Above: Brisk conditions on Table Bay with Addis (Alexander Monet) in the foreground trying to get their spinnaker under control, whilst Ballyhoo Too (Dave Hudson) in the background, struggles to come upright after a gybe and broach.

Photo: Trevor Wilkins

A-L lodged a protest against “Addis in Cape” for the port/starboard incident, but “Addis” had already retired from the race on their return. A-L also lodged a second protest against “Addis” for changing their mainsail between race 1 and 2. For this “Addis” was disqualified from Race 2. A-L also applied for redress and was given average points for the regatta. Later this would turn the event on its head, as they won both the races on the Wednesday, leaving them with two firsts and another two firsts on the redress issue. Game. set and match!

Wednesday turned out to almost make up for the first two days with a perfect 10 knot westerly which built to around 18 knots by mid afternoon. It was steady in direction and provided fair racing. A-L was back on the water and looking ship shape. This is always the boat to watch and frequently turns out to be a regatta winner.

Race 3 was started near Milnerton Beach with a long windward leg up to the No.2 channel marker and a dead downwind leg back to Milnerton. This was a fairly boring course for most competitors and not many opportunities to make gains.

The race was won by A-L with Corum and Windpower taking up 2nd and 3rd places respectively. We decided to go with the A2 .5 oz asso and soak deep on the downwind leg, which sort of kept us in the game but we didnt really gain on anyone either. The upwind leg was just about a one tack beat. We finished a minute or so behind Addis, but on handicap, we were stuck in 10th place. This was the kind of race one forgets about overnight. It really was dull and boring. Thank goodness for a steady breeze. We worked on our upwind boat trim and had plenty of time to discuss tactics, but they were barely needed.

The fleet was again dispatched to Granger bay for lunch with some crews even being brave enough to take a dip in the chilly waters of Table Bay. Sitting in the lee of new Cape Town Stadium made for a new vista for photographers.

A fairly long course was set for the final afternoon race, which would take the fleet to a windward mark, a reach to landfall, a run to Blouberg, a fetch to Milnerton, a beat to No.2, a run to Milnerton, another beat to No.2 and a fetch to the finish at No.10. It was a course which appeared to suit a sports boat, so we got a bit excited and prepped the boat with the R1 asymmetric.

Crocs led the fleet around the course, and as is usually the case for us in the Pacer 27, we got round the weather mark almost last but right on the heels of all the big boats. The moment we got the kite up, we took off and got our boat speed on 11 knots. We were sailing a nice, hot angle and steadily reeled in almost all the big boats, until only Crocs was still ahead of us, but the next leg down to Blouberg was almost dead downwind, which meant, we had to put in some gybes. They worked out nicely and we rounded Blouberg with Maestro (Fast 42). Just after rounding, Maestro lost a crewmember overboard. We watched till they had him back on board, then focused on our next leg up to Milnerton. It was a tight fetch, so we decided to see if we could carry the spinnaker. We gained quite a bit on the big boats ahead and carried the kite for almost two thirds of the leg, before striking and hotting up for a two sail fetch to the mark.

Once around Milnerton it was another long beat up to the #2 channel mark in a freshening breeze of around 18 knots and we had to start dumping power from the main. Just like before, the big boats nail us on the upwind legs, but we have to live with it.

On the next run, we went hot and fast, peaking out at around 15,3 knots. This was a thoroughly enjoyable leg and we made some nice gains on Maestro, Addis and AL, rounding the leeward mark ahead of all of them.

The next beat was more of the same and trying to protect our lead, but inevitably, all of the big boats, except Addis got past us on the upwind leg, but we had a short fetch to the finish and again we did half of it under kite and the final reach in going for a two sail fetch. We did manage to get ahead of both Benba and Maestro, but with a rating of 0.985 Benba klapped us on corrected time, but at least we beat Addis and Maestro. It is the first time that we have actually finished ahead of Addis. So we take our victories in a different format to walking up and collecting silverware.

The Farr 38 “Benba” took the 1st place, with A-L in 2nd and Windpower in 3rd place.

It was a far happier group of sailors on the terrace than a few days before. The prize giving went off smoothly and a good party was enjoyed by everyone in idyllic weather.

Final results IRC only:
1st A-L (Farr 38 - 1.012) Robert van Rooyen 7pts
2nd Windpower (Landmark 43 - 1.162) Rick Nankin 8 pts
3rd Gumption (ILC40 - 1.191) Mark Sadler 13pts
4th Corum (P Briand 43 - 1.130) Jan Reuvers 14pts
5th Benba (Farr 38 - 0.985) Dale Kushner 22pts
6th Lobelia (IMX40 - 1.085) Rob Meek 25pts
7th Cape Storm (Pacer 376 - 1.115) Geoff Meek 26pts
8th Ballyhoo Too (Mumm 36 - 1.099) Dave Hudson 32pts
9th Tenacity (Fast 42 - 1.089) Errol Stern 34pts
10th Regent Express (Pacer 27 Sport - 1.032) Trygve Roberts 45pts
11th Puma Unleashed (Pacer 42R - 1.188) Hylton Hale 46pts
12th Addis in Cape (Archembault 35 - 1.036) Alexander Monat 49pts
13th Maestro (Fast 42 - 1.089) Ankie Roux 49pts
14th Pacer 3 (Pacer 27 Sport - 1.032) James Harvie 60pts

RESULTS

AUDI TWILIGHT FUN RACE
9th December, 2009

Race in a nutshell:

Position IRC: RTD

Total Entries: 52

Distance: 8 nm.

Max Speed: 12.3 knots

Ave speed: 6.8 knots

Weather Forecast: Clear. Wind South West 8 knots. Temp 22C

Weather Actual: Accurate

Course: #10 (S) – 4(S) - Laid Gybe mark(S) - Paarden island (S) - 4 (S) - Laid Gybe mark - Paarden Island (S) - #10 (S)

Seas: Flat.

Sails: Full Main (North), No. 1 Fusion Genoa (Quantum), R1 Asymmetric Spinnaker. (Quantum)

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Charles Crosby (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Craig Latigan (Mast) Simon Penso (Bow), Total: 530 kg

It was an almost perfect day to race a Pacer 27 - moderate breeze and flat seas with a skewed course. Sailing attire was shorts and T shirts and the mood on board was ebullient as we got the boat race ready near the start line.

The first leg to the No.4 mark was a short one leg beat, so we aimed to start halfway down the line on the favoured port tack to keep a clear lane of air to the first mark. Most of the other boats headed for the pin end (shorter distance) which left us basically unmolested and a perfect port tack start hitting the line exactly on the gun doing 6.6 knots. We were able to sail quite a bit freer than the opposition which gave us over 7 knots upwind speed and a good position at the first mark, where we got the R1 kite up smartly and sailed hot for speed. We were able to sustain 11 knots of boat speed in about 9 knots of breeze and quickly forged ahead, gybing on the layline for the gybe mark which was DDW from the first mark. We did a perfect gybe and came up to the mark going fast, where we were able to power over both Windpower and Gumption at a tight angle retaining the big asso almost two thirds up the leg to Paarden Island. We were no doubt leading on handicap at that stage, as we hoisted the genoa and dropped the kite to head onto a beat to lay the PI mark.

The port favoured beat back to #4 had a few surprises in store for several boats and we too, made a few mistakes as we sailed into a few soft patches, but we were still up amongst the big boats at the top mark.

Again a smart kite hoist and quick accelleration got us ahead of a big pack of 40 footers and we employed the same strategy as the first round. This time the breeze was a knot or two lighter so we were able to carry the kite at a higher angle and maintain a fetching speed of 9 knots, which was a good deal faster than most of the boats ahead. We were catching up big time and it would appear that we were definitely on for a podium finish.

The boat was on the limit of heel/control and fully loaded up, but we were coaxing maximum speed under the circumstances. Suddenly there was a loud bang and the boat spun into the wind. The rudder was trailing behind the transom. The pintles had broken clean through the stern. Whilst the crew got all the sails down and Phill dug the outboard out of the cabin, Charles and I got stuck into getting the gudgeons out. They were badly bent and took many hard blows from a hammer and punch to free them. Damn! And we were doing so well.

On closer inspection, I noted that the lock nuts and bolts were still intact on the pintles. The whole lot had ripped right through the transom. That meant no backing plates or penny washers had been fitted to the pintles. A further inspection (done by Phill crawling into the back of the cave below) revealed the reason for no backing plates/washers - simply no space as the holes for the pintle bolts had been drilled right next to the rudder casette. It wasn't as bad as it first appeared and the repairs were in fact fairly simple. We had the boat seaworthy again in two days and with time to spare.

Getting back to harbour was OK using only the outboard, but the boat tends to wander in direction, which means keeping a sharp sense of anticipation. However, I would not like this little incident to have taken place far offshore in bad weather, as the outboard cavitates quite easily and a rescue/tow in would seem probable.

For the technophiles, here are two solutions to the problem:
1. Epoxy in two L shaped 3mm thick aluminium pieces into the corners of transom and rudder casette (inside). Glass them in making sure the glass overs the entire corner and bonds onto both the transom and casette. Re-drill new holes and fit the pintles. When doing so, ensure the rudder is in place to get a precise fit.

2. The second option is to move the pintles on the transom 20mm outboard on either side thereby allowing sufficient space to fit a suitable backing plate or penny washers.

We went for option 2 and have just sailed in 40 knots, without any problems.

With hindsight, we are really pleased this incident occurred in benign weather. All Pacer owners as well as the factory have been notified of this problem.

FLAG OFFICERS TEAM RACING
5th December, 2009

Race in a nutshell:

Position PHRF: 2nd

Team Position: 1st (A-L, Regent Express, Far Med.

Total Entries: 15

Distance: 6.0nm.

Max Speed: 10.0 knots

Ave speed: 5.5 knots

Weather Forecast: Clear. Wind South West 10 knots. Temp 27C

Weather Actual: Accurate

Course: #10 (S) – 2 (S) - Milnerton (S) - 2 (P) - #10 (P)

Seas: Flat

Sails: Full Main (North), No. 1 Genoa (Quantum), R1 Assymetric (Quantum)

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Charles Crosby (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Rodney Defiant (Mast) Simon Penso (Bow), Total: 540 kg

After enduring weeks of howling South Easterlies, finally a day of perfect sailing weather arrived for the Flag Officers Team Racing event. Numbers were down on last year with 15 boats pitching up to do battle. There were five teams entered representing each of the flag officers namely Commodore, Rear Commodore, Inside House, Outside House and Treasurer. We were placed into the 3 boat team under the white flag of Inside House, but there was no question of surrender whatsoever! In our team we had the all conquering Farr 38 "A-L", ourselves on the Pacer 27 and Vitor Medina on "Far Med" - one of the best sailed Miura's in the Cape. I knew immediately that we had a winning combination.

With a pleasant 10 knot westerly blowing steadily over the bay, a course was set to #2, Milnerton and return which provided a true beat back upwind. There were no recalls as the fleet headed up to the weather mark. We had an excellent port tack start without hindrance from any other boats and a lovely path of clean air all the way to the weather mark. Puma took the lead, followed by Naledi. Then in a row abeam were ourselves, A-L and Benba - the last two being Farr 38's. We were marginally quicker than Majimoto (Farr 40) and rounded in that order.

Spinnakers were set with Puma, Naledi and Regent Express all sailing to the left hand side of the course using asymmetric kites, whilst the rest of the fleet went straight down the middle. The breeze was light and puffy which meant we were only doing an average downwind speed of 6.5 knots. Puma had a few issues gybing their kite and lost some time in the process, but to be fair they only had five crew on a 42 foot boat. We arrived at the downwind mark still very much in touch with the leaders, having lost one place to the Farr 40. Most of the skippers know in a westerly, one always heads for the mountain. That resulted in a long procession of high pointing, big boats right in front of us, so we threw in a tack to clear our air. It didnt cost us anything, as by the time the fleet converged again at the top of the course, we were all still in similar positions with the exception that we had gained a few lengths on the Farr 40 and rounded a few seconds ahead of her.

Going back up the windward leg, Naledi gave A-L a torrid time with some covering tactics, no doubt initiated by a beaming Manuel Mendes, but it was all in vain and in true team racing spirit, as A-L went on to claim 1st place overall, followed 12 seconds later by ourselves. Naledi had in the process, sailed a slower than normal race herself, which might have given other boats an advantage (like us).

The last leg down to the finish was a tight fetch - just too tight for the bigger boats without asymmetrics, so we had an opportunity to make some big gains. We got the R1 up and drawing quickly and sailed through the lee of the Farr 40. Once through, we heated up the angle to lay the pin mark. It was tight. Right on the very edge of control, but we were doing 9 to 10 knots and it became clear that we were gaining plenty on the boats ahead. We squeeked past the #10 buoy to claim a 2nd place overall, a mere 12 seconds behind A-L. That meant our team had a 1st and a 2nd, so it only remained for Vitor Medina in "Far med" to put in a reasonable result for us to take the team prize - and he did - to take 7th place which gave us 10 points in total and an easy win over the second placed team with 15 points.

Very enjoyable sailing in my favourite wind on Table Bay - the Westerly.

1st A-L
2nd Regent Express
3rd Benba.co.za
4th Naledi
5th Puma Unleashed
6th Majimoto
7th Far Med
8th Impact
9th Reaction
10th Cabaray
11th Pallucci
12th Saiorsi
13th Storm
14th Apricot
15th Mighty Lemon Drop

1st Team: Inside House (A-L, Regent Express, Far med) 10 points

2nd Team: Rear Commodore Sailing (Naledi, Puma, Majomoto) 15 points

3rd Team: Treasurer (Benba, Impact, Reaction) 20 points

4th Team: Treasurer B (Cabaray, Pallucci, Storm) 34 points

5th Team: Rear Outside House (Saiorsi, Apricot, Mighty Lemon Drop) 38 points

AUDI TWILIGHT SERIES - RACE 6
2nd December, 2009

Race in a nutshell:

Position IRC: RTD

Total Entries: 10

Distance: 8.0nm.

Max Speed: 14.6 knots

Ave speed: 7.3 knots

Weather Forecast: Clear. Wind South East 20 knots. Temp 24C

Weather Actual: Clear. Wind SE 40 knots gusting higher. Temp. 20C

Course: #10 (P) – PI (P) - Milnerton (S) - Paarden island (S) - Milnerton (S) - Paarden Island (S) - Milnerton (S) - Paarden island (S) - #10 (S)

Seas: Choppy, breaking waves, spume. 1.5m

Sails: Reefed Main (North), No. 2 Jib (North)

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Charles Crosby (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Craig Latigan (Mast) Simon Penso (Bow), Total: 520 kg

Last week ago there were many sailors unhappy with the race officer cancelling racing in what appeared to be sailable conditions. Some lighthearted fun was made of the RO with an adaptation of the Windhoek Lager ad which did the rounds and made it onto the club notice board.

Yesterday it was "Ron's Revenge". Racing for Class 1 and 2 was cancelled, but the IRC fleet were deemed competent enough to be sent out onto the race course. With me being the originator of the beer ad adaptation, I was left with no choice (and riddled with guilt) but to go and race. We rigged in a very gusty and powerful south easterly and set off into the Duncan Dock to get the sails up. Everything was an effort but eventually we had the main up and reefed, the outboard off and stowed, and the No.2 jib up and furled.

Table Bay was more white, than green with spume being whipped off the wave tops - really strong conditions and even reefed down to our smallest sail plan, we were still hopelessly overpowered in the gusts. As we reached down the start line doing 13 knots under the small rig, there was a loug bang and the vang went slack. The attachment U bolt had pulled out of the mast with the 8mm bolts shearing clean through. Whilst Phill jury rigged the vang, we tried to get into a decent starting position near the wall, but we ended up being a few seconds late. Ahead of us the L26 was having a torrid time, being flipped over regularly in the gusts. The J27 also seemed to be having problems and was moving forward quite slowly.

In the meantime Addis (A35) shredded their mainsail. They elected to continue racing but on a headsail only. They did suprisingly well, considering their handicap.

We were doing 7.5 knots upwind with the jib leech opened up a lot and more or less under control. At the weather mark, I made the call for the spinnaker hoist to be cancelled. I just didn't feel happy about the gust factor and the possibility of losing the rig so close to two major upcoming regattas. Despite the lack of spinnaker, we were still doing 12 to 14 knots, as we overtook both Addis and Lobelia downwind, the latter which had done a huge broach and spent the better part of four minutes lying on their side.

We did two good gybes as we worked the angles downwind to round the downwind mark in 6th place, just ahead of Addis and Lobelia. Our plan was to stand in towards the beach on starboard tack, but this also had to be changed as their was a seriously large whale moving right in front of our path. We had to tack immediately onto port and called to Lobelia for room to tack, which they duly did, also having spotted the whale.

The upwind leg to Paarden island was horrible. The noise levels were deafening - the main culprit being the main which was flogging continiously and sounded much like a cracking whip. It was nothing other than pure drag. Addis outpointed us on a headsail only. Since it is our only mainsail, we deemed it more sensible to call it a day than put the sails and rig through any more punishment and bore off for the safety of the harbour. The sail back to port itself was fast, wild and wet with frequent knock downs. The L26 and the J27 also threw in the towel a short while later. It was just too strong for small boats, but it was nontheless a good experience to be out in such wild weather and to have the knowledge that the boat and the rig can actually handle it. One of the items that came out of the outing, was that it might be a very good plan to have a second reef in the mainsail - simply as a point of safety and to give the boat the ability to get back to port in severe weather, as does happen from time to time in the Cape of Storms.

I thought of radioing the bridge that we had retired, but as quickly abandoned the idea as hearing any replies on the VHF would have been imposiible under the circumstances. That got me thinking about how tough it would be having to make a VHF mayday call under similar conditions. It's a lot tougher than what most people imagine.

Once back in the harbour, the gusts were actually worse, but the seas a little flatter. We went through the reverse process of getting headsail down, motor on and running, main down and packed away below. Then we had all the crew lying flat on the deck to reduce windage and to allow the little 5 hp outboard to get us back upwind through the narrow channel into the small craft harbour at full throttle. Docking is always an interesting exercise in a south easter as the final turn is a downwind one onto our pontoon and of course, the boat accellerates, but we did a pretty good arrival.

So, yes, the Pacer 27 is a much stronger boat than what many people think, but no, it's not a lot of fun in a 40 knot wind. We were happy to be back on dry land.

Thanks Ron - you've had your revenge. We can all play nicely from here on.

AUDI TWILIGHT SERIES - RACE 5
25th November, 2009

Race in a nutshell:

Position IRC: 7th from 10

Total Entries: 63

Distance: 13.6nm.

Max Speed: 9.4 knots

Ave speed: 5.7 knots

Weather Forecast: Cloudy with 30% rain. Wind South West 17 knots. Temp 19C

Weather Actual: Partly cloudy. No rain. Wind SW 5 to 10 knots. Temp. 21C

Course: #10 (S) – 4 (S) - Gybe(S) - Paarden island (S) - 4 (S) - Paarden Island (S) - 4(S) - Gybe (S) - Paarden island (S) - 4 (S) - #10 (P)

Seas: Flat

Sails: Full Main (North), No. 1 Fusion Genoa (Quantum), R1 Asymmetric Spinnaker. (Quantum)

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Charles Crosby (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Daniel Spratley (Mast) Simon Penso (Bow), Total: 500 kg

It's that time of year when the south easter blows us Capetonians out of existence. It's also a time when we suffer from frequent cancelled races. This particular topic needs to be debated a little and I am going to venture an opinion here. Hopefully it is a balanced one.

Firstly, the decision to cancel the IRC racing rests with three people. The race officer, plus two experienced skippers in the IRC fleet. Generally one would think that should deliver a sensible result. For the Class 1 and 2 non-spinnaker fleets the decision is made by the race officer plus the duty officer who is also generally an experienced sailor and boat owner.

We have had three consecutive races cancelled due to extreme weather over the past three weeks. The first two there was no doubt that the decisions were correct, but last week the call was made early, at 3 pm. (and all of us appreciate getting early notification for obvious reasons) and then to everyone's dismay, the wind started dropping - right down to 20 knots which would have allowed for some good racing on the bay.

That got a bunch of members hot under the collar, but let's be practical and consider that no-one wants to cancel a race to spoil anyone's fun. The decisions are always made in the the interests of the general safety of the fleet. Do we ever send an email or make a call to those who make the calls and set the courses? No, of course we don't, but we are quick to complain when a race is cancelled without due cause. I think as members, we should abide by their decisions as they are the very people we have asked to be there. It's really not fair to burden these guys with too much guilt. Mistakes will be made. Let's leave it and move on.

The reality is that every skipper is responsible for his vessel and crew's safety and only he/she can ultimately make the decision whether to sail or not. It is a dangerous precedent for the club to make these decisions - then when a tragedy happens, the club gets blamed for the consequences. Races should happen for most conditions - skippers make their own decisions whether to race or not.

Last night the decisions were generally good. The race was a bit long resulting in many boats not finishing, but again it's easy to criticise. Best thing is to do is go and do some bridge duty and you will have a much better understanding how difficult things can get for those running our races for us.

I thought the course was as close to being excellent as what one can expect for a twilight race. We had almost true upwind legs and enjoyable reaches. It was all quite manageable even on the tight reaches. I have been pushing the RC hard to add some variety to our courses and it was great sailing one of the old Olympic style courses again which adds so much more variety than the windward/leeward options. It does mean a bit more work by mark laying boats, but that can only be good for the general standards of our sailing.

We had a great start - a really great start. A big gap opened up to behind us on the start line, so we gybed around onto port (more gently this time so we wouldn't stall the foils) and hardened up onto a beat hitting the line precisely on the gun and going fast. Of course a great start like that doesn't keep you in front for long in a 27 footer, as the big boats inevitably roll you. We put in a few tacks to clear dirties and rounded somewhere mid fleet. Once we got the asso up, we were able to clear ourselves a nice path to windward of the fleet and sail down to the gybe mark in clean air. Our gybe was good and we slowly started overtaking some of the bigger boats like the Farr 40 'Aladdin' and Fast 42 'Tenacity' but our target boat "Addis" the A35, had a two minute lead on us, so we would need to sail well to catch them. We did a weather drop down at Paarden Island and Charles suggested we head offshore, whilst most of the fleet went inshore. That little trick paid off handsomely as we had taken a big lead on the two big boats by the time we got back to the top mark.

The next leg was a run, so we decided to go for the 'super-soak' mode of sailing. Basically we sail as deep downwind as we can and move all the crew weight forward to get the boat's stern clear of the water. We were much closer to 'Addis' and the two big boats were still at least 40 lengths behind us. We did another good weather drop and tackled the second beat along the same pattern as the first. This time our strategy did not pay off. By the time we got near the top mark, both the big boats plus Addis had gained on us. We rounded together with the two forty footers and soon started making up time on them on the reaching legs, opening up a nice lead by the time we got down to the leeward mark again.

The third beat had us in a quandary. Left or right? So we went up the middle, doing our best to stick with Addis, but they worked the shifts better than we did and increased their lead. We had both 40 footers back with us again at the top mark as all three of us rounded in a bundle. Being the smaller boat, we were able to squeeze into the gap next to the buoy and managed to get away and ahead of both big boats for the short downwind leg to the finish.

We crossed the finish line with just 10 minutes to spare before the 8 pm cut off time, having finished 7th under IRC and 8th under PHRF. Not a great result and we could have done a better job on the last two upwind legs. The reality is that we were 10 whole minutes shy of the leading boat's corrected time in conditions which suited the Pacer 27. So there is more work for us to do and a focus on eliminating errors.

RESULTS:

1 Windpower Landmark 43 R Nankin 1.162 01:55:52

2 New Balance Gumption ILC 40 N Mace M Sadler 1.187 01:59:00

3 Lobelia IMX 40 G Kling R Meek 1.085 02:01:23

4 8 Seconds Leisure 42 L Barnat H Brehm 1.094 02:02:12

5 Addis in Cape Restaurant A 35 Archambault A Monat 1.036 02:02:23

6 Puma Unleashed Pacer 42 R H Hale 1.188 02:03:20

7 Regent Express Pacer 27 T Roberts 1.032 02:05:22

8 Aladdin Farr 40 B Geiger 1.03 02:06:06

9 Naledi J120 F Scheder Bischen 1.087 02:07:05

10 Tenacity Fast 42 E Stern 1.113 02:15:23

RCYC - BAY RACE (CANCELLED)
7th November, 2009

Race in a nutshell: Cancelled

Total Entries: 15

Distance: 6 nm.

Max Speed: 14.3 knots

Ave speed: 6.5 knots

Weather Forecast: Cloudy. Wind North West 30 knots. Temp 17C

Weather Actual: Accurate

Seas: Choppy and lumpy. (4 to 5m)

Sails: Reefed Main (North), No. 2 Jib (North), A3 Asymmetric Spinnaker. (North)

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Alan Keen (Main), Charles Crosby (Spinnaker), Perry Harrison-Hyde (Pit), Daniel Spratley (Mast), Craig Latigan (Bow), Total: 455 kg

It was scheduled to be a low key ‘one off’ club race. One of those nondescript courses around Table Bay which never seems to deliver a true beat or run. We kind of like those courses because for sports boats we revel in the reaches and invariably we deliver fairly good results. Half of our regular crew were unavailable for a variety of reasons, ranging from a motorcycle rally to having to work, the latter being a euphemism for “I am required to spend some time with her”

The L34 ‘Lapwing’ has a very large hole amidships on her port side – the consequences of being rammed by a Farr 40 some weeks ago in a port/starboard incident. She is now standing on the hard awaiting the ministrations of the repair crew. Meanwhile her crew are boatless, which is how I managed to get Alan Keen and Perry Harrison-Hyde to come sailing on the Pacer 27 and Craig (Pinky) Latigan from Quantum was free to fill in for Simon, as bowman. We had to reshuffle the crew around a bit with Charles taking over headsail/spinnaker trim and Alan handling the mainsail. Perry looked after the halyards, whilst Daniel and Pinky looked after the bow. We were all looking forward to some seriously fast downwind legs in the forecasted 25 knot north westerly, but Saturday morning revealed a very strong and gusty (unseasonal) pre-frontal weather system with lots of very dark clouds in the north. I knew the probability of getting a race in seemed unlikely, but we all went down to the mooring anyway and started rigging the boat. There was a unanimous agreement on sail plan – reefed main, #2 Jib and A3 fractional kite. I had driven in to the harbour via the container terminal where one gets a good view of the bay - And it wasn't pretty - plenty of white water and rolling green hills of Atlantic. Rough stuff.

By 13h00 of the 15 odd boats entered, only four were rigging in a deteriorating weather system. By 13h00 the race officer came over to inform us, we were the only boat intending to go out, so he was cancelling the race. That was the correct decision, without question. I suggested to the crew, that we go out for “a quick burn on the bay”. Everyone was OK with that.

Pacer 3 only had three of their five crew pitch, so they also said they would go out for a short run within the harbour. I suppose it was ironic in some ways that of all the heavy weather boats at RCYC, the only two boats willing to go out were the ultra light Pacer 27’s. Perceptions are bound to start changing.

After the last race we had sailed back onto our mooring without the outboard, which was still secured down below. To avoid having to haul it out twice for a short spin, I suggested we sail off the mooring. We planned it nicely and executed the plan perfectly, but there were problems lying ahead. First, let me explain that the small craft harbour at RCYC is a triangular shaped basin with only one entrance/exit. In the past year, a lot of rearranging of moorings has taken place to accommodate 55 new moorings. In the process the arms of the jetties have extended a lot further into the entrance channel, leaving a width of perhaps 18 meters. A few months ago, we had a problem motoring out the channel into a strong NW wind which just so happens to blow directly down the channel. On that occasion our furled headsail had come partially undone higher up, rendering the little outboard incapable of getting the boat up the channel, so we had ended up having to escape down one of the access channels, hanging on to the stern of a moored yacht, so we could get the headsail down and refurl it. We ended up having to motor sail to clear the channel into Duncan Dock.

