Above: Doing some wild two sail reaching in 35 knots

Photo: Linda de Groot

Distance: 10.3nm
Average Speed: 6.7 knots
Time: 01.20.47
Max Speed: 16.3 knots


My birthday today, so I asked my crew for a present – a 1st place.

The weather forecast indicated a strong south easter, but heading out of the harbour, we had to haul the outboard out as we did not have enough breeze to do over 2 knots. Greg put the motor on but with only a "temporary" fastening of one of the two attachment levers. Later, when I lifted the outboard out of the water, the entire thing flopped off the bracket and landed with a splash in the sea behind us. All I can say is thank goodness for our practice of always tying on a safety line. It held..and I got the motor back on board very quickly. All credit to Yamaha, the motor started first pull on the way back despite it's dunking.

At the start area we had two problems. One was a stiff south easter which was building by the minute. Table Mountain had that tell tale white cloud tumbling over the top indicating severe weather on the way for us. The race committee (RC) were having problems of their own. One of the mark layers had managed to get the tackle of the pin mark entangled with his prop. It took almost an hour and a half getting it sorted out as the fleet reached up and down the start area impatiently. By the time Class 1 got their start signal the breeze was 25 gusting 30 knots with a short steep chop to impede the smaller boats.

The sailing instructions were not clear as to whether the Class 2 fleet would start 10 or 5 minutes after the Class 1 fleet and the ensuing hesitation contributed significantly to a poor start for us. "Sensation" barging in at the committee boat didn't help much either. Our strategy was to be conservative and to make as few mistakes as possible. We also didn’t want to get involved with the L34’s in a pointing competition. In this sort of chop, we would need to sail a fast, low groove.

We were the last boat in the queue off the line and picking up dirties from the boats in front of us. I noticed a gap opening to our right and called for a tack within 5 seconds after the gun, which put us into clear air. The Pacer 27 did the same. The two boats headed off to the starboard side of he course. We were keeping up with the Pacer but not pointing as high. With a steady 6,4 to 6,7 knots on the log we were happy to trade off some height. Our tacking angle was a lowly 105 degrees.

We rounded the weather mark with the Pacer and the two L34's and settled down before we hoisted the kite. We had decided to use our smallest spinnaker because of the strong breeze and that proved to be a wise decision. We were flying! With the crew all towards the back of the boat, Smackwater Jack lifted her bow and we shot off on the plane, easily maintaining station and often gaining, on the L34's. We logged our regatta max speed on this leg of 16,3 knots. The Pacer had reached off at a blistering speed, attaining 24 knots as a maximum. Some achievement!!!

We could see the Class 1 boats were having a torrid time with their spinnakers. Ballyhoo Too and Gumption were two of the boats that blew spinnakers. Auto Atlantic - a 52 footer, smashed it's boom and there were very few boats without some or the other damage. On the 46ft Hilfidelity a crew man was washed overboard.

At the gybe mark we could see few boats could carry spinnakers on the tighter second half of the triangle, so we took our kite down, gybed and did a hairy two sail reach down to the lee mark with big waves hitting us on the port quarter and causing serious lee helm and weather rolling. We got very, very wet with large amounts of green water pouring over the boat and into the cockpit. I think that was about when the Garmin tracker transponder drowned on both the Pacer 27 and Smackwater Jack. Unfortunately these were not proper marine units and they didn't much like a salt water wash! We were doing 12 knots with just the blade on the 2nd reach. We closed in on Sensation, but the Pacer had opened up a big lead.

For the second upwind leg, Charles used more leech tension on the main and we were able to improve our pointing by 5 degrees, yet maintain our speed. With Sensation just ahead and to leeward, we opted for an early tack and went almost all the way across to the port layline. We made up time on both L34's and the Pacer on this leg. We were also gaining on the Pacer on the upwind legs.

For the second downwind leg, the breeze had picked up another notch and was now steady 30 gusting 35, making for some very hairy moments, so we decided to rather strike early and gybe onto port for a steady angle down to the lee mark without the spinnaker.

The final beat had us going to the right initially and staying with the leading boats. Again we were making up time on the L34's and Pacer. I was concerned that the finish was a downwind one which would give the Pacer with it’s "almost double our downwind speed potential", a significant advantage. We needed a beat to make up time on them. Meanwhile the Beneteau had retired and we had opened up a big lead on the Laser 28 and the other J27. The Laser hit a mark and got themselves into all sorts of trouble, effectively taking themselves out of contention, as well as blowing one of their kites.

