Above: Smackwater Jack executing one of our best starts this season.

Photo: Barbara Krynauw

We held our leading position for a while until first the Melges and then the Farr 38 “Hocus Pocus” overtook us. We rounded 3rd and got the kite up smartly on a heading giving us maximum VMG towards Blouberg beach. We were looking good and the crew was feeling pleased as punch.

We spent the next hour concentrating intensely and planning our tactics. Near Blouberg, and still close behind the Melges, we gybed onto port and headed toward Robben Island, but the holes were starting to appear. A mere 200 meters ahead of us the Melges parked, whilst we sailed quietly by a hundred meters to port, doing 6,5 knots, but the breeze was fading, much to our dismay. After two hours, the tail enders all joined us in the calm zone and it was as if the race was starting all over again. Our arch rival, the Laser 28 “Ukuzwana” had closed the big lead we had worked so hard for. Oh well, that’s sailing.

The wind had veered towards the west and we had a beam reach to contend with. For another hour we sailed side by side next to the Laser and then the wind went WNW, making the angle too tight for our kite, so we hoisted the No.1 Genoa and took the kite down. Our boat speed went up by 1 knot and within another 15 minutes the Laser was a mile behind us. They have a very low IRC rating as they are rated with a No.3 jib and it would now count against them in the light conditions. Within an hour they had disappeared over the horizon behind us. We still had a very long way to go and we all know the race is not over till one crosses the finish line, so we tried to stay focused. Some of the bigger Class 1 boats started overtaking us and in particular it was nice to get a friendly wave from the 48ft cat “Life’s a dream” – a boat that I reviewed for Sailing Magazine a few weeks ago.

That was about the time when young Michael started looking a little green and within seconds he was feeding the fish. We had been in the company of a big pod of dolphins for many miles, but now they were gone! Morgan, our mastman, found this whole episode so hilarious, that he managed to get all of us into fits of laughter, including the hapless Michael, who was nicknamed “Chunderchild” for the rest of the weekend

The weather was stunning. We had an aquamarine ocean brimming with sea life – from three large whales, dolphins, penguins, seals, and gannets down to armadas of blue-bottles and silk like jelly fish with pastel pink and blue mantles gently wafting past the boat. If it were a cruise, it would have been perfect, but for racing, it was getting painful, not to mention boring.

Boats started retiring. One of the first was the Laser 28 who came close by with a friendly wave. They had had enough. We were doing well and started catching several of the bigger Class 1 boats in the lighter breeze, but it was slow going with the GPS registering a dismal average speed of only 4.3 knots.

Near Yzerfontein, the wind went dead on the nose and we had to start tacking up Sixteen Mile Beach. With a 2.5m swell running and only 4 or 5 knots of wind to work with, we started cheering every time the log showed 3 knots or higher. It was excruciating!

Tacking angles were a pathetic 100 degrees and it felt like we were reaching, not beating. The sun set and the gloom of evening settled in at 19h30. With the GPS showing more than 10 hours to reach the finish, and only four and a half hours to do so, we held an 'indaba' and made the decision to retire from the race. Even motoring on our rhumb line course at 5.5 knots, we would only reach the finish by 23h10. The wind was showing no likelihood of increasing. It is always a tough call, but it was the right one. The VHF was busy with one boat after the other calling race control to announce their retirements.

When it was fully dark, we had a bright starry sky and some fog banks looming in the distance. I was grateful we had a chart-plotter on board (and two back-up GPS units!). For some of the guys, this was to be their first night sail. Once we reached South Head Light, we turned onto the new course cutting through the inside passage and reefs past Jutten Island – this is definitely not something I would like to do without a chart plotter. Forget about your instincts and sixth sense – just follow your instruments.

Then we saw the “Flying Dutchman” – a ghost like dark shape of sails very close to us. I had to blink a few times and then I saw it again. I grabbed our spotlight and the Melges 24 with no navigation lights at all jumped into focus. They were still sailing for the finish, but in vain. The harbour master at Saldanha had picked the Melges up on his radar screen and wasn’t very impressed with them sailing without nav lights!

The cold started setting in and the last two hours were downright uncomfortable. Some of the crew opted for the relative warmth of the cabin, whilst Simon, Phillip and I endured till the finish.

Speaking of trusting instruments – in my previous race report, I mentioned that our tactical compass was behaving in an odd manner. Phillip figured the problem out (by reading the manual!) I had mounted a remote speaker for the VHF directly behind the compass fitting on the inside of the cabin (unwittingly). The strong magnetic field of the speaker, caused the Tacktick to read everything in reverse. Problem solved.

By 22h00 only one boat – the 46ft carbon racer “Hifidelity” had crossed the line. By midnight only six boats had finished the race. Not a single Class 2 boat made it to the finish line. We motored into Mykonos harbour at 23h10. Tired, hungry and salty.

The good news was that we could start racing the next day with a clean slate as everyone was “in the same boat”, so to speak, with a DNF result.

Jeanine – Philips wife – had organized some grub for us and soon after eating, we were all soundly asleep. Well that’s as soundly as one can sleep in the Cascades at Club Mykonos. The Greek village feeling is atmospheric, but it makes for awful acoustics. People arriving in the dead of night, kids jumping in the pools at 2 in the morning, drunken parties etc. all contribute to a bad nights sleep. Most of us were too tired to be disturbed.

Mykonos Pursuit Race
24th February, 2007

Race in a nutshell:

Position Line (Classes 1 & 2): 15th (from 80)

Position Line (Class 2 IRC): 6th (from 10)

Ave Speed: 6.1 kts

Max Speed: 8.3 kts

Distance: 25.3 nm.

Time: 4:55.00

Weather Forecast: Wind Westerly 10 knots with fog later

Weather Actual: Wind NW bec NNW 10 to 15 knots
Baro: 1018 hPa

Course: Start No: Mykonos (S) – Langebaan (S) – Ore Jetty (S) – Channel marker (P) – Dial Rock (P) – Channel marker 2 (S) – North bay (P) – Jutten island (P) – East Buoy (P) – NE Buoy (P) – Langebaan (P) - Mykonos (P) Finish

Seas: Flat

Sails: Full Main, No.1 Genoa, .75oz Mamba Spinnaker

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Phillip Rentschler (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Simon Penso (Halyards), Morgan Evans (Mast), Michael Ovenstone (Bow) Total: 510 kg

The provisional start times list at RCYC had shown us to be starting at 11h31, so I had told the crew to have a good night’s sleep and meet at the boat at 10h30. I was up early and had started carting equipment to the boat at 09h30, when someone I know asked me if I was aware that the start times had been advanced by an hour. WHAT???!!!

The resort is a big place and the crew were all over the show. Thank heavens for cell phones. I started running back to the kalifa to collect other essentials, whilst simultaneously phoning the crew. I gave them 10 minutes to get to the boat. What a rush! It is my pet hate being late for the start of a race. By the time we had the whole team assembled at the boat, it was 10h15 – and I was in an unreasonably high state of anxiety. We would have no time to remove the outboard off the transom or go through our usual pre-start planning procedures. We were all in a flap. The Laser 28 had started some 18 minutes before us, such is the nature of their rating. It seemed impossible to catch them as both our boats are very evenly matched. It would take a disaster to stop them winning this race. Either a disaster or the Farr 38 “Hocus Pocus” with an equally potent IRC rating. Both these boats rate with a No.3 jib.

