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Saturday 13th December, the first day of the regatta dawned with grey skies, rain and a mean and nasty North westerly churning up Table Bay. Not ideal conditions for starting a regatta! The wind in the early morning was blowing at about 45 knots, so with the AP hoisted, the sailors hunkered down in the Clubhouse and drank gallons of coffee for the duration of the morning. In the afternoon the wind had died down to a mere 25 knots, but as it was the end of one of the Cape's typical cold front systems, there were very lumpy seas with breaking swells to contend with. This made it difficult for the Navy IPV vessel, kindly loaned by the Navy as Committee boat, to anchor in order to start the race. Doug Alison, the Race Officer, gave it his best effort but had to concede to the weather. The sailors all retuned to the Clubhouse, and spent the afternoon sailing on the "mahogany reef" instead! So much for day one…….

Sunday saw the start of the long distance race up to Dassen Island and back. By lunch time Class One and Two had started in light winds and a lumpy sea. Rounding Barker Rock proved a challenge to the fleet, with less than five knots of wind and sloppy seas, it was a nerve-racking experience as boats were picked up by the swell and pushed towards the very unyielding lump of rock at North Lions Paw. As if that wasn't enough, skippers had a full time job to keep their crews motivated, as a combination of heat and big swells caused sea-sickness and lethargy on most boats. Dassen Island seemed to be at the other end of the world, as the fleet all sailed their hearts out to make the cut off time.

Class One boats all made it to the rounding mark at the island within the time limit, where the IPV was sitting patiently, as did Class Two, but unfortunately not everyone fared as well on the return leg to Cape Town, especially in Class Two, where no-one finished the second half of the race, due to the North-wester dying off and the South-easter failing to fill in across the whole bay. It was a very tiring and dispiriting moment at 01h55 in the morning when Race Control advised those yachts still racing that they were out of time and to turn on engines and motor home. So near and yet so far………….

In the meantime, the Cruiser Class and the L26 class were enjoying some splendid racing in Table Bay. The L26's got in two races in a pleasant 15 knot breeze. The downwind runs proved interesting as there were still large swells rolling in, and the boats rocked all the way down to the finish line, which was quite a challenge for the young skippers and crews. The Cruiser Class also had a pleasant race in light winds, despite some confusion as to the course to be sailed. Hot tip - always read the Sailing Instructions!!

Monday was definitely a day when local knowledge paid off. The North westerly had set in good and early, but switched to a Westerly shortly after the start of the first race, causing headaches for the Bridge crew and proving a challenge to the sailors who had to sail a somewhat biased course. The Westerly breeze died away in race two, and canny skippers started to look for the South-easter that invariably pushes through. For those who read it correctly, it certainly gave them the advantage in this race.

The L26's got in two races, despite some very interesting interpretations of the starting signals with one boat starting at the four minute, and other boats starting 30seconds to a minute later than their five minute signal. Another hot tip - read Rule 26 of the Rule book!

Day four of the regatta: Table Bay was hidden under a blanket of fog that had rolled in overnight, and the Committee boat edged it's way out of the harbour using it's compass due to very restricted visibility. Pea soup conditions meant that Port Control had halted all shipping movements as well. The 3 to 4 knot breeze in the early morning soon strengthened and cleared the fog in the bay. Once the course had been laid, the wind shifted and picked up to about 18 knots. This meant that the start line was port biased, and made for an interesting start as all the Class One boats had gathered at the port end of the start line and most of them were over the line. Recall signals flew up and down, the ever patient Doug Alison and his Bridge crew sighed a weary sigh, and the fleet settled down to have another go. This time everybody was well clear of the line and the race was on. The two Mount Gay 30's battled it out all around the course, and rounded every mark together as skippers Mark Sadler and Ian Ainslie played a game of tactics. In this race however, Mark showed Ian a clean pair of heels and finished 45 seconds ahead.

With the wind dropping light, Doug called a shortened course, much to the relief of those who were bringing up the rear of the fleet. Back ashore, with braai fires lit and the karaoke hopefuls tuning up, the bar talk centered around the battle being staged between the Mumm 36, Bally Hoo Too and Felix Scheder Bieschen's new J120, Naledi. They had enjoyed some very close racing, and it promised to get even more exciting in the last two races of the regatta.