For the final two leg reach to the finish, we went for broke and put the kite back up. Ahead of us Sensation did a thorough job of broaching, which forced them to strike their spinnaker, and we came planing past them to windward to round the gybe mark ahead. We followed our previous pattern and took the kite down before the gybe mark and enjoyed a really fast, continually planing two sail reach over 12 knots all the way to the finish line.

I had no idea how we did and was keen to see the results. After finishing the wind cranked up another 5 knots and was starting to get dangerous. Having a new mainsail, Greg suggested we reef it to save it from flogging, which we did, but the reef made the foot look too full and baggy but at least it wasn't flogging so much. Whilst we were trying to sort the flatness of the foot out, the sail started tearing around one of the reefing patches. Ironic that we should sail the entire race without any breakages and then tear the sail whilst reefed! No problem as North Sails keep their loft open during the regatta for just such repairs.

Back on shore there were tales aplenty from the battlefield – and the beer tasted exceptionally good. The results were made available and we were placed 2nd, having beaten Lapwing by only 2 seconds. The Farr 38 with its fancy rating killed the Class 2 fleet with a winning margin of almost 2 minutes corrected, over us. They finished six minutes ahead of us in real time.

Our transponder for the Garmin project was not working and nor was the Pacer's, so it would seem that the standard vehicle units are not quite up to the rigours of ocean sailing.

Alan Taylors J27 “Pure Magic” had the most spectacular broach of the day, which looked like a Chinese gybe and had the cameras clicking away. It left their boat in a shambles, ripping out deck blocks and lots to repair work to be done back at the dock. They also snapped their tiller in half. The Farr 38 predictably crossed the line first, followed by the Pacer and the L34 “Lapwing”, but on corrected times the results were as follows:

1st SA1105 Hocus Pocus E Stern/A Edwards Farr 38
2nd SA204 Smackwater Jack Trygve Roberts J27
3th 010 Lapwing Robyn Keen L34
4th 001 Unmatched Rick Nankin Pacer 27
5th 005 Sensation Gerry Hegie L34
6th SA190 Pure Magic Alan Taylor J27
7th SA8032 UkuZwana Thomas Swana Laser 28
8th SA3141 Always Well L Burger/R Thomas First Class 7.5

The Laser had a rough and expensive ride in this race.

Photo: Trevor Wilkins

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In the series of pics below, Alan Taylor and his crew on the J27 'Pure Magic' provided perhaps one of the most spectacular broaches of the week.

Pics by Linda de Groot and Trevor Wilkins

Above: First, that most terrifying feeling of going into a death roll, forcing the helmsman to correct with tons of lee helm

Photo: Linda de Groot

The boom has reached the "moment de critique" and is one nanosecond away from gybing

Above: Bang! And the boom crashes over to starboard

Photo: Linda de Groot

Above: Crew lying all over the place! But the J27 is fairly bullet proof and she rounds up to windward trying to go upright.

Pic: Trevor Wilkins

Above: The J27 Pure Magic after their spectacular Chinese gybe. In the background the Pacer 27 can be seen with it's white assymetric screeching downwind and clocking 24 knots.

Photo: Linda de Groot

Above: Pure Magic's bowman, Tyran trying to untangle the carnage on the foredeck.

Photo: Trevor Wilkins

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17th December.
Race 2.
Windward/Leeward with downwind finish

Above: Unable to lay the pin at the start. See next pic for our gybe and recovery.

Photo: Linda de Groot

Above: We were too close to the pin and had to gybe around to clear the line and go for a port start. It cost us dearly.

Photo: Linda de Groot

Distance: 9.1nm
Average Speed: 6.1 knots
Time: 01.14.26
Max Speed: 11.7 knots


The racing started more promptly at 1230 the next day with Class 1 getting underway cleanly. The weather leg was very long, but a steady southerly of around 22 – 25 knots gave everyone plenty of horsepower. This race was more difficult in that there were many wind switches. Those that missed them lost out badly. Due to the long legs, the RC decided to shorten at the end of the second run.

With our tails up after a 2nd place in the first race, we had a good start near the favoured pin end but got luffed by the Laser and lost speed. Added to that we couldn’t tack as we had a string of starboard tackers on top of us, so we had no option but to slow down and wait for the opportunity to tack onto port. We still had to duck four starboard tackers and lost considerable height in the process. Not a good way to start a race!