Now, as we were approaching the left hand turn into the channel, I started having those recall moments described above and I called for max point mode and speed from the trimmers (remember, the outboard is down below). We cut the corner as finely as we could, but we had some problems ahead. One was the large power boat “North Star” moored on the starboard side of the channel. The other was a Farr 40 moored on the “wrong” side of the second last finger jetty, directly opposite “North Star”. This greatly reduced the available space to clear the channel. So we have an 8m boat with a 2,5m beam in a channel which is now 15m wide and a 25 knot headwind to deal with. Oh Yeah! Fun, fun, fun....

The distance we had to sail up the channel was maybe 80 meters, but it took about 20 tacks, to get through it, barely making 2 meters upwind progress per tack. Painful!

Once we were in Duncan Dock, we were able to power up and sail comfortably at 6,5 knots upwind under the reduced sail plan. The harbour was, for once, strangely absent of any commercial shipping. We ventured out past the breakwater on port tack and noted the waves were breaking over the top of it -We were met with some very ugly seas beyond the breakwater extremity. The waves were easily four to five meters high, very confused and every third wave was breaking. This was not really good weather for small boats and we all agreed at that point, that had a race been started; there probably would have been no finishers. We have been out in some pretty rough conditions over the years on Table Bay, but this was amongst the worst in terms of sea state. We took a couple of solid waves over the bows and then tacked over on to starboard, heading towards Green Point. This tack had us sailing directly into the waves and it was very, very wet! The boat would lift up the wave faces like a cork and crash through the white water at the crest, then slam down onto the back of the wave. Once we had sufficient upwind height, we eased sheets and headed back to the harbour. We prepped the spinnaker, but we were rolling around so violently in the confused seas, we decided to hold the hoist, till we were back in the harbour. Racing down the wave faces felt like being in toboggan with some very steep slopes, but the Pacer never flinched at having a good old extended surf.

Once past the breakwater, the water was a lot flatter and we hoisted the A3 to enjoy a nice, fast reach back into Duncan Dock at 13 to 14 knots steady. Not record breaking stuff, but very enjoyable and grateful that we at least got a sail in for the day. On the way back we passed Pacer 3 on their way out. We docked under sail power only with precision, but we had the ouboard secured on the stern and idling - just in case. As we pulled the boat cover on after packing up, the first drops of rain started and it hasn’t stopped in 24 hours with more rain for the whole of next week. Hey! – This is supposed to be our summer time!

One of the good things about going out in bad weather, is simply to experience the power of nature first hand – and know how the boat feels in those conditions, with the safety of the harbour close at hand.

TEST YOUR RULES KNOWLEDGE

Here is a rule situation. (Names have been changed to protect the innocent and easily offended!) Test your knowledge of the sailing rules...

Two boats of the same design are approaching the weather mark which must be left to starboard. P1 is clear ahead (by half a boat length) and three boat lengths to leeward of P2 as they enter the 'zone'. (3 boat length circle around the mark)

P2 is on the starboard layline and sailing faster than P1 but still does not have an overlap on P1.

P1 hails P2: 'NO WATER!"

P2 hails P1: "YOU CANT TACK, WE ARE ON STARBOARD!"

P1 tacks onto port.

P2 crash tacks to avoid a collision with P1 and manages to complete her tack directly in front of P1.

There is no contact and P1 does not have to change her course.

Both boats clear the windward mark and continue to the next mark which is down wind.

Which boat is in the right?

According to the experts......

P2 was in the right. In the case of a weather mark to be left to starboard and both boats are on the same starboard tack, you simply remove the mark and apply normal sailing rules. P2 may continue on starboard tack for as long as she wishes and take P1 with her. In a protest situation P1 would have been disqualified for tacking onto port in front of P2.

AUDI IRC SUMMER SERIES - RACE 5
4th November, 2009

Race in a nutshell:

Position IRC: 8th from 14

Total Entries: 55

Distance: 10 nm.

Max Speed: 14.1 knots

Ave speed: 6.7 knots

Weather Forecast: Clear. Wind North West 17 knots. Temp 19C

Weather Actual: Accurate

Course: #10 (S) – 4(S) - 8(S) - Paarden island (S) - 8 (S) - Paarden Island (S) - 8(S) - Paarden island (S) - #10 (S)

Seas: Choppy and lumpy.

Sails: Full Main (North), No. 1 Fusion Genoa (Quantum), R1 Asymmetric Spinnaker. (Quantum)

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Charles Crosby (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Daniel Spratley (Mast) Simon Penso (Bow), Total: 500 kg

Conditions were ‘interesting’ with us being right on the upper limit of our full sail plan. We also had an exceptionally lumpy sea running – the very type of sea condition that does not suit the Pacer 27. Our sister ship, Pacer 3, with Andrea Giovaninni was also out for the race, as was the Beneteau 7.5 ‘Always Well”. The rest of the IRC fleet was made up of mainly big boats and as always these are tough races for us to win due to the windward/leeward format.
There was a lot of starboard bias on the fixed starting line, which meant everyone wanted to be at the pin end.

We lined up, but soon found ourselves in trouble, as Windpower, to leeward of us, started luffing up hard, so we ducked under them to try to keep a lane of clear air, but basically I had put us in a poor position getting dirty air from several boats, so we decided to put in a short tack to clear our air. That ended up being a smart move, as when we tacked back onto starboard, we had a nice clean run in all the way to the top mark, quickly overhauling the L26 and Beneteau 7.5S and rapidly catching Pacer 3, which was sitting in Lobelia’s dirties. We had the advantage of coming in to the mark on starboard. Pacer 3 called for water and tacked onto port right in front of us, but we had just enough room to tack under them and still clear the mark. We got away from the pack into clean air and concentrated on the short fetch to the No.8 mark.

We opted for a gybe set and had that side of the course more or less to ourselves, as we did several gybes on the long leg down to Paarden Island. We were holding Aladdin (Farr 40) and Addis (A35) but GPS speeds hovered around the 11 knot mark – not quite as fast as would like to sail.

We did a very good drop at the leeward mark, but we had Addis to windward of us going back upwind, so we had no choice but to soak low and go for speed to (a) get some separation from them and (b) to generate enough power to drive through the chop. The breeze remained steady with hardly any oscillations. On our second rounding of No.8 mark, we had lost out about 30 boat lengths to Addis.

We again went for a gybe set, but went much further in to the wall as all the cruising fleets had already started leaving the bay clear. Along this leg we saw Pacer 3 still coming upwind on their way to the No.8 buoy. They had experienced some spinnaker problems plus they had broken their vang. They subsequently retired.

The second beat saw us working the right hand side of the course, but we were unable to hold the bigger boats due to the sea state. Even our downwind speeds were off the pace due to the sloppy wave action. On the final downwind leg, we went for a bearaway set and enjoyed a good reach off towards Milnerton, gradually overtaking Lobelia (who were sailing short handed and not flying a spinnaker). At the final approach to the leeward mark, we did a neat Mexican drop, just upwind of an L26, coming to the same mark from a different course, but it presented no problems and we completed the last leg up to the finish without mishap.

An enjoyable sail with very few mistakes and yet we only scored a lowly 8th place. Now, it's just a matter of refining and practice, practice, practice.

1st Windpower Landmark 43 R.Nankin 1.162 01.16.36

2nd Gumption ILC40 N.Mace 1.187 1.17.54

3rd Addis A35 A.Monat 1.036 1.20.48

4th Aladdin Farr40 B.Geiger 1.030 1.20.51

5th Naledi J120 F.Scheder-Bischen 1.087 1.20.53

6th Puma Pacer42R H.Hale 1.188 1.21.32

7th Eight Seconds Leisure 42 1.094 1.21.50

8th Regent Express Pacer27S 1.032 1.23.22

9th Warlock L26 I.Slatem 0.868 1.24.26

10th Lobelia IMX40 G.Kling 1.085 1.27.01

11th Hillbilly J27 P.Hill 0.933 1.29.56

12th Ballyhoo Too Mumm35 I.Park-Ross 1.099 DNC

13th JML L26 M.Bell 0.868 DNC

14th Tenacity Fast 42 E.Stern 1.113 DNC

AUDI IRC SUMMER SERIES - RACE 4
28th October, 2009

Race in a nutshell:

Position IRC: 10th from 15

Total Entries: 56

Distance: 6 nm.

Max Speed: 16.2 knots

Ave speed: 6.8 knots

Weather Forecast: Partly Cloudy. Wind Southerly 17 knots. Temp 19C

Weather Actual: Cloudy. Wind SSE 18 knots gusting to 28 knots

Course: #10 (P) – Yellow (P) - Red (P) - Yellow (P) - Red (P) - Yellow (P) - Red (P) - #8 (P) - #10 (P)

Seas: Choppy

Sails: Full Main (North), No. 2 Jib (North), A1 Asymmetric Spinnaker. (Quantum)

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Charles Crosby (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Daniel Spratley (Mast) Simon Penso (Bow), Total: 500 kg

We did one of these 'big splash dives' on the final downwind leg, absolutely soaking our foredeck guys. Ah yes, the Cape Doctor - a difficult man to understand sometimes.

This was not our best race in the Pacer. It's funny once the first thing goes wrong, how quickly problems compound at sea. At the dock, before we set out, we debated which headsail to use, finally agreeing we would go with the #2 as the south easter seems to have a time switch for a 10 knot increase exactly at 18h00. We also rigged the reefing line and decided we would risk going with the R1 big kite, as we would be sailing a windward/leeward course. Those all turned out to be sound decisions.

The wind wasn't a true south easterly, but more like SSE, putting loads of starboard bias on the start line. That would mean a big cluster of boats up at that end, to be able to lay the weather mark in one tack. We carefully placed ourselves in exactly the right spot, but the big boats were all round us. In order to keep a clear lane we were forced to nudge ever closer to the line and then inevitably, we had to slow the boat down by luffing head to wind to avoid being OCS. Our favourite 42 ft 'block of flats' '8 Seconds' parked on top of us and left us with our own personal zone of flat calm. One thing the Pacer 27 does not like and that is being stalled. It takes effort to get water speed over the foils to get her going again. The gun went and we were left in irons on the start line. Our perfectly positioned start went fully pear shaped and left us as tail-end Charlies. It took a full minute to get going, by which time we were still trying to overhaul the L26's.

The wind was unpleasantly puffy - ranging between 12 and 28 knots. The boat felt comfortable with the full main + #2 Jib combo, so we felt confident we would be able to handle the big spinnaker. We had caught up to the rear end of the main body of the fleet and got the R1 kite up smartly. As Simon called "MADE!" and Greg sheeted in, a big gust hit us and over we went. Right, so that was mistake number 2. It took around a minute to recover and get her pointing downwind again and we were off again, at a blistering pace. The guys had barely recovered their breath, when we were on the gybe line. The gybe was a beauty and we roared off on the port gybe to the leeward mark. Mistake #3 was about to happen.

Phill blew the tackline as we had to do a leeward drop. The stopper knot in the tackline had somehow untied itself, sending it zipping through the clutch, down the block, below the deck and right through the pole and out the far end. That left us with a big problem.

We had in the process caught up quite a bit and rounded right on the stern of Addis (our target boat), but we were sitting right in their dirties, so we tacked away onto the unfavoured early starboard tack. The legs were very short, which meant we only had about five minutes to jury rig a tack line. Phill went up onto the bow and lashed one of the spinnaker tweakers with a block onto the end of the pole. Let's just say the Pacer didn't much like having a man so far up on the bow and of course, the rest of us weren't concentrating fully on boat speed. We lost out a fair bit by the time we got to the top mark, but at least we would be able to fly our spinnaker.

Round the mark we went and up went the kite, only to present itself in a perfectly untangleable hour glass. We had to haul it back down on deck, untangle and rehoist. More time lost! We did another good gybe and a conservative strike to prevent anything else going wrong.

Going up the second beat, we noticed our second mainsail batten was protruding a foot out of the batten pocket at the leech. (Problem #4 and I am losing count!) That would have happened during the broach no doubt. More lack of concentration as we watched helplessly as the batten extended further and further, eventually wriggling itself free and falling into the sea. It was about at that point that the top batten also decided to give up, snapping cleanly off about five inches from the luff. Damn and damn again! Things just weren't going well for us.

The final downwind leg involved the usual DDW leg followed by a 500m beam reach and a short beat to the finish. This time our hoist was good, followed by an excellent gybe. Most of the fleet ahead were unable to carry spinnakers on the penultimate leg, but we decided to give it a go. At that stage the wind was definitely on the very fresh side, but we held the kite and hit 16.2 knots in a blur of white water as we made up some of the lost ground on the leaders, but it wasn't nearly enough.

As we sailed back into the harbour, Phill went down below for some beers (it was young Daniel's 13th birthday) and let out a low whistle and said "Better start pumping the bilges boys" We had a lot of water in the boat and Daniel did the honours pumping most of it out. I think in the south easterly races, we would do well to sail with the hatch cover and washboard in place.

Mmmm......10th place? Yikes, but hey, it's still better than being in the office. Next week we'll try again.

1st Windpower Landmark 43 R. Nankin 1.162 00:43:22

2nd Puma Unleashed Pacer 42 R H. Hale 1.188 00:45:47

3rd Addis in Cape Restaurant A 35 Archambault A. Monat 1.036 00:45:50

4th Bally Hoo II Mumm 36 I Park Ross 1.099 00:46:06

5th Aladdin Farr 40 B. Geiger 1.03 00:46:22

6th 8 Seconds Leisure 42 H. Brehm 1.094 00:46:30

7th Hors DOeuvre L 26 P.Bam 0.865 00:46:43

8th Lobelia IMX 40 G. Kling 1.085 00:46:44

9th Naledi J120 F Scheder Bischen 1.09 00:47:46

10th Regent Express Pacer 27 T Roberts 1.032 00:49:05

11th New Balance Gumption ILC 40 N Mace 1.187 00:51:20

12th Warlock L 26 I Slatem 0.868 00:52:57

13th Always Well Beneteau FC25 No IRC certificate

14th JML L 26 M Bell 0.868 DNC

15th Tenacity Fast 42 E Stern 1.113 DNC

16th Hill Billy J27 P Hill 0.933 DNC

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HARKEN ROBBEN ISLAND PURSUIT RACE
17th October, 2009

Race in a nutshell:

Line: 2nd

Position PHRF: 2nd

Total Entries: 47

Distance: 18 nm.

Max Speed: 10.3 knots

Ave speed: 7.4 knots

Weather Forecast: Cloudy. Wind Southerly 10 to 17 knots. Temp 19C

Weather Actual: Cloudy. Wind SE 10 knots becoming SW 12 knots, becoming calm, becoming SE 8 knots

Baro: 1018 hPa.

Course: #10 (S) – Robben Island (P or S) - #10 (P)

Seas: Long period swell 3m. Choppy and lumpy on the west side of the island.

Sails: Full Main (North), No. 1 Fusion Genoa (Quantum), A1 Asymmetric Spinnaker. (Quantum) A3 Asymmetric Spinnaker (North)

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Charles Crosby (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Craig Latigan (Mast) Simon Penso (Bow), Total: 530 kg

Ooooh.....that was so close!

After three hours racing we crossed the finish line bow to bow one meter behind the J120 'Naledi' to take second overall in this years race. It really doesn't get any closer or any more exciting than that. With the very experienced Manuel Mendes trimming on the J120 as we went into the final flurry of tacks and cover tacks, the normally composed Manuel started shouting rules not even he could figure out, but we sort of figured out 'NO WATER' actually meant 'STARBOARD'

The last five minutes into the finish left us all dry mouthed and on a huge adrenaline high with the sweet taste of victory so close, but it was not to be. For the second time in as many weeks, we had to be content playing the Cinderella role.

This year's event attracted a solid fleet of forty seven yachts including a pair of Laser dinghies which sailed the course having left well before the main fleet - more as a fun feature and to prove a point, than any sort of serious race attempt, but both Laser's did successfully complete the course but were not offically scored.

Dr Dave Smith once again did a great job of calculating the handicaps and start times with the entire fleet finishing within a forty five minute window. The first boat - a Theta 26 - started at 11h00 followed by a long procession of spinnakers as the fleet sailed the downwind leg to Robben Island . We were the thirty second boat to leave the starting area together with a Simonis 35 'Palucci' and Dr Dave Smiths Lightwave 395 'Touch n Go' at 11h56. We had our R1 Assymetric up and drawing before we crossed the line and immediately went for a fairly hot angle towards Blouberg beach at around 9 knots on the log. Not particularly fast, but no doubt faster than the rest of the fleet. Being so far behind, makes one feel like it is an impossible task to catch up, but we did, despite seemingly impossible odds.

This year we were allowed to leave the island to port or starboard and it was interesting to see which boats chose the various options. We figured we would play things by ear and see how things panned out. With a southerly wind forecast, we were fairly certain there would be a big wind shadow over the bay from Table Mountain, so we headed towards the beach to stay in the pressure. There were about six large ships anchored in the bay, which would affect everyone's tactics to a degree. The wind was in fact south easterly where we were, so once we started getting close to the beach, we had to gybe back offshore onto port, but the boat did not feel very comfortable as we were sailing directly into the swell. The wind pressure appeared to be decreasing the further offshore we went, so we decided to gybe back inshore to stay in the pressure. Our gybes have certainly improved a lot since our last Robben Island race!

We kept on heading north east on the starboard gybe until we had the northern tip of the island at ninety degrees. We went for the final gybe to get a perfect angle of attack. Up till then we had the beach side of the course to ourselves, but we were heading rapidly back into the traffic. We had caught up with most of the Farr 38's who had started two minutes ahead of us. Then the unexpected happened. The wind started veering around to the south west which had us struggling to hold our big spinnaker. We decided to change down to a smaller fractional assymetric, but even that was not flat enough to hold an angle of sixty degrees, so we just as quickly aborted it and pulled the No1 Genoa back up. Amazingly we were still holding a steady 8,5 knots boat speed by barber hauling the clew outboard.

Getting through the kelp and backwash at the back of the island is always tricky. We had the Farr 38 'Benba' on our leeward hip and their sistership 'A-L' directly ahead. The heavy traffic was looming as we started sailing into the main body of the fleet with some big and heavy cruisers amongst the mix. We stood just far enough out to sea, before tacking onto starboard for the long beat back to the finish line. The biggest problem at the back of the island is staying off the surf line and keeping clear of kelp - and there was plenty of it. Whole floating islands of kelp beckoned the unwary. Somehow we managed to get through that mess with clean foils and with fairly good boat speed as well. Charles was working hard on the mainsail trim trying to keep the Pacer flat and powered up as the big swells lifted us 3 to 4 meters at a time. In the length of the island we must have overtaken 25 boats.

Once past Robben Island, we were able to foot off a few degrees and get the boat speed back up to 7,5 knots steady. We had worked our way into the top six positions. Up ahead we had two Farr 38's, an RCOD and a steel Stadt 34 (the latter two whom we knew we could catch) and two other small boats. We could still do it, but we would need to be sharp and of course, there was still the question of whether there would be a calm zone between the fleet and the finish line. Another question was whether the boats that had gone the other way round the island, might have an advantage over us.

One by one we passed boats until we only had the two Farr 38's to catch, but 'A-L' had a substantial lead on us with a boat full of young hot shots on board. It would be a tough ask to overtake them. In yacht racing anything can happen and we know to never give up. This race would prove the wisdom of the addage yet again.

We had been trying to overtake the Farr 38 'Freedom' for almost an hour, so we decided to do something a bit more radical and hotted up our angle which drew us level with them but to windward. We then hoisted the A3 Assymetric again and sailed a much lower angle than the two Farr's. That little section didn't last long and suddenly we were out of the pressure and scramling to strike the spinnaker. 'A-L' and 'Freedom' had both also parked. Behind us the fleet all came sailing into the calm zone one by one. The bigger boats carried more way and continued past us until they too came to a total stop. Typically, Table Bay had dished out a whole restart for many of the fleet who had worked so hard to get to the front. It was waiting time. Agonising!!!

Far to the left, the boats that had left the island to starboard were coming up in a nice band of south easter, but the leading bunch were also slowing down considerably. We were right in the middle of the parking lot. A light breeze tickled the Windex and our trimmers set to work, getting Regent Express some power to work with. We skirted a 50 footer which had parked to windward of us and quickly rehoisted our big R1 spinnaker and sneaked out of the parking lot all on our own, rapidly leaving the fleet behind. The transition from the south westerly into the south easterly was quite easy and we were ready for it when it came with a lightning quick genoa hoist and kite strike. Suddenly it looked like we could take first place. The finish line was more than a mile distant and there was no question that any of the boats behind us would be able to catch us if the breeze held, but one of the big boats that had done a starboard island rounding seemed to be coming up nicely on the port tack in the same breeze we were in. We were definitely ahead of them, but they would probably be doing one knot better boatspeed than us. It was the J120 'Naledi' skippered by Robin van Rooyen.

We watched the gap narrowing and crossed about ten boat lengths ahead of them. There was no other boat in contention. It was going to be match race between the Pacer 27 and the J120. We can tack and react quicker, but they have beter upwind boat speed. We knew it was going to be desperately close, so we needed to employ every tactic we could think of.

The first thing was to give them dirty air, so we tacked onto port upwind and ahead of them. That worked nicely, but the wily old foxes on 'Naledi' knew they had to break free, so they soaked fast and low and tacked over onto port. We knew we didn't have the boat speed to hold them so we carried on a bit further on port before rolling over onto starboard tack, but we were a bit short of the layline to the pin end of the finish line. Naledi tacked away again and this time we let them go, heading for the pin end with the intent of tacking right under the mark. Naledi was on the starboard layline coming us fast, but we were still ahead, but only just.

There was a lot of shouting coming from Naledi - mainly from Manuel in his thick Portuguese accent - as we scraped past Naledi on port with about 3 meters to spare. We tacked quickly back onto starboard and sprinted the last few boat lengths to the finish line. It was just not enough. They beat us by a quarter of a boat length. So very, very close. The Pacer 42 'Puma' took third place a few minutes behind us.

Considering that we did not have the advantage of a good down angle for our spinnaker work, we were pleased as punch with the result and celebrated on the terrace with some good old South African 'cerveja'

POS SAIL NO YACHT CLASS TCF HMS
1 SA2773 Naledi J120 1,155 14 35 39
2 17 Regent Express Pacer 27S 1,080 14 35 44
3 SA 3800 Puma Unleashed Pacer 42R 1,265 14 37 50
4 SA 630 A-L Farr 38 1,090 14 38 2
5 SA4444 Gumption ILC 40 1,270 14 39 25
6 SA3455 Mafuta Bavaria 36 0,990 14 39 42
7 SA 2700 Lobelia IMX 40 1,145 14 39 50
8 SA4242 Tenacity Fast 42 1,175 14 40 21
9 US43434 Spilhaus III Swede 55 1,110 14 41 26
10 SA2388 8 Seconds Leisure 42 1,155 14 41 50
11 SA1178 Touch & Go Lightwave 395 1,080 14 42 46
12 FRA 34635 Addis in Cape A 35 Archambault 1,105 14 42 45
13 SA250 Freedom Farr 38 1,070 14 43 6
14 SA1105 Benba Farr 38 1,070 14 43 39
15 SA898 ME2ME Farr 38 1,070 14 44 20
16 SA344 Maestro Fast 42 1,150 14 44 20
17 SA 198 Hill Billy J 27 0,995 14 44 55
18 SA 675 Majimoto II Farr 40 1,130 14 45 44
19 SA 3740 Celine IV Comfortina 39 1,050 14 46 8
20 Sa667 Sea Shuttle Charger 33 0,985 14 46 50
21 011 Tally Ho L 34 1,015 14 47 30
22 SA723 Flyer First Class 10 1,020 14 47 54
23 SA 2018 Cabaray Stadt 34 0,940 14 48 34
24 SA 190 Pure Magic J 27 0,995 14 48 47
25 SA 978 Aurora Atlantis 49 1,080 14 48 0
26 SA 42 Sea Minor L 34 1,015 14 52 28
27 13 Ariel RCOD 0,925 14 52 47
28 SA 702 FTI Flyer Charger 33 0,985 14 54 27
29 SA2360 Saoirse Atlantis 36 0,930 14 54 30
30 SA569 Gremlin Spirit 28 0,910 14 56 22
31 SA130 Apricot Miura 0,935 14 58 52
32 1 Orca Ocean 31 0,970 14 59 10
33 SA2118 Thalassa Fortuna 37 0,935 15 0 5
34 SA 1967 Storm Ocean 31 0,950 15 0 41
35 SA 941 Morgenster L34 1,015 15 0 48
36 SA 597 Mighty Lemon Drop L mini ton 0,880 15 1 35
37 SA432 Bandit Miura 0,935 15 2 10
38 SA1692 Doughty Simonis 64 1,420 15 3 14
39 Ava Miura 0,935 15 3 47
40 SA1245 Pallucci Simonis 35 1,080 15 8 24
41 SA742 Goblet L 36 0,950 15 13 0

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AUDI IRC SUMMER SERIES - RACE 2
14th October, 2009

Race in a nutshell:

Line: 8th

Position IRC: 7th

Total Entries: 13

Distance: 7 nm.

Max Speed: 9.8 knots

Ave speed: 5.0 knots

Weather Forecast: Cloudy. Wind NW 17 knots. Temp 19C

Weather Actual: Cloudy. Wind SW 8 knots. Temp 17C

Baro: 1009 hPa.

Course: #10 (S) – #4 (S) – Leeward mark (S) x 3 loops – #10 (S)

Seas: Fairly flat - small waves 0.3 m

Sails: Full Main (North), No. 1 Fusion Genoa (Quantum), A1 Asymmetric Spinnaker. (Quantum)

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Craig Latigan (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Daniel Spratley (Mast) Simon Penso (Bow), Total: 470 kg

Conditions appeared to be fairly breezy when we arrived at the club to rig, but by the time we got our starting hooter at 17h50 the breeze went right down to a lowly eight knots. Add that to a windward/leeward course and we have what I refer to as 'Pacers Folly'

We hadn't been out sailing for a couple of weeks since the nationals so it was lovely just to be on the boat and sailing again. We had Craig Latigan (Pinky) from Quantum on board in Charles's place doing main trim and our newest, yougest, lightest crew-member, Daniel Spratley, filling in as mast man. Daniel is our latest aquisition and we can all already see he is tremendously talented and very comfortable on the foredeck.

Our starting strategy just so happened to be very similar to nearly all the boats in the fleet and we found ourselves in the unhappy position of being sandwiched between a J120 and the Mumm 36. We managed to wriggle out of that lot into clean air and had a fairly good first beat rounding the top mark right amongst the top end of the fleet.

The breeze was too light for us to plane no matter how hot we sailed down wind with only 8 knots showing on the log and occassionally going into the 9 knot range. All our gybes were good with no obvious errors. The scratch boat for us is 'Addis' (an A35) who give us 15 seconds an hour. As the race progressed we could feel the gap slowly stretching from 10 seconds to a minute by the last loop. We were certain they had given us a run for our money. We could not hold the Farr 40 Alladin either who ended up beating us by about 2 minutes. We know only too well that in breeze under 8 knots on a windward/leeward course we are not going to finish on the podium.