As things turned out, we actually ended up with a few spare minutes and if I had been less stressed, we could have removed the outboard and set up the Tacktick. Anyway, we had a better start than last year and hit the line on the gun, immediately going for a spinnaker hoist. We overtook four boats in the first leg and did a good rounding, hardening up on starboard and heading toward Salamander Point. The breeze was getting lighter and soon we had to tack as we ran out of water. Most of the smaller boats had gone for a long port tack out to sea. We had to tack onto port anyway and I noted that as the minutes ticked by that it was a headered tack. Later it lifted back to it’s original heading and then lifted by a further 15 degrees. Meanwhile the L34’s were rounding the Langebaan mark behind us and enjoyed the benefit of the lifted port tack. We had in a very short space of time, been dealt a bad deck of cards by Mother Nature.

We spent most of the upwind leg on port tack, but the L34’s were slowly but surely reeling us in, despite our 6, 2 knots of upwind speed. Sailing conditions were magnificent and all those who had been unable to complete Race 1, were thoroughly enjoying the bay at its best.

We worked the shifts near the ore jetty and again, the L34 “Sensation” picked up a lift which came from nowhere and not benefiting the rest of the fleet. In two short tacks, they had quickly closed the gap on us and crossed tacks with us to take the lead right at the tip of the ore jetty. Mentally I ticked off one place and moved us down to 2nd. We would be highly unlikely to catch them. The next L34, “Lapwing” was 200 meters astern and closing slowly.

At the NC marker at the head of the bay near the base of the ore jetty, there was much confusion, as many of the boats rounded any one of a number of marks in a 250 meter radius. The intended mark was the inside big red steel channel marker, but the GPS co-ordinates zoomed in on a small red cylindrical buoy. I suppose in the greater scheme of things it wouldn’t make that much difference which mark had to be rounded. The skipper of Sensation looked at me and put his hands up in confusion, gesturing “which mark?” and I pointed at the correct one.

We rounded close behind Sensation, as we tacked immediately onto starboard for the short beat to Dial Rock. There were shifts aplenty and we worked them well, closing the gap and even getting ahead of Sensation. On the second last port tack into the lay line, we got a lift and would easily cross ahead of Sensation. It was all going too well for us, when at the moment de critique, we hit a header and had to bear down. At the same time, Sensation of course, got a lift and bore up, putting us on a direct collision course. I had only one second to make a decision. The decision was to crash tack to avoid a collision. We completed our tack only just in time and Sensation was on top of us, missing our starboard quarter by two feet. We then called “WEATHER BOAT” but they were having none of it and held their course and rolled us, in the process their trimmer was doing a lot of shouting about “getting a hobby” and such things. Eish! Mama nature was being cruel to us.

We popped the kite, doing a great hoist and did a blanketing job on Sensation in tandem with an L26 skippered by the father of our bowman. It helps to have friends! We overtook two Miura’s on this leg and a few smaller boats. At the No.2 channel marker, a Sweet Pea was in trouble with a faulty rudder, but we managed to squeeze in between them and the buoy to harden up on starboard for the next beat up to North Bay. Head offshore or tack inshore? Sensation went offshore and we were directly on their line, a few boat lengths back, so when the Tacktick registered a 10 degree header, we rolled back onto port. Ahead we had a Miura pointing very high, but going slower than us. Although we were on the lifted tack, we could not afford to sail into their dirties, so we tacked back onto starboard. On that tack we lost a lot of ground. When we crossed with Sensation 10 minutes later, they had taken about 50 boat lengths out of us. Ouch!

Lapwing had also closed the gap considerably and we would round the North Bay mark just behind them, having given up a lead of some 500 meters over them. On the positive side we were doing some very smart tacking. One specific tack we only lost one knot of boat speed, accelerating out of the tack at 5.5 knots, whereas we normally drop down to 3.5 to 4 knots. There is nothing like spending time on the boat together to get the crew working smoothly.

We rounded North Bay mark and popped the kite for a long starboard beam reach to Jutten Island. Lapwing was 50 meters to leeward of us and to our total astonishment, we noted they were having a “braai” off the back whilst racing – and going faster than us. Well that got our tongues wagging!

We did a conservative approach to Jutten Island, doing a neat gybe and then fairly soon hoisting the No.1 genoa as the shy reach to Salamander was too tight. Behind us the L34 "Sixpack" was cutting the reefs very fine to gain some advantage and rolled over us to windward before Salamander Point. The L34’s were catching us inexorably. There was nothing we could do about it – the conditions just favoured them.

Past Salamander Point, we could rehoist the kite, and we counted out six boats ahead of us, with Thomas Swana’s Laser 28 having a massive lead over the rest of us. I said they would win it easily. About a mile behind them, the Farr 38 “Hocus Pocus” held a one mile lead over the 3rd placed boat. It was developing exactly as I had forecasted.

The strike at East Buoy went smoothly and the one leg beat up to NE Buoy once again saw Mother Nature shafting us, and no-one else. Out of the six or so boats on that leg, only Smackwater Jack picked up a header causing us to fall off the rhumb line by about 40 boat lengths. Net result is we lost another place. We were now 8th with two long legs to go.

The kite went up again for a beam reach down to Langebaan mark. The faster boats were slowly but surely catching up. First another L34 “Sea Minor” overtook us, then the Melges 24 sailed through our lee, then another L34 “Spectrum” as well as the Swede 55 “Spilhaus” nailed us and just before the mark, the Mumm 36 powered through our lee. We had dropped to 13th and with it our hopes of a top 10 finish.

The last leg was a fetch – a little too tight for a spinnaker – so we stayed with the number 1 Genoa till the last quarter, where the angle freed enough to put the kite back up. Another two boats “Hifidelity” and the 2nd Melges overtook us on the final leg, leaving us with a 15th overall and 6th in Class 2 IRC.

15th was not what we wanted, but I suppose, 15 out of 80 is nothing to be ashamed of either. Another fantastic regatta, well organized and with superb weather. It’s always a pity when the breeze is too light for the majority to finish, but that is the luck of the draw.

I need to bleat about Club Mykonos just a little bit. It is noisy in the Cascades. Very noisy. Despite the fatigue and dire need to sleep, noise at Mykonos woke me several times. Our room stank of cigarette smoke, as did the bedding and towels. Not cool at all. Perhaps other competitors found it OK, but the standards were not up to scratch for me. Still, better than sleeping on my boat, I guess.

We were packed up by 15h30 and ready for prize-giving and the big party.

Despite the very favourable IRC ratings enjoyed by Ukuzwana and Hocus Pocus, I must concede that both skippers sailed exceptionally well and I salute them both.


One more bleat. Don’t have a disco or a live band at these functions as no-one can talk. The result is that 80% of the guests removed themselves from The Terrace and went and made their own party at the Beach Pub next to Mykonos.