At least we were in clear air and footing off at 6,4 knots in a lumpy and uncomfortable chop. The weather leg was almost 2 nm long and we stayed put on port tack for a very long time on a 5 degree lift, but it seemed the port side of the course was more favourable, as we arrived at the top mark in 5th place. Ouch!

We had chosen the smaller red kite for the run and we might have been a little underpowered, as the J27 “Pure Magic” were distinctly quicker than us and we got to the bottom mark having lost another spot. A further contributing factor was that our gybe was too early, resulting in us having to do another two gybes to get to the leeward mark.

On the second beat we made up some time on the fleet, but everyone was sailing fast and the gains seemed insufficient. On the second run, as we were settling down for a high speed broad reach, there was a very loud bang. For a second I thought one of the stays had gone, but it was the spectra on the vang that snapped. The boom skied and we lost some time as we jury rigged a makeshift line, before it was time to gybe.

When things go wrong, they seem to multiply quickly. As we gybed, the Laser gybed on top of us, killing our speed badly, so we luffed them up a little and played cat and mouse using Class 1 boats coming up as a means to break the overlap situation. Sailing high took both boats over the layline and we had to gybe again to get back to the leeward mark. The net result was we were late in hoisting the headsail and late in dropping the kite. The top batten of the headsail inverted and went on the wrong side of the forestay and the spinnaker was floating and flapping half in the water and half in the cockpit. To get the headsail batten untwisted, meant bearing off. In the process we were stone last and had to tack away onto port to clear the Laser’s dirties. That maneuver also took us onto the wrong side of the shift. How quickly one is punished in a competitive fleet for a few silly mistakes.

I tried to reboot as quickly as possible, but it was too little, too late and we ended up with a 5th place. Just too many things had gone wrong.

Race 2 IRC Class 2 Results:

1st 010 Lapwing Robyn Keen L34
2nd SA8032 UkuZwana Thomas Swana Laser 28
3th SA1105 Hocus Pocus E Stern/A Edwards Farr 38
4th 005 Sensation Gerry Hegie L34
5th SA204 Smackwater Jack Trygve Roberts J27
6th SA190 Pure Magic Alan Taylor J27
7th 001 Unmatched Rick Nankin Pacer 27
8th SA3141 Always Well L Burger/R Thomas First Class 7.5

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Above: Rick Nankin doing his thing on the Pacer 27 Sport

Photo: Trevor Wilkins

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17th December.
Race 3.
Windward/Leeward with downwind finish

Above: Smackwater Jack and UkuZwana enjoying close competition.

Photo: Linda de Groot

Distance: 8.8nm
Average Speed: 6.7 knots
Time: 01.18.21
Max Speed: 13.7 knots


With a southerly of 20 to 30 knots dropping down over Table Mountain, we stuck with the No.3 blade but switched to the bigger MTN spinnaker. The RC reduced the length of the weather leg by half a mile to allow a full length second race. We would need to pick up our performance a lot if we wanted to stay in the game.

We had a better start and tacked off to port after two minutes with both L34’s and the Pacer but the big waves were hampering the smaller boats leaving us with no option but to go for speed and sacrifice height. It seemed to be working and we took considerable distance out of the Pacer. They seemed to be struggling on the upwind legs.

We rounded in the leading bunch and popped the kite quickly to get a solid 12 knots on the log. A good gybe gave us a decent angle in to the leeward mark and a well timed strike and rounding kept us in touch with the leaders.

Meanwhile the breeze had cranked up a notch to 28-30 knots and we sent Nic down to switch back to the smaller kite. We sailed nice and deep as the Pacer planed away on a much higher angle. We were still very much in touch with the leaders.

The final beat saw the wind strong and steady with few switches to work. The third run was seamless and we planed constantly - all the way to the downwind finish. A much improved performance and we were rewarded with a 3rd place, having been beaten by "Sensation" and "Hocus Pocus"

This Farr 38 (Hocus Pocus) appeared to be taking things in quite a relaxed style, sometimes sailing with a reef and sometimes electing not to fly their spinnaker, but their excellent rating would always seem to get them a top three position.

Race 3 IRC Class 2 Results:

1st 005 Sensation Gerry Hegie L34
2nd SA1105 Hocus Pocus E Stern/A Edwards Farr 38
3th SA204 Smackwater Jack Trygve Roberts J27
4th SA8032 UkuZwana Thomas Swana Laser 28
5th 010 Lapwing Robyn Keen L34
6th 001 Unmatched Rick Nankin Pacer 27
7th SA190 Pure Magic Alan Taylor J27
8th SA3141 Always Well L Burger/R Thomas First Class 7.5

Ukuzwana, Smackwater Jack and Hocus Pocus shortly after the start.