Of course Windpower and Lobelia's failure to return after an OCS call got us a further two spots up the ladder.

Despite the mediocre result, the sailing was heavenly and the sunset behind Lions Head quite exceptional. Simply great being out there!

We have some good news in that the 2010 Pacer National Championships are coming to Cape Town - and soon as well. The event will be incorporated into the Mykonos Offshore Regatta from 18th to 20th February and will no doubt find favour with Pacer owners who have the promise of a 65 nautical mile downwind race in a south easter. Shweeeee.....It's bound to be fun. More details later.

1st Bally Hoo II Mumm 36 I Park Ross Rating 1.099 Time: 01:01:36 Ave 5.781 kn

2nd 8 Seconds Leisure 42 H. Brehm Rating 1.094 Time 01:02:06 Ave 5.708 kn

3rd New Balance Gumption ILC 40 N Mace Rating 1.187 Time 01:02:21 Ave 6.168 kn

4th Puma Unleashed Pacer 42 R H. Hale Rating 1.188 Time 01:03:42 Ave 6.043 kn

5th Addis in Cape Restaurant A 35 Archambault A. Monat Rating 1.036 Time 1:03:44 Ave 5.267 kn

6th Aladdin Farr 40 B. Geiger Rating 1.03 Time 01:04:44 Ave 5.155 kn

7th Regent Express Pacer 27 T Roberts Rating 1.032 Time 01:06:17 Ave 5.044 kn

8th Tenacity Farr 40 E Stern Rating 1.113 Time 01:06:27 Ave 5.427 kn

9th Naledi J120 F Scheder Bischen Rating 1.09 Time 01:07:44 Ave 5.215 kn

10th JML L 26 M Bell Rating 0.868 DNC

11th Lobelia IMX 40 G. Kling Rating 1.085 OCS

12th Windpower Landmark 43 R. Nankin Rating 1.162 OCS

13th Hill Billy J27 P Hill Rating 0.933 DNC

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PACER 27 National Championships - 24 to 27 September, 2009
Deneysville Aquatic Club, Vaal Dam, OFS.

A two month planning period preceded this regatta which included hours spent poring over and editing pack lists and travel plans. It has been about 10 years since I undertook an away regatta (which included carting the boat behind the car) - and that time the boat weighed 45 kgs! Try that with a 1200kg boat and five crew and suddenly it becomes a logistical nightmare.

Two of us undertook the road trip (mainly because the Pacer wont fit into the hold of an Airbus) working in shifts of two hours, whilst the other three hopped on a plane. No matter how efficiently we tackled the driving, the "Time To Go" showed a trip duration of 18 hours. It is a long, long way and concentration levels have to remain high. The most important thing to remember is that the total length of your vehicle/rig is 18 meters. Swinging back into your lane after overtaking leaves the tip of the mast a full two and a half meters astern of the transom. Diligence is what is required.

Our trip was fairly uneventful, but we had headwinds the whole way there, which meant the instrument showing the most movement on the dashboard was the fuel guage. After 13 hours we needed a rest, so we pulled in at a small roadside establishment called "Uncle Tom's Cabins". It is about 30 km. south of Bloemfontein. You can take my advice and not visit there or read on and convince yourself anyway.

We arrived in the dark. About 6.45pm. A young local girl was manning the so called reception office. She was so involved playing with her cellphone that I eventually had to ask her to put her phone away and attend to us. R370 for a cabin was the tariff and on inquiring we were told that the 'restuarant' closed at 8pm. It was cold and blustery as we drove to the cabin and found a safe spot to park the boat and Land Cruiser. As we opened the door to the cabin, a pair of resident cockroaches sped across the floor to take refuge behind the skirting board. At least the cabin boasted four beds in two separate rooms. The place was superficially clean, but dark floral coloured fabric on the pillow cases had me wondering.....Attempts have been made at revitalising the place...mainly with new tiles, but the tiles must have been of the type that could not get sold and were probably bought at a sale on the cheap - really yukky colours and incredibly kitch. I tried the bed and immediately found myself rolling into the middle of the mattress. Guaranteed back ache by morning!

We changed into warmer clothes and located the restuarant. One lady did the ordering, cooking and waitressing. Her name was 'Stompie'. Eish! The restaurant had an open painted concrete floor filled with a dozen picnic benches, no curtains and no carpets. A radio played loudly in one corner on Radio Metro Talk Show (in Sotho). The food was barely edible and visions of cockroaches kept clouding my judgement. We were the only patrons. Beer was on offer. Windhoek Light or Castle Lager. At least it was beer. The meal was nothing short of a joke despite Stompie doing her best to please. I guess the consolation is neither of us got food poisoning. In short, Uncle Tom should have bulldozed his cabins to the ground a long time ago. The place has been there for as long as I can remember (which is about 50 years!). No amount of superficial tarting up can change the "bult in 1956" feeling. Everything looks and feels tired. The owner is giving this business one last squeeze. In short - a rip-off!

That night a strong northerly wind howled around the shrubbery which has not been trimmed in many years see-sawed and groaned as it scraped against the windows and gutters making for a generally disturbed night's rest. This had been noted two months prior by another unfortunate but polite visitor in the complaints book, who (typically South African) had written: "Ons her lekker gebly, maar kan julle asb die plante snoei want dit krap teen die geute".

I was up at 04h00 determined to vacate the cabin as soon as humanly possible.

On the trip home we decided to drive non-stop through the night. Anything to avoid Uncle Tom's Cabins. You have been warned.

Above: Some of the Pacer 27 fleet being prepped at DAC the day before the event.

Seriously close one design racing is what this event was all about. Despite the fairly small entry of six boats, those that were on the water enjoyed outstanding close quarters racing with many of the races seeing four Pacers finishing within 30 seconds of each other. Ant Wentworth’s ‘Felix the Cat’ ended up as the overall winners, notwithstanding the top four boats all finishing on 10 points each for a four way tie. Second placed ‘Regent Express’ ended with an identical scoreline to ‘Felix the cat’ where the tie was broken on the better position in the final race – the very race where ‘Regent Express’ skippered by Trygve Roberts had a halyard break and sent them plummeting from a possible 1st place right down to last in the final race. They jury rigged a second halyard and fought back to finish 4th in the final race, but it was one point too little for the overall win. Finishing 3rd overall was Andrea Giovaninni on ‘Pacer 3’ fresh from a similar podium finish in the Lipton Cup. He said after the event he could not believe how competitive the Pacer fleet was and had underestimated the quality of the racing.

What a pleasure to go sailing on absolutely flat water in fresh breeze in shorts and T Shirts. This is something the guys from the Cape seldom get to do. Conditions on the Vaal for the first two days suited the Pacers perfectly with fresh breezes and flat water which makes the Pacer 27 Sport a delight to sail. Two yachts in the gold and silver fleets were dismasted which says something of how strong the breeze was. None of the Pacers suffered any such maladies.

Noticeable in this regatta was the number of boats sporting new sails from a range of sailmakers. Felix the cat had a new Genoa from Hyde Sails; Pacer 3 sported a new main, genoa and spinnaker from North Sails, Unruly has a new genoa from Hyde and Regent Express had a new genoa and spinnaker from Quantum. New sails in the fleet is always a sign of keen interest and competitiveness in a class.

This was the third Pacer 27 Nationals and certainly different from the first two, where Rick Nankin and Mark Sadler dominated the results. This event saw four of the six entries each winning a race. The regatta was never a foregone conclusion till the final day. Fresh to strong winds on the Vaal Dam (18 to 32 knots) saw the Pacers ripping through the fleet downwind reaching speeds above 16 knots and providing some spectacular broaches for those seeking visual thrills. The only non Pacer that could keep up was the Farrier trimaran.

The weather was exceptionally good for the first two days, whereafter it faded completely not allowing any additional races for the entire weekend – a first in the last six years that DAC have had no racing during this annual event on any given day. No-one really complained as the first two days were simply fantastic for keelboat racing.

Above: Regent Express rounding the weather mark first. L to R - Trygve, Charles, Phillip, Greg, Simon.

Deneysville Aquatic Club hosted the Pacer Nationals as part of their annual Keel Boat Week regatta, which attracted some 50 entries of mixed classes, with the Mistral, J22 and Hunters all making class. Three Pacers undertook the long journey from Cape Town, as did one from Port Elizabeth with the final two being Vaal Dam based. Amongst the crews were some very good sailors, many who have sailed at world championship level. On Felix the cat, a number of World Class Hobie sailors were to be seen including Blaine Dodds, William Edwards and Allan Lawrence who steered. Sailmakers from Hyde and North were dotted amongst the other Pacers. There was no question as to how tough the competition was going to be. It would be a tough event to win for sure.

D.A.C. as always proved to be a competent and friendly club who did a sterling job of feeding and entertaining the sailors, whilst Race Officer Trevor Hulleman, competently and patiently ensured the required number of races were completed. There were one or two issues (listed at the end of the article) to assist organisers in getting it 100% right next time, but first let’s get down to the racing.

The entry list included ‘Sebago’ skippered by Guy Nottingham (DAC); ‘Unruly’ Iain Gibson (DAC); ‘Unmatched’ Graham Wentworth (ABYC); ‘Felix the cat’ Allan Lawrence (RCYC); ‘Pacer 3’ Andrea Giovaninni (RCYC) and ‘Regent Express’ Trygve Roberts (RCYC).

With a moderate northerly forecast, the fleet set off for the middle of the dam on Heritage day (Sep 24th) to commence racing. The format was a simple windward/leeward course with an offset mark to port of the windward mark to help clear the fleet away from the usually congested weather mark. There were four separate starts for the Pacers, Gold, Silver and Cruising fleets each separated by a five minute gap.

Above: Pacers lining up for a start

Race one got underway with an individual recall in the Pacer fleet with the errant party returning to restart correctly. The course was short with a middle of the course start/finish line to facilitate rapid race restarts with the Pacer and Gold fleet boats having to complete three laps with the smaller boats doing only two laps. Notwithstanding the short courses, it provided for a huge amount of action in the Pacer fleet, which would end up completing the downwind legs in only three minutes. This left many of the crews questioning their lack of fitness at the end of the first day’s racing. Going up the first beat it was Regent Express and Pacer 3 reaching the weather mark first. Just before the weather mark Pacer 3 caught ‘Felix the cat’ port/starboard. Felix tacked in front of Pacer 3 and a collision occurred with Pacer 3's bowsprit which was already extended. This incident would become an issue throughout the regatta and was only resolved after the main prize giving was completed. This was a pity, as the niggle between the two boats continued for the entire regatta. Neither boat retired nor did a penalty. Pacer 3 protested and hurriedly hoisted a red T-Shirt in place of a protest flag. More about the protest later, but there are many lessons for everyone to be learned from this incident. The main lesson is that if a collision has occurred one of the boats must do penalty turns or retire.
Pacer 3 were a little slow getting their spinnaker drawing, allowing Regent Express to take the lead but all the boats wanted to gybe onto port leaving Regent Express with no options but to wait until the fleet had gybed. By the time she gybed she was blanketed by three boats to windward and she immediately lost that number of places. Just about that time a 30 knot gust whipped over the dam leaving all the Pacer’s on their ear with spinnakers flapping, but no-one broached and soon all were underway again screeching downwind at 15 knots trying to avoid the smaller boats still coming upwind on their first beat. It must have been an intimidating sight.

At the leeward mark five of the boats arrived simultaneously, highlighting the one design aspect of these boats. The next beat saw the lead changing hands with Felix the cat getting a little ahead. The wind steadied into a solid 20 knot breeze which had most of the Pacers hard pressed under No.1 genoas.

Above: Most of the Pacers still together in a tight pack as spinnakers are struck for the bottom mark rounding

The finishing order was:

1st Felix the cat (Protest pending)
2nd Pacer 3
3rd Unruly
4th Regent Express
5th Sebago
6th Unmatched

After the protest on the final day this result changed to:

1st Pacer 3
2nd Unruly
3rd Regent Express
4th Sebago
5th Unmatched
6th Felix the cat (DSQ)

Above: Felix the Cat (007) and Unruly (011) in an upwind duel

Race 2 was sailed back to back in a steady northerly. This time all the Pacers started cleanly with Regent Express, Sebago and Felix all showing good upwind speed, arriving in rapid order at the weather mark. The boats remained within seconds of each other for most of the race with Regent Express slowly gaining on Felix the cat. Guy Nottingham and his crew on Sebago had some gear failure which saw them at the tail end of the fleet. Finishing times of the first four boats were under 30 seconds. Felix had notched up their second bullet and were establishing a pattern which would make it difficult to get them unseated.

Finishing order was:
1st Felix the cat
2nd Regent Express
3rd Pacer 3
4th Unruly
5th Unmatched
6th Sebago

That evening the protest between Pacer 3 and Felix the cat was heard. During the validation procedure Felix the cat objected that Pacer 3’s protest flag had not been conventional (too big). On that basis the protest was disallowed (which raised many an eyebrow). Pacer 3 then withdrew their protest but they were very unhappy about the protest committee’s decision and thought it to not to be in the spirit of the sport. After discussing the incident and looking up the rules governing protest flags, no clear rule could be found as to whether there was any limitation on the size of a protest flag. The youngsters on Pacer 3 decided to request for the hearing to be re-opened the following day.

That night DAC had laid on an entertainer – a one man band singing to backing tapes. This poor unfortunate soul did not manage to sing a single note in key the entire evening, but his party personality carried him through and by late evening he had the multitude singing deafiningly out of tune with him – all of this in a highly inebriated state. No-one seemed to care as he belted his own tone deaf renditions of Sinatra favourites from yester-year.

For the more serious competitors, sleep came with difficulty as the noise levels soared into the early hours of the morning over a wind still and dark Vaal Dam.

Above: Sebago gybing onto Regent Express

Friday 25th Sep:
We awoke to a steady northerly and a positive forecast for the day where the breeze would peak at a 32 knot gust. And who said there is no real wind on the Vaal?

By the scheduled 10am start the wind was well into the 22 knot range so some of the Pacer skippers decided to go for a smaller headsail. Amongst those were Regent Express and Unmatched. This is a fairly big risk as changing a headsail on a downwind leg on such a short course is simply not possible in 3 minutes. If the breeze drops during the race, you are toast.

The fleet hit the line on cue for a clean start. At the weather mark, it was Felix the cat, Unruly, Pacer 3 and Regent Express around the top mark. The first three all gybed early heading for the left side of the course whilst Regent Express continued on the starboard gybe heading towards the right hand layline. They timed their gybe perfectly and came belting down on the port reach at 16 knots to take a 20 boat length lead out of the opposition going from 4th to 1st in one leg. Going up the beat, it became clear that they were as fast as the rest of the fleet with a smaller headsail and more under control, but not pointing quite as high, except in the gusts. Unruly was steadily eroding their lead upwind, but the moment the downwind leg started Regent Express increased their lead again. At the final leeward mark rounding, Regent Express did a slow spinnaker strike, resulting in the kite going in the water and slowing them down. By the time they recovered, Unruly was two boat lengths astern. A clever bit of covering got Regent Express over the line first but by the narrowest of margins.

Race 3:
1st Regent Express
2nd Unruly
3rd Pacer 3
4th Felix the cat
5th Sebago
6th Unmatched

Above: L to R - Regent Express (017), Pacer 3 (003) and Felix the Cat (007) at the weather mark.

Race 4 was sailed back to back in a stiff breeze well into the mid twenty knot range. Regent Express changed up to their number one genoa. Another smooth start for the Pacer fleet got underway. Local boat Sebago handled the first beat very well to round first and hung on to their narrow lead for the whole race but they were hard pressed by the rest of the fleet. There were plenty of mini broaches, but in general the Pacer crews were handling the boats well with good gybes on the downwind legs. Felix managed a solid 2nd place, whilst Regent Express had a bad kite strike and scored their worst result of the regatta.

1st Sebago
2nd Felix the cat
3rd Pacer 3
4th Unruly
5th Regent Express
6th Unmatched

One of the peculiarities of this regatta was racing in a mixed fleet of mostly very old and very slow small boats. Approaching the leeward mark doing 16 knots with 500 meters to go with several smaller boats almost at the leeward mark, made decision making crucial as the Pacers would come hurtling in to the mark doing five times the speed of the slower boats. Calling for rights became a very stressful exercise. In general most of the slower boats were graceful in allowing the Pacers room to pass. There was one occasion as we were approaching the offset weather mark with a Vivacity 24 to leeward of us, where we called to the skipper (very politely) if it would be OK if we gybed in front of him. He was so polite and accommodating, that he sailed straight into the offset mark and gybed himself, sailing back towards where he had just come from. We located the hapless skipper on shore some time later, to explain that he did not have to do what he did, but “thank you very much anyway”. Nice people at DAC, I tell you.

Above: Pacer 3 gybing onto port in front of Unruly and Sebago.

Race 5 – Another back to back race on the same day with crews starting to get distinctly weary. The short legs meant the crews were working very hard with many gybes and tacks in the mix. A cracking start once again for the Pacers, but suddenly with a minute to go and all the Pacers lining up under the committee boat, two ladies on a J22, Savannah’s in hand, found themselves unwittingly in trouble and in irons right in front of the Pacers. Regent Express was forced to bear away and gybe to get out of the J22’s way. The fleet was tightly bunched as usual at the weather mark with Sebago, Regent Express and Unruly leading the way. Just after rounding the leeward mark, lying a close second behind Sebago, Regent Express had a jib halyard failure. In a few seconds they lost their place to end at the tail of the fleet with their headsail on the foredeck, struggling upwind with only their mainsail. They then rehoisted the genoa on the spinnaker halyard – not ideal as the spinnaker halyard is a masthead unit and got underway to chase the pack down. Of course hoists and strikes were slow as each time they had to re-attach the halyard to whichever sail had to be used next. The old adage of the ‘the show ain’t over till the fat lady has sung’ came into play, as on the final downwind leg Pacer 3 did a bad strike and broached at the leeward mark, putting the kite under boat. So bad was the result of the broach that they decided to retire. Regent Express rounded and managed to chase down Unmatched as well to claim a 4th place despite the halyard handicap. But it was Sebago who had found the magic with two excellent bullets in the final two races. Unfortunately it was too little too late as the fates had already been cast to the wind. Sebago was the only boat to score more than one first place.

Above: Andrea Giovaninni and his team broaching Pacer 3 out of Race 5. The kite ended up under the boat causing a RTD result.

Above: Pacer 3 chasing Unruly in tight downwind legs

After racing Pacer 3’s request to reopen the protest hearing was denied on the grounds that it had been withdrawn by them the previous day, so there was technically no protest to reopen. This made the youngsters very unhappy and the situation was starting to get uncomfortable. It was clear to most of the skippers and crews that the original protest hearing had been somewhat flawed and probably unfair.

That night the party animals were in full swing again as a discotheque belted out a mix of old favourites and modern hip hop, but oh man we were so bushed that sleep overwhelmed us by 10pm. The noise from the clubhouse woke us and most of the competitors camping there at 1.30am. A power outage would surely solve the problem? And so it was that the main power mysteriously tripped a short while later, which killed the party despite vigorous attempts at reviving it. The next night there was a big padlock on the power box. Say no more!

Above: L to R - Felix the Cat, Sebago, Pacer 3, Regent Express

Saturday 26th:
The morning dawned in it’s usual pattern with a flock of rowdy Ibis “hah de dahing” in the trees above our tents at 0600. There was an air of anticipation as the fleet headed out towards Beacon Island which, with the dam at 94% capacity, was nothing more than a simple trig beacon sticking out the water in an unexpected place. Sailing past the beacon, our depth sounder went from 22m depth rapidly to 2.0m. It was about that time that we discussed whether the sounder was set for depth below the transducer or depth below the bottom of the keel. There was no bump, so whatever it was, we were clear.
The dam was nothing at all like the previous two days. The organisers must have known that this would be the case as each boat had been issued with a large volume water canon. After an hour’s wait for the non existent breeze to fill in, the crews soon got the water canons employed and a huge water fight ensued which included the bridge boat getting doused. Not to be outgunned, large capacity buckets were hauled on deck in lieu of heavy artillery.

Race 6:
At 11h00 a gentle southerly sneaked across the dam – about 4 knots of it - so a course was set and the start sequence started. There was some port bias on the line which most of the skippers picked up which put most of the boats at the pin end and under pressure. Regent Express had a good start and gradually inched ahead. They appeared to have good speed in the light breeze and rounded the weather mark first, ahead of Pacer 3 and Felix the cat. Regent Express and the rest of the fleet sailed towards the starboard side of the course, whilst Pacer 3 gybed away and went back into the traffic. Regent Express was pulling out a big lead and about halfway to the leeward mark when the breeze died right across the course and the three hooters were sounded signaling racing abandoned for the day. The fleet headed back to base for a lazy afternoon on the lawns and increased beer sales.

Later that day Pacer 3 initiated their third attempt at re-opening their protest hearing against Felix the cat. The problem had been festering from day one and just wouldn’t go away. For the third time their appeal was declined by the local protest committee. By that stage Andrea and his team of young crew were feeling highly frustrated and the failed protest had become unpleasant for everyone in the Pacer class. It was probably also affecting their on the water performance. Andrea refused to give up as a matter of principle and continued to seek advice from senior officials and sailors. Once the appeal was declined for the third time, the only option left open was for a witnessing competitor to lodge a protest as no penalty turns were done and one of the boats would have to be disqualified. This was done on Sunday morning the 27th September by Unruly who had been a witness to the incident.

That night it was yet again party night till the wee hours of the morning (2 am) making sleep difficult. The electrical control box had in the meantime been securely locked to prevent the good Samaritan who had killed the noise the previous night from repeating his good deed. Other remedies were considered which included teargas and catapults. Eventually quiet descended over the camp at 2.30 am.

Above: Regent Express lining up for the start. This is why our bowman wears knee pads!

Above: Felix the Cat hiking hard on an upwind leg. What makes you think the bowman is a cyclist?

Sunday 27th:

The following day was a repeat of the previous day with hot, breathless conditions on the Vaal. Some of the boats rafted up for a bit of socialising as the long wait for breeze continued, followed shortly by round two of the water canon wars. By noon race officer, Trevor Hulleman, called it off and sent the fleet back to moorings. The regatta was over and all competitors had one discard.

Whilst the boats were being hauled out in preparation for the long journey home, the protest lodged by Unruly against Felix the cat and Pacer 3, was heard. This time by a fresh protest committee consisting of some of the most experienced legal sailing brains in the region.

Prize giving commenced at 15h30 sharp as the audience were informed that the Pacer results could not be announced due to a protest being in session. By the end of the lengthy prize giving, the protest was still under way. The crowd dispersed leaving only the rest of the Pacer crews in attendance. This was not only a pity, but somewhat of an anti-climax and detracted from what should have been a pleasant moment for the winning teams. Eventually the result of the protest was announced, which was that Felix the cat was disqualified in Race 1. Up till that point they had been the clear regatta leaders, but now the results were expected to change the standings. As things turned out, the first four boats all ended on 10 points after a single discard. Closer than that, one could not get.

Felix the cat and Regent Express had a dead tie for 1st overall with both boats having a scoreline of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, but in such a tie the boat with the better result in the final race wins the tiebreaker. Felix the cat had a 3rd versus Regent Express’s 4th (where they broke their jib halyard).

Final Results:
1st Felix the Cat 007 [Allan Lawrence] R1: DSQ, R2 1st, R3 4th, R4 2nd, R5 3rd: Total 17 Pts. less Discard 7 pts = 10 pts (Gold medals)

2nd Regent Express 017 [Trygve Roberts] R1 3rd, R2 2nd, R3 1st, R4 5th, R5 4th: Total 15 Pts less Discard 5 Pts = 10 pts (Silver medals)

3rd Pacer 3 003 (Andrea Giovaninni) R1 1st, R2 3rd, R3 3rd, R4 3rd, R5 DNF: Total 17 Pts less Discard 7 Pts = 10 pts

4th Unruly 011 [Iain Gibson]R1 2nd, R2 4th, R3 2nd, R4 4th, R5 2nd: Total 14 Pts less Discard 4 Pts = 10 pts

5th Sebago 010 [Guy Nottingham] R1 4th, R2 6th, R3 5th, R4 1st, R5 1st: Total 17 Pts less Discard 6 Pts = 11 Pts

6th Unmatched 001 [Graham, Wentworth] R1 5th, R2 5th, R3 DNF, R4 6th, R5 5th: Total 28 Pts less Discard 7 Pts = 21 Pts

Above: 2nd Overall Team Regent.
L to R Greg, Charles, Simon, Phillip, Trygve

And finally the event rating : Score 80%
Pros:
1.Friendly and welcoming host club
2. Efficient race committee and mark layers
3. Excellent launching and recovery service
4. Good ferry service
5. Courtesy moorings available to all visitors
6. Very good catering with real home made food at very reasonable prices
7. Spotless and modern ablutions with mainly enough hot water available except at certain peak times
8. Pleasant camping on lawns close to the water
9. Walk on finger jettys available during daylight hours (and at night if you wished to take the risk)
10. Good security
11. Efficient bar service
12. Big club house with pool table
13. Workshop and tools available for repairs
14. Wonderful, relaxing climate
15. Good entertainment and play areas for kids

The cons:

1. Terrible choice of entertainment with absurdly loud and deafening volumes which precluded any level of normal conversation. When will clubs learn that the sailors want to talk about the days racing and not fight banks of huge speakers big enough for a rugby stadium and crammed into a tiny bar?
2. Keeping the bar open till 2am meant the noise did not end till 3am which meant poor sleep quality for the more serious competitors. (I suggest sacrificing some bar profits in favour of campers getting some reasonable shuteye) Close the bar at 11.30pm which will have most party animals in bed by midnight. In most campsites, music is required to be turned off by 10pm, so midnight is a reasonable goal. Please DAC, don’t ever punish us like that again.
3. Cigarette smoke. The entire club house smells of stale cigarette smoke. No-one pays any attention to the no smoking signs in the main dining area including permanent staff of the club, who all appear to be retired people and most of them smoke habitually. Really people, this is 2009, keep the buildings smoke free and if you must smoke, do so in a cordoned off (glassed) area to save the rest of humanity breathing in your second hand smoke. It is just plain unpleasant and unhealthy to non smokers, not to mention illegal.

This regatta gets 8 out of 10 despite the lack of breeze for the final two days. Well done DAC. Please work on the above points and we will be back for sure for the long haul from the Cape.

Above: 2009 National Champion: Felix the Cat

Some trivia for those planning to attend an event on the Vaal:
The trip took 18 hours either way.
Fuel consumption towing the Pacer was 3.7 kms per liter (Toyota Land Cruiser 4.5 Petrol)
Cost of fuel was approximately R 6000
Distance covered 2400 km.

Above: Lulama Dlamini, national marketing manager for Regent Insurance came down to the Vaal to meet the team. We took her out for a sail in some very light breeze. As can be seen, she was impressed!

Photo: Charles Crosby

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19th September 2009
HAUL OUT

Preparing for a national championship leaves several questions to be answered. One of them is "Is all this trouble worth it?"

One gets sort of 'tuned in' to the pre regatta hype and then the big declutter operation inevitably starts. It is always an eye opener to see how much junk one collects on a boat in a year yes even on a racing boat! A whole room full of sailing paraphernalia has been stored in our attic at home as we systematically decluttered Regent Express, in the process removing absolutely every item not necessary to have on board for the Nationals in an attempt to get the boat as light as we can legally get it.

There has been a frenzy of activity at the various sail lofts with new sails being built by Quantum, Hyde and North. These are healthy signs of a class in a phase of growth.