Saturday night was even more noisy than Friday and it was almost a relief to get up at 0400 for our 0500 departure to sail back to Cape Town. Greg had a bad gut, so we sailed back five up. We finally cast off at 0520 in pitch darkness and a flat and calm lagoon, heading for South Head. I saw phosphorous in the water for the first time, which was a treat and as we rounded South Head light, the vista onto the land was simply a “Kodak Moment” – Low cloud was hanging silently over the hill behind the lighthouse, cascading down onto the beach and rocks in the soft pastel light of early dawn, as the lighthouse rotated its beam through the cloud on each revolution. Really beautiful.

We motored almost the entire 62 miles back to RCYC. A 6 knot SW wind helped us gain half a knot, allowing us to dock at 15h30 on Sunday afternoon. Whales, dolphins, seals and blue bottles were in abundance to stave off the boredom of a droning 5hp two stroke outboard.

A great regatta. We will be back next year for sure.

And Chunderchild did not chunder on the way back!

Results of the Pursuit Race - All Classes

Sail no Name Design Class

SA8032 UKUZWANA Thomas Swana Laser 28 1st

SA1105 HOCUS POCUS Dale Kushner Farr 38 2nd

RSA410 HARKEN RACING P Wilcox/D Bartholomew Melges 24 3rd

010 LAPWING J Burger/A Keen L34 4th

005 SENSATION Sean Cummings L34 5th

SA3600 BALLYHOO TOO Iain Park-Ross Mumm 36 6th

US43434 SPILHAUS III Teddy Kuttel Swede 55 7th

024 WEBBER WENTZEL BOWENS Patrick Holloway L34 8th

HKG18881 HI-FIDELITY Eddie de Villiers Welbourne 46 9th

SA250 FREEDOM Carel van der Merwe Farr 38 10th

RSA317 MELGES RACING Matthew Thomas Melges 24 11th

SA4444 GUMPTION Nicholas Mace Fast 40 12th

037 SPECTRUM Andy James L34 13th

042 SEA MINOR Matthew Price L34 14th

SA204 SMACKWATER JACK Trygve Roberts J27 15th

SA3800 UNLEASHED Hylton Hale Pacer 42 16th

SA10034 WITCHDOCTOR Phil Gutsche Baltic 42 17th

SA3176 ZEBRA Connie Papageorge X332 18th

SA1278 WALLBANGER Brian Gardener Simonis 35 19th

NED2994 TOUCH WOOD Gerrie Hegie Lavranos 1 ton 20th

016 EBBTIDE Fiona Whitworth L34 21st

SA1340 MEGAFREIGHT Jendo Ocenasek Simonis 35 22nd

SA2954 SHESHISA L Rabie/A Shewan Bavaria 23rd

007 PACER TWO Anthony Wentworth Pacer 27 24th

SA130 APRICOT Bat Tromp Miura 25th

SA1730 PHANTOM Tom Connell Miura 26th

SA4242 TENACITY E Stern/A Edwards Fast 42 27th

SA4242 ENIGMA James Beaumont Fast 42 28th

011 TALLY HO John Waller L34 29th

034 AMBELOUI Martin Schultz L34 30th

SA2278 SIROCCO Piet Gerber Jeanneau 36 31st

SA1027 AUTO ATLANTIC THUNDERCHILD Rhett Goldswain L52 32nd

RSA3141 ALWAYS WELL Ralph Thomas Benenet First 7.5 33rd

SA3444 MAESTRO Ankie Roux Fast 42 34th

NAM10 ALADDIN Bjorn Geiger Farr 40 35th

SA66 INDABA John Levin Vd Stadt 34 36th

SA765 MAJIMOTO II L Birch/P Mare Farr 40 37th

SA1785 INCA Martin Mills Miura 38th

GBR9012 DONNA MIA Jeremy Bagshaw Lightwave 395 39th

018 AQUAVIT Phil Flockton L34 40th

SA223 IMPACT Jackie Brand Impact 41st

SA1692 DOUGHTY (old Merlin) Ryan Lotter Simonis 65 42nd

SA144 INGWE Marco Rapaglia L34 43rd

SA2332 QUICKSILVER Mike Klostermann Hobie 33 44th

045 WARLOCK Ian Slatem L26 45th

SA777 SHADOWFAX Johan Beyers Charger 33 46th

SA2103 AVANTI Grant Saunders Vickers 41 47th

SA1335 FAR-MED Vitor Medina Miura 48th

SA640 MARIAH Mark vd Sandt Miura 49th

071 PANASEA H Traut Sweet Pea 50th

SA2922 SET SEA Greg Davis Catamaran 51st

SA641 GROOPEA Shirley Thornton Sweet Pea 52nd

SA2401 GAMBLER Louis Bessenger Sadler 26 53rd

SA??? LIFE'S A DREAM Theo v d Hoek Catamaran 54th

SA742 GOBLET Dave Dickinson L36 55th

SA1333 MISS ISLE Hennie McLachlan Simonis 35 56th

SA2032 WAKA WAKA T Groenewald vd Stadt40 57th

034 BLACK LINE DESIGNS Nigel Black L26 58th

SA3536 ESMERALDA Bernard Farmer L26 59th

SA1011 CAROUSEL Luke Scott Oceanis 390 60th

SA3455 MAFUTA M Lourens/R Mothes Bavaria 36 61st

SA??? DRAGO E G Langhoff Sweetpea 62nd

SA2458 S0HEENA BHAN Gordon Kling Oceanis 381 63rd

002 STORM Niel v d Merwe Ocean 31 64th

SA1532 SHANDY Patrick Waterson Caribbea 30 65th

047 BEN-JO-LEE Jose Correia Sweet Pea 66th

SA778 BLAZIN A Bews Sadler 32 67th

SA33 JULIE III Robin Green Miura 68th

SA1 VOORTREKKER Matthew Mentz vdStadt 50 69th

21 NAVY PROTON D Rabe Proton 70th

SA978 AURORA Mel Hawtrey Atlantis 49 71st

SA2010 GQ SAFARI 50 Bruce Tedder Catamaran 72nd

SA470 SAVANNAH Stephen Victor Miura 73rd

SA3558C RUTHLESS Patrick van Wyk Sadler 26 74th

SA??? MIND THE GAP James Wilding Catamaran 75th

H34184 ANCIENT MARINER Rob le Roux H23 76th

SA1338 CHARLOTTE M Saunders Miura 77th

SA2018 CABARAY Ray Matthews Stadt 34 78th

SA648 GUNSMOKE Mark Shrosbree Sweetpea 79th

SA??? TALISMAN Leonie Nel Miura 80th

IRC CLASS 2 OVERALL RESULTS

1st SA8032 Ukuzwana Thomas Swana Laser 28 RACE1 DNF 11 RACE2 1 1 12

2nd SA1105 Hocus Pocus Dale Kushner Farr 38 RACE1 DNF 11 RACE2 2 2 13

3rd 010 Lapwing J Burger/A Keen L34 RACE1 DNF 11 RACE2 3 3 14

4th 005 Sensation Michael Moore L34 RACE1 DNF 11 4 4 15

5th 024 Webber Wentzel Bowens Patrick Holloway L34 RACE1 DNF 11 5 5 16

6th SA204 Smackwater Jack Trygve Roberts J27 RACE1 DNF 11 6 6 17

7th NED2994 Touch Wood Gerrie Hegie Lav 1 Ton RACE1 DNF 11 7 7 18

8th SA223 Impact Jackie Brand Impact RACE1 DNF 11 8 8 19

9th SA2032 Waka Waka Thinus Groenewald vdStadt 40 RACE1 DNF 11 9 9 20

Mykonos Offshore Bleat Corner

1. Cut-Off Times

Firstly, lets talk about the cut-off time for the race from RCYC to Mykonos. The Sailing Instructions clearly state that the cut off time is 24h00 and that the race committee may extend that time at its discretion.