Photo: Trevor Wilkins

Above: Ukuzwana controlling us perfectly. We are going into the gybe despite the threat.

Photo: Trevor Wilkins

Overall standings had us in joint 3rd place at this stage.

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18th December.
Race 4. (Distance Race)
Start No.10 (P) – Paarden Island (P) – Bok point (S) – No. 10 (P)

Above: Doing our thing for our sponsors MTN

Photo: Linda de Groot

Distance: 30.37nm
Average Speed: 6.6 knots
Time: 04.43.40
Max Speed: 10.5 knots

We had discussed the distance race after racing the previous day. We all realised the importance of placing well as it is a double scoring race. Winning this race would put us right at the top after taking away our worst place discard of a 5th. We mentally geared up to give it our all.

The forecast indicated a 20 knot southerly, but at the start area there was hardly any breeze to speak of, so we kept the motor on to stay near the pin end. Up at the weather mark, only half a mile away, all the Class 1 boats were lying motionless or barely moving after having been racing for 40 minutes. It looked like we might just be coming back in the dark. The leading Class 1 boats got some breeze and it appeared to be a westerly.

We had a mediocre start behind Ukuzwana (Laser 28) who had a brilliant kick-off with their big kite drawing on the gun, but it wouldn’t last long as the fleet scattered left and right trying to find some pressure. At the end of 15 minutes we were all lying in a bundle near the weather mark more or less as we had started. A flicker of breeze kissed the boats on the right (where we were) and the Pacer, Beneteau and ourselves managed to make a getaway with spinnakers up,

The three boats headed towards the beach, whilst the others went offshore, but we benefited and gybed close to the beach and stayed in the breeze, opening up a nice gap on the Laser and the J27 Pure Magic. We then settled down onto a long two sail fetch with the No.1 genoa which lasted over an hour.

Once past Robben Island, the south westerly freed up enough to allow us to try our reaching spinnaker, but things were about to go a little pear shaped for us. The pole downhaul uncleated itself (?) and as the spinnaker filled, the pole skied almost to vertical and twisted itself, buckling the mast ring and damaging the pole piston end, so we had to strike the kite. Nic hacked and banged at the mast ring with a wrench, until he got it to move and we re-hoisted the spinnaker and settled down for a lovely fast reach of 9 to 10 knots. We quickly started making up time on the L34’s and opened our lead more on the Laser.

One by one the boats behind also put spinnakers up and the gap remained constant. Pure Magic seemed to have gained on us downwind. The sea was the most beautiful cobalt blue colour and this was actually a most enjoyable sail.

We rounded the downwind mark after about two hours and headed back towards the city on a free beat, being able to sustain a speed of 6,5 knots, and sailing higher than the rhumb line, just in case the wind switched to south east nearer the end. We dropped Pure Magic and the Laser, who must have been a bit underpowered with only a No.3 genoa up.

The finish was coming up fast and our speed and bearing was constant. We were close enough to the L34’s to have them on handicap, but the Pacer had disappeared from view and would post their only 1st place in the regatta in this race. The conditions had suited them perfectly and whilst we were doing 9 knots with the kite up, the Pacer was doing 14 to 20 steady.

The drama was about to happen. As we approached the mountain and the finish, a large windless hole lay in waiting. We saw two of the L34’s parking off to the right, so we bore off sharply to the left to stay in the breeze and work our way over to a small section of south easter waiting just a few hundred meters away. We didn’t get there on time and we parked with that horrible boat speed of 0.0 knots. And there we stayed for almost 15 minutes waiting in agony as we watched our hard fought lead being steadily whittled away as both the J27 and Laser both caught up to us.

It really was a case of who had luck. Some boats scraped through, others didn’t. Pure Magic saw our predicament and tacked far out towards the beach to finish a few minutes ahead of us. Eventually we got going and crossed 6 minutes ahead of the Laser, but it wasn’t enough. Our dead certain 2nd in our minds crashed down to a 5th. It was our the death knell for a hope of a podium finish. We were all very disappointed with the result.

I suppose our disappointment was not as great as Sensation’s. They had been within 50m of Lapwing when they sailed into the calm zone. Lapwing finished 3rd and Sensation last. Such is the light wind lottery. A pity, as it had been a wonderful race till that point.

The distance race countes for double points which meant we had to carry 10 points which pushed us from 3rd overall down to 5th overall.