After the last race of the day, one of the hard working Namakurra boats picking up the marks and let off a smoke flare by accident. Suddenly the horizon was covered in great clouds of pink smoke which caused much excitement ashore, a helicopter was dispatched from Blouberg beach to fly over and check that all was OK. Red faces and apologies from the boats crew………….

RCYC's Academy development sailors were well represented on the water. A full team sailed JML1 and many others were crewing on keel boats in all classes. It was great to see all three of the Jewish Maritime League L26's taking part in the regatta.

Many of these young sailors may well have more sea miles under their belts than quite a few yachtsmen as they had the amazing experience of sailing in the Cape to Rio/ Cape to Salvadore/ and the first circumnavigation of Africa……read more on this in the December issue of Sailing.

Ian Ainslie is also running a sailing development programme for street kids, the programme entails finding kids who want to learn how to sail and getting them on the water in either keel boats or in dinghies. This programme has been thoroughly successful. Ian has now got sailors that he has taught, sailing all over the world. Ian's programme has developed a crew to sail in this regatta on an L26 - MSC Donna Mia … Always. MSC is now lying second in the fleet and today will determine their final position between themselves and the young team on the L26, Escape.

Al, owned by Johan van Rooyen, is a 22 year old Farr that has been modernized with the latest equipment and sails to suit the Farr 38. She has an excellent skipper in Geoff Meek, and a crew which is made up of, amongst other grizzly stalwarts, David Bongers and Paul Stanbridge who are seasoned Whitbread sailors. Paul used to do foredeck for David during the Whitbread. A combination of brilliant sailors and a well set up boat means very few mistakes, and they are enjoying heading up the Class One fleet. Bally Hoo Too, Naledi, Zeus, Betelguese and Just Fun have been close together. The last couple of races will determine what Nankin, Park-Ross, Sadler, and Ainslie can do, as the wind is more than likely to change direction.

In the L34 Class, David Rae on Sensation and the Keen family together with Jennifer Burger on Lapwing have been battling it, but Sensation always seems to get the better deal. The L34s are also sailing under the IRC rating in Class Two, which doesn't always mean it's who's first over the line. Sensation and Hill Billy, the J27 skippered by Peter Hill and Tony Kitchen, will have to sail very well today to fight for first place in their Class, and the very competitive Laser 28, No Promises, skippered by Thomas Swana and his young crews are hot on the heels of the leaders in Class Two.

Lagos Yacht Club sent a team over to Cape Town to sail in Table Bay Week. They have sailed the L34 Aquavit, and have dealt admirably with the vagaries of the Cape weather!

Day five……….. With the weather holding steady and a 10knot Westerly filling in, race 7 started on time with Father Christmas hopping about on the Committee boat giving the fleet a taste of the festive season to come. So with much "ho ho hoing" Class One and Two prepared to battle it out for their respective victories. With a bit of argy bargy on the line between Hill Billy and Sensation in their start, Hill Billy was over the line, banged the Committee boat, went back and did their penalty turns, and sailed their hearts out in order to hang on to first place in Class 2 in the regatta. Doug had set a shorter course which proved to be more exciting as the boats all finished together. What a spectacular sight to see 45 boats thundering down to the line all with their spinnakers flying!

In the last race of the regatta, Enzer Betelguese and Just Fun, the two Mount Gay 30s had a very tight battle, finishing within seconds of each other. At the end of the regatta they landed up on the same number of points and had to be separated by positions. The Fast 42's had also enjoyed very close racing, but it was the sleek and lovely Zeus, skippered by veteran Rick Nankin, who came out on top of the Fast's in the overall results.

The prize giving was a very festive affair, with beautiful trophies, including the IRC National's trophies being awarded to the Class winners. Generous donations from the various sub sponsors meant there were plenty of goodies to go around as prizes, and with cold ales, a hot band playing on the Terrace, what better then to start planning Table Bay Week 2004? Hot tip - be there!