyed wins in 2 of the 3 races sailed. Blue Jay, having started off with a 5th in the first race of the day came back nicely to win the 3rd and final race of the day. In Class 1 Chinook continued on her winning way on IRC ahead of Gumption and John Martin's Fast 42 Fascination of Power. She didn't have the best of PHRF days though getting a second to Gumption. Thursday saw another light easterly and one race for all but the J22s who got in two races. Conditions were similar to Wednesday's despite the forecast having been far more promising. If anything the breeze peaked a little higher than it had the previous day but despite being light, everyone seemed to have enjoyed his or her days racing. Blue Jay and Jabberwock traded places in the J22 fleet, each recording a first and a second to establish themselves at the top of the leaderboard while Hakahana slipped slightly with a 4 and a 6. Chinook had a better day in Class 1 winning on both IRC and PHRF from Gumption who was second on both systems. In Class 2 however ABYC Challenger had their only slip of the week. Over the line at the start they had to return and cross the line again. From then on they battled to make headway through the fleet in the light conditions, also suffering the misfortune of having Warrior roll over them on the downwind leg, which really isn't the nicest of things for a small boat as the wind shadow created by the big boat is rather large! Friday however presented the best potential of all with the easterly predicted to build throughout the day. As it happened the wind came in much later than predicted but when it came it came well and built all afternoon. By the end of it the conditions were the best of the week with the wind peaking around 20 knots and a nice short chop offering the potential for the smaller boats to surf downwind. It really was excellent sailing! In the J22 fleet Blue Jay continued her good form to win the final race and secure overall victory. Hakahana was second, enough to tie her on points with Jabberwock but not enough to break the tie break in her favour. Jabberwock ended up second overall with Hakahana third. Gumption had to win on the final day in order to secure victory on IRC. They tried hard but in the end just couldn't do it with Chinook once again claiming honours and overall victory in the class. There was some consolation for the Gumption crew however as they had done enough to win the final race on PHRF which gave them overall victory on that rating system. In Class 2 ABYC Challenger got back on top on IRC although wasn't quite as successful on PHRF where she was eclipsed by Justin Onvlee's J27 in the final race. By this time though they had done more than enough to win overall on both rating systems. Also racing throughout the week was a reasonable large Class 3 fleet sailing on PHRF. Although there were 17 entries most seem to have sailed less than half the races. Racing without spinnakers some of these guys still took it all as seriously as class 1 and 2 fleets although they spent maybe a little more time wearing the opposition down in the pub after racing each day! While they weren't all out on the water each day it is encouraging to see such a healthy level of competition at this end of the fleet as it is from here that the sport needs to grow. Hopefully some of those who spent the week in Class 3 will be bitten by the bug and in time graduate to more serious campaigns. Those who took part in this regatta would certainly have enjoyed most of the racing that they did. Unfortunately the weather didn't always play ball throughout the week, which meant that there was less sailing that some might have liked. Off the water the vibe was, for the most part, good although there were more grumbles than I am used to at a regatta. These were all aimed rather directly at the race management which, I am sad to say was found wanting at this regatta. One hopes that the regatta organisers will have paid heed to these grumbles and make the requisite improvements next year. One can't control the weather, of that there is no doubt, but one can control the decisions made around it and that is something that needs to be improved on. The organisers also need to do something to arrest the slide in entries that this event suffered this year. While a total of 94 entries outwardly appears to be a huge improvement on the 54 in 2004 when one removes the 44 Hobie 16s from the tally the story is quite different. They wont be back next year and neither will the J22s, who will by that time more than likely be getting in tune for their Worlds in Durban the following year. Take those away and you are left with a perilous 38 entries, not a healthy state of affairs. Also not a position that this regatta should find itself in. In essence the event is a good one, offering the sailors as much as any other. An excellent sponsorship deal means that those who travel are offered generous allowances to do so and the sailing and social scene is good. Hopefully the lessons of this year will be learnt and the sailors will respond by turning out in larger number for next year's event.
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