Above: The Class 2 Fleet just after rounding the turning mark. SWJack is on the far right of the image.

Photo: Trevor Wilkins

Race 4 IRC Class 2 Results (Distance Race)

1st 001 Unmatched Rick Nankin Pacer 27
2nd SA1105 Hocus Pocus E Stern/A Edwards Farr 38
3th 010 Lapwing Robyn Keen L34
4th SA8032 UkuZwana Thomas Swana Laser 28
5th SA204 Smackwater Jack Trygve Roberts J27
6th SA190 Pure Magic Alan Taylor J27
7th SA3141 Always Well L Burger/R Thomas First Class 7.5
8th 005 Sensation Gerry Hegie L34

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19th December.
Race 5.
Windward/Leeward with downwind finish

Above: Checking line bias before the start with the Farr 38 towering over us.

Photo: Linda de Groot

Distance: 7.6nm
Average Speed: 6.2 knots
Time: 01.13.31
Max Speed: 12.8 knots


With a 20 knot southerly building, the RO set a course taking some time before he was satisfied, whilst we debated whether it was No.1 or 2 Genoa weather. Finally we went for the No.1 option. We had a reasonable start and tacked away from the fleet early to sail in clear air and go for speed. Somehow we were 0.2 of a knot down on our usual 6.3 knots upwind, but we tried going for a bit more height. The other J27 'Pure Magic' were sailing with a No.3 and sailing a fraction slower than us but pointing a bit higher.

We had the Pacer tacking on top of us and then the Laser, forcing us to tack away onto the unfavoured side of the course. We were struggling to keep our speed up and rounded marginally ahead of Pure Magic and the Beneteau.

We got the MTN spinnaker up and sailed high for speed, but in the process had the Laser and the J27 inside which prevented us from gybing. There was nothing to do about it, except wait for them to gybe. The Laser waited till we eventually gybed and then they gybed on top of us, allowing Pure Magic to get ahead. The Beneteau passed us and we had the very uncomfortable feeling of being stone last. That may or may not have had an effect on us, but we rounded to clear the mark and had to tack onto port to clear the Laser’s dirties. As soon as we had some space we tacked back onto the favoured port tack, only to have the Laser forcing us back onto starboard. We should have ducked their stern and gone on, but we didn’t and in the process we ended up staying stubbornly on starboard all the way to the layline. The only problem was that the breeze was shifting persistently to the right, which meant we were sailing the great circle route. When we got to the weather mark, we had lost double the distance to the Laser. We had a very lonely sail at the back of the fleet and were probably lucky to have picked up some fresh pressure on the final run, which the others didn’t get and pipped the Beneteau for last place by a small margin. 7th place! – our worst ever result in a Table Bay regatta . Mind you, I suppose our RTD result in 2005 in the penultimate race with a sleep deprived, booze infested crew was probably a worse result.

I apologized to the crew as all the reasons we screwed up in this race were entirely my fault. Cest la vie….On the flip side of the coin, Alan Taylor had a very good race in Pure Magic and I was at least pleased for him that he had suddenly found the sweet spot of his J27.

Above: Pure Magic sailing into 2nd place in Race 5

Photo: Trevor Wilkins

Race 5 Class 2 IRC Results

1st SA8032 UkuZwana Thomas Swana Laser 28
2nd SA190 Pure Magic Alan Taylor J27
3th SA1105 Hocus Pocus E Stern/A Edwards Farr 38
4th 005 Sensation Gerry Hegie L34
5th 010 Lapwing Robyn Keen L34
6th 001 Unmatched Rick Nankin Pacer 27
7th SA204 Smackwater Jack Trygve Roberts J27
8th SA3141 Always Well L Burger/R Thomas First Class 7.5

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19th December.
Race 6.
Windward/Leeward with downwind finish

Above: Pure Magic, Ukuzwana and Smackwater Jack approaching the top mark in a tight bunch.

Photo: Trevor Wilkins

Distance: 9.29nm
Average Speed: 6.5 knots
Time: 01.39.40
Max Speed: 14.3 knots

Right on time as per the Wind Guru forecast, the wind switched from south to south west and we had to sit and wait patiently, as the course was reset to the new wind. The wind speed was about 18 knots and a big sea was building. We had another discussion about headsail choice. I felt the No.2 was the right sail, but Greg wanted the No.1, so we let it go like that. Greg was concerned about the big waves and having enough punching power. We all agreed that the wind strength would probably decrease as the race progressed.