From the sailors point of view, they (well, some of them) feel they have been sitting on their boats in discomfort for 14 hours, so why can't the race committee sit a bit longer in relatively greater comfort?

From the race committee's point of view, they need to make a fair decision to the whole fleet at which point to cut off. To be fair, if they had extended the cut-off time by one hour, it would only have benefitted a dozen boats or so. Would that have been fair to those who missed the cut-off? I think not. The reality is, that given the prevailing conditions, the race committee would still have been sitting there the next morning at 0930 waiting for the whole fleet to sail in.

If, for example, 80% of the fleet had finished by midnight, and there appeared to be a likely possibility that most would finish by extending the time by a further hour, then that would seem like a sensible decision, but not when a single class 2 boat and only 6 class one boats had finished by midnight.

I believe that the RC made exactly the correct decision. It would be ridiculous for us to expect them to man the bridge right through the night and carry on into the the next day without any sleep.

Does anyone disagree with this line of thinking?

2. L34 Class Rating variances

Then let's also talk about the L34 class. Somehow it doesn't seem right for the L34 class to all start at different times in the pursuit race, especially considering that they were sailing for their provincial championships within the Mykonos regatta. A suggestion might be for the class to agree on an average rating for all L34's to determine a single starting time for all of them. That would seem fair to me. As it turned out, Sensation and Lapwing with IRC ratings, started ahead of the those without IRC certificates. Its a recipe for discontent.

3. High noise levels at Club Mykonos

What about the noisy kalifas?
Next time I will rent a unit up on the hill at a higher price, but at least escape all the noise.

And the live band when no-one can talk to each other? I suggest they rather use some of that budget to buy the sailors some complimentary drinks, and don't have a live band at all. Just some background music would be fine.


4. Insufficient T shirts & meal tickets

Not enough T Shirts and breakfast tickets?
The organisers were not expecting 80 entries, so they diluted the tickets and shirts across the board. I think the T shirts should have been allocated to those who had entered early/first and the latecomers go without. As regards the breakfast tickets, I see no reason, why additional colour copies could not have been made and handed out, ensuring that each sailor received his free breakfast as advertised.

Let me have your comments please.
trygveroberts@mweb.co.za

21st February, 2007
NSRI Twilight Series - Race 6

Was it ring rust or the new anti-fouling or has the competition improved so dramatically? Who knows, but we placed uncharacteristically mid-fleet despite having sailed a fairly flawless race. One of the things I have made a note of is that our Tacktick for some reason or other was calling the headers lifts and vice versa. There were at least two upwind shifts that we missed, which might account for our mediocre placing.

Just the day before, I managed to get the boat relaunched, despite having given the repairman three full weeks to clean and respray with anti-fouling. Typically I had given him too much time and during a casual inspection of the hull on Monday, I noticed several paint runs, which I insisted be flatted down and repainted. Anyway, the boat is looking good and just after relaunching on Tuesday, the outboard had again siezed up solid after a month of lying in the bilge. That meant having to arrange a tow back to my mooring. Anyway, a little "muti" squirted into the plug hole, soon had the outboard running again. I hope this is not going to be a repetitive problem.

Wednesday was a magnicent evening on Table Bay. It was warm, the breeze was moderate and steady - In fact, fairer racing, one couldn't ask for.

We, and the entire spinnaker class, hit the line on the start gun. My, my,.....how this fleet has improved in the last two months. Having the two Melges 24 and the Pacer 27 thrown into the mix, has lifted the game for everyone.

We got to No.4 buoy second last, despite having had a good start and a fetch to the mark. It is a very short leg (maybe about 700 meters), so the fleet was tightly bunched. We rounded just ahead of Pure Magic and both J27's had their kites up fairly quickly.

Pure Magic slowly but surely inched ahead and other than a much lighter crew than ours, I could not understand the speed differential, so I asked for the kicker to be eased slightly and immediately our speed picked up a bit and we closed the gap and drew level with them. A lone L26 brought up the rear of the fleet.

We heated up our angle slightly to create room to gybe, but Pure Magic, did a good gybe and rounded about 6 lengths ahead at Milnerton.

We did a good rounding and got our boat speed gradually up to 6.2 knots, but it took some tweaking. Meanwhile we had dropped Pure Magic well behind us. The breeze was fairly steady up the first beat and seemed to be slowly lifting on starboard tack. By the time we did the last two short tacks in to No.8, we were about 800 meters ahead of Pure Magic and close behind the L34 "Sea Minor"

The wind had veered several degrees which allowed us to sail a deeper angle on the next run to Milnerton, but the gap between us and the L34 remained constant.

Just before our strike at Milnerton, the Beneteau "Always Well" come popping in to view on starboard, forcing a rapid luff by ourselves to avoid them and after rounding, we were sitting right in their dirties on the lifted tack. Tack away or foot off? A difficult decision.

Knowing we are a bit quicker than them in the moderate conditions upwind, I decided to foot off and sail through their lee. Whether that was the right decision, I will never know, but soon we hit a header and decided to tack onto port. Our second beat was a lot poorer than the first, and Pure Magic managed to erase more than half the lead we had on them, but all their effort would be in vain, as they sailed around the wrong mark and had to retire after realising their mistake.

We got the kite up quickly for the final short run down to the container mark, where we found ourselves mixing it with the cruising class 2 boats, one of which decided to have a luffing competition with us, which caught me off guard and we almost had a collision. That forced us to luff sharply and then just tack away, which actually favoured us, as we were able to easily lay the finish line from that angle.

The two Melges 24 cleaned up again - the leading one beating us by 9 minutes on corrected time. I suppose considering they were skippered by Paul Willcox and Geoff Meek might have just a little bit to do with the result!

Bjon Geiger, sailing the Farr 40 "Alladin" seems to have found some new gears lately. We have in the past easily beaten this boat and sometimes even crossed the line ahead of it. There can be no doubt that Bjon has upped his game. "Alladin" beat us by 6 minutes on corrected time, whilst we were two and a half minutes shy of the L34 "Lapwing"

Another skipper who has improved a lot is Connie Papageorge on the X332 "Zebra" - They beat us by a few seconds on corrected time as well. All this improvement can only be a good thing for our sport and it means we have to pull up our socks and find some more magic.

I think, to be fair, we are still sailing at our usual level, but several of the spinnaker fleet have improved, which has had the effect of moving us down the rankings. Well, the only thing to do is to improve our boat speed and handling! Back to the drawing board we go.

A beautiful evening sailing on the bay in a Cape summer. What could be nicer?

It was fully dark by the time we docked and we sped things up by leaving the boat partially rigged in preparation for the Mykonos race on Friday.

Alan Taylor has put in a huge amount of effort getting his boat ready to race after having most of the balsa core removed from his side decks. They have now been filled with solid epoxy. Unfortunately Pure Magic will not be entering the Mykonos race.