Regent Express and Pacer 3 were both craned out and onto their trailers today at RCYC as the final travel arrangements are made to get crews and gear the 1600 km trip up to the Vaal.

So what lies in waiting up there? For a start, much warmer weather (28C average) than we have been enduring in the Cape (15C average) and by all accounts and weather history, very light wind conditions with an average 30 year history for the month of September of only 7 knots. Having said that the last week has seen daily breeze around 15 knots. Of course 15 knots at 2000m ASL is quite different to 15 knots at the coast.

Entries (typically) have been slow in coming in, but it is hoped that by the weekend 9 Pacer 27's will make an appearance at DAC next week.

For those who are eager to follow the progress of the events, please check out the host club's website: www.dac.org.za

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CLUB RACE WINTER B SERIES PHRF
RACE 2
12th September, 2009

Race in a nutshell:

Line: 2nd

Position PHRF: 1st

Total Entries: 11

Distance: 15 nm.

Max Speed: 11.3 knots

Ave speed: 6.5 knots

Weather Forecast: Clear. Wind NE to NW 3 to 7 knots. Temp 21C

Weather Actual: Clear. Wind WSW 10 knots. Temp 17C

Baro: 1006 hPa.

Course: #10 (S) – #2 (S) – Milnerton (S) - #2 (S) - Milnerton (S) - #8 (P) – #10 (P)

Seas: Long swell 13 secs 1.0 m

Sails: Full Main (North), No. 1 Fusion Genoa (Quantum), A2 Asymmetric Spinnaker. (North)

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Waldo Zevenster (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Simon Penso (Bow), Total: 420 kg

Perhaps for us the highlight of this race was beating Lobelia on corrected time on a course that favoured them and not us. Lobelia is a modern 40 footer that rates very well under IRC and generally delivers consistently good results. We have only beaten them once before (and that on a triangular course), so this win has given us a nice confidence boost.

Race Officer Peter Bam, who sails an L26 ‘Hors d’Ouvers’, set a course which turned out to be two long windward/leeward legs (and what we commonly refer to as an "anti sport boat course"). That equated into us having to contend with the dreaded DDW legs. (Dead Down Wind). Ten minutes before the start we had a very nice breeze topping out at just under 15 knots with the first white caps just starting to show. Based on that wind strength, we opted to use our A2 Light asymmetric. The start plan was basically similar to the previous week’s race – which was start on port tack near the pin end. Our target boats were Lobelia (IMX40), Hors d Ouvers (L26) and Celine IV (Comfortina39).

Our main trimmer, Charles, was overseas so we had Waldo Zevenster standing in. Our start was as good as could be expected and we hit the line doing 6.5 knots on port. The only boat to leeward of us was Lobelia. Lobelia steadily pulled ahead and then went into point mode. She can outpoint us by about 5 degrees. It wasn’t five minutes and she had climbed ahead and over us. so we had to contend with being in her dirties. With a one leg beat to the first mark, tacking away into clear air was not an option, so we just soaked a bit lower and kept our speed steady.

During the week, I read an interesting article about steering fast upwind. I have always been a helmsman who has steered by the telltales of the headsail. This 'new' theory states that one should steer by angle of heel, which if you keep the angle of heel steady, will give you best upwind VMG. The more I thought about that, the more sense it made. I shared the theory with Waldo and so we tried it out. Obviously the main trimmer plays a pivotal role in steering in that format.

By the weather mark, Lobelia had a 90 second lead on us. We rounded second with Celine IV about 30 seconds behind us. The 15 knot breeze we had at the start had since faded down to between 8 and 10 knots and we found ourselves with the wrong spinnaker on deck. We could not change it at that stage, so we hoisted and opted for best VMG. We were getting on average 7.5 to 8.5 knots with the occasional burst of speed as we kicked in on a swell. Our best speed on this leg was 11.4 knots – not bad considering how light the breeze was.

Lobelia put up a symmetrical kite and went directly downwind to the Milnerton bouy. We were a little quicker than her, but of course, sailing a greater distance. We did three gybes on the first downwind leg, which were all good calls, except for the last one, which left us with quite a tight angle, but in the end it worked out quite nicely. We did Mexican drops on both downwind legs, which work very well. At the leeward mark Lobelia had increased their lead on us to about 3 minutes. To be fair, Lobelia looked to be under-crewed, but that did not seem to make her any slower.

We settled down for the long upwind leg back to the #2 buoy, not wanting to make the same mistake of the previous week, where we had tacked off onto starboard too early. We were holding Lobelia’s tacking angle, but our boat speed seemed lacking. We were only doing 5.6 knots average. I know this boat will do 6.2 knots in 8 knots of breeze upwind, if it is trimmed properly. We had the main set up the way Charles normally does it - with lots of twist, but nope, that wasn’t doing the trick. We tried various combinations of traveller height and leech tension, but nothing was getting the speed up to target. We then moved on to the Cunningham, then vang tension, but still no improvement. It was about that point where I wondered if we didn’t have another plastic bag on the keel. We did take the precaution of reversing the boat before the start, but plastic bags seem to be an increasing problem in Table Bay. The greater the volume of shipping, the bigger the volume of rubbish that is dumped into the bay. If I think back to only five short years ago, the problem of plastic pollution has increased tenfold. And how are we ever going to reverse the trend?

We were on the lay line to #2 bouy and could see Lobelia had under-stood the mark and were pinching to lay it to avoid having to put another tack in, so we sailed on for another 5 boat lengths, which would allow us to sail fat and fast to the buoy. The moment we tacked, our boat speed went up to 6.2 knots. So the question was, why were we doing 5.6 on starboard tack and 6,2 on port? Was it the way the swell was hitting the boat? All in all, quite puzzling. Then Greg said he had moved the genoa car position back one notch. Ahh…..revelation. He changed the opposite side as well. We would see on the next upwind leg if that was what the problem was.

We had increased our lead on Celine IV to about 3 minutes. For our second DDW leg, we decided we would try to sail a lower, slower angle (what we call the 'super-soak') and see if we could make up some time on Lobelia. Our angle was about 10 degrees lower, but also about one knot slower. Even if the low/slow groove is ultimately the better one, it is not very pleasant sailing at those more pedestrian speeds. Post race analysis of the GPS showed that on the first run we had sailed hot/greater distance at an average speed of 8 knots and covered 2,8 nm. During the second run we sailed lower/slower goove and covered 2.4 nm at at average speed of 6 knots. What is the telling factor is that we sailed the first leg (hotter/longer) in a time of 21 mins 49 seconds and the second leg (shorter/slower) in a time of 21 mins 30 seconds. To be fair the breeze was lighter on the second downwind leg. So it oould seem it is much of muchness which way one sails a sports boat downwind - the real difference coming in if a boat can plane or not.

On teh second downwind leg, we did five gybes and fluffed up the drop ever so slightly on the last one by gybing a bit too close to the mark. Lobelia continued to stretch her lead on us and we did the same to Celine IV. The two L34’s were far behind, followed by all the smaller Class 2 boats. The last beat immediately showed (on the compass) to be five degrees lower than the previous one. That meant we would not be able to lay the #8 mark on one tack- yet up ahead Lobelia was using her pointing ability to do just that. The extra 5 degrees of point would get her around on one tack. Our log was back on 5.6 knots and after making all the minor adjustments, we got it to 5.8 – but where was the magical 6.2 that we always look for? This really had me puzzled. I was sailing the boat low/fast and still the speed eluded us. I had discounted the plastic bag theory, as it would have affected us equally on the port tack. I then asked the entire crew to move a half meter further aft and Bingo! 6.2 knots on the log immediately and it remained there. And so we learn each week. In that specific swell/chop situation it paid us to have the crew one station back on the starboard tack and one position forward on the port tack. Who would have thought that?

It was obvious we would not lay the #8 mark, so we focused on boat speed. It only required a short hitch on starboard to clear the mark. We could see Lobelia did not carry a kite down to the finish, so we thought with an asymmetric we would give it a go, being able to sail tighter angles, but once we turned downwind, the apparent wind was on 70 degrees and trying to hold the A2 at that angle was not going to result in anything except a broach, so we cancelled the order and two sailed Regent Express to the finish line – throwing in a final gybe to change the angle to the line to cross 2nd – some 7 minutes behind Lobelia, but managing to take 1st place on corrected time by 1 minute 14 seconds.

This was a particularly pleasing result for us as there was no reaching component in the course at all. If we can achieve this without a reach, then we are looking forward to sailing courses with reaches. The results simply have to come.

We have had excellent sailing conditions this winter, with hardly any cancellations due to bad weather. I am astounded that the winter series (which in reality is actually warmer than summer due to lower wind speeds/less spray) attracts so few boats. A fleet of some 350 yachts and only 10 to 15 boats that pitch for racing? Why?

The twilight series starts in two weeks time and suddenly we will see between 40 and 80 boats flogging about in a 25 knot Cape Doctor. Oh well, such is life…and whatever tickles your pickle.

Next week Regent Express gets packed up in preparation for the long trip up to the Transvaal for the 2009 Pacer 27 National Championships. The event runs from 24th through to 28th September. This website will be quiet till our return, after which you can expect a big report on all the on the water action.

For those not in the know.... The Vaal Dam is one of the major fresh water dams in South Africa and is situated on the border of the Free State and Gauteng. At it's widest point is more than 2 nautical miles and supplies the bulk of the PWV industrial area with fresh water. It is home to about seven yacht clubs and plays host to so many yachts that more than equals the rest of South Africa's yacht clubs put together. It is also the waters on which I first learnt to sail; in addition it is the same club where I won my first national title (in dinghies) back in 1995. We are expecting 10 Pacer 27's for the Nationals which should produce typically tight one design racing. This is destined to be a light wind event, so typically, the coastal sailors will be hoping for decent breeze, which, after looking at the 30 year wind rose history of 7 knots average wind speed for September, will be a highly unlikely scenario. It will be puff hunting, for sure.

But wait, there is more. Waaayyyyy back in 1995, when I won the Mirror Natonals at this same club, my (then) 30 kg crew was a skinny little boy by the name of Andrea Giovannini. And by the fates of the sea gods (or whatever) here we are 14 years later and the same young Andrea, now 6ft 2inches tall and right on top of his game as a professional sailor, will be competing against me head to head. Not only am I looking forward to that challenge, but it gives me enormous pleasure to see the youngsters that passed under my mentorship, proving their mettle at the top levels of competitive sailing.

Let the games begin....

RESULTS:
1st Regent Express (Pacer 27 Sport- 1.080) Elapsed: 1:44:49 Corrected: 1:53:12
2nd Lobelia (IMX40 – 1.170) Elapsed: 1:37:48 Corrected: 1:54:26
3rd Celine IV (Comfortina39 – 1.050) Elapsed: 1:1:50:07 Corrected: 1:55:37
4th Lapwing (L34 – 1.015) Elapsed: 2:8:32 Corrected: 2:10:28
5th Aquavit (L34 – 1.015) DNF
Class 2:
1st Impact (Impact30 – 0.920) Elapsed: 2:6:11 Corrected: 1:56:5
2nd Hors d’Ouvers (L26 – 0.955) Elapsed: 2:4:6 Corrected: 1:58:31
3rd Mighty lemon drop (Lavranos Mini Ton - 0.880) Elapsed: 2:15:25 Corrected: 1:59:10
4th Arial (RCOD – 0.925) Elapsed: 2:11:54 Corrected: 2:2:1
5th FTi Flyer (Charger 33 – 0.985) Elapsed: 2:4:31 Corrected: 2:2:39
6th Saiorsi (Atlantis 36 – 0.965) Elapsed: 2:18:7 Corrected: 2:13:17

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CLUB RACE WINTER B SERIES PHRF
RACE 1
5th September, 2009

Race in a nutshell:

Line: 1st

Position PHRF: 1st

Total Entries: 11

Distance: 16 nm.

Max Speed: 10.4 knots

Ave speed: 6.0 knots

Weather Forecast: Clear. Wind NE 1 to 7 knots. Temp 19C

Weather Actual: Clear. Wind WSW 8 knots. Temp 20C

Baro: 1011 hPa.

Course: #10 (S) – #2 (S) – Milnerton (S) - #2 (P) - Container mark (S) – #10 (S) - #2 (S) - #10 (P)

Seas: Long swell 9 secs 1.5 m

Sails: Full Main, No. 1 Quantum Fusion Genoa, R1 Asymmetric Spinnaker.

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Charles Crosby (Main), Greg Harrowsmith(Genoa), Craig Latigan (Pit), Daniel Spratley (Mast) Simon Penso (Bow), Total: 500 kg

There is something to be said about winter sailing in Cape Town. Perhaps we have just been lucky weekend after weekend with all the bad weather happening during the week, but Saturday once again delivered perfect, steady light wind conditions – pleasant enough to wear shorts and T Shirts. What a pity that Lipton Cup didn’t get this weather pattern. Well, I guess it’s our sport and we must make the most of whatever we get weather-wise.

Charles brought along a young lad (12) called Daniel Spratley, who had sailed with him on the Active 15 the weekend before. Daniel slotted in with us as if he had been on the boat for many months – cool, calm, efficient, agile and willing. I hope he enjoyed his sail as much as what we enjoyed watching this youngster so comfortable on a completely strange boat. Watch this kid – he will go a long way in the sport. At around 40 kgs he is very light for keelboat work, but in a year or two he is going to be a very sought after foredecky. Our piano player Dr. Phill had the day off doing the daddy thing at his son’s 2nd birthday party, so we had Craig Latigan standing in on halyards for this race.

One of the disadvantages of winter sailing is a frequent dirty harbour and bay. We picked up a string of kelp and a large white sheet of plastic on our keel and only discovered that lot when we docked after racing. Throughout the race we felt that the boat was a third of a knot off the pace and despite heeling the boat and doing visual checks we saw nothing, so it must have been lodged close to the top of the keel. A kelp window in front of the keel would be heck of a nice feature. The modern T keel torpedo design is also a bitch for collecting underwater garbage.

The club asked me at short notice to be duty officer, which meant I got to set the course, but the race officer felt the course had too much of a reaching element in it, so he modified it to include a very long beat and (for us) the dreaded DDW leg. So we had a fetch, a dead run, a beat, a tight reach, another fetch, and another tight reach. This was not a course that would particularly advantage a sports boat. The new genoa and spinnaker had both been branded during the week and the artwork looks really smart.

It was a typical club race entry and as is our custom, we try to identify boats before the start which we need to keep in our sights. We had the Mount Gay 30 “Just Fun” and the Comfortina 39 “Celine IV” – also at the start area was the Farr 40 “Majimoto”. Deciding on start line tactics was easy enough. We wanted to be near the pin and going fast on port tack. Our start was perfect and we went straight into the lead. The Mount Gay was upwind of us with the 39 footer just to leeward in an almost identical position to last week’s race. We were holding a good line to the first mark and were surprised that the Mount Gay kept on falling down and actually crossed behind and went to leeward of us. We were even more surprised when we realized why – we were sailing to the wrong mark! It wasn’t a total train smash, but it meant fetching down to the #2 mark which felt slow and pedestrian. In the process we sacrificed the small lead we had built up. We arrived at the weather mark with the Mount Gay inside us and the C39 just behind them.

That suited us as it meant we were weather boat and could power away on a reach with our R1 spinnaker.
As soon as we had the kite working we dropped the Mount Gay and started sailing good VMG angles. After the first gybe we crossed behind the MG30 and in front of the C39. We had between 7 and 8 knots of boat speed in about the same amount of wind. We did a total of five gybes on our way down to Milnerton, in the process taking about 100 meters from the MG30. This boat gives us about 18 seconds per hour, so we were quite happy with our lead. We rounded the Milnerton mark first - and I need to mention here that this mark is VERY difficult to locate without GPS navigation. It is very low in the water and one can only see it from about 50 meters away.

The next leg back to the mark we had just come from, was a long one. Our focus was to stay ahead of the MG30, but they were steadily shrinking the gap on us. We felt that there was something wrong with our boat speed. In eight knots of wind, we normally do 6.1 to 6.2 knots hard on the wind, but we were only just managing 5.8. It was about that time that we did the kelp check – and the kelp and plastic bag discovery back at the dock certainly explains the lack of speed. Two thirds up the first starboard tack leg, we went over onto the port tack, whilst the MG30 and the C39 carried on towards the layline. Our breeze started fading and our boat sped dropped down to 5.1. By the time we crossed back onto the starboard tack, the MG30 had closed our lead off substantially. We only had about two boat lengths to play with. We tacked back onto the port layline below the MG30 and picked up a nice lift, which allowed us to round the weather mark just ahead, but the MG30 rounded the #2 mark the wrong way, so we had the situation of both boats rounding in opposite directions. I indicated to the MG skipper he had to leave the mark to port. They then rounded it the wrong way, luffed up, tacked, and left it to port – but technically it was not a correct re-rounding maneuver, as they had not "unwound their string". It took them so long to recover (as they already had their spinnaker pole up) that the penalty in terms of time was more than enough, so we thought it best to just let it go.

The reach down to the container mark was tight and we could just hold our big asso and keep the boat upright. I’m not sure what happened to the Farr 40 – they appeared to be under crewed and were lying well back in the fleet. We opened up a nice big lead on that leg on most of our competitors. We tried out our new spinnaker striking technique for tight reaches (which works a treat) and did a good rounding for the final upwind leg back to #2 mark. There wasn’t much in terms of tactics, as it was an easy fetch all the way. Again we felt we lacked boat speed and did another kelp check which revealed nothing. A kelp window just in front of the keel would be such a nice feature to have!

Approaching the #2 mark for the final rounding meant we had to leave it to starboard, but many of the slower Class 2 boats were still rounding it on the previous leg, so we had another case of boats rounding in opposing directions. Fortunately the weather was benign so there were no incidents. On the final leg to the finish, we started lapping some of the smaller boats to cross the line first as well as take the handicap win from the C39 (which we owe about 12 secs per hour to) by 5 mins 6 secs.
Whilst we are in no way anywhere near being on top of the game and we fully understand the competition is not top ldrawer at this level, it is very good for us to be getting some winning time in the front of the fleet. It has been good training for the Nationals and I am hoping it will stand us in good stead.

Results:
Class 1: 16nm
1st Regent Express (Pacer 27S) Elapsed: 1:39:10 Corrected: 1:47:6
2nd Celine IV (Comfortina 39) Elapsed: 1:46:51 Corrected: 1:52:11
3rd Just Fun (Mount Gay 30) Elapsed: 1:43:29 Corrected: 1:54:52
4th Tally Ho (L34) Elapsed: 1:58:59 Corrected: 2:00:46
5th Majimoto (Farr 40) Elapsed: 1:50:37 Corrected: 2:05:00

Class 2: 11 nm (Shortened course)
1st Impact (Impact30) Elapsed: 1:37:56 Corrected: 1:30:06
2nd Mighty lemon Drop (Lav Mini) Elapsed: 1:46:13 Corrected: 1:33:28
3rd Let’s Go (Bucanner) Elapsed: 1:56:57 Corrected: 1:33:34
4th Arial (RCOD30) Elapsed: 1:42:03 Corrected: 1:34:24
5th Saiorse (Atlantis 36) Elapsed: 1:46:23 Corrected: 1:42:40
6th Apricot (Muira 30) Elapsed: 1:52:30 Corrected: 1:45:11

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CLUB RACE WINTER SERIES A PHRF
RACE 4
29th August, 2009

Race in a nutshell:

Line: 1st

Position PHRF: 1st

Total Entries: 15

Distance: 12.0 nm.

Max Speed: 11.1 knots

Ave speed: 6.7 knots

Weather Forecast: Clear, sunny. Wind NW 7 knots. Temp 19C

Weather Actual: Accurate

Baro: 1009 hPa.

Course: #10 (S) – Dyang Family (P) - Container mark (S) – #10 (P)

Seas: Flattish

Sails: Full Main, No. 1 Penyex Genoa, R1 Asymmetric Spinnaker.

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Charles Crosby (Main), Greg Harrowsmith(Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Simon Penso (Bow), Total: 460 kg

We have been waiting for this course for eight months.....the one that favours the sports boats, and finally it happened. It is quite a task winning races with such a big handicap rating on windward/leeward courses, but when on the odd occassion, we get a long reaching leg in light conditions, a big win is a likely scenario - and so it was.


With Lipton Cup winding down there was a lack-lustre vibe at the club with many L26's being craned out onto their trailers - many will be mothballed till next years Lipton. Quite sad really....

And whilst we are talking Lipton Cup. From an outsiders point of view it seemed like an enormous amount of effort, money and time by competitors and organisers alike to sail a 7 day event (supposedly South Africa's premier one design keelboat event) to get only three races done. Speaking to some disgruntled and dissillusioned competitors afterwards, it would appear that one of main problems, besides unco-operative weather, was the Deed of Gift which stipulates that certain shaped and length courses must be sailed. In essence that equated to the race officer being fairly hamstrung in terms of getting more than one race per day in. Our spinnaker trimmer crewed on Elsumo who finished 14th in the 29 boat fleet. One of my ex crew members from dinghy sailing days, Andrea Giovaninni skippered Intasure into 3rd place - missing 2nd place by a single point. Our ex bowman, Nic Baigrie did bow on that boat as well. It's great to see the youngsters showing their skills. It was also Nic's 21st party last night, which has left me with a fuzzy head this morning!!

Above: Greg looking distinctly battle weary after 7 non stop days sailing Lipton Cup then straight onto Regent Express for another day on the briney

Photo: Charles Crosby

Onto the club racing..... Fifteen yachts entered the final Winter Series A club race, but first we had the pleasure of watching the Boks on the club TV, beating the Wallabies in Perth. Out at the start area, a 6 knot north westerly indicated we would have a steady, light wind race. The race officer set a long weather leg all the way to Dyang Family Bouy - which is close to the southern shore of Robben Island. We chose a port tack start close to the pin, (not really high risk as the line is very long and with only 15 boats we were bound to find a nice gap) which worked out very nicely as we hit the line going fast exactly on time and went immediately into the lead. Our target boats for this race were Pacer 3, The L26 "Hors d 'Ouvers" and the Comfortina 39 "Celine IV".

Pacer 3 were a hundred meters upwind of us and Celine IV were close to leeward. The 39 footer was matching our speed but not pointing as high as us. We had our brand new Quantum Pentex Genoa up and once again, the sail was setting really nicely and giving us excellent height. After 20 minutes we had climbed well up on Celine IV and pulled slightly ahead of them. Pacer 3 was having a rough time of things, being unable to point as high as us. In short order we held a commanding lead and we were able to stay on the rhumb line to the weather mark. Peter Bam on the L26 "Hors d Ouvers" is always a threat to us for a handicap win, so we needed to stay focused and keep the speed up. Halfway up the beat, the breeze started dropping as did our boat speed, which went as low as 2 knots at one stage. During this phase, we killed the 39 footer, which slowed right down. We nailed the weather mark in one long 6 n.m.tack and went straight for the new R1 Spinnaker hoist. Crikey! What a nice sail! It was the first time we have used it. This sail (61 sq.m) gives us the ability to reach at 70 degrees apparent in light wind and is a full luff/ full foot kite, which is cut a bit flatter higher up for faster VMG reaching. We were quickly up to the wind speed. 6 knots of boat speed in 6 knots of wind. We had rounded the weather mark first by a very long margin ahead of the second boat - the L34 'Tally-Ho'. The L26 was fairly close to the L34 and doing surprisingly well in the light conditions.

Further down the leg, the breeze picked up a little as did our boat speed which peaked at 11.1 knots. The rhumb line to the next mark suited the Pacer perfectly and we were fairly confident we would get a corrected time win. We had two large ships to contend with, but fortune favoured us with neither ship giving us any disturbed air. Being so far ahead of the fleet is not terribly exciting racing, but it is nice to do a full "horizon job" on the fleet once in a while. It is not often that we get a course that gives us such a nice VMG angle to sail on, so we appreciated the privelege. No conventional boat will beat a sports boat at those angles and in such light breeze.

A 400m beat followed the spinnaker strike up to the finish line. The rest of the fleet was indistinguishable far upwind, so we sailed back to our mooring to derig. Our actual time over the second boat over the line (L34) was 25 minutes! Not bad for a two hour race.
However, once the time correction factors had been applied, it was Peter Bam's L26 that took second place some 11 minutes behind us. Finally we are starting to understand the sports boat concept better and posting some decent results and sailing the boat to it's rating.

Our sprit pole is giving us headaches, so we dismantled the whole thing and will have a good look at it during the week to see how we can sort things out.

There are two more Saturday races to practice and then we are off to the muddy puddle in the Free State to compete in the Nationals.

Above: It's smiles all round as we steadily increase our lead in idyllic Cape Town winter weather.
L-R: Charles, Greg, Phill.

Photo: Simon Penso

1st 017 Pacer 27 S Regent Express Trygve Roberts PHRF:1.08 Elapsed time: 1.49.25 Corrected: 1.58.10

2nd 044 L26 Hors d'Oeuvre Peter Bam PHRF:0.955 Elapsed: 2.15.25 Corrected: 2.9.19

3rd 011 L34 Tally Ho John Waller PHRF: 1.015 Elapsed: 2.12.46 Corrected: 2.14.46

4th 013 RCOD Arial Sheriff Saville PHRF: 0.925 Elapsed: 2.26.57 Corrected: 2.15.56

5th: SA 597 Lav mini ton Mighty Lemon Drop Jannie de Goede PHRF: 0.88 Elapsed: 2.37.43 Corrected: 2.18.47

6th: SA 223 Impact Impact Jackie Brand PHRF: 0.92 Elapsed: 2.31.25 Corrected: 2.19.18

7th: SA 3470 Comfortina 39 Celine IV Volker Viehuis PHRF:1.05 Elapsed: 2.13.11 Corrected: 2.19.50

8th: SA 2676 Bucanneer Let's Go Duncan Johnson PHRF: 0.8 Elapsed: 2.54.59 Corrected: 2.19.59

9th SA2018 Stadt 34 steel hull Cabaray Ray Matthews PHRF: 0.94 Elapsed: 2.29.32 Corrected: 2.20.34

10th SA 1527 Carribbea 288 Gallivant W Sterling PHRF: 0.9 Elapsed: 2.38.4 Corrected: 2.22.16

11th: SA 2360 Atlantis 36 Saoirse Tony Blackwell PHRF: 0.95 Elapsed: 2.39.15 Corrected: 2.31.17

12th: 003 Pacer 27 S Pacer Three James Harvie PHRF: 1.08 Elapsed: 2.20.45 Corrected: 2.32.1

13th: SA 702 Charger 33 FTI Flyer Keith Mattison PHRF: 0.985 Elapsed: 2.40.54 Corrected: 2.38.29

14th: 018 L34 Aquavit Phil Flockton PHRF: 1.015 Elapsed: 2.41.20 Corrected: 2.43.45

15th SA 130 Muira Apricot Bat Tromp PHRF 0.935 dnf

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TRAINING DAY & NEW SPEED RECORD
23rd August, 2009

Watch a short video clip Regent Express doing 18 knots

There are a few more short videos taken - all of which can be accessed on Page 25 of this site.

I had written down a list of about ten things we needed to brush up on before the upcoming Pacer 27 Nationals on the Vaal Dam in September. Well, the truth is, we never got to any of them as conditions on Table Bay were, to put it mildly, FRESH!

The Lipton boats were returning from an exhausting 12 nm race as we left the safety of the harbour. We had a summer wind with winter temperatures. Chilly! We decided right at the dock that we were going to sail conservatively and not break the boat. People who had been out to watch the racing advised us to stay put. We did have a 10 second debate and finally said: "Let's go". The only real problem would be whether the outboard was strong enough to reverse against the wind pressure.