I noticed the top Class 1 boats starting at the committee boat and immediately tacking onto port, so I planned for the same strategy. We hung back as the bunfight for the pole position started and of course, the fleet all drifted sideways and a nice gap opened up for us. We came in at full speed and hit the line exactly on the gun, right next to the committee boat. That was easily our best start of the regatta.

As planned, we rolled over onto port, and the Pacer followed suit immediately. The two boats settled in for a long port tack. We had 6.4 knots on the speedo and the Pacer was staying with us this time and pointing a little higher. After 10 minutes, the Pacer pulled a little ahead and we started getting dirties, so we put in a tack to clear. We were right up with the L34’s and just cleared the Laser and the other J27. This was going to be a very tight race.

The two J27’s and the Laser rounded together and were soon on the spinnaker run in close company of one another, but there was no one boat going faster than the other. We were to weather and had more breeze, but Pure Magic had the inside track to control the gybe. We rounded the lee mark in close order. We had Nic change to the No.2 genoa in the meantime as we felt the boat was a bit overpowered with the No.1.

For the next beat it was much of a muchness with all three boats rounding the top mark in a tight cluster and again the downwind legs provided no opportunities to break away. The Laser sneaked in at the lee mark, flowed by Pure Magic and ourselves. We had to tack to break cover and this time we got a nice lift and when we went back we were level with the Laser and 10 lengths ahead of the J27. Great, exciting and tight racing!

At the top mark, we were able to lee-bow the Laser and being marginally ahead, we took the inside track for the final run down to the finish. Pure Magic was a 100 meters astern, but closing.

We blasted off on the broad reach within close proximity of the Laser and hit 14.3 knots in one of the gusts followed by a well timed wave, but we just could not shake the Laser off. We had the controlling position and headed straight for the committee boat end of the line which was closer and beat the Laser by one second. On corrected time of course, they pulverized us.

This was an enjoyable race and at least we finished the regatta on a better note with a 3rd. That meant discarding our 7th, but having to carry the 10 points from the distance race and at least we moved up from 5th overall; to 4th overall.

Above: Just after rounding the weather mark, the two J27's are enjoying very close racing.

Photo: Trevor Wilkins

Race 6 Class 2 IRC Results

1st SA8032 UkuZwana Thomas Swana Laser 28
2nd SA1105 Hocus Pocus E Stern/A Edwards Farr 38
3th SA204 Smackwater Jack Trygve Roberts J27
4th 010 Lapwing Robyn Keen L34
5th 005 Sensation Gerry Hegie L34
6th SA190 Pure Magic Alan Taylor J27
7th 001 Unmatched Rick Nankin Pacer 27
8th SA3141 Always Well L Burger/R Thomas First Class 7.5

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This was a tough regatta, but enjoyable. We were a little unlucky to have not had a second in the distance race and other than a terrible performance in Race 5, I think we sailed our socks off. Despite not having ended on the podium, I really enjoyed this event and I get the feeling, the crew did as well.

Nic Baigrie, (aka Spiderman) our bowman, is off to the UK for a year on a sort of study/teach project/bursary at a larney school and we wish him well and hope he doesn’t miss the blue skies and sunny weather too much. Thank you Nic – great job as always!

I was excited about the Garmin boat tracking experimental project where two Class 1 boats and two Class 2 boats were to be tracked via the internet and also shown on a big screen at RCYC, but there were too many problems. probably because the units were designed for motor vehicles and not boats. Our transponder only worked for Monday and positions were recorded approximately every two minutes. This is definitely not OK for yacht racing.

Well I guess there is a lot more work to do before this project becomes reality.

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Final Results:

1st SA1105 Hocus Pocus E Stern/A Edwards Farr 38 12 POINTS
2nd SA8032 UkuZwana Thomas Swana Laser 28 15 POINTS
3th 010 Lapwing Robyn Keen L34 19 POINTS
4th SA204 Smackwater Jack Trygve Roberts J27 23 POINTS
5th 001 Unmatched Rick Nankin Pacer 27 25 POINTS
6th 005 Sensation Gerry Hegie L34 27 POINTS
7th SA190 Pure Magic Alan Taylor J27 33 POINTS
8th SA3141 Always Well L Burger/R Thomas First Class 7.5 46 POINTS

I will put money on it that this action packed pic of the Class 1 boats powering downwind in Race 1 will make the front cover of Sailing Magazine.

A stunning photo by Trevor Wilkins.

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