Our third J27 "Hillbilly" has been strangely absent from the start line. I hope Peter will dust off the cobwebs and join in the fun.

The 4th J27 "Jouster" has been sold and will (unfortunately for us) be moored in Simonstown (about a day and half's sailing from here). Let's hope this J enters some of our bigger events and ultimately joins up at RCYC where the competition is to be found.

Results:

SA 410 Team Harken Paul Willcox Melges 24 1.07 PHRF 1.029 IRC 1st PHRF 1st IRC

SA 317 Team Melges Geoff Meek Melges 24 1.07 PHRF 1.029 IRC 2nd PHRF 2nd IRC 2

Nam 10 Alladdin Bjon Geiger Farr 40 1.09 PHRF 3rd PHRF

SA 4444 Gumption Nicholas Mace ILC 40 1.26 PHRF 1.189 IRC 4th PHRF 3rd IRC
010 Lapwing Burger/Keen L 34 1.015 PHRF 0.967 IRC 5th PHRF 4th IRC

SA3176 Zebra Connie Pappageorge X332 1.045 PHRF 6th PHRF

SA204 Smackwater Jack Trygve Roberts J 27 0.995 PHRF 0.936 IRC 7th PHRF 5th IRC

SA 3141 Always Well Burger/Thomas First 7.5 1.01 PHRF 1.017 IRC 8th PHRF 6th IRC

SA 4242 Tenacity Errol Stern Fast 42 1.17 PHRF 9th

SA 42 Sea Minor Danny Price L 34 1.015 PHRF 10th PHRF

42 Wild Goose Ernie Chicken L 26 0.955 PHRF 11th PHRF

SA 4242 Enigma James Beaumont Fast 42 1.17 PHRF 12th PHRF

SA 2127 Monkeys in the Mist Bernard Diebold Jaz 30 1.14 PHRF 13th PHRF

SA 190 Pure Magic Alan Taylor J 27 0.995 PHRF 0.942 IRC Retired

44 Hors D'Oeuvre Peter Bam L26 0.955 PHRF DNS

005 Sensation AR Munnik L34 1.015 PHRF 0.964 IRC DNS

71 Red Baron Sweet Pea 0.91 PHRF RTD

SA 3082 UkuZwana Thomas Swana Laser 28 0.97 PHRF 0.904 IRC DNS

024 Webber Wentzel Bowens Patrick Holloway L 34 1.015 PHRF 0.966 IRC DNS

SA 3600 Bally Hoo II Iain Park-Ross Mumm 36 (mod) 1.18 PHRF 1.104 IRC DNS

SA 198 Hillbilly Peter Hill J27 0.995 PHRF 0.935 IRC DNS

2nd February, 2007

Already one twelth of the way into 2007 and life races by like an express train!!!

Last night, whilst doing a boat review on a 47 ft cat in Table Bay and clocking around 12 knots in a brisk south easter, I had my second altercation with a Sunfish. This cat has a single daggerboard in its starboard hull and we connected good and solid, flipping half the Sunfish into the air in the wake of the big cat, which momentarily dug its nose in, then carried on as if nothing happened. I am intrigued by these slow swimming fish and if they like warm water so much, what are they doing in the 10 degree C waters of Table Bay?

We have flighted our first commercial ad on the home page and are well on the way with the building of a brand new Smackwater Jack website and a new, much more user friendly web address which will be www.smackwaterjack.co.za - but dont add it yet - I will send you a prompt at the time.

One of my reports appearing in the February issue of Sailing Magazine about the sinking of the trimaran, Pennypinchers, has caught the eye of the daily newspaper "Die Burger". This story will be going to print soon in Afrikaans. "Die Burger" ironically has always been highly supportive of the sport of sailing.

At RCYC there is plenty happening behind the scenes - I have edited and added a few paragraphs on the subject - on page 20. Censorship is alive and well and resident in Table Bay.

My suggestion for the club to run a forum on their website, has had no response at this point. All that transparency - Imagine! - it's enough to make the toes curl!

The Garmin Speed Freaks competition has now closed (click the link on the Smackwater Jack home page for details) and we ended up 5th in the keelboat class with our 16.6 knots - A subjective result I suppose, as not everyone sent their times in. Still, it was fun and shows just how strong our breeze is here. (As if you didn't know!)

If you happen to forget or lose the complex/long/impossible to remember URL for this site, remember that you can always find the site via the RCYC site by going to the results page. When you scroll down to the bouy chart there is a link called "a J27's view of races" which will take you straight here. Voila!


I will be away on a short break for about two weeks, so this will be the last update till the 22nd February.

As always - sail, drive, ski, jump, fly, safely. (Yeah, and that other one too)

31st January, 2007
NSRI Twilight Series - Race 3

Race in a nutshell:

Position Line (Classes 1 & 2): 12th

Position Handicap Class 1 & 2 (PHRF): 9th

Position Handicap Class 1 & 2 (IRC): 9th

Entries Spinnaker Class: 14
Total Entries: 65

Ave Speed: 5.6 kts

Max Speed: 11.1 kts

Distance: 9.3 nm.

Time: 01:17.04

Weather Forecast: Clear, Wind South West 12 knots.
Temp 26C

Weather Actual: Clear, Wind SSW Zero to 18 knots.
Baro: 1010 hPa

Course: Start No:10 (P) – No. 4 (P)- No.8 (P) – Milnerton (P)- No. 2 (P) – No.10 (P) Finish

Seas: Swell 1.0m

Sails: Full Main, No.1 Genoa, .75oz MTN Reacher

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Phillip Rentschler (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Simon Penso (Halyards), Scott (Mast), Michael Ovenstone (Bow) Total: 510 kg

One of the things I pride myself on is race preparation. Perhaps I have felt what I lack in raw talent, I can make up for in organisational ability. It’s why you always see Smackwater Jack early at the start area – checking line bias; sail options; wind strength; tacking angles.

Last night was no exception. We had a guest on board (Scott) who filled in for our new cap, Morgan, who happened to be moving digs. We had good breeze sailing out past the breakwater ultimately deciding to go for the No.1 Genoa and a pin end start. With only 14 boats in the spinnaker fleet, we also figured a port start to be well worth the risk as that tack was hugely lifted. We did everything up till the gun in text book style and then with less than a minute to go to the start, the wind died around us and we came to a dead stop. The same fate befell the L26, but the rest of the fleet sailed away towards the No.4 mark. We just sat there in silence with the log silently screaming "ZERO POINT ZERO KNOTS!" at us.

Time ticked painfully by as we heard first the four minute hooter for the next start, then the one minute hooter and we were still in the same spot, with the rest of our class almost at the weather mark. Then we had a sniff of breeze and we (and the L26) finally started sailing. The race was basically over for us. To catch all of them would be impossible. But, we are tenacious and gave it our best shot.

Quickly we ran over the L26 and rounded the first mark second last. Yegads! Not where we are accustomed to being, but we got the pole up and the kite flying quickly. I have been at the back of many fleets in my life. It is humbling, but it is also a time to think creatively and look for opportunities. The first thing is that on the downwind leg, the tail enders get the breeze first. In addition, it is easy to see which boats are best placed and where not to sail. We closed the gap on the Laser 28, but could not quite catch them by the Milnerton mark. The skiffs were doing very well with the two Melges and the Beneteau almost a mile ahead of us.