We put a reef in the main and the No.2 Jib on the furler whilst Simon buttoned on the A3 spinnaker - the smallest one we have. As soon as we cleared the breakwater, we hoisted the kite. With Greg being involved in Lipton, we had James Harvie on spinnaker trim and Craig Latigan (Pinky) joined us as mast man. In 25 knots you need six crew - guaranteed!

Fetching out of the harbour we were already doing 10 knots without a spinnaker. As soon as we got the A3 up and drawing, the speed increased to 13 knots. We got Simon back to sit behind me and started hotting the angle up as we hit the full power of the south easter.

Up went the speed again 14, 15, 16 knots as we speared wave after wave with white water cascading over the bow. Then we hit 17 knots and eventually we topped out on that reach at 17.73 knots - a new record for Regent Express. At those sort of speeds we cover distance pretty quickly, and we still needed to sail back as well, so we took the kite down and set the boat up for the long beat back to the harbour. There were huge smiles (albeit wet ones) all round. For most of us this was a new adrenaline high in high speed sailing. We were doing an average of 7.3 knots boat speed upwind with the boat feeling beautifully balanced. One of the main lessons we learned was that on the Pacer 27 (in terms of sail area in strong breeze) less is more.

We then decided to have another downwind burn and see if we could capture some of the action on Charles's waterproof camera. This time we went off on a port gybe towards Green Point and threw in a gybe (being determined to get some gybing practice in) but as we gybed we sailed into a quiet patch, so it was a very low key gybe and not what we really needed in terms of practice. It took 20 more seconds before we were back into the pressure. With our confidence boosted from the previous record run, we worked the boat a bit harder kicking into the waves and trimming more agggresively. Up went the speed again until we were sitting on 17 knots steady. It was probably a good gust coupled with perfect timing onto a wave face that got the speed so high. Even at that speed, we could feel the accelleration as we hit our new maximum speed of 18.0 knots. We kept on saying "one more burst" over and over. No-one wanted this fun to stop. Reluctantly we dropped the kite and did the upwind slog back to the harbour.

I came away from the afternoons sailing with one overwhelming impression - Very good control. It has to be a better proposition being so in control of the boat rather than fighting bigger sails and falling over.

Crew for the day:
Simon Penso (Bow)
Craig Latigan (Mast)
Phillip Rentschler (Pit)
James Harvie (Spinnaker trimmer)
Charles Crosby (Mainsail)
Trygve Roberts (Helm)

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CLUB RACE WINTER SERIES A PHRF
14th August, 2009

Race in a nutshell:

Line: 1st

Position PHRF: 2nd

Total Entries: 8

Distance: 15.0 nm.

Max Speed: 12.8 knots

Ave speed: 6.7 knots

Weather Forecast: Clear, sunny. Wind SW 5 knots becoming SE 10 knots. Temp 18C

Weather Actual: NW 2 knots becoming 15 knots SE.

Baro: 1016 hPa.

Course: Butt cat – Container mark (P) – Milnerton (P) - Container mark (P) – Milnerton (P) – Finish at Butt cat

Seas: 13 second long period swell of 3.0m

Sails: Full Main, No. 1 Genoa, A2 Light Asymmetric Spinnaker, A3 Asymmetric spinnaker.

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), John Fassler (Main), Charles Crosby (Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Simon Penso (Bow), Total: 450 kg

REGENT EXPRESS takes her first line honours victory, but to be fair, the fleet was not nearly as competitive as the previous race win. It is very rare for a 27 ft boat to take line honours in any mixed fleet and it's a pretty good feeling. Sailing off a PHRF rating of 1.080 means having to seriously cane the smaller boats. Even this victory was not enough to beat octogenarian Sheriff Saville in his 40 year old RCOD. We finished 11 mins 20 secs ahead of the RCOD and still had to be content with a second place on corrected time. Hats off to Sheriff!!

It’s that time of year – Lipton Cup – when most of the top crews get involved for a month in South Africa’s top one design keelboat regatta. This year there are twenty eight L26’s entered which is a very good turnout especially considering the L26 is now a fairly old design. Our spinnaker trimmer is sailing on the L26 'Elsumo' for the event so the usual communication problems occurred in him not telling me he would not be sailing on the Pacer and me not thinking about Lipton Cup at all. I had one day to find a replacement crew and as any skipper will know, that is just not enough time (unless you fluke it).

I made eleven calls to possible crew; strictly avoiding anyone who I thought would probably be sailing on a Lipton boat but had absolutely no joy at all. With a very light wind forecasted, I figured we may as well go racing four up. On Saturday morning I received a call from John Fassler who was one of the people I had approached. His arrangement for the weekend had gone pear shaped and he was able to crew after all. John is (or is that WAS) a potential Pacer 27 purchaser and was keen to see how the boat sails. His background sailing dates to many years ago on FD’s and Hobie 16’s. It was going to be one heck of a quick learning curve for him. Fortunately conditions were benign.

Out on the bay things were pretty flat with a hesitant 2 to 4 knot westerly coming and going - not quite enough to set a championship course for the L26 class, who were sailing their Nationals prior to the main Lipton event next week. Eventually the club fleet was given a course to sail and the start line was set. No sooner had that taken place (whilst we gleefully looked at the angles and figured we could carry spinnaker on all the legs), when a south easterly made its appearance. It was a solid 12 knots to start, building later to 18 knots. The RC changed the course in a hurry and set a new course for the club fleet (us) who were scheduled to start first.

As we approached the committee boat with 30 seconds to go, the L26 “Hors d’ Ouvers” parked up near the committee boat. I decided to duck behind the L26 and shoot upwind to leeward of it where there was space to spare. Only problem was John had the main strapped in tight and didn’t ease for the bear away which meant my helm inputs were useless. That left me with no alternative but to luff up sharply between the L26 and the committee boat. For a horrible moment I thought we were going to have another collision. Fortunately the boat responded well and we luffed up into just enough space. A quick glance at the stopwatch showed 2 seconds to go, so all we needed was a quick bear away and hit the line on the gun. It actually turned into a good start for us.

Two of the fleet had elected port tack starts, but things went badly for them as those on starboard forced all the port tackers to tack onto starboard and into dirties. As soon as we were clear, we rolled onto port tack and had good clean wind with the Mount Gay 30 to leeward of us and keeping pace. They only had two people on board so were heeling too much and losing out on leeway. The separation was steady and by the time we got to the layline for the weather mark, we had about 12 boat lengths lead on them. I was really pleased we had the 5th person on board to help keep the boat flat.

We had slightly over-stood the weather mark, so could foot off and accelerate before out kite hoist. Our spinnaker of choice was the max size A2 light. It went up fine, but the moment it set, we realized we were heading well below our course. The boat speed was quickly up to 12 knots. We decided to continue with the big kite until we had reached through the L26 fleet which was on its way to their leeward mark. We had rights on everyone, but decided to “play nicely” since they were in a championship event and avoid any calls for them to keep clear. By the time we had cleared them we had fallen well down off our rhumb line course to the Milnerton buoy, so we took the A2 down and did a tighter two sail reach towards the Milnerton mark. We had not gained much on the MG30. A new Comfortina 39 “Celine IV” had also caught up and was right behind the MG30, but neither boat had flown a spinnaker. We still held the same 12 boat length lead by the downwind mark, so the extra distance we had sailed had not been worth the effort of flying the kite. Closer to the mark, the breeze went a bit lighter and freed for us, so we put up the smaller A3 reaching kite and increased our lead a bit.

The next question was, would we be able to hold the A3 on the next leg back to the Container mark? We thought we would give it a try and did a neat gybe which left our guest on his back on the cockpit floor on the leeward side tangled up in the lifelines, but he was fine. We immediately realized the angle was not good enough and took the A3 down and settled back onto a tight two sail fetch. The other two boats behind us had closed the gapand made up ground on our error. Only about 8 lengths now separated us. We knuckled down and got the speed up to 7,5 knots which seemed enough to hold the C39 off, but both the MG30 and the C39 were close behind us at the weather mark.

We stuck with the A3 kite and left the genoa up. It set nicely but our angle was still too low. This time we kept the A3 up for a lot further before striking and doing the same two sail reach up to the Milnerton mark. We had opened up a considerable lead on the opposition on that leg. Our GPS track showed exactly the same angle as we had held with the A2, so it was an interesting observation which simply showed that the A3 is sometimes a better kite to use in the fresher breezes and especially so when one needs to get higher than ninety degrees to the wind. We did a seamanlike gybe and hardened up for the final leg up to the finish on the L26 course. There was some uncertainty as to whether we had to round the top mark a third time, so we called the RC for confirmation which was affirmed. The angle to the finish was an easy fetch which allowed a steady speed of 8 to 9 knots. The opposition boats must have had the same doubts as us as they all headed back up to the weather mark. The RC called them on the VHF advising them of the correct course. We finished comfortably first over the line by some 5 minutes over the second placed MG30.

Another good race under the belt for Regent Express. Things are improving faster than what I expected.

A word on our new Quantum #1 Genoa. This was our second race with the new sail where we have now tested it in winds ranging from 2 knots to 18 knots and it handled the whole range of breeze with aplomb, holding its shape well and responding well to trim changes. This is a Kevlar sail which we will be using for non one design events. Call it co-incidence if you will, but two 1st places in both races we have used this sail?
You decide. We think it is a lovely sail and have only praise for the shape and quality.

Some of the Pacer 27 rules have been changed. One of those is to allow Kevlar sails as they make more economical sense than the Pentex ones - especially so for the coastal boats. However, this new rule will only kick in the 2010 nationals in PE, which gives everyone a chance to get full use of existing newish Pentex sails.

RESULTS:

Sail No & Class Yacht Skipper TCF Finished Elapsed Corr Place

1st RCOD Arial Sheriff Saville 0.925 16.34.39 1.24.39 1.18.18

2nd Pacer 27 S Regent Express Trygve Roberts 1.08 16.23.21 1.13.21 1.19.13

3rd L26 Hors d'Oeuvre Peter Bam 0.955 16.35.55 1.25.55 1.22.3

4th Comfortina 39 Celine IV Volker Viehuis 1.05 16.28.53 1.18.53 1.22.50

5th Bucanneer Let's Go Duncan Johnson 0.8 16.54.30 1.44.30 1.23.36

6th Charger 33 FTI Flyer Keith Mattison 0.985 16.36.51 1.26.51 1.25.33

7th Ocean 31 Storm Mike Peper 0.95 16.41.30 1.31.30 1.26.56

8th Mount Gay 30 Just Fun Dave Arnott 1.11 16.28.33 1.18.33 1.27.11

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FIRST BULLET FOR REGENT EXPRESS!

IRC WINTER SERIES
RACES 8 & 9
2nd August, 2009

Races in a nutshell:

Position Race 8: 1st
Position Race 9: 4th

Total Entries : 11

Ave Speed: 5.8 kts (Race 8)
Ave Speed: 4.7 kts (Race 9)
Max Speed: 8.9 kts

Distance: 8.0 nm.

Weather Forecast: Clear, sunny. Wind NW 10 knots - Temp 17C

Weather Actual: Accurate - except wind was West 5 to 8 knots

Baro: 1009 hPa.

Course: R8: Triangles x 2 with a downwind finish

R9: Windward/Leeward x 2 with a downwind finish

Seas: Flat

Sails: Full Main, No. 1 Genoa (Quantum), A2 Light Assymetric Spinnaker

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Charles Crosby (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Simon Penso (Bow), Total: 460 kg

After our calamitous Robben Island Race two weeks ago, we cast off at 10h00 onto a dead calm Table Bay for the final two IRC Winter races. All the hard work we had done on Pacer 3 was negated by the fact that the new boat was entered as a new entry, so I had the dubious pleasure of my name appearing twice in the same results sheets on two different boats.

The new Regent Express branding and sponsors logo had been applied during the week by Sharpline Graphix - and a great job they did too. I can recommend them.

Lying on the foredeck was our brand new Quantum Genoa. It is really a beautiful sail. By the end of the day, we agreed that it accounted for about 4 minutes in the hour of better boat speed. We also got our first bullet on the new boat after sailing an impeccable race.

There was a one hour postponement as the bridge boat laid the marks for the day as a gentle 5 knot westerly settled over the bay. We went over to the gybe mark where a number of L26's were practising mark roundings for Lipton Cup. As we sailed past the bouy our keel hooked the ground tackle and we spent the next 15 minutes trying to untangle ourselves. That included Charles being lowered head first over the stern and unshackling the bouy from the anchor rope. Finally we were free, and in the process we probably dragged the mark a little closer to the shore, creating a tight set of reaches.

Race 8 kicked off after noon. We have learned by now that line position is less important than speed and clear air in these small boats, so we headed down towards the pin with the Pacer 42, PUMA and an L26. We got a very good start going fast and immediately put ourselves into a position where we could tack and clear the whole fleet comfortably.

We sailed for a few minutes on starboard tack, then went back over to the left of the course. The breeze was lifting persistently on starboard tack. Those on the left of the course scored.

As usual PUMA was first at the weather mark a few hundred meters ahead of Lobelia and Maestro who also had a good first leg. We rounded 4th right on the transom of Maestro. The reach was tight, but we were able to hold the A2 and keep station with Lobelia and Maestro. Not bad for a 27 foot boat.

Our gybe was good and we dropped Lobelia whose gybe was not good. We rounded the bottom mark in third place and definitely looked on for a handicap win if we could sustain the upwind speed.

The new Quantum genoa was setting to perfection and the difference in speed and point was noticeable. The boat was changing gears smoothly and accelleration out of tacks was excellent. The new sail is not a furling sail, so we have to drop it onto the foredeck. The hanks were a little tight on the forestay which made things a little awkward and the lazy guy of the kite always hooked on the hanks when rehoisting, so we have asked the loft to put velcro tabs on instead of hanks - they work really well on the #1.

Our second beat was solid and we lost just one place - to Addis (Archembault 35), but rounded on their stern. We were again able to hold the forty footers on the reaching legs and passed Lobelia on the final reach to the finish. Addis gives us 18 seconds per hour, so all we had to do was sit on their transom (which they didn't like very much) till the finish line to win from Addis by 7 seconds.

Pacer 3 sailed by James Harvie and a pick up crew had less good fortune, finishing last and not having a happy time flying the smaller A4 kite.

Results:
1st Regent Express [Pacer 27 Sport] 00.55.52
2nd Addis in Cape [A35] 00.55.59
3rd Warlock [L26] 00.57.14
4th Hors d-Ouvers [L26] 00.58.05
5th Lobelia [IMX40] 00.58.18
6th PUMA [Pacer 42] 00.58.21
7th Alladin [Farr 40] 01.00.17
8th Sensation [L34] 01.02.34
9th 8 Seconds [L42] 01.04.51
10th Maestro [Fast42] 01.06.15
11th Pacer 3 [Pacer 27S] 01.09.16

Race 9 followed quickly with the breeze slightly fresher, but not more than 10 knots. We again opted for a pin end start and managed a reasonably clean getaway but not quite as slick as the first race.

This race was a windward/leeward and those DDW legs nearly always cause our undoing on the sports boat. We have this never ending debate about whether we should soak low and deep and stay with the fleet or sail hotter and faster, but travel greater distance. Our experience has shown that we nearly always lose out when we sail hotter angles in light breeze.

Despite a good beat, we lost distance on the leaders on the downwind leg. We had a couple of very interesting mark roundings at the leeward mark, but managed to get out of the melee unscathed. The second beat had us sailing at a steady 6.1 knots in 10 knots of breeze with the new genoa providing good accelleratrion out of the tacks and generally giving the boat a lively feel. Well done Quantum - we think your headsail is a winner!

This race was won by Addis but we were seperated from 2nd place by only 10 seconds and had to be content with a 4th. The IRC fleet is very competitive as can be evidenced by the compact finishing times.

Results:
1st Addis [A35] 00.45.41
2nd Lobelia [IMX40] 00.47.26
3rd Hord d Ouvers [L26] 00.47.28
4th Regent Express [Pacer 27] 00.47.36
5th Warlock [L26] 00.48.31
6th PUMA [Pacer 42] 00.48.32
7th Alladin [Farr 40] 00.49.27
8th Maestro [Fast 42] 00.50.09
9th Sensation [L34] 00.51.07
10th 8 Seconds [L42] 00.51.16
11th Pacer 3 [Pacer 27 S] 00.59.40

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SLALEY WINES ROBBEN ISLAND PURSUIT RACE
18th July, 2009

Race in a nutshell:

Position PHRF: RTD

Total Entries : 50+

Distance: 20.0 nm.

Weather Forecast: Clear, sunny. Wind South East 15 knots. Temp 19C

Weather Actual: Wind SE 25 knots but very localised to 2 miles offshore. Beyond that a 2 knot westerly and large areas of calm.

Baro: 1002 hPa.

Course: Start #10 (S) - Robben Island (p) - #10 (P)

Seas: Flat

Sails: Full Main, No. 1 Genoa, A2 Heavy Assymetric Spinnaker and A3 Assymetric.

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Craig Latigan (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Simon Penso (Bow), Total: 420 kg

Above: Ripping down along the beach and having a fan-tabulous sail. Sports boat sailing at it's best.

Photo: Pam Newby

THINGS THAT GO THUMP IN THE BAY!

Well, I have to admit that there is a first time for everything. During this race we had a fairly serious collision with a competitor. It is a very interesting scenario and I am busy applying my mind to the rules and how they interact in this complex case. But more about that later.....

At the start we had the classic case of a brisk south easter with white caps sitting on the bay just a hundred meters to the east of the start line. To the west of the start line a hint of a westerly, but not enough to get the heavier cruising boats moving. Some of them took half an hour to get over the line. I felt guilty as the Pacer sailed effortlessly up and down the start line in almost no breeze. I guess there has to be some advantage for carrying a rating of 1.080 !!

Pacer 3 and Felix (the other two Pacer 27's) were late for the start. Our start was bang on time. As soon as we crossed the line we hoisted the A2 kite, but it was all very pedestrian as we ghosted along at about 2.5 knots. We needed to be aggressive and gybe in towards the south easter, even if it meant parking in the calm convergence zone for a while. It took about 10 minutes but felt like a lifetime as we gently worked our way east with the headsail, having taken the asso down.

Once we were in the real breeze, we continued going for height on a fetch until we were satisfied we were in the best pressure. We then turned onto a broad reach and hoisted the A2. What followed was one of the most enjoyable sails of my life. The boat steadied out and quickly accellerated to 14 knots and then remained there. Every now and then she would dip her bows into a wave sending sheets of white water over the decks and out the back, Volvo style, but nothing to be worried about - just fabulous, dry-mouthed adrenaline reaching. This is what sports boat sailing is all about. We hit our peak speed along this stretch of 16.6 knots

The boats that had started before us appeared to be driving in the slow lane as we sustained those high speeds almost to the beach. It was gybe time, or so I thought. Phill said it was too early, but I didnt want to struggle with too tight a reach on the next leg. I made the call - and a very bad one it was too. We were ahead of Felix and marginally faster than them, as we only had 400 kgs of crew on board.

The gybe was nasty. Everything was fine until the main crashed over - and the whole boat went with it. We had to dump most of the spinnaker halyard to recover, but it all took too long. In short order the sail started filling with water and we were doing what we refer to as "prawn trawling". Meanwhile Felix the Cat came steaming past us.

One thing we are good at is post broach analysis. We certainly have qualified to do those! The following reasons came up, probably in this order of importance:

1. Grossly underweight. Normal mass is 530 kg. Weight today 400 kgs. It is so important to have the weight to keep the boat flat directly after the gybe.

2. A badly hungover and sleep deprived spinnaker trimmer who was not fully compos mentus

3. A bowman doing his first gybes in wind over 12 knots and perhaps a bit tentative in his actions

4. Not hauling the mainsheet in fast enough through the gybe manouver

5. Helmsman rushed the crew into the gybe and commenced the turn before everyone was ready.

Whatever! There were enough good reasons why we tipped the boat over....and there was plenty more to come.

Above: Regent Express in recovery mode after a big broach, allowing Felix the Cat (Red spinnaker) to sail away to victory.

Photo: Pam Newby

It took 3 to 4 minutes to get the wet sail back on deck without tearing it. Only then could we bear off and reset it. It was a mess and looked like three breasted bra as it went back up the mast. It took another few minutes sailing at 9 knots before we got all the tangles out. The speed was back on but on average we were about two knots slower than on the starboard gybe. This was probably due to us having to sail across the waves.

My gybe call was hopelessly too early as we were aiming at the southern tip of the island instead of the northern tip! That meant another gybe. It also felt like we were sailing out of the pressure band. We first had to weave our way in between a few anchored freighters. I heard Simon, our bowman, groan at the prospect of another gybe and heard him say something about his arms feeling like they had lead in them.

Above: Just after our second broach and some more fine prawns trawled up in the net.

Photo: Pam Newby

I called the gybe in a lull and that one went off much better. Not perfect, but at least we got through it without falling over. The moment we were back on the starboard gybe, the speed came back on and we logged our maximum for the day of 16.6 knots. The boat is exceptionally well mannered and stable once everything is under control but it definitely doesn't want any crew members forward of the front of the cockpit. We pulled Simon back to sit behind me. He was panting, out of breath and was experiencing extreme arm muscle fatigue. He told me that if I called for another gybe soon, he would not be able to manage it. Typically, he got no sympathy from any of the crew other than a few ribald remarks about reserving his energy for racing and not other matters.

In the far distance we picked up "Felix's" unmistakable red spinnaker. They had gone far down to Blouberg beach before they gybed onto port, and were ripping back across the bay towards us. They had taken about a half mile distance out of us. We were on a collision course with a 31 ft cruising boat called "Storm" who were more or less on the same port gybe that 'Felix' was on, but doing half the speed, despite a big masthead spinnaker. We were on the starboard gybe and were having a debate as to whether we should play things safe and steer to go behind her, even though we had rights, or push to clear through ahead of 'Storm'. We decided to go conservative and let them pass. All that happened at about the same time as we crossed Felix's track. We could see Felix had also gybed a little early and would have to put in another gybe to clear the northern end of the island.

When we gybed back onto port a minute later, we botched it again (no doubt to blame on the same reasons mentioned above, with the exception that this time I waited for full confirmation that everyone was ready, before gybing.) Yet again, we wasted 3 to 4 minutes getting the sail recovered, untangled and rehoisted. Then we set off in pursuit of 'Felix' which was at that stage about 3/4 mile ahead of us.

Collision time approaching.....This is the important bit and here there are many lessons to be learnt. When we recovered from our second broach and got the boat back up to 13 knots, we were about 30 boat lengths to leeward (on the same port gybe) and 40 boat lengths behind "Storm", which we had ducked some minutes before. The two boats were on converging courses with us sailing about 5 to 10 degrees closer to the wind than Storm. They were doing about 7 knots, whilst we were doing 14 knots. The distance that they were ahead shrunk quickly, as did the separation. We discussed whether we should overtake them to windward or to leeward. The golden rule when sailing sports boats is that one always overtakes to windward. The problem was we were in a tight groove - sailing any higher would probably have meant another broach, so I opted for a leeward overtake manouver. I figured with 14 knots of boat speed at my disposal, we would have no problem blasting through "Storm's" wind shadow.

As the two courses progressively converged, the sideways separation shrank to around 4 boat lengths at the point that we gained an overlap and continued to decrease as the two boats moved closer together. I called "WEATHER BOAT KEEP CLEAR" but got no response from their skipper other than to jovially offer us some cold beers.

The gap narrowed even more and as our bow was about 5 meters in front of theirs, the gap went down to 2 meters and at the same time our spinnaker collapsed as we sailed into their wind shadow. I called louder for them to keep clear but still got no response. At that point I decided I needed to avoid a collision and turned our boat abruptly downwind which slowed us even more. "Storm" then rolled us as our speed bled right down to about 6 knots. The separation at that stage was about 6 meters.

As Storm surged forwards and we fell back to the point where our bow was amidships of their boat, the wind filled our spinnaker and we broached, without warning, to weather. Our bowsprit collided violently with their starboard quarter casuing a fair bit of damage to the sprit casing on our boat, but nothing more than a scratch to Storm.

After recovering the spinnaker, we set the headsail and did a quick inspection of our boat to assess the damage and to ensure we had not holed her. The damage was limited to the sprit housing, but it did mean we were unable to fly a spinnaker again for the rest of the race.

There were secondary issues as well. A collision had taken place which meant one, or both vessels, had to retire (which both did ultimately, but not for the right reasons). We also did not have a protest flag on board; nor did either boat shout "PROTEST!"

We decided not to make any issue out of it and took the time to look Storm up after docking to make sure everything was OK - but it does pose an interesting question about who was wrong and who was right. Anyone with a qualified opinion is welcome to send it to me on trygveroberts@mweb.co.za

At that stage Pacer 3 rapidly caught up to us but the breeze would soon drop to almost nothing as we sailed around the north side of the island. The next hour or so would be a very slow and tedious process of trying to keep the boat moving. Felix was lying in a strong position to win the race as the south easter was steadily fading which would be a disadvantage to the big boats coming up from behind.

Greg eventually fed his Jaegerbombs to the fish which was our signal to call it a day and retire. We were lying about 12th at that stage. Felix stuck it out and went on to win the event. Well done to Ant and his crew!

Only three other boats out of a total of 53 starters completed the race. The prize giving was poorly attended due to the many early retirees and I hope the sponsor, Slaley Wines, were not too disappointed with the way things panned out. The race had been postponed from a few weeks earlier due to bad weather.

We will have to miss racing this week as the boat will be under the repairman's hands for a fortnight.

Above: Pacer 3 with James Harvie and his crew enjoying the brisk consitions on the bay. Note the very slack forestay!!!

Photo: Pam Newby

WHAT THE EXPERTS HAVE TO SAY....

1. Storm would have been disqualified for failing to keep clear of an overlapped leeward boat.(First part of the incident)
2. Regent Express would also have been disqualified for failing to avoid a collision (Second half of the incident)

Note that this opinion was solicited based on the facts as presented by only one party (Regent Express). No doubt a different version might come from the skipper and crew of the other boat, so this is of academic value only.

Lesson learned: ALWAYS OVERTAKE TO WINDWARD WHEN SAILING A SPORTS BOAT.

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IRC WINTER SERIES
12th July, 2009

Understanding weather based on forecasts is whole science in itself. Wind Guru persistently showed wind speeds of 15 knots average out of the North West, whilst the official SA Weather site showed much the same. It had been raining all night and showed little sign of abating as a double cold front swept over the Cape.

Five boats wanted to go racing. The rest of the IRC fleet either wussed out or were at MSC week in Durban. I called for the #1 Genoa ("Hey guys, its only 15 knots out there!") and a full main. We were still debating whether we should button up the A2 heavy kite or try the smaller A3.

We left our mooring under motor in light rain with the genoa furled and the main tied around the boom. Normally the 5 hp outboard is more than adequate to propel this boat, but as we turned upwind into the exit channel out of the small craft harbour, I noticed we were making no forward headway at all, despite the outboard having its throttle open fully. The top third of the genoa had unfurled itself and was causing too much drag. Soon we started going sideways and suddenly from being totally under control, we were rapidly getting ourselves into a precarious situation. I managed to squeeze the bow past the moored boat to port, so we could motor down the channel between the moored boats. The problem is, it is a dead end, so when we reached the end, I had to try and reverse the boat back up the channel as the crew battled to sort out the genoa - All this with a 30 knot wind pumping from the starboard side.