Our mark rounding was good and we were faced with a nice long, true upwind leg to try and gain some places. We took the Laser 28 fairly quickly, only to lose our lead again with a missed shift. Oh yes, the other nice thing about being at the back is one doesn’t have to watch out for starboard tackers! Forgive me, I am being facetious.

At the weather mark, we had a whole gaggle of Class 1 boats fetching in to the mark as we were beating up on port tack. I seem to be able to smell trouble from a long way off and I know better than to mix it with the Cruising fleet, so we stood a bit further out than necessary and cleared the No.2 mark with space to spare.

The final reach in was too tight (we saw “Always well” doing a great broach which helped making the decision not to put the kite up) but we caught some nice surfs and managed to close the gap again on Ukuzwana, finishing about 30 secs behind them.

Despite our awful start, this was a nice race in perfect conditions.

Probably the most amusing part of the race was the prize giving, where Smackwater Jack was called up as the winner of the spinnaker class. I had however, seen the results going up on the notice board before prize giving and told the race officer, that they were incorrect, but due to time constraints the PG went on with the results as being ‘provisional’. I quickly found Thomas Swana (skipper of the Laser 28) and told him about the results problem and promised him the prize would be handed over to him immediately. I had to leave early and Phillip deputised for me, duly handing over the bottle of wine to Thomas, who in good sporting spirit, insisted that both sets of crews quaff the wine right away. Nicely done….

This morning, after a few emails to the club, we have more or less unraveled the results and they should be acceptable to everyone now. In the process SWJ plunged from 1st to 9th on PHRF and IRC. As always, there are lessons to be learned. It paid to start near the wall end of the line in the SW light conditions. Something there to store in the memory banks!

Not our best performance, but strangely enough, it was still a lot of fun and no-one got upset. I think we are starting to get our priorities right now. First the fun, then the results.

Or am I just justifying?

SA 3141 First 7.5 Always Well Burger/Thomas 1.01 PHRF 1.017 IRC 1 9 42 (Elapsed) 1 10 24 (CorrPRRF) 1 10 53(CorrIRC) 1st PHRF 8th IRC

GBR 410 Melges (provisional) Melges
Harken?? 1.07 PHRF 1.029 IRC 1 6 26 Elapsed 1 11 5 (Corr PHRF) 1 8 22 (CorrIRC) 2nd PHRF 1st IRC

024 L 34 Webber Wentzel Bowens
Patrick Holloway 1.015 PHRF 0.966 IRC 1 11 8 Elapsed 1 12 12 (CorrPHRF) 1 8 43 (CorrIRC) 3rd PHRF 3rd IRC

Melges (provisional) Melges ????? 1.07 PHRF 1.029 IRC 1 7 53 Elapsed 1 12 38
Corr PHRF 1 9 51 CorrIRC 4th PHRF 6th IRC

SA 4444 ILC 40 Gumption N Mace 1.275 PHRF 1.189 IRC 0 57 43 (Elapsed) 1 13 35 (Corr PHRF) 1 8 38 5th PHRF 2nd IRC

SA 3082 Laser 28 mod keel UkuZwana
Thomas Swana 0.97 PHRF 0.904 IRC 1 16 28 Elapsed 1 14 10 Corr PHRF 1 9 8 CorrIRC 6th PHRF 5th IRC

Nam 10 Farr 40 Alladdin Bjon Geiger 1.09 PHRF 1 8 6 Elapsed 1 14 14 Corr PHRF 7th PHRF
SA 3600 Mumm 36 (mod) Bally Hoo II
Iain Park-Ross 1.18 PHRF 1.104 IRC 1 1 4 Elapsed 1 15 44 Corr PHRF 1 10 52 CorrIRC 8th PHRF 7th IRC

SA204 J27 Smack Water Jack Trygve Roberts 0.995 PHRF 0.936 IRC 1 17 4 Elapsed 1 16 41 CorrPHRF 1 12 8 CorrIRC 9th PHRF 9th IRC

SA 4242 Fast 42 Tenacity Errol Stern 1.17 PHRF 1 5 34 Elapsed 1 16 43 CorrPHRF 10th PHRF

SA3176 X332 Zebra C Pappageorge 1.045 PHRF 1 14 6 Elapsed 1 17 26 CorrPHRF 11th PHRF

SA 2127 Jaz 30 Monkeys in the Mist
Bernard Diebold 1.14 PHRF 1 10 29 Elaspsed 1 20 21 CorrPHRF 0 0 0 12th PHRF

010 L 34 Lapwing Jennifer Burger 1.015 PHRF 0.967 IRC 1 19 55 Elapsed 1 21 7 Corr PHRF 1 17 17 CorrIRC 13th PHRF 10th IRC

42 L 26 Wild Goose Ernie Chicken 0.955 PHRF 1 26 50 Elapsed 1 22 56 Corr PHRF 14th PHRF

24th January, 2007
NSRI TWILIGHT SERIES: RACE 3

Cancelled due to wind speed of 35 knots

It was searingly hot in the city bowl, with temperatures hovering near the 36C mark. Rigging the boat was an effort. Even a few seconds in the cabin would have the sweat taps wide open. The race officer sensibly cancelled the race.

I have never before felt such a warm wind before from the standard SE direction. Those winds are usually puffy and light and come from the north east (Berg winds).

With some crew changes before the Mykonos Race, we decided to go out anyway and do a little practicing. It's interesting how small the harbour becomes when the breeze is that strong!

With Phill settling in in his new position as main trimmer, and Michael moving to bow and a new crew member, Morgan slotting in at mast, we hoisted the main, cut the outboard and went for a spinnaker hoist directly after gybing on the south side of Duncan Dock. Everything went surprisingly smoothly and we powered straight out through the cut towards the western breakwater at high speed (13,8 knots) only to have the guy jump out the pole's beak, which required a hasty spinnaker strike, but nontheless good practice for the new crew. Young Michael was already showing his skills on the foredeck.

Things were a little wild beyond the breakwater and I silently commended the race officer for having cancelled the race. Very sensible.

We sailed back up to the south end of the main basin and tried another gybe and hoist. The wind had cranked up another 5 knots, but we seemed to have the boat well under control and enjoyed another blistering reach out past the breakwater, only to have exactly the same problem with the guy jumping from the beak. We later established that the piston on one of the end fittings of the pole, was not seating properly in its recess. Just as well we discovered that before the Mykonos Offshore.

This time we were a bit further out to sea and the beat back was very wet. Within minutes the hot dry wind would have us all dry again, only to be whacked by the next dose of spray. Most of us were in shorts/T shirts/ barefoot and almost welcomed the cool sea spray. Most unusual conditions for Table Bay.

Beating back past the harbour entrance, we noticed a tear along the leech of the mainsail and promptly decided to take the sail down to prevent further damage. We sailed all the way back to the club on only the blade and whilst our tacking angles weren't good, we could at least tack the boat properly and reach our detination.

By the time we reached our mooring, the wind was well and truly blasting through and that made the reverse mooring procedure quite difficult. After three attempts, I eventually decided to approach bow first, and we turned the boat around by hand.

The new ICOM VHF radio works very well and having the "command" mike in the cockpit has changed the way we use the VHF permanently. What a pleasure and money well spent.