Eventually we turned upwind between two big yachts and held on till we got the mess sorted out. It took ages, but eventually we got the #1 down and replaced it with the #2 Jib - a brand new sail having never been used in the two years the previous owner sailed the boat on the Vaal Dam. We also decided it would be prudent to stick a reef in the main and hoist everything to give us the extra horsepower to clear the exit channel.

Once we were in the main harbour, it became evident that the wind was much stronger than the forecast. We heard a VHF broadcast from the harbour master that the wind was 30 knots gusting 42. Felix was also out, but motoring and no sign of Pacer 3. We then had the unenviable task of getting the outboard off the stern, which required ducking behind one of the breakwater walls into calmer water.

At the start area things were a tad wild - a real washing machine ocean with some alarmingly big waves. Only Phil could hear the VHF down below as on deck it was the crashing of waves and shrieking wind which made VHF audio impossible. It took us about 30 seconds to make the decision to retire and head back to our mooring, as the weather and especially the seas were looking on the dangerous side. The rest of fleet immediately followed suit. As we bore off onto a 90 degree two sail reach, the boat speed registered 13.5 knots as we had a fast plane back into the harbour. The guys enjoyed that so much, we voted to go out for a second burn, just for the hell of it, but as we reached the outer breakwater the reefing line snapped. That meant some more hasty adjustments and also having to sail with a full main in extremely strong wind. The moment we had the sail properly set, we tacked and headed back into the harbour. This time we logged 15,2 knots with the boat feeling beautifully under control. Now imagine the A3 kite up in that lot as well??!! The foredeck guys were being firehosed as the boat sped across and through some of the waves.

So, another day of no racing with Cape Town living up to its name. Here invariably, it is feast or famine. Well, to be fair, we have all been complaining about too much light wind sailing!

It is good to know that the boat can handle that sea state and gale force winds. The rig looked absolutely fine. Suprisingly she handled the conditions well and was not as jumpy and twitchy as I expected her to be.

Next week, we re-sail the Slaley Robben Island Race, so there is much to look forward to.

Some new lessons learned:
1. Make your reefing line a Spectra line.
2. Furlers are not such a good idea on a racing boat.
3. The Pacer handles very nicely with a reduced sail area in strong breeze.
4. The forecast is just a forecast - expect the worst.
5. Having a forward opening fore-hatch is not a smart idea.

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WHY YOU SHOULD CHECK THAT THE BOW IS SECURED TO THE TRAILER

It may seem elementary, but Iain Gibsons Pacer 27 "Unruly" ended up on its side on the slipway a few days ago at the start of the annual MSC Regatta in Durban. (Note the people standing around in shorts and T shirts at 0800 mid winter !!!). Iain and his crew got the boat ready for launching off their trailer - keel winched up, tie downs off, ready to go - and go it did. Without a bow tether to the trailer, the Pacer simply slid backwards off the trailer straight onto the concrete.

If ever there was a test of a boat's construction integrity, this is it! There are a couple of nasty gelcoat chips but no other apparent damage. So now we all know the boat is strong!

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WINTER FUN RACE
4th July, 2009

Race in a nutshell:

Position PHRF: 3rd

Total Entries : 14

Distance: 2.0 nm.

Weather Forecast: Clear, sunny. Wind East to NE 3 to 7 knots. Temp 22C

Weather Actual: Accurate

Baro: 1015 hPa.

Course: Windward/Leeward with a downwind finish (1 x loop)

Seas: Flat

Sails: Full Main, No. 1 Jib, A2 Light Assymetric Spinnaker

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Charles Crosby (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Simon Penso (Bow), Total: 460 kg

Being OOD (officer of the day) gave me the priveledge of setting a decent course, but fate was to intervene in that two of the primary buoys had been washed ashore in the previous week's storms.

With a smallish fleet of 14 boats out for the afternoon's race, we all wallowed around for and hour or two waiting for the flat calm to disappear from Table Bay. Just as the RO was about to abandon racing for the day (in favour of a rugby test match), a hint of south easterly appeared on the bay - Only about 2 knots though.

The sailors wanted a race, so Keith Mattison on the Peterson 33 FTi Flyer very kindly offered to anchor in the vicinity of where the Paarden Island mark should be, to substitute the mark.

We had a great start and quickly got ourselves into 3rd place. The Leisure 42 "8 Seconds" rounded first, with the IMX40 "Lobelia" second and ourselves close behind in 3rd place. There was a big gap between us and the rest of the fleet. We got the big A2 kite up but were struggling to hold the required height. After a few minutes, we took it down as the breeze had shifted round to a south wester, which meant beating to the finish line. We finished in the same order as the weather mark rounding and were one of only four boats to complete the race.

Results on PHRF corrected time were:
1st 8 Seconds - Leisure 42 - Harry Brehm
2nd Lobelia - IMX40 - Gordon Kling
3rd Regent Express - Pacer 27 Sport - Trygve Roberts
4th Tally-Ho - L34 - John Waller

We have had an extraordinary amount of light wind sailing this winter, which in a way, has given us time to get to to know the boat well, but we are really looking forward to sailing in some decent breeze.

In the news is James Harvie, who successfully put in a bid to take over the campaign of Pacer 3, where we left off. She has been re-launched and should be race ready by this coming weekend. If Ant Wentworth keeps his boat at RCYC, it means a 300% increase in Pacer 27's at the club. We are looking forward tremendously to sailing with the other two boats.

Hyperactive has had two major changes. Firstly she has shed those orange/yellow/mustard decks and is back to being a white decked boat. Secondly, our sponsors Regent Insurance, have come back on board with us for another year. The net result is a name change. Her new name will be REGENT EXPRESS, and as we speak the artwork for the new name is being processed. Photo's as soon as it's done!

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IRC WINTER SERIES - Races 6 and 7
21st June, 2009

Race in a nutshell:

Position Race 6: 8th
Position Race 7: 10th

Total Entries : 11

Ave Speed: 3.9 kts

Max Speed: 6.8 kts

Distance: 8.0 nm.

Weather Forecast: Cloudy and misty. Wind NW 5 to 8 knots - Temp 16C

Weather Actual: Accurate

Baro: 1011 hPa.

Course: Windward/Leeward with a downwind finish

Seas: Flat

Sails: Full Main, No. 1 Jib, A2 Light Assymetric Spinnaker

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Charles Crosby (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Craig Latigan (Mast), Simon Penso (Bow), Total: 510 kg

Winter sailing is so different from summer sailing. We are all having withdrawal symptoms from not doing enough planing as most of the races to date have been in winds below 10 knots.

Suffering from a bit of ring rust, we took Hyperactive out for her second race in winds between 5 and 8 knots, with a fairly small, but highly competitive fleet. We had three L26's sailing, so at least we had the benefit of not being the smallest boat in the fleet for a change.

The race was postponed by an hour as the RC waited for the light wind to settle. The course was the standard windward/leeward with two roundings. There was some port bias on the line, so it was obvious most of the hot boats would head for the pin end. We know by now to keep clear air in favour of a favoured side when trying to start with mainly much bigger boats than ourselves. Within the final sixty seconds a big gap opened behind us as we sailed along the line on starboard towards the "soon to be bunfight" at the pin. Charles made the call to do a quick gybe and head back towards the committee boat. I immediately saw the benefit in that and flicked the helm through a gybe, but the turn was too sharp and in only five knots of breeze, the Pacer simply stopped dead in it's tracks. It took a full minute to get her going again and we were stone last leaving the start line. Aargh!

We knuckled down and focussed on sailing fast and smart and managed to regain some lost time up at the weather mark. We were right up with Maestro (Fast 42); Aladdin (Farr 38) and Addis in Cape (A35). We have found that we stay in contention with those three boats if we soak down deep on the runs, rather than sail ninety degree reaches.

On the run, we gained decisively on the Fast 42 and the Farr 38 and managed to sneak inside both of them at the leeward mark by approaching on the starboard gybe.

We were a very long way ahead of the L26 fleet - an entire leg towards the end of the race, but still not enough to beat them on corrected time. We finished with an 8th.

The second start was abandoned due to a windshift, which was a pity, as we had an excellent start. There was a lengthy delay as the RC relaid the course and gave fresh starting signals. This time there was once again port bias, so we decided to go for a pin end, port tack start - highly risky on a short line with a competitive fleet of mainly big boats. We stuck to our plan but things went pear shaped as we tacked under the bow of an approaching L26 on starboard. They were unable to luff up out of our way as a gaggle of forty footers swept over us, leaving us in irons at the pin trying to sneak past the mark, but we had lost all our speed and parked there for a good 30 seconds until we eventually drifted backwards and limped off the start line on port with our tails between our legs.

Those must rank amongst our two worst starts of the past three years. Anyway, it was catch up time again and we did well to reel our three big target boats in by the weather mark. Again we made up ground on the downwind legs by soaking very deep and heeling the boat to windward. It feels horrible, but it does work.

We finished seconds behind Aladdin for a 10th place, beating only the Fast 42 on corrected time.

Whilst our positions in the results are not improving much, the time gap between our boat and the consistent leader is definitely diminishing and that gives us confidence that we are improving.

We understand fully that getting a podium finish on a windward/leeward course in light winds is improbable in a sports boat, but it does give us excellent practice and keeps us sharply focussed on minimising our mistakes.

This Saturday we tackle the Robben Island Pursuit Race, where our opportunities for a better placing increase quite a bit, depending on the wind direction.

Our hull/sail number has now officially been changed from 007 to 017, due to a glitch at the factory and to show some comradeship towards Felix the Cat who has been using that number for more than a year.

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PORTUGAL DAY RACE
6th June, 2009

Kindly sponsored and supported by:

The Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Rainbow Nation Fishing, Lusitania, Bright Electrical,
P.K. Meat, Advanced Transport, Mercantile Bank,
Brito’s Meat, Ocean Basket Tableview, Fish for Africa,
Ocean Link, Bridge Auto, House of Colours

The Course: #10 (S) - Barker Rock (P) - #10 (P)

Distance: 15,5 nm Straight line distance.

Wind: SW 22 knots to S 8 knots

Crew for the day: Simon Penso (Bow); James Harvie (Mast); Phillip Rentschler (Pit); Greg Harrowsmith (Headsail/Spinnaker trimmer); Charles Crosby (Main); Trygve Roberts (Helm)

Maximum speed: 12.6 knots

This is one of those annual events at RCYC which are hugely popular with most yachtsmen. Fifty one entries bear testimony to that, notwithstanding extreme winter weather right up to the night before, with a set of four cold fronts sweeping over Cape Town bringing torrential rain and snow. Most of us went to bed on Friday night wondering whether the event would take place at all, but on Saturday morning a weak wintry sun made it's appearance and the race was on.

Each year this event goes from strength to strength. It is well organised and well supported by many Portuguese busineses. This year, like last year, followed the same familiar social programme with folk dancers and a speech by the Portuguese Consul in Cape Town. There were some mistakes this year and I will try to point them out on this website in the form of constructive criticism, as the elimination of mistakes makes for improved events and that is what the club is surely striving for. The biggest mistake this year was moving the function into the shed. The acoustics are very poor and not a word could be heard by any of the speakers from where I was sitting. The seating was cramped and difficult to access, resulting in many cases of people having to walk on the benches to get to their seats. The time span from the end of racing to the prize giving was too long, resulting in most of the audience being fairly tipsy by the time the prize giving started. Tipsy people are noisy people and noisy people dont make for an attentive audience. PLEASE move this function back into the main hall next year!

The traditional Portuguese folk dancers are lovely to watch, but perhaps 10 songs and dances could be cut down to 2 and the same message will have been delivered. They sounded so much better in the carpeted and curtained main hall last year. Or maybe add some other form of cultural event (like olive tasting). The formula needs to be altered a bit to add some more interest or at worst to be shortened considerably.

On the positive side, the effort put into the decor was fantastic, the food and hot soup was welcome (it did need a serious dose of salt though) as were the free drink and meal vouchers.

The band (made up mainly from members of the club) provided music for those who wished to listen, but I left before they started as by that stage the noise levels in the shed were becoming unpleasant and my eardrums were begging for mercy.

On to the racing. The wind was South West and hoppping around between 12 and 22 knots, but it wasn't very cold. We decided to go with the #1 Genoa and the smaller A3 spinnaker, but that would be changed as the day wore on and the breeze faded.

Above: 'Hyperactive' going into a tack up the face of a wave.

Photo: Trevor Wilkins

The Atlantic was the colour of black tea, strewn with liberal quantities of plastic bags and kelp from the weeks' storms. We cast off an hour before our scheduled start time of 12h54 for our first ever sail on the new Pacer 27, "Hyperactive". Ant Wentworth had brought his Pacer 27, "Felix" around from Simonstown to join in the race, so we were looking forward to having a sparring partner. But fate was to have a hand in that not happening.

The VHF was strangely quiet. Normally for pursuit races, each group of yachts are called up one minute before their scheduled start and counted down live during the final 10 seconds, but the radio in the bridge hut was broken and to take matters worse, there was no backup hand held. The result was an absolute fiasco.

On our boat for example, when we realised that the bridge were not calling times, we singled out the L34 "Lapwing" as being competent starters and on time with a 10 minute head start on us as a good boat to take our start time from. We had our position on the line all figured out and our strategy in place for the long beat up to Barker Rock off Clifton. We were nonplussed to see our opposition "Felix" taking off some four minutes ahead of us. We looked at our watches and had a discussion and decided they had started prematurely and would be disqualified. Other boats scheduled to start around our time (like the Farr 38 "A-L") were all in apparent sequence with us, so were convinced we were right. With hindsight it would appear that the entire start procedure was a huge bugger-up and no-one really got it right except for perhaps the first two or three starts. The further one went down the starting order, the more the errors were multiplied, as the norm is to take your five minute signal off the boat that starts five minutes ahead of you, but the absence of audio confirmation quickly turned the whole lot into a shambles.

We patiently waited for our gun and made a good start at full speed. It was destined not to be our day, as a mere few hundred meters up the first beat, going fast on port tack, we heard an ominous creak. Everyone said: "WHAT'S THAT?" Nothing further happened so we settled down and hiked hard to get maximum speed out of the boat. A minute later there was the sound like a shotgun going off, followed immediately by a splash and a shout (or was it a shout and a splash?). The lifeline lashing had parted and we had two crew overboard, Greg and Phill.

Charles grabbed Phill and I grabbed Greg, but neither of us could haul either of them on board whilst still trying to steer and control the boat. Greg managed to grab onto the pushpit and haul himself on board, but Phill floated away to settle floating high in the water with a huge smile on his face - One of those smiles that said: "Gee I am glad I have a life jacket on"

Once we had Greg on board, we tacked and sailed back downwind till abeam of of the MOB then gybed, But we were going too fast. The sea is very cold in Cape Town and it is really important to get a MOB back onboard in double quick time, so I luffed the boat hard in an attempt to park the boat right next to Phill. Willing hands grabbed him and we hauled him onboard via the open transom without too much trouble. I must say getting someone back onto this boat is relatively easy.

As soon as we had our team on board, we tasked Simon with getting a spare line rigged for the lashing, but of course we were unable to hike hard until he was done. An observation on boats that have been dry sailed inland and stand under the ferocious Highveld sun, is that the UV is deadly on ropes - that is despite the fact that the lifeline lashings were 2mm Spectra!! They might be OK for inland but definitely not OK for coastal sailing.

Meanwhile "Felix" was a distant blip. We had given them another two minutes advantage and we would never make up the gap. The sea was lumpy and the breeze was fading. We had debated whether we should have the #1 or #2 jib up before the start and wisely decided to stick with the #1 as the forecast indicated the breeze would fade to 10 knots by the afternoon, which is exactly what it did. The boat felt good and we were holding our own with most boats around us. We decided to hug the shore all the way up and that proved to be a sound strategy as we gained many places to find ourselves midfleet by the time we reached that lump of granite called Barker Rock, itself subject to being washed every 15 seconds by huge waves. Most skippers gave it a respectably wide rounding as spinnakers were set for the dead downwind leg back.

Above: That's 'Hyperactive' 017 just after hoisting the A2 kite and being dwarfed by the swell over Barker Rock with the 41 ft 'After You' behind us and living out it's name.

Meanwhile we had Simon (our new bowman and more of that story later) down below derigging the A3 fractional kite in favour of a light A2 masthead kite. As we approached the rock, we had the 41ft 'AFTER YOU' inside us and a slower boat on our outside. We managed to gybe inside the 41 footer and got away with a good hoist, with our guest James, doing a good job on the halyard.

We got the boat up to 9 knots and headed offshore on the port gybe, really struggling to shake "After You" off. We did several gybes as we tried to gain positions, but the six minutes at the start had cost us dearly. We crossed the line finishing 19th overall. What is encouraging is that 'Felix' finished 5th overall. Well done to Anthony and his crew. The race was one by Lobelia.

So still a few gremlins to sort out as we steadily get the boat up to coastal standards and hopefully we will acquit ourselves better in two weeks time during the Robben Island Pursuit Race. This will be another race with the potential for the Pacer to do well if the breeze is from the right direction.

During the week I received an email from our long serving bowman, Nic Baigrie, advising with no notice, that he had moved on to a bigger boat, which left us with a bit of a scramble to find a replacement by the weekend. We wish Nic well in his endeavours on board the 43ft WINDPOWER after a five year stint with our team and a 14 year stint crewing with me on dinhies and keelboats. Simon will now take over the bowman position as we search for a replacement mastman. So if you are keen to join the Pacer team and are aged between 18 and 35, give me a call. 083 658 8888

Above: "Felix" - the opposition Pacer 27, near the finish line in a puff on almost into a broach, but recovered well to finish 5th overall.

RESULTS

1st Lobelia IMX 40 1.15
2nd AL Farr 38 1.09
3rd New Balance ILC 40 1.265
4th PUMA Unleashed Pacer 42R 1.25
5th Felix the Cat Pacer 27 sport 1.08
6th Windpower Landmark 43 1.235
7th Lapwing L 34 1.015
8th Naledi J120 1.155
9th Maestro Fast 42 1.15
10th Hors D' Oeuvre L26 0.955
11th Hill Billy J27 0.995
12th Benba Farr 38 1.065
13th Addis in Cape A35 1.085
14th Hitachi L26 0.955
15th 8 Seconds Leisure 42 1.165
16th Perriwinkle Farr 38 1.095
17th Pure Magic J27 0.995
18th After You L41' 1.19
19th Hyperactive Pacer 27 sport 1.08
20th FarMed Miura 0.935
21st Mafuta Bavaria 36 1.01
22nd Majimoto II Farr 40 1.13
23rd Touch n' Go Lightwave 395 1.08
24th Impact Impact30 0.92
25th Mighty Lemon Drop L mini ton 0.88
26th Miss Isle Simonis 35 1.09
27th Celine IV Comfortina 39 1.03
28th Cabaray Stadt 34 0.94
29th Indaba Stadt 34 0.96
30th Morgenster L34 1.015
31st Sirocco Jenneau 36 0.95
32nd FTI Flyer Charger 33 0.985
33rd Saoirse Atlantis 36 0.955
34th Lets Go SA 2676 Bucanneer 0.8
35th Apricot SA130 Miura 0.935
36th Diel Diebold 19.2m 1.23
37th Paragon Ocean 31 0.97
38th Iechyd Da Miura 0.91
39th Paprika Petersen 33 0.935
40th Carousel Beneteau 390 0.98
41st Storm Ocean 31 0.95
42nd Julie III Miura 0.935
43rd Ava Miura 0.935
44th Sea Oyster Nose Be 38 0.98
45th Main Contessa 32 0.88 RTD
46th Thalassa Fortuna 37 0.835 RTD

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CAPE TOWN SAILING WEEK
Incorporating Admirals Regatta and Table Bay Week
25th-27th April & 1st - 3rd May 2009

The inaugural Cape Town Sailing Week got off to a wet and soggy start on Saturday morning, 25th April at the Hout Bay Yacht Club with a big fleet of about 50 yachts entered. The idea of combining two traditional Cape regattas into one major event involving six sailing days over the two long weekends was met with enthusiasm by Cape Town’s top skippers with a record entry of 19 boats competing in the top level IRC division and more than 50 in the total mix.

The weather forecast was accurate only in that rain was forecast. A strong and gusty North Westerly caused an uncomfortable and lumpy sea for the competitors. Gusts ranged between 12 and 30 knots with twenty degree wind-shifts being the order of the day. There were many reports of damaged sails and equipment and several cases of seasickness, as well as a few spectacular wipe outs - not least of which was ours and for which we won a prize later that evening for the most spectacular broach of the day. So who said we wouldn't make the podium? (They just didn't know how!)

Perhaps the biggest problem was the very long delay of over two hours for crews to be waiting offshore for the race to start, in drenching rain and cold temperatures. The depth of the sea exceeded the length of the ground tackle for the marker buoys making it impossible for the very experienced race officer, Doug Allison to set a course. Exactly the same problem occured at last years Admirals Regatta. I would have thought that little issue would have been discussed and dealt with at the 2008 wash-up meeting.

Finally the first race (of three scheduled for the day) got underway just before 13h00. I'm not sure if we were all getting a little hypothermic, but we were not our usual snappy team. Add to that our pitman wasn't feeling too good with a touch of seasickness.

Above: Just before launching the kite

Photo: Trevor Wilkins

Pacer 3 felt distinctly uncomfortable in the prevailing conditions. It took a good deal of coaxing getting her over the lumpy waves and maintaining speed. Our problem was the gust factor. We had the right sails up for the lulls, but were overpowered in the gusts - and we were in that state 70% of the time. So we would have been better off with the #2 headsail and probably a reef in the main as well.

We also had a new man on spinnaker trim this being his first experience with an assymetric kite. Add to that a mastman whose last sail was on a J27. The secret is speed in getting such a big spinnaker up and drawing before it goes in the drink. Our first hoist was just too slow and the spinnaker collected a whole lot of water in the foot preventing it from going up. It took a while to get things sorted whilst the rest of the fleet sailed away from us DDW - except for the 40ft Lobelia who seemed to having even more problems than ourselves. We broached in the first gybe, but made a quick recovery. The damage was done and there was no way we were going to make up enough time on the big boats.

By the time we went into the final downwind leg the wind was well and truly up and very gusty. After another broach and a series of four roundings up and falling off, we finally got going with the A2 kite again. We were going fast - 17,5 knots when we last looked at the GPS, when Phill called out that there was a big gust approaching from behind. About that time we were rapidly approaching to leeward and astern an L26. The gust hit both boats at the same time. The L26's spinnaker burst into tatters, but we just accellerated rapidly to around 22 knots and then the boat spun out - but it happened incredibly quickly. The damage was minimal. Two broken mainsail battens and a bent stancion. Phill tripped the halyard, so Nic could recover the kite, allowing us to cross the finish line under the jib and main. That was undoubtedly our fastest broach ever. Normally I have a very clear recollection of events, but that broach has left a blank in my mind. I would love to have seen a video of it!

In the IRC fleet the race was won by A-L (Farr 38) skippered by young and talented Robbie van Rooyen, with Mark Sadler (of Shosholoza fame) taking 2nd place in the Welbourne 46 (Hifidelity) and SA’s world champion Hobie sailor, Shaun Ferry taking 3rd spot on the ILC 40 Gumption New Balance.

Whilst we waited for the RC to start the next race, we deemed it a good idea to tuck a reef in the main and switch to the #2 jib and the A4 kite. One thing we have learned is that zips on headsails are not a grand idea and they are a real pain in the arse to connect in rough conditions and more so when you are in a hurry.

The mark laying boats had taken on a lot of sea water in the rough conditions, so in the interests of safety, racing was abandoned for the rest of the day as the fleet headed back to the harbour for the warmth of the clubhouse. We were the last boat to get back to the harbour. It was a hard, wet, cold upwind slog.

Sunday 26th: Day Two. Three windward/Leeward races scheduled.

With a light wind forecast, coupled with dense fog, this day was doomed to be something of a failure as the weather gods simply refused to play ball with the sailors. It turned into a long day of waiting as the fog came and went. By lunchtime the skies opened up to a reveal a pleasant sunny day but the wind was pitifully light. After 2pm the fleet was called out to start a race, which had been set within the confines of the bay with the start line just outside the harbour wall – making for excellent spectating from the shore as the fleets lined up for some precision starts.

The Pacer felt great in the light wind and flat water, so we decided on our strategy to work the right hand side of the course. Our start was text book stuff and to our delight we were able to hold two 42 footers off for most of the beat and even pull ahead. We have now figured out the upwind, light air hull trim for the P27S - and it showed!

But this race was not to be as many areas of calm appeared near the windward mark. The race officer had no option but to abandon this race as well.

So, after two full days only one race had been completed. Not a very happy state of affairs and of course everyone had an opinion on how to do it better. Now if only we could get them all to serve on the orgcom!

Above: Pacer 3 going along nicely in a breath of wind. It's obvious we are having fun.

Pic by Barbara Krynauw

MEDIUM DISTANCE RACE

Finally a nice, warm sunny day for all the sailors! But that came at a price - a serious lack of wind. The weekend’s sailing seemed to have some kind of voodoo on it and one can only have sympathies with the organizers who have no control over the weather.

Above: Pacer 3 (white spinnaker) playing downwind catch-up in the distance race

The fleet motored out to the start area off Kommetjie beach for an 11h00 start in a fitful 6 knot breeze from the south. The IRC fleet was off first and after a short windward leg, spinnakers were set as the yachts gybed over onto starboard in the direction of the finish line, but the downwind reach was short lived as the southerly petered out completely leaving most of the boats stationary. It would be the first of many holes for the day.

The Class, 1, 2 and L26 fleets all managed successful starts, but after an hour the entire fleet was in the stranglehold of the calm section off Karbonkelberg. It was decision time. Some of the top boats headed far offshore, others decided to stick close to the land once a hint of northerly breeze ghosted over the area. So the anticipated downwind run had turned into an agonizingly slow beat. Gumption went offshore followed by most of the IRC fleet, but Hifidelity stayed inshore hugging the coast followed by Lobelia, Aladdin and Pacer 3.

When the courses converged at the rocky point where the crane wreck is, it appeared that Gumption and Hifidelity were neck and neck, but many of the boats that went offshore lost out very badly. After another spell of zero wind, the southerly filled in again allowing for some reasonable downwind sailing, but it did not last long and the inevitable holes started appearing again.

I have never seen so many seals. They were clearly enjoying the calm, balmy weather and there flippers and tails to be spotted all over the sea. These are fast animals but one of them must have been asleep as we approached quietly under spinnaker doing around 5 knots. The seal disappeared in a blur of speed to be followed a second later by a loud thud as the keel connected it. It surfaced none the worse for wear about 20 meters astern and started following us looking indignant. It served to lighten the burden of a very dreary race for us.

Aladdin had gone rock crawling all along the foul ground, whilst the rest of the IRC group had opted to go slightly further offshore. The breeze faded and returned many times during the course of the afternoon causing much frustration and mixed fortunes amongst the competitors. It became clear that the majority of the fleet would not make the 16h00 cut off time to the finish line which had been set off Clifton’s 4th Beach. There can be nothing worse than to have raced all day and miss the cut-off time by a few minutes. The airwaves were abuzz with VHF requests to the bridge for clarity about the cut-off time, but quite rightly, the bridge could not offer any advice. This of course, only added to the general frustration. The procedures were set out quite clearly in the Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions and those that had done their homework knew that they could still get a result despite being later than 16h00.

The last mile was pure agony. Had it not been for a one knot northerly current, many boats would not have crossed the line as there was only about one knot of breeze between 16h00 and 18h00.