I chatted with a dejected Alan Taylor who told me that Pure Magic will be hauled out today and sent in for more deck repairs - the core in the deck is wet. This will entail cutting out the interior deck liner, removing the wet balsa and refitting fresh balsa, sealing and re-glassing. Ouch! We hope to see PFM back on the water soon.

17th January, 2007
NSRI TWILIGHT SERIES: RACE 2

Race in a nutshell:

Position (IRC): 1st (Still the only IRC entry!)
Position (PHRF): 5th
Position Line: 10th
Spinnaker Class Entries: 13
Total Entries: 60

Ave Speed: 6.3 kts
Max Speed: 12.4 kts
Distance: 10.6 nm.
Time: 01:07.03


Weather Forecast: Partly cloudy. Wind SW.
Temp: 16/24C, Baro: 1009hPa, Deep Sea swell: 1.5m

Weather Actual: Wind 12 to 20 knots NW. The rest of the forecast was accurate.

Start No:10 (S) – No.2 (S) - Paarden Island (S)- #8 (S) – No.10 (S)

Sails: Full Main, No. 2 Genoa, MTN .75oz Spinnaker; .75oz Red Reacher

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Charles Crosby (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Simon Penso (Halyards), Michael Ovenstone (Mast), Phillip Rentschler (Bow), (Total: 540kg)

After having the outboard at the agents for the past week and them squirting some “muti” into the cylinder to ‘unfreeze’ the piston and rings, I had some reservations whether it would still be reliable enough, but it started normally and ran perfectly. Phew! I am relieved. I spoke to a technician yesterday who informed me that the best and quickest way to solve the problem is to unscrew the spark plug and drop some brake fluid into the cylinder. It quickly dissolves any corrosion and dispels water. Put the plug back in and start. There will be some white exhaust smoke for a brief period and then normal emissions will occur. This is good to know.

It was boiling hot at moorings, and Phillip looked crestfallen when he saw that the pulpit was still off the boat. It would prove to be an uncomfortable afternoon on the foredeck with essentially no lifelines and pulpit. I lashed the lifeline ends down onto the bow fitting and tidied up the loose lacing to create some semblance of order on the foredeck.

Surprisingly, the breeze was quite fresh on the bay and the B1 course I was so certain would be called for the spinnaker class, turned out to be C1, which involved reprogramming the plotter. The spinnaker class was well attended with some fast boats in the fray, not least of which was the Melges 24, back on the water after breaking its mast last week.

We opted for a port start about 2/3rds down the line towards the pin end. Our start was very good and we shot over the line in pole position, but the big Class 1 boats would power over us before the weather mark. It wasn’t really a beat, but a fetch to the mark.

There was whale near the No.2 mark, which held our attention, as we tried to guess which direction it would swim.

After a few minutes, we could see the pecking order was the Mumm 36 ‘Ballyhoo Too’ out front, closely followed by Rick Nankin in the Pacer 27 - then a cluster of boats all reaching the mark in a bunch. The rounding order was Ballyhoo Too, Pacer 27, the Jaz 30 ’Monkeys’, followed by the Melges, Smackwater Jack and the Farr 40 ‘Alladin’ in an arc at the same time, with the J27 ‘Pure Magic’, Laser 28 and L34’s very close behind.

The Melges, skippered by Paul Willcox, was impressive. It started behind us and gradually reeled us in from behind and even sailed through our lee to gain an inside overlap situation at the mark. It flew downwind and was right up with the Pacer 27, till the spinnaker could not be dropped. It took them ages to get the jamb sorted out and they ended up coming last, but I think these little boats will be giving the fleet tough competition in the months to come.

On the "not so lekker" scale, we had the X332 "Zebra" to windward of us and falling down on us. We called "Weather Boat" but very little effort was made to keep clear of us, leaving us with no alternative but to bear off to avoid a collision.

It was a gybe set that I had called and each boat ahead did just that for the reach down to Paarden Island, except for the Melges, which had an inside overlap on us (SWJ) and ‘Alladin’ and they decided not to gybe. We were not expecting Paul Willcox on the Melges to do this and suddenly there was pandemonium as ‘Alladin bore down onto us and started to gybe. We were sandwiched between the two boats and of course Willcox was well within his rights to continue on port tack. Both windward boats had to keep clear. We eased sheets and tried to slow down, but by the time we gybed, we had lost out badly to those behind who gybed right after the mark.

Up went the pole and it became obvious that the angle was about 90 degrees. We were going to have a tough time holding the big kite at that angle. Then there was a snag as we realized the halyard was on the wrong side of the pole. Whilst Phil was re-sorting things out on the foredeck, I headed up to gain some height. On the second attempt hoisting the MTN kite, we ripped the foot, but we were at least able to carry the sail without it tearing any further.

We settled down to gain some time on the fleet, but essentially the race was lost by not being able to gybe at that crucial point.

At Paarden Island, we rounded behind Pure Magic and just ahead of the Laser. The beat up to No.8 had us making up some time on both boats and getting ahead. We seemed to having some difficulty getting our boat speed above 6 knots. This led to a discussion about the suitability of having the No.2 genoa in our sail wardrobe. Was it worth its cost?
Or should be have a #3.5 non overlapping full roached sail made instead. Questions, questions.

The next set went fine and Phil had switched to the red kite. We had a close tussle with the Laser sailing within meters of each other with bothsets of crew laughing and enjoying the dice. We rounded the bottom mark just ahead.

For the final beat to No.10 the boat felt heavy and sluggish and again we had to persistently foot off to get our speed up to 6.2 knots.

Near No.10 an L34 had lost a crew member overboard and the Laser slipped through to finish ahead. A lovely race in perfect conditions, but an under par performance from Smackwater Jack.

We had the unusual and exciting time of crossing the finish line upwind whilst the Class 1 and 2 fleets finished downwind.

I'm sure the Race Officer did not fo that intentionally, but it was not clever.

Till next time.

Spinnaker - Course C1 - Start 17.50
Sail # Class Yacht Skipper Club TCF Finished Elapsed Corr. Place

SA 3600 Mumm 36 (mod) Bally Hoo II
Iain Park-Ross 1.18 18 42 54 0 52 54 1 2 25 1

SA 3141 First 7.5 Always Well Burger/Thomas 1.01 18 53 21 1 3 21 1 3 59 2

0001 Pacer 27s Unmatched Rick Nankin 1.095 18 48 56 0 58 56 1 4 32 3

SA 3082 Laser 28 mod keel UkuZwana
Thomas Swana 0.97 18 56 55 1 6 55 1 4 55 4

SA204 J27 Smack Water Jack Trygve Roberts 0.995 0.936 18 57 3 1 7 3 1 6 43 1 2 46 5 IRC(1)

SA250 Farr 38 Freedom CP van der Merwe 1.08 18 52 0 1 2 0 1 6 58 6

SA 190 J 27 Pure Magic Alan Taylor 0.995 18 57 52 1 7 52 1 7 32 7

SA3176 X332 Zebra C Pappageorge 1.045 18 54 45 1 4 45 1 7 40 8
44

L26 Hors D'Oeuvre Peter Bam 0.955 19 1 18 1 11 18 1 8 5 9

Nam 10 Farr 40 Alladdin Bjon Geiger 1.09 18 56 4 1 6 4 1 12 1 10

010 L 34 Lapwing Robyn Keen 1.015 19 1 20 1 11 20 1 12 24 11

SA 2127 Jaz 30 Monkeys in the Mist
Bernard Diebold 1.14 18 55 53 1 5 53 1 15 7 12

Melges Melges P Willcox 1.095 19 0 0 1 10 0 1 16 39 13

Spinnaker Class, DNC
Hocus Pocus, Hi Fidelity Sensation, Gumption, Prodigy, Maestro, AL, Unleased, Halali, Tenacity, Hillbilly, FTI Flyer

10th January, 2007
NSRI TWILIGHT SERIES: RACE 1

Race in a nutshell:

Position (IRC): 1st (no mean feat considering we were the ONLY IRC entry!!)

Position (PHRF): 2nd

Position Line: 3rd

Spinnaker Class Entries: 5

Total Entries: 45

Ave Speed: 6.2 kts

Max Speed: 12.4 kts

Distance: 9.31 nm.

Time: 00:52.11


Weather Forecast: Fine. Wind South East 18 knots.

Temp. 18/30C, Baro: 1005hPa, Deep Sea swell: 1.5m

Weather Actual: Wind was 12 to 25 knots. The rest of the forecast was accurate.

Start No:10 (P) – Paarden Island (P)- #8 (P) – Paarden Island (P) - No. 8 (P) – No.10 (P)

Sails: Full Main, No. 3 Genoa, MTN .75oz Spinnaker

Crew: Trygve Roberts (Helm), Charles Crosby (Main), Greg Harrowsmith (Genoa), Simon Penso (Halyards), Michael Ovenstone (Mast), Phillip Rentschler (Bow), Lisa Roberts (Guest) (Total: 602kg)

Cape Town was smiling last night. We had exquisite warm weather with enough fresh breeze for exciting racing. It was one of those perfect Cape summer evenings that we locals appreciate and enjoy.

Notably absent yesterday were the guest controls at the foyer, which immediately made for a more pleasant atmosphere. I’m not sure if it is because those responsible are still on holiday or they have committed to a New Years resolution to be nicer to the public in 2007. Being the skeptic that I am, it’s probably just an absence by the relevant committee member.

Faithful followers of this website will recall our outboard dropping off its bracket in the first race of Table Bay Week. It hardly even submerged for more than a second or two, before I recovered it by its safety line. Any concerns of salt water ingestion were dispelled at the end of that day, when the engine started on the first pull. We used it twice a day for the following three days, giving it a total run time of around 90 minutes. I dutifully gave it fresh water flush at the end of the regatta and stored the motor inside the boat, where it has been till yesterday. It is my custom to always start the engine well before leaving the dock just to make sure it starts, has fuel, etc.
This time, the rope pull was solid. Nothing was budging.

An L26 owner, Ernie Chicken, (who isn’t scared of much at all) walked by and asked if he could assist. After cutting his hand on the prop and trying to hammer the flywheel free, we both admitted defeat. Ernie loaned me his new 8hp Yamaha twin cylinder (which was a dream to use) and at least we could still go racing. He is just one of those wonderful, old school types that I wish were more plentiful in this modern world of ours.

This morning the workshop manager at the Yamaha agent had a very serious look on his face when he tried the pull starter. Let’s hope the motor is not completely buggered. (Another insurance claim from Daly's?!)

With Nic, our bowman having flown out to the UK for his one year stint in the emerald isles, we did some re-shuffling of crew. Phill wanted to have a go at the bow, so I moved Simon into the pit and as things have it, a youngster (Michael Ovenstone) phoned the day before to ask if he could sail with us, so we had a mast man ready in the making.

My eldest daughter, Lisa, having had a very long absence from sailing boats, also asked for a sail, which explains how we ended up with a hefty crew weight of 602 kgs and seven pax.

Conditions on the bay were interesting to say the least. Looking at some of the boats ahead of us indicated some were heeling heavily, whilst others were virtually drifting without breeze. What headsail to choose? It could have been one, two or three. We sailed around the start area for a bit and in five minutes experienced everything from 5 to 22 knots, so we debated heavily on headsail choice and finally agreed to go with the No.3 and power the boat up fully as the Cape Doctor invariably gets stronger towards sunset and especially in the Paarden Island corner of the bay. It was a gamble.

We had a good start but in a lull, as our 602kg of human rail-meat caused the boat to roll to weather and reward them all a 10C Atlantic leg bath. Then the breeze kicked in and we were away. The rest of the competition started much higher up the line, but we know that 99 out of 100 times we can lay the weather mark on one tack sailing the shorter distance. It often looks like one can't lay the mark, but the lift usually kicks in two thirds of the way up the beat. One has to have faith in the good Doctor! We had good speed (6.2 to 6, 5 knots) and reached the weather mark in second place, a few boat lengths behind the Farr 40 “Aladdin”

We did a good gybe and got the pole up – a little slow for Phillip at his first shot at bow, but we lost little ground, and pulled ahead of the X332 “Zebra” (a 33 footer) on the run. The Beneteau “Always Well” excels in these conditions and flew downwind with their asymmetric. Our strike and rounding was perfect as we immediately gained height and distance on the Farr 40.

We did our standard and proven long port tack in towards the wall and the consistent header, to pick up the lift on starboard. “Zebra” tacked off early and lost out badly. We had very good boat speed and reeled in 70% of the Beneteau’s lead by the weather mark.

The Farr 40 was about 30 lengths ahead of us. We did another gybe set and this time Phillip got it all right, with the MTN kite setting to perfection. Within seconds we got Smackwater Jack onto the plane, at which point my daughter’s exuberance with high speed sailing knew no bounds as she let out a series of very loud whoops of joy. The tensions of the past year seemed to dissolve as we all enjoyed a long, fast spray filled plane. This is what sailing is supposed to be about!

The breeze started dying towards the leeward mark, but we still had just enough to maintain good speed, working the shifts, till the finish. Great sailing in a beautiful city. What a pleasure Cape Town was last night. The harbour was flat calm and a festive time was enjoyed after racing with cold beer being the eventual winner.

We were nowhere close to beating the Beneteau, which had us cold with a 2 min 3 second margin on corrected time. I feel sorry for the guys who own the Beneteau, as they seem to be either first or last. In a fresh southerly on RCYC's A1 course, they are dynamite, but with more breeze, or less breeze, or from a different direction, they really seem to struggle. It's good when they get to win a race.

Sail # Class Yacht Skipper Club TCF finished Elapsed Corr. Place

SA 3141 First 7.5 Always Well Burger/Thomas 1.01 18 39 27 0 49 27 0 49 56 1

SA204 J27 Smack Water Jack Trygve Roberts 0.995 0.936 18 42 11 0 52 11 0 51 55 0 48 50 2

Nam 10 Farr 40 Alladdin Bjon Geiger 1.09 18 41 17 0 51 17 0 55 54 3

SA3176 X332 Zebra C Pappageorge 1.045 18 48 33 0 58 33 1 1 11 4

SA 2127 Jaz 30 Monkeys in the Mist
Bernard Diebold 1.14 18 50 26 1 0 26 1 8 53 5