In the IRC fleet it was Shaun Ferry in Gumption New Balance claiming 1st place over A-L (Farr 38), followed by Addis in Cape (A35), the latter who had made a remarkable recovery from far behind with a very long gybe far offshore during the final hour of the race. We had been at least a mile ahead of them at one stage and can easily hold them off downwind. They had the wiley and experienced JJ Provoyeur on board and one has to admire them pulling a 3rd place out of a disastrous first half.

Only one boat in Class 1 completed the race (Touch n Go). Similarly only FTi Flyer completed the route in Class 2. None of the L26’s was able to finish in time.

The unfavourable weather conditions over all three days have had most of the crews fairly unhappy and there have been plenty of comments and criticisms bandied about. However if there had been 12 knots of steady sailing breeze over the three days, everyone would have been delighted. That is part and parcel of the sport which we must all accept.

The double scoring distance race has changed the results quite dramatically, but there is still a lot of racing to get through before we can predict a pattern amongst the top contenders. This regatta is still wide open.

Racing continues on Table Bay from Friday 1st through to Sunday 3rd May.

PROTEST!

One of the Class 2 boats (Cabaray) as well as 8 Seconds in the IRC fleet have lodged a protest against the RC about the cut-off times in Race 2. The result of that protest is that any boats finishing after 16h00 would be scored DNF. This affects ourselves and Alladin in the IRC fleet - dramatically!!! It also means no finishers in Class, 2 or the L26 Class.

Both Alladin and Pacer 3 have put in requests for redress based on the fact that the start was late and the smaller, slower boats were therefore prejudiced. Had the race started on time, we would both have made the cut-off time. There is also ambiguity in the Sailing Instructions in that the stated cut-off time did not preclude a time rule based on 140% of the leading finishers time. At time of writing the hearings have not taken place.

Watch this space.....

Late edit: Pacer 3, Aladdin and 8 Seconds were all granted redress and a finish order as stated here.

May 1st (Races 3, 4 & 5) Table Bay

After the disappointing weekend at Hout Bay, the fleet was eagerly anticipating getting some quality racing in for the second half of the regatta. With a 10 knot North Wester blowing steadily over Table Bay and the promise of some rain with plenty of low cloud and a choppy sea, Race Officer Doug Allison, went out on time, got his course laid (this time with the scoring gate in place) and caught many of the skippers off guard who then missed the first start.

Perhaps the biggest problem for most skippers was that there was a fair amount of kelp floating around, but we have all seen it a lot worse. The fleet had a clean start and set off for three loops of the windward/leeward course. The level of competition in the IRC fleet is excellent, where even a tiny mistake will cost a place or two. Windpower (Rick Nankin) pulled off a 1st, followed by Hifidelity (Mark Sadler) and Aladdin (Bjorn Geiger).

Getting a 27 foot boat to out perform a 40 foot boat takes some doing - especially in non planing conditions. We treated this regatta as an experimental one and tried many different combinations of trim to extract maximum speed out of the Pacer, but the bigger boats killed us on upwind speed as well as on point. Downwind we could stay on pace, but not really gain. We got a 13th (out of 17)

Race 4 started promptly about ten minutes after the last finisher. It was almost a carbon copy of the earlier race with the wind conditions being identical – perhaps a little lighter. Once again there was the clear leader in the IRC fleet with Windpower winning from A-L (Robbie van Rooyen) and Tenacity (Errol Stern). We scored another 13th. Consistency if nothing else! At least we were holding back the challenges from the Mount Gay and the L34 and the gap between ourselves and our benchmark boats was getting smaller. We rate more or less the same as Addis (A35) and the Farr 40 (Aladdin) so we try to stay in touch with them as an indicator that we are sailing to our rating. We were sailing our socks off and making very few mistakes.

Meanwhile the Club 1 and 2 fleets were sent off on a Bay Race allowing for more leisurely racing.

Race 5 and another back to back. A dark cloud was hanging over the city indicating some rain on the way and with it came a wind shift – subtle at first, but it would skew the course a lot in the halfway stages. There were big gains to be made. The whole fleet headed off for the pin end with the resultant squeeze and too many boats over the line to recall individually so a general recall was given. At the second attempt to start Race 5, (with the I flag flying) the pin mark was moved further back to square the line, creating the opposite effect – now everyone wanted to be at the committee boat. At the start the Farr 38 A-L pulled a high risk starting maneuver which almost caused a collision with Pacer 3 and Just Fun. We were reaching in when A-L suddenly turned downwind right in front of us. We had the Mount gay to leeward only two meters away and the committee boat imemdiately to starboard. It was an incredibly close shave and we immediately called PROTEST to A-L who also acknowledged and signalled an apology. Fortunately another general recall flag went up, letting them off a protest situation. However the recall flag was the wrong one. It was meant to be the individual recall flag and we had a brief glimpse of the race officer looking fairly upset with himself. Finally the fleet got off to a clean start, but the wind had gone very light.

Halfway through the race the fresh breeze arrived with the rain and those on the port side of the course benefitted. We took almost a mile lead over the Mount Gay on that beat. The run had turned into a tight reach to the finish, so we quickly changed to the A4 asso (a fair bit smaller and flatter than the big A2) and we made definite gains on the fleet having a straight line angle to the mark without having to gybe. We picked up three places to finish with a 10th.

Windpower won from Ballyhoo Too (Iain Park-Ross) and Addis in Cape (Alexander Monet).

This was a far more satisfactory day’s racing and a much happier bunch of sailors enjoyed the comforts of the clubhouse after racing.

Race 6 (Saturday 2nd May). A flat and calm Table Bay indicated that there might be no racing for the day. The race officer, Doug Allison postponed racing by two hours setting a possible start time of noon. The grey skies gradually disappeared and a light 5 knot westerly crept over the bay – just enough to start a race.

The top three places were hotly contested with some very aggressive starts in the IRC fleet. Kelp was a serious problem for several boats during the day, requiring a reverse maneuver to dislodge it and that would generally result in a poor result as both Puma and Maestro found out in such a competitive fleet.

The breeze held and a decent full race was completed with Rick Nankin on Windpower starting to dominate with a string of first places over the weekend. 2nd and 3rd places were taken by Hifidelity and Ballyhoo Too. We collected some kelp around the keel as our speed was definitely down a notch to finish with another 13th place.

Race 7, this race was sailed back to back on the previous race is identical conditions. The shorter start line had the IRC fleet jostling for prime position and several boats were recalled. Rick Nankin continued to dominate with solid wins in the light conditions. Ballyhoo Too and Addis in Cape took 2nd and 3rd places. It was distracting to sail behind the youngsters on A-L who had lit a braai (an incredible statement of “we are here to have fun and we may as well win at the same time”) attitude as they already owned a considerable points advantage over all the other boats. We suffered as the delicious aroma of the BBQ came wafting downwind. I suppose being really hungry didn’t help our cause much!

There was drama in the L26 Class when the bowman, Matthew, on JML accidentally fell through the fore-hatch and broke his arm. Photographer Trevor Wilkins was on hand to assist with his first aid and rescue knowledge in getting the injured youngster safely back to shore and off to hospital.

Race 8 (back to back). The race officer decided to shorten course for this race as the breeze was fading. Everyone was fairly tired from all the light wind concentration. The IRC start was as aggressive as ever. There was starboard bias on the line so everyone wanted to start at the committee boat end. The result was that Addis luffed four boats onto the wrong side of the start line – including themselves. We had decided on an opportunist strategy for the start and had hung back. A perfect gap opened up right next to the committee boat for us to slide into for what would have been the best start of the regatta. The ensuing chaos resulted in a general recall. There was a fair amount of cursing going on. Things settled down into a more orderly start six minutes later. It was more of the same - sitting to leeward, dodging kelp and sailing at 3 knots. It was just starting to get a little boring and I started wondering about the sense of sailing 15 windward/leeward races in one regatta. It might make a lot more sense to give the sailors more variety and make every alternate day a distance race. It would also be good to see some different course layouts and not just windward/leewards. A few triangular or trapezoidal courses make for interesting and varied racing. Windpower now fully in its stride took another bullet from the braaing boat A-L and Hifidelity. We improved by two positions and managed to hold a few more of the big forty footers back behind us.

So with two discards in the bag, the final placings in the IRC fleet are very tight with A-L still at the top of the log (Windpower did not compete in the Hout Bay leg of the regatta, but have nonetheless sailed well enough to be only a few points behind A-L). Sunday should be a cliffhanger for the boys on A-L.

SUNDAY 3rd MAY (RACE 9)

The final day of racing was scheduled for Sunday, 3rd May. At 0900 the bay was covered in a thick blanket of fog and absolutely no wind. The postponement signal went up as the sailors once more were subjected to a long wait for the fog to clear. By 1100 the fleet were sent out to do battle in the final race of the six day regatta. The wind was just a whisper of five knots and less from the west. There was not much more to prove as the battle lines had been drawn and in most classes the results were pretty much a fait accompli.

We were one of the first boats to leave the marina whilst the fog horns were still booming out their solitary vigil. I thought it a good idea to take the boat into the V&A dock area for the general public to cast their eyes over the Pacers lines and use it as a mini marketing moment. Bearing in mind this was about 1040 on a Sunday morning, Nic (our bowman) suddenly had an urge for chicken, chips and beer, so we tied up at Quay 4 whilst Nic and Simon strode off into the waterfront shops looking for "breakfast". We left over the glassy waters of the harbour enjoying our chicken and beer breakfast and setting a very pleasant mood onboard Pacer 3 for what would be the final race of the regatta and probably also our final race on Pacer 3 and it would also deliver our best result of the event.

Soon the IRC were off in the ultra light conditions. It wasn’t long before Windpower took the lead in the now customary pattern in the IRC fleet. It was in the middle of the fleet where the real battles were taking place. We seemed to have found some new speed and were challenging the bigger boats to score our best result of the regatta (8th). What was heartening is that we finished ahead of some serious competition, including the Farr 40 (Aladdin) who we have to give a small amount of time too, as well as A Pacer 42, Fast 42, Fast 40, IMX 40, Mount Gay 30, L34. So things were definitely getting better for us on Pacer 3 as we are getting to understand this boat and how to get more speed out of it. One thing is for sure, in this IRC fleet, we are learning our lessons well.

The wind remained very light, but the full course was completed by the whole fleet. Windpower won from Hifidelity and Ballyhoo Too to secure second overall.

In the final analysis, the Farr 38 A-L was the clear winner by 3 points, with Mark Sadler at the helm of Hifidelity taking 3rd overall on a tie breaker with Windpower, who won all the races that they sailed in. Considering they did not participate at all in the Hout Bay leg of the regatta, it leaves little doubt that they would have cleaned up in a big way.

At the prize giving which was held in perfect weather out on the deck overlooking the yacht basin, Admiral Koos Louw spoke of the need to keep the youth involved in sailing.

Whilst there were several valid issues that need to be considered as improvements, there as many positives which will ensure the continued success of this event- not the least of which is TV coverage.

Cape Town Sailing Week is gaining momentum with the announcement of a sponsorship from Cape Town Tourism to fund a television program on Mnet Supersport, the production Company, V&R Television Productions, will be there to catch all the action on and off the water.

Broadcast Schedule

Mon 25 May 2009:
SS1 / SS1A 21:00 – 21:30 premier

Tue 26 May 2009:
SS1 / SS1A 08:30 – 09:00 ®

Wed 27 May 2009:
SS1 / SS1A 12:30 – 13:00 ®

Thu 28 May 2009:
SS1 / SS1A 14:30 – 15:00 ®

Fri 29 May 2009:
SS1 / SS1A 16:30 – 17:00 ®

Sat 30 May 2009:
SS7 / SS7A 19:00 – 19:30 ®

Mon 01 Jun 2009:
SS1 / SS1A 22:30 – 23:00 ®

For full results and lots of pics visit the official website at http://www.ctsw.co.za

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007 - Licenced to thrill - And she's mine!

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It all happened so fast....literally and figuratively. I embarked on the Pacer 27 project just a few short weeks ago and have not even vaguely come to understand these boats properly yet, when I received an unexpected phone call from a Pacer 27 owner in Vaalie land. He is emigrating and needs to sell his boat. It took just seven days and the deal was done. The pic above shows hull # 7 "Hyperactive" packed at DAC on the Vaal Dam, ready to leave for Cape Town. The pic was taken at 1400 Friday 17th April. We are going up to collect it on May 9th.

If ever there was an endorsement of a product, this is it. I have fallen head over heels in love with this little boat and am delighted to be her new owner.

Cudos to her previous owner, Bo Slazek - a true gentleman - who with consummate patience to a thousand emails and questions from me, has been incredibly accommodating and willing to go the extra mile.

I wish him well in his new venture in Perth Australia and managed to not ask the question: "So how come Pickfords are not Packing the Pacer for Perth?"

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IRC WINTER SERIES - RACES 1 & 2
5th April, 2009

Position IRC: Race 1: DNF
Position Race 2: 9th

Total Entries : 10

Ave Speed: 5.2 kts

Max Speed: 9.7 kts

Distance: 4.2 nm.

Elapsed Time: 00.57.57

Weather Forecast: Clear. Wind NW 10 knots - Temp 26C

Weather Actual: Wind WSW 5 knots with dense fog

Baro: 1009 hPa.

Course: Windward/Leeward with a downwind finish

Seas: Flat

Sails: Full Main, No. 1 Jib, Big Assymetric Spinnaker

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Charles Crosby (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Waldo Zevenster (Mast), Nic Baigrie (Bow), Total: 510 kg

We have been here before - sailing cans races in dense fog. Let me be the first to say it is my weakness - in the worst sense of the word. Firstly I become disoriented - never mind how many times I look at the GPS. If one adds a bit of swell into the equation, the onset of seasickness happens quickly, but fortunately the sea was flat on Sunday.

The start was delayed for an hour whilst the RC waited for the fog to clear. Things were looking promising by noon as the marks were laid and the GPS co-ordinates announced. I decided (in my infinite wisdom) to not bother plotting the position as we would certainly not be at the mark first and all we had to do was watch where the fastest boats were heading.

Two minutes before the start the fog closed in heavily - to around 30m viz. It took just a few minutes and we were alone despite valiant attempts at staying in touch with the fleet. It was also of no help at all that the boat we were following (Tenacity) was also lost! The only sounds being the gentle wash of the water around the hull and the booming cacophony of multiple foghorns all over the bay. Sounds that make me irritable!

After several minutes we figured it wise to tack over onto port where we would be bound to cross tacks with one of the boats or at worst see the faster boats running down to the leeward mark. We saw nothing - even with keen young eyes peering into the mist.

After 20 minutes sailing upwind and seeing absolutely no-one and trying to figure out where we were using a hand held GPS, we finally capitulated and radiod the bridge for a distance to the weather mark. We had the magnetic bearing. The answer came back that the distance was 1 mile. Uh oh...our GPS showed us being 1.83 miles from the start. OK - well, we had pretty much thrown that race! Talk about getting the basics wrong! And I only had myself to blame.

At least we had the leeward mark plotted and were able to locate the start area. We weren't the only boat that got lost. Warlock and Tenacity suffered the same fate.

Result: DNF

Race 2 was started very quickly. This time we asked the bridge to repeat the co-ords for us. The breeze dropped right down below 5 knots for this race and it was more sailing alone in the fog and not having a clue how we were doing vs our competitors.

We spotted the L34 Sensation up near the weather mark and managed to get ahead of them on the downwind leg, but they thrashed us on the upwind leg being able to point 10 degrees higher. On the second run we got ahead again, but not nearly enough to take them on corrected time. Best part of the day was broad reaching back down the harbour in glorious autumn sunshine with a pair of Melges 24's out practising. We also hit our maximum speed for the day in the harbour - 9.8 knots

Its not often that I am overly critical of a race, but that is one that should never have happened in the first place. Perhaps it's only value was an exercise in GPS based mark location.

I suppose I shouldn't whinge. The bridge guys were doing their best under very difficult circumstances.



Result: 8th (or more accurately second last)

In South Africa, we simply say "Eish!"

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RCYC - SENIORS RACE
Saturday 4th April, 2009

We have competed for a number of years in this event - each time with the RCYC Sailing Manager, Ron Keytel driving the boat. 2009 presented a new challenge in that we no longer have a J27, so after some discussion with Ron (bearing in mind we won this event last year) we decided his familiarity with the J27 design would be a far better option than switching him onto the Pacer Sports boat - and doubly so since no spinnakers are allowed in this event. Then there is also the matter of the rating variance: .995 for the J27 versus 1.080 for the Pacer. So it was arranged to sail on Alan Taylors J27 "Pure Magic" with some of the Smackwater Jack crew.

We had Ron driving with myself on main trim, Greg did the genoa trim, owner Alan Taylor handled the pit; Michela sorted out the mast, whilst Nic did the foredeck.

Being a pursuit race we had the luxury of only two J27's on a 400m start line so our start at 14h50 was bang on target.


Here amongst our older members (the ranks of which I am about to enter) one looks carefully beneath the withered brows and sunburned skin and many faces become recognizable – sailors who have shaped this countries’ sailing history: Dave Abromowitz, Hein Schipper (how I envy that man and wish I can be like him one day), Gerhard Koper, Sheriff Saville (my octogenarian hero) and many more like him. I was wondering how I could possibly do this event justice in 300 words and the truth is, I can not. Being at the prize giving is one of the most moving sailing events one can imagine. It seriously brings a lump to ones throat.

Fifty one yachts completed the event in conditions which can only be described as very kind. Not that a blustery south easter would deter any of these ancient mariners! The race is run as a pursuit race with the little boats starting first and with all respect to the senior sailors, no spinnakers are allowed, although I strongly suspect if this rule were abolished, the bay would have been resplendent in colourful spinnakers. How about it for next year organizers?

The day was close to perfect with a low bank of fog looming out to sea and a light to moderate Westerly tickling the Atlantic. A whale frolicking right in the path of the yachts caused no undue alarm. At 14h00 the first boat (Buccaneer “Let’s Go!”) set off to the windward mark. It took a long time before the fastest boat (and eventual winner) – Landmark 43 skippered by Gerhard Koper finally crossed the starting line.

Going up the first one beat leg to the #2 channel marker, we had a 33footer (FTi Flyer) trying to climb upwind of us - and adding distance to the mark. the wind had kicked up a few notches to around 20 knots and we were getting overpowered with a No1 Genoa up. Try as we may, we could not pierce through to leeward of FTi Flyer, but we did manage to get ourselves into an inside overlap position at the mark. There things almost went badly pear shaped, when Ron could not get the J27 to bear off around the mark. The two boats rushed towards each other as Allan yelled for the crew to get their legs inboard. I ducked as FTi's boom swept by my head. It was really close. Finally Pure Magic obeyed the helm input and we were able to bear away downwind. Going down wind with a poled out genoa seemed a great pity (compared to what could have been achieved with a spinnaker up) but off we went until we were the most leeward boat. It was time to gybe and get to windward of the fleet and sail a hot angle, to allow a port approach and the inside overlap at the Milnerton mark. We didn't want to be to leeward of any of the big, slower boats in such light wind. Speaking of which, had dropped right down to about 6 knots.

Our plan worked perfectly and we picked a nice clean lane upwind back to No2 mark. The breeze was getting ever lighter so we made a decision to back back onto starboard to stay in the pressure. That was a baddy as the breeze headered on the new tack and went slack. there was nothing for it but to accept the loss and tack back onto starboard. We sat almost stationary for a minute of two and then slowly picked the westerly up again and got going. From there we chose our options well as we carved our way through the leading five boats.

Light winds and a few large holes spread over the course saw several skippers coming to an untimely standstill, whilst others with more luck, tacked away and remained in the pressure. After a slow run down to the Milnerton mark, it was still the diminutive Buccaneer well in the lead but others were closing fast.

Approaching the No2 mark we only had the Buccanneer ahead of us, but the big, fast boats were closing fast. At the penultimate mark rounding it was Buccaneer “Lets Go” (Duncan Johnson), followed by the J27 “Pure Magic” (Ron Keytel) and the Landmark 43 “Windpower” (Gerhard Koper) in third place. The final short broad reach to the finish line saw a few changes with the Buccaneer losing the first three places to finish 4th overall. Gerhard Koper in the new 43 ft boat had too much power and won comfortably from “Lobelia” (Gordon Kling) who just pipped Ron Keytel in the J27 “Pure Magic” into third place by one second.

The real winner was the sport of sailing and this big fleet of competitive sailors who pitched to honour our senior sailors. The men and women who have brought glory and honour to this wonderful sport of yachting. If you were one of those who attended the magnificent prize giving ceremony, you will agree the level of competence of organization is only matched by the skill on the water. Each year I am increasingly touched by the emotion of this event. Perhaps it is because I am about to enter this phase of my life?

Each year a new crop of outstanding sailors qualify to sail in this event. Waiting in the wings are Geoff Meek, Rick Nankin, Alan Keen and others. One thing is certain – this event will be well attended for many years to come as South Africa’s beaker of quality yachtsmen keeps growing.

Roll on 2010!

1 Windpower Landmark 43 Gerhard Koper 60-69
2 Lobelia IMX 40 Gordon Kling 60-69
3 Pure Magic J27 Ron Keytel 60-69
4 Lets Go Buccanneer Duncan Johnson 60-69
5 Spilhaus III Swede 55 Teddy Kuttel 70-79
6 Vodoo Wayne Hennings 60-69
7 After You L36mod Bill O' Reilly 70-79
8 Gumption ILC40 Dave Abromowitz 60-69
9 Eight Seconds Leisure42 Grant Ballantyne 70-79
10 Maestro Pacer 42 Ankie Roux 60-69

For full results see www.rcyc.co.za

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2009 Mykonos Offshore Regatta

Race 1 [Distance 40 nm]: 6th (IRC)

Race 2 [Distance 65 nm]: 3rd (IRC)

Race 3 [Distance 22 nm]: 12th (IRC)

Overall: 6th IRC

IRC Entries: 17

Total Entries : 86

Race 1: RCYC to Dassen island gate (40 nm)

Course: Start No. 10 (P) – Paarden Island (P) – Dassen Island gate

Seas: Flat 0.5m.

Sails: Full Main, No. 2 Jib, 2A Asym Kite; 3A Assymetric Spinnaker

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Charles Crosby (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Michela Byrnes - Guest (Mast), Nic Baigrie (Bow), Total: 510 kg

Above: Pacer 3 clipping along easily on the plane.

Photo: Wolf Michel

The Mykonos offshore is the most popular offshore keelboat event in South Africa – by a very long margin. Quite what makes this event so popular no-one really knows, but each year the numbers increase. This year the organizers applied a few innovations – One of which is that due to many smaller boats not being able to complete the full distance race within the cut-off time, the ORGCOM decided to put a gate in at Dassen Island. Crossing the gate would count as Race 1. Any boats completing the full course (Cape Town to Mykonos) would score for a second race. If I may be so bold as to suggest different cut off time for Class 1 and 2 might be a fairer means to determine class winners.

There was a further ambitious plan – to run a fourth race on the Saturday, after the Pursuit Race, but the weather gods rapidly (or was it slowly?) laid that plan to rest.

The 2009 event will be remembered as the race of the many holes. They were numerous and almost every boat fell foul of a hole at some point in the regatta. The plus side was that the weather was manageable by the whole fleet and a good vibe prevailed with good onshore activity. The main sponsors Club Mykonos and Puma provided lots of freebees. As with all events there is always room for improvement and I will get to those towards the end of this report, but in general it’s a serious thumbs up to Hylton Hale and his team for taking some worthwhile risks. It is so important not to rest on ones laurels but keep the innovation and improvement coming year after year to ensure success and sponsor retention.

The fleet was divided into several categories – IRC, Class 1 (over 30ft), Class 2 (under 30ft), Class 3 (under 25ft) and Multihulls. (I have used a length to distinguish class separation for the reader, but it was actually based on rating) A healthy entry of 17 boats made up the IRC fleet and here the competition was hot with Geoff Meek, Rick Nankin and Mark Sadler making their presence felt.

But back to the first race. The fleet was split into two starts. Class 2 and multihulls at 0830 and Class 1 and IRC at 0900. Despite RCYC’s considerable start line, it still seemed crowded with 40 boats on the line. A stiff south easter was visible - tantalizingly close to the line, but most boats spent several agonizing minutes almost stationary, waiting for the south easter to fill in.

Eventually it came through and we all got going to wards Paarden Island, the first mark of the course, consisting of a half mile beat, before the fleet could ease sheets and put up spinnakers for the long run down to Dassen island.

Above: Great shot from Barbara Krynauw capturing the spirit of one design racing. Taken shortly after rounding the Paarden Island mark and before the spinnaker hoist. "Felix the Cat" is closer to the camera.

We had two Pacer 27 Sports in the fleet (‘Felix the cat’ sailed by Anthony Wentworth and ourselves on Pacer lll) and the moment these boats got their spinnakers up, they ripped through the fleet. On Pacer lll we logged 17 knots as we headed up towards the beach for our first of about 40 gybes for the day. However ‘Felix the cat’ (weird name for a monohull) had their big asso up, whereas we had opted for the smaller 4A reaching asso expecting very strong gusts. The difference quickly became obvious as ‘Felix the cat’ could sail much deeper than ourselves and maintain a faster speed as well. We reluctantly decided that the sooner we changed to a bigger kite, the better. The change cost us plenty, but as soon as Nic had the big kite ready, we gybed back inshore and set off in pursuit of the other Pacer which had opened up a 1nm lead on us. On these sports boats a small error quickly opens up into a massive distance. The wind got progressively lighter as we went up the coast. On our boat, the general consensus was that we should hug the shore. With each gybe offshore, we could feel the pressure decreasing, so we would gybe back inshore. It was a good strategy up till Bok Point, but a disaster after that.

Mixing it up with the yachts were a half dozen Hobie Tigers who seemed to be making heavy work of things in the light conditions, but ultimately they arrived long before anyone else. I noted they were were not scored or recorded. Perhaps it is something the ORGCOM need to look at for future races? We already have a multihull division (with only 3 entries) so why not throw them all, into one category?

The breeze had dropped down to around 10 to 12 knots giving us a hull speed of around 8 knots. Approaching Bok Point (the halfway point to Dassen Island), ‘Felix the cat’ went offshore whilst we remained very close to the beach. On that single leg we eradicated their entire lead and crossed within 3 lengths on the next gybe. Beyond Bok Point, the breeze dropped further right down to 5 knots and less. By sailing hot angles we were able to keep the boat speed at 5 to 6 knots.

Felix the cat’ decided to head offshore and a big distance separated the two boats for the next hour or two. We decided to stick to the beach hopping plan which in the final analysis cost us dearly. ‘Felix’ picked up a nice gradient shift as the wind veered to the west offshore and they could soak much further north than our heading. By the time we crossed over into the westerly, ‘Felix’ was a mile ahead of us (again). Once the breeze settled in and increased a bit in speed, our VMG changed dramatically. Up until that point, we had been keeping level with Greg Davis’ 40ft cat, the Class 40 monohull ‘Kazimir’, the Farr 38 ‘Benba’ and the A-35 ‘Addis’. Now it was time to say goodbye to them, as the Pacer reveled in the favourable wind angle.

‘The other sports boat (Beneteau 7.5) had also gone offshore and was now ahead of us as we approached the gate at Dassen island.

Thomas Boecker had been given the task of anchoring at Waterloo Bay off Dassen to record finishing times and identify boats as they crossed through the gate, which was from a virtual mark on the shore to his anchoring point – a distance of almost two miles. He was having a rough time of things as the boats came streaming through the gate. Even with good binoculars, he was unable to identify all the boats. This was further complicated by far too much radio chatter as skippers wanted their finishing times confirmed (a requirement on the race declaration). Next time the gate needs to be made much smaller – say 1000 meters) and a full team of recorders on board.

The Pacer 27 "Felix the Cat" showing off the massive A2 spinnaker near South Head light.

We were fairly disappointed to hear we had only scored a 6th versus “Felix the Cat” which had nailed a 2nd place. Nonetheless it was a sparkling performance by the Pacer 27’s showing just what they are capable of, despite their high rating. At one stage we noticed the Pacer 27 overtaking Crocs and going a lot faster. 1st place was awarded to the Farr 38 “Benba” whilst 3rd place went to the L34 ‘Lapwing’ skippered by Jennifer Burger. The big boats (over 40 foot) seemed to do less well in this race.

Amongst the Class 1 fleet competition was close with another sports boat (Beneteau 7.5 ) ‘Always Well’ taking first place from Teddy Kuttle’s graceful Swede 55 ‘Spilhaus’ with Dave Smith’s ‘Touch n Go’ taking 3rd place.

The smaller boats (Class 2) were also having a ding dong battle in the light wind with 1st place going to Izekwela (Phil Flockton) which entered with a new, lower rating followed in 2nd place by Reaction (RCOD) sailed by Thinus Groenewald – a newcomer to the RCOD class, whilst 3rd place went to Matthys Lourens on Mafuta

Race 2: Cape Town to Mykonos (65 nm)

Going into Race 2 was a simple matter. Just keep heading north till South Head light, then hook a right into Saldanha Bay. We had dropped all our earlier competitors a good distance behind us and ‘Felix’ was a mile ahead but half a mile more west than us. That meant we could sail a hotter angle than them to South Head Light and it soon became obvious that we were closing on them. It took another two hours, but eventually we had closed the gap down to 20 boat lengths. They somehow had a better technique for soaking low than ourselves, so we decided there would be no point sitting to leeward of them and heated the boat up onto a plane (yes, this little speedster can plane in 12 knots of wind) so we could play the VMG game. We worked the boat hard for the next 40 minutes, but the deficit remained the same four gybes later. We sailed into the cut between Jutten island and South Head with the fabulously restored Voortrekker (SA1); ‘Felix’, and ‘Lobelia’ (IMX 40) in that order with Pacer 3 bringing up the tail end of that little group.

Conditions were typically West Coast with a freshening breeze, crisp blue skies and the calm waters of the lagoon beckoning (although the usual aquamarine colour was a dirty brown). We picked up a few nice puffs and as we held the weather lane, we were able to power over Lobelia in fairly quick time. Sailing the hot angles meant we had to put in two gybes to clear Salamander Point for the final reach in to Mykonos. We have really mastered gybing this boat. Those two were number 51 and 52 of the day’s gybes. Around the point the wind nearly always accelerates violently and today was no exception. I was hoping we might be able to hold onto the big asso. Ahead of us ‘Felix’ had taken theirs down and were two sail reaching towards the finish. We decided to hang on to the big kite as long as possible. Let’s just say in those gusty conditions, it proved to be an interesting exercise, but we managed to avoid a broach and got our kite down as well after a short fast reach with an oil tanker anchored directly in our path.

The final reach in to the finish in a southerly is usually with the wind at around 80 degrees apparent – just too tight for a flat asso in strong conditions, so we had to settle for the No.1 headsail and a full main. We managed to roll Voortrekker along that leg and finished within a minute of ‘Felix’ to score a 3rd for Race 2.

The well sailed and well prepared Farr 38 ‘Benba’ with it’s almost unbeatable IRC rating took another 1st, with ‘Felix the Cat’ in 2nd place.

The second leg had worked out a lot better for us. What a difference berthing at 4.30 in the afternoon instead of arriving at midnight! We were allocated a private jetty for the weekend (which was really a nice treat) and settled down for several cold beers on the terrace watching the fleet arriving over the horizon.

Amongst the Class 1 fleet it was another first for ‘Always Well’ followed by ‘Spilhaus’ and ‘Touch n Go’ in 2nd and 3rd places respectively.

In Class 2 it was the RCOD ‘Reaction’ taking the victors spoils from Izekwela and Impact.

Front to back: Greg, Charles & Trygve

Photo: Nic Baigrie

Saturday 21st March: Race 3 (22 nm) Pursuit Race.

With the forecast showing a light southerly building to only 11 knots towards the afternoon, I prepared myself for the worst – a long hot day on the bay. Our start was scheduled for 11.34 – an hour and four minutes after the first starters. I have only ever seen a boat under 30 foot winning this race once in all the years I have done it and that was Thomas Swana’s Laser 28 about three years ago. Invariably this turns into a big boat race in a building breeze. The reason is obvious. The bigger boats spend more time sailing in better pressure than the small boats. There are other factors like the lumpier ocean on the Jutten island leg, but it’s really all about the wind pressure.

Our start was OK as we managed to luff ‘Felix’ onto the wrong side of the committee boat, but in the process we got rolled by the Lightwave 395 of Dave Smith and ‘Felix’ did a good recovery to sail over us three minutes later. The breeze was around 7 knots. It had taken the leaders almost an hour to cover the first beat. We tacked over to port and headed west – the only boat to do so, but we felt it was a better option than sitting in other boats dirties.

Above: This happens to the most experienced and distinguished yachtsmen. This time it's our club handicapper, Dr. Dave Smith. I thought a suitable title could be "Haven't got a Clew?"

Photo: Charles Crosby

Almost every boat remained on starboard right up to the layline, so we felt a little vulnerable all on our own in the middle of the bay, wondering if had made a bad tactical decision. There were advantages – like sailing in clean air all the way to the weather mark. It all worked out well as we nailed the weather mark some 10 boat lengths ahead of “Felix”

Ahead of us there must have been 30 boats parked in a hole. One of the advantages of starting later is the ability to see what is happening to the fleet in front of you. Charles made the call to gybe off to starboard and head back towards the start line. It seemed alien at first but we soon saw “Felix” parked up with the rest of the fleet as we sailed away at 9 knots towards our gybing point and then a fast sail right towards the front of the fleet on the port gybe. We also ran into the front end of the parking lot, but for much less time than the rest of the fleet. Soon we picked up a hint of breeze and we powered out of the lagoon towards the ore jetty on a fetch. To windward of us, the orange spinnaker of ‘8 Seconds’ gave a good indication that there was good pressure on the seaward side as well. We rounded the ore jetty in about 15th place (out of 86). Things were looking good.

Above: Gybing towards an intersecting course with 'Voortrekker'. We managed to clear ahead of them.

On the run down to the bottom of the ore jetty we passed another half dozen boats and rounded on the transom of the L26 ‘Warlock’. We rolled the L26 and a Sweet Pea on the leg to Dial Rock which was nothing more than a tight fetch. I always find this leg a bit odd and I am sure a better routing option could be created. Perhaps the organizers could consider going up to the last mark at the ore jetty head and from there down to Dial Rock – that would give a true beat and a nice broad reach to Dial Rock.

By the time we rounded Dial Rock, we were lying 5th overall. This is about the halfway mark of the course and where places start to change quickly. We rolled the leading Sweet Pea’s and another boat and soon we were lying 2nd overall with only Harry Brehm’s Leisure 42 ‘Eight Seconds’ still ahead – but by a long way!

But below and behind us the big boats were closing like a pack of wolves. Soon Voortrekker sailed through our lee and behind us Lobelia climbed ever higher to roll us to windward on the long starboard tack towards Salamander Point. After that it was a succession of big boats overtaking us until we had dropped to about 12th place at the western end of Jutten island.

Of course downwind sailing is the Pacer’s long suite and we soon had the big asymmetric up - pulling us quickly downwind and overtaking some of the bigger boats, but the breeze seemed to be getting lighter and lighter, until the inevitable holes started appearing at random across the bay. We managed to wiggle our way out of one of them and still get ahead of Voortrekker and ‘Addis’ before the wing mark.

In the southern section of the bay a major wind shift was playing itself out with a 30 degree shift to port. We lost perhaps 3 places from being on the wrong side of the shift with Voortrekker and Picasso (Sovereign 54) overtaking us before the windward mark. Hey who cares? There’s a reach coming up. Right?
Up goes the asymmetric and on comes the power as the little Pacer lifts herself effortlessly onto the plane at 12 knots and we quickly drop the two bigger boats that had passed us upwind, to finish with a respectable 12th place overall. ‘Felix’ had been less fortunate and finished in 17th place, after sailing into that huge hole off Salamander Point.

1st place went to the new Landmark 43 ‘Windpower’ (Rick Nankin) with Geoff Meek taking 2nd place in the ILC 40 Ponty Point Leisure (Crocs/Gumption) and 3rd place going to “Puma Unleashed” – Undoubtedly another big boat favoured pursuit race.

Prize giving was postponed by an hour and dealt with efficiently and witnessed by a happy and contented bunch of sailors who got plenty of what they came for.

As the results turned out, the points separation was only 5 points amongst the first 6 boats with four boats having to be sorted out by a tie breaker for 4th place. That meant as we were one of those four, we dropped from 4th overall to 6th. Well, I am fairly happy with our result especially considering it was only our fifth outing on this boat.

We are improving!

Overall Results:
IRC:
1st Benba – Farr 38 – Dale Kushner – 1,1,14 = Total 16
2nd Maestro – Fast 42 – Ankie Roux – 7,4,6 = 17
3rd Addis in Cape – A35 – Alexander Monet – 5,5,9 = 19
4th Windpower – Landmark 43 – Rick Nankin – 11,9,1 = 21
5th Felix the Cat – Pacer 27 – Ant Wentworth – 2,2,17 = 21
6th Pacer 3 – Pacer 27 – Trygve Roberts – 3,6,12 =21
7th Alladin – Farr 40 – Bjorn Geiger – 6,8,7 = 21
8th Lapwing – L34 – Burger/Keen – 4,3,15 = 22
9th Puma Unleashed – Hylton Hale – 12,10,3 = 25
10th Eight Seconds – Harry Brehm – 10,11,4 = 25
11th Voortrekker – Marcello Burricks – 8,7,11 = 26
12th Lobelia – Gordon Kling – 13,12,5 = 30
13th Ponty Point Leisure – Geoff Meek – 15,14,2 = 31
14th Sensation – L34 – Avery/Munnik – 9,13,16 = 38
15th Cape Storm – Pacer 376 – Ettienne van Cuyck – 14,17,8 = 39
16th Just Fun – MG 30 – Dave Arnott – 16,15,10 = 41
17th Auto Atlantic – L52 – Rhett Goldswain – 17,16,13 = 46

For full Class 1 and 2 results visit www.rcyc.co.za

It is fantastic to see how many companies are willing to sponsor sailing and the following deserve our recognition and support for making the Mykonos Offshore the premier keelboat sailing event in South Africa:

Club Mykonos
Puma
Harken
Rocket Signs
Atlantic Yachting
Distell
Starlight Cruises

Some great news is that the organisers are busy negotiating to have the event televised next year.

Now we're cooking!!!

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Pacer 3 on the final reach in to the finish line. First boat under 30 ft over the line. 12th overall in the Pursuit Race.

Photo: Annelize Crosby

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IRC Summer Series - Race 8
11th March, 2009

Position IRC: 8th

Total Entries : 15

Ave Speed: 6.8 kts

Max Speed: 17.6 kts

Distance: 12.7 nm.

Elapsed Time: 01.11.16

Corrected Time: 01.13.37

Time behind leader (corrected) 8.5 mins

Weather Forecast: Clear. Wind South East 15 knots - Temp 28C

Weather Actual: Wind SE 20 to 28 kts

Baro: 1017 hPa.

Course: Start No. 10 (P) – Paarden Island (P) - Laid Mark (P) - Paarden Island (P) - Laid Mark (P) -#4 (P) - Finish #10 (P)

Seas: Choppy 0.8m.

Sails: Full Main, No. 1 Jib, Big Assymetric Spinnaker

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Charles Crosby (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Wolf Miekle - Guest (Mast), Nic Baigrie (Bow), Total: 510 kg

L-R: Greg, Phill, Dr Wolf, Nic

Photo: Charles Crosby

Great weather for a change at RCYC as we got Pacer 3 rigged for the afternoons race. With Simon still in the UK freezing his butt off in 3 degrees C, we offerred a space to a visiting yachtsman from Germany, Dr Wolf Michel.

There was very little breeze to speak of so we rigged all the biggest sails - and that was mistake number one. Charles always says there is no such thing as a moderate south easter. It would seem he is right.

We had enough time to prepare for the start and make our plans. We had a freshening breeze of 18 to 20 knots but we all felt that the breeze would drop rather than increase, so we stuck with the big sailplan.

We had a good start about two thirds up the line allowing for a fast fetch to the weather mark. We were in contention and right up with the top boats as we rounded Paarden Island mark. We did a good hoist and got going but the boat felt sluggish - like it wanted to fall over. We were not at the correct angle of attack and/or oversheeted on the kite. It took us a minute to get her going fast and suddenly she came alive zipping along effortlessly at 15 knots.

Then it was gybe time. We are still scholars a this sports boat gybe thing. One of the problems when you are doing 15 knots is that the gybe point comes up so fast - there is no question of saying "We'll wait till the gust is over". before you know it, you have overstood the gybe-line by a hundred meters or more.

So we gybed going fast. That's supposed to be good. Right?

The gybe wasn't too bad. We didn't fall over, but the kite had wrapped itself into a lovely tangle, which required a halyard drop and it took two minutes for Nic to untangle. Once we had it up, we had a fast reach to the lee mark, where we had to give water to the Farr 38, Benba.

Heading back up the beat on port tack, it was clear that we were overpowered. Again! So it was a case of easing the jib in the gusts, full backstay on and feathering the main. Ten minutes later we were back at Paarden Island mark and preparing for the second downwind leg.

The next hoist was much better and the Pacer took off to log our maximum speed of the race at 17,6 knots. This is the identical speed we attained on that wild day on the J27 in a 40 knot winter gale with huge waves. The Pacer did the same speed in flat water with a minimum of fuss and bother and very much under control.

OK. Gybe number 2 coming up. Bear off nice and easy. Blanket the spinnaker with the main and then pop the bow upwind to refill the asso. The result - Broach. But Phill was quick on the halyard and we recovered within about 15 seconds for the other half of those fabulous reaches.

The final beat up to Paarden Island held no surprises other than the wind had backed by 5 degrees, allowing for an earlier approach to the layline.

The third downwind leg had the breeze in at 28 knots with a few stronger gusts for good measure. We had another reasonable hoist and were flying along enjoying the power and speed of this machine.

Above: The Pacer 27S doing her thing. Effortlessly attaining 17.6 knots on flat water.

Photo: Charles Crosby

Our third gybe was our worst one. You would think we'd be getting better at it - not worse! The gybe itself was OK. The kite collapsed and then suddenly refilled and flipped us over pathetically easily and without warning.

It was one of those "all crew suspended from the lifelines - keel in the air" scenarios. We've been there before. Many times. It seemed to take forever with the boat lying beam on to the wind, but was probably about 2 minutes. We had eased half the spinnaker halyard and as she came upright, we quickly went DDW to get the halyard back up and then got going again for yet another blistering reach to the bottom mark.

The last leg to #4 mark was a tight fetch which meant a two sail fetch for us. We were gaining rapidly on the bigger boats ahead.

So - progress is a little slow and we definitely misread the weather. With this boat, if in doubt, go for a smaller sail plan. If simply has to pay dividends.

Dr Wolf had a spectacular time and I could see his eyes sparkle at the mention of the 40,000 Euro price tag of the Pacer 27. Another convert to sailing in Cape Town.

And so we move another week closer to the Mykonos Offshore. If ever there was an event that suited the Pacer 27 - this is it.


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IRC Summer Series - Race 7
4th March, 2009

Race in a nutshell:

Position IRC: 15th

Total Entries : 17

Ave Speed: 7.2 kts

Max Speed: 16.5 kts

Distance: 7.2 nm.

Elapsed Time: 01.02.58

Corrected Time: 01.05.03

Time behind leader (Corrected) 9 mins

Weather Forecast: Clear. Wind South East 20 knots - Temp 30C
Weather Actual: Wind SE 20 to 35 kts

Baro: 1014 hPa.

Course: Start No. 10 (P) – Laid Mark (P) - #2 (P)- Laid Mark (P) - #2 (P)- Finish #10 (P)

Seas: Choppy 0.8m.

Sails: Full Main, No. 2 Jib, Big Assymetric Spinnaker

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Charles Crosby (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Sebastian (Mast), Nic Baigrie (Bow), Total: 510 kg

The question the whole day was: “Would we race or would it be blown out?”

The club called me around lunch time to ask if I could stand in as OOD (Officer of the Day). I am always willing to help out, so I went down a bit earlier than normal and had a good look at the weather/wind on the bay near the start line. It seemed more than reasonable to me, so I gave the Race Officer the thumbs up for a race.

This was to be our third outing on the Pacer 27 and with the various bits of tweaking we had done to the boat, I was expecting a better result. Whilst we were rigging, the join on the continuous furler line parted (my handiwork !!) which immediately put us under some time pressure. Eventually we made the call to cast off and sail with the smaller (#2) jib and not bother to furl it on the downwind legs. We also took the precaution of rigging the main for a reef – just in case. There was a good ol’ fashioned South Easter on the bay increasing steadily in strength towards the approach of sunset.

Once out in the main basin it was evident that the 18 to 20 knots I had observed an hour and a half earlier was now definitely up a notch or two. The course was windward/leeward with two loops. Straight forward. Whilst we prepped ourselves for the race, Greg and Nic were busy trying to re-splice the furler line. They were still busy with it with 2 minutes to go to the start. Sheesh! Talk about pressure!

Despite all the action, we had the headsail up and set ready for the start, which we executed to perfection. We had the boat quickly trimmed at a fast, footed off angle for the weather mark, holding many of the Class 1 boats. We rounded in the first six and headed off high to set the big asso. There were no problems with the hoist, with our guest (a pal of Nic’s) settling quickly into the position of mast-man. The horses kicked in and the Pacer lifted her skirts and cruised along effortlessly without fuss or bother at around 16 knots. The problem with this boats downwind speed is that the gybe moment arrives far too quickly. It is incredible how quickly the gybe comes up when you are travelling at those speeds.

We went into the gybe positively and managed it sort of OK – certainly not how we want to be gibing – but we were level and got going again on the port gybe towards the lee mark. Somewhere behind us the 25ft Beneteau had broached (This made us feel better as they are experienced at heavy weather sports boat gybes). The leeward mark rushed up to meet us, so we got the kite down perhaps 5 boat-lengths too early and the jib unfurled. When that big spinnaker comes down, its like someone has pulled the handbrake on. Painfully slow by comparison!

We were ahead of many of the bigger boats and had rounded third. Nice!

Going up the next beat we sailed fat to get through the chop and kept the boat speed between 6.2 and 6.5 knots. I was grateful we had the smaller jib up as we were seriously overpowered and should have had a reef in the main. One by one the big boats got through us being able to point higher than us, but we were still very much in contention near the weather mark. The 34ft Sensation had done well to close the gap on us and rounded on our stern. At that stage we were still aiming for a podium finish. We had made few mistakes and the baby stays we had rigged to support the lower part of the mast were working like a charm and allowed for much better control of the mainsail.

The second hoist was not so good. The halyard snagged the top of the jib furler, which meant we had to drop the halyard halfway and then rehoist. That is never easy with a 65 sq.m. kite and 30 knots of breeze. It took us a minute, but eventually we were up and planing off into the distance. We all felt a loud thump somewhere in the boat and noticed the spinnaker tack line had eased itself by a meter or more. There was absolutely no question we would be able to pull it back in with sort of pressure in the sail, so we just carried on speeding down the reach. Very quickly it was gybe time.

This gybe was not so good. We have not been able to figure out exactly what went wrong, but we broached. Nice and slowly. I felt the rudder aerating and losing grip and then it’s a waste of time trying to turn the boat downwind. You have to get the boat flat. The crew blew the halyard and stopped it halfway. That was just sufficient for me to get the boat level and turning back on course. Quickly they got the kite back up to the masthead and once again we were flying along at 16 knots heading for the leeward mark. Our position in the fleet was still looking strong, so we decided to hang onto the kite longer than the earlier round. And that was probably our undoing.

Things happened in slowmo. Nic was on the bow trying to reach the windward sheet and most of the crew were off the rail in preparation for the strike. That’s when she dug her chine in and turned abruptly into the wind, totally ignoring helm inputs from the skipper. The spinnaker went into the sea and quickly filled with water. The head ended up behind the boat and somehow ended up being speared by the rudder. Result: Massive hole from the head to halfway down the leech. No matter what we did, we could not get the kite off the rudder. Minutes ticked by as the entire fleet sailed past us. Oh well, I suppose we’re still very much in the learning phase.

Nic came to the rescue and promptly jumped overboard (sea temp 10C today) and managed with those long legs of his to prod the spinnaker off the rudder. Finally we got going and completed the course in a good 35 knots of wind. One or two gusts were really powerful and hurled us around as if we were a dry leaf, but the Pacer does accelerate very quickly. Despite the hectic breeze, we were still able to hold her on 6,2 knots steady upwind.

Back at the dock, Phill called me to have a look inside the boat. It made my eyes stretch wide open. The boat has a built in “closet” which houses the bowsprit and its purchase system. The rearward set of triple block is bolted through a 7mm fiberglass composite end piece which seals the closet off from the rest of the boat. The closet has an independent system of drainage holes to clear water coming in through the front when at high speed. Where this end piece is fastened, half of it was missing. Lets call it a baffle board for now. During the second reach, the force on the tack downhaul had been so severe that the baffle board had imploded. Incredible! That was the thud we had heard when the tack line suddenly increased in length by a meter.

So we are logging our maximum speeds. First race 11.5 knots, Second race 13.6 knots, Third race 16.5 knots. These speeds are really simple to attain. There is no magic moment when the boat starts planing. It is a smooth, seamless process of acceleration with very little spray or noise – and easy as pie to keep under control. Man – what a ton of pure sailing fun!

OK, so who cares if we came last. We’ll be back next week with hard learned lessons and an improved performance. We cant wait for Mykonos Offshore in two weeks time. If the breeze is up and from the right direction, we are in for one heck of a ride.

Thanks to Sebastian for slotting in so comfortably in our team.

Winner of this race was Bjorn Geiger’s Aladdin, followed by Unleashed (2nd) and Sensation in 3rd place. Ryan Avery and his team on Sensation are the form boat at the moment, showing very consistent results. Well done.



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IRC SUMMER SERIES - RACE 6
25th February 2009

Race in a nutshell:

Position IRC: 10th

Total Entries : 16

Ave Speed: 6.9 kts

Max Speed: 13.6 kts

Distance: 7.1 nm.

Elapsed Time: 00:43:52

Corrected Time: 00.45.19

Time behind leader (Corrected): 4.3 mins

Weather Forecast: Clear. Wind South 12 knots - Temp 31C
Weather Actual: Wind ESE to SSE 12 to 15 kts

Baro: 1011 hPa.

Course: Start No. 10 (P) – Laid Mark (P) - Paarden island (P)- Finish #10 (S)

Seas: Flattish.

Sails: Full Main, No. 1 Jib, Big Assymetric Spinnaker

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Charles Crosby (Main), Tom van der Ploeg(Genoa), Phillip Rentschler (Pit), Nic Baigrie (Mast), Total: 410 kg

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Well, well, well..........here we go again!

After a painful gap between when the J27 was sold and the arrival of the Pacer 27, it is time to smile, be happy and enjoy the thrills and spills of sailboat racing again. We are back in business!

So last week after a tentative sail in the IRC fleet, we are actually steadily improving from 11th out of 12 to 10th out of 17. This is a far cry from our regular podium finishes on Smackwater Jack, but exactly as I predicted, we will start at the bottom and work our way up. That is all part of the fun.

A quick recap on our first race - and I want to really just focus on errors. A new and untested boat is bound to dish up a few curved balls. Here's how things went:

1. We did not have the mast set up properly. The rig was too loose.

2. I accidentally bumped the hand held VHF, so did not notice the channel had skipped to 5 instead of 6. Result: We didn't hear the course.

3. We were late for the start by 30 seconds - I underestimated the time it would take. The Pacer stops quickly without breeze or sail power, whereas the J carries a lot of way.

4. Because we did not get the course, I assumed we would sail to the #2 channel marker in a NW wind. There was a laid weather mark near Granger Bay, so we were completely on the wrong side of the course (by 900 meters!)

That little cocktail of events saw us 2nd last at the weather mark. Fortunately the breeze was light, allowing us to remain upright during the first spinnaker hoist, which was one big tangle. It took half a mile to sort things out.

After that things went a bit better and we gradually worked our way through the fleet ending up 6th over the line, but on corrected time we plummeted back (to earth!) with a 10th.

A week later and few hours tinkering with rig settings and changing a few things around, we felt a bit more confident, but we were again the subject of some radio problems.

The first week we had been without Charles and this week we were without our spinnaker trimmer, Greg.

At the start there was very little breeze so the race was postponed. Despite having charged the VHF overnight, the battery signal was flashing LOW. Then the bridge announced the course on channel 14 instead of channel 6. They slipped the course in hastily somewhere between the 5 minute signal and the start on channel 6 but many skippers never heard the announcement. There was much confusion with 5 minutes to go to the start with no-one really knowing what course to sail, so we took a mid-line position to cover our bets and had a pretty good start - except we were sandwiched between a 42 footer and a 34 footer. So despite a good start it was only a matter of time before we were going to be rolled by the bigger boat.

We opted to tack over onto port for clear air, in the process ducking a few starboard tackers. This was not a normal south easter - it had quite a bit of east in it, so no-one would lay the weather mark on one tack. Our 'escape route' worked out nicely and we managed to get the boat into a nice fast groove upwind doing 6.5 knots steady and holding station with the two L34's but not pointing nearly as high.

With Tom standing in as spinnaker trimmer, he was still getting instructions as we rounded the top mark and I must say, the hoist was excellent, considering how little we have sailed this boat. Then came a bit of trimming and we were quickly over 10 knots boat speed and staying there. What a pleasure watching the fleet slip away astern, but of course our angle is much higher, so we lose distance. What is nice is being able to sail in clear air the whole reach and only getting back into the traffic close to the mark.

We held on a little too far on the starboard gybe and had a slight hiccup going through the gybe, with the kite wanting to fold around forwards and wrap itself into a bra. It takes some getting used such a massive spinnaker.

By the time we got to the lee mark, we had not gained on Sensation (L34) but we had passed a few other boats and we were ahead of both J27s - a good yardstick for us to measure as we know we have to be 5 minutes per hour ahead of the J's. A tough call on W/L course in light breeze.

Going up the next beat we had problems with the jib sheets getting overwinds on the winch and it certainly cost us as we battled to get things untangled and sorted - we all feel the boat needs slightly thicker jib sheets, which will stop the over-winding problem.

At the second rounding of the weather mark, there was total confusion, with half the fleet heading for the finish and the other half heading back to the leeward mark. We went for a conventional bear-away set and decided to follow the boats back to the leeward mark. Seconds later we heard the VHF stating that the leading boat "PUMA" had just finished. That bit of information quickly got us ready for a gybe (another mediocre one) and we aimed the bow for the finish line. It was on this leg, as we heated up to cross astern of Lapwing (L34) that we logged our max speed of 13,6 knots.

Last week we were 11 minutes shy of the leader. This week we were 4.5 mins behind. That's a good enough improvement. Now if we can carry on going up in increments like that, I will be more than satisfied!

After racing we went out and practiced some gybes - we still have a lot to learn.




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