SATURDAY SAIL -28 April 2012

With no racing on the calender planned, we decided to take a sail int he bay in any event.. the wind was a North Wester with just a little chop running and for the most of it a steady 14 knot wind.. We decided to mark off the following bouys on our GPS to ensure accuracy.. Landfall, Blouberg, Milnerton, Woodbridge and Paarden Island. A good sail was had.. Aboard were: Ian, Sieger and Dale. Boat performed well. No problems experienced.

Double Handed Race..21 April 2012

The conditions were foggy with the bridge only aggreeing to start if they could site the full start line.. they ran a postponement..There were a quess of about 20 entries. THe fog started clearing and they started in 12 knots of wind... We got a cracker of a start, allowing us to reach the weather mark first, ahead of the larger boats... We hoisted the kite and set off in the fog getting overhauled by the faster boats.... The fog was quite thick with us having to navigate.. we ended up about 50m too low for the mark with a quick strike and sailing the 50m with the main only while we set about sorting out the deck... allowing for a faster downwinder to get through as they made the mark dead on.. We rounded the mark and started on the new leg which was almost a full beat.... a few minutes later we were called on the radio by a fellow competitor as they were expereincing difficulties and they asked us to assist, so we radioed Race control advising them.. and left the race course to assist a fellow yacht. All was quickly sorted. Boat performed well, we picked up something before the start on the prop so we had very little power and no reverse thrust... Aboard were Dale and Ian.

CLUB BAY RACE 14 April 2012

Winds were around 10 knots at the start, a NW and a slight build up on the open water.. We got a good start and did fairly well but decided to duck the stb 34.7 who was on stb at clsoing in on the mark.. we did well on the downwind and sailed a technically good upwind pulling on the 34.7, again on the downwind we went a different route to the 34.7 feeling that the wind was shifting and it would help us, which it did, we pulled out some good distance, on the beat we sailed conservatively.. and did well to finish 2nd on corrected time. We found out speeds very similar to the 34.7, our main gains came from reading the shifts differently. Aboard were-Ian, Sieger and Dale. Boat performed well.

DELIVERY-Simonstown to Cape Town Easter Monday.

We departed Simonstown at 07h30.. with a light Southerly., We were expecting around 15 knots later in the day so we were hoping for some nice spinnaker sailing. We motored to Cape Point, At Cape Point the seas were confused and large after the large frontal system over the previous days.. Due to this we headed all the way to Bellows rock before turning due to the large breaks off South West Reefs.. The swells were forecasted at 4 metres. We then motor sailed all the way down the coast line. Some of the crew catching up on sleep or eating. We completed the passage in 9.5 hours. No sailing as there was only wind in the final approach to Cape Town. Aboard were: Leroy, Dennis, Steven and Dale. Boat performed well.

Easter Regatta -FBYC Simonstown

Some of the metal collected..

SAT:
Due to the Two Oceans Running race and all the pending road closures, we made an effort to get to Simonstown before all the closures with some of the crew opting to arrive later. There was a North Wester blowing.. We got an OK start, with us immediately Chasing the Simonis 35 Our Dianne, they had a touch of speed on us, with the extra waterline etc.. We sailed to Castor where we hoisted our spinnakers for Whittle Rock.. Our DIanne kept pulling on us, putting the pressure on us to gybe and keep with the wind, with them covering from below. As Whittle Approached rain squalls of 26knots started coming through.. Our Dianne led at the mark with some margin... we rounded up in the strong breeze seeing Our Dianne ahead, they were overpowered with their sail choice... they soon tacked off and we carried on sailing to break out of the squall and then tacked on their weather hip as the wind dropped to just below 20knots. The wind lifted and we pulled through Our Dianne with quite a margin as there was a big separation... We both sailed to the coast and then tacked up the coast with us placing the cover tack.. they were steadily closing the gap with speed. As we got closer to Glencairn they started to work higher to make the mark, on the face of it, it looked like they were through us, but with our local knowledge we also knew that it would head at the mark, so we kept up speed to take the knock, which did happen, we were then able to tack immediately and lay the mark whereas Our Diaane effectively needed to sail into the knock.. allowing us to maintain and increase out lead. In the end, we were over the line first and first on HAndicap.

Sun:

This race was in a predominant South Wester with fluctuations. We got an excellent starts.. and hoisted Spinnaker, but Our Dianne just had more speed and was soon able to pass us. They were ahead of us at Castor and again they were ahead and Glencairn.. then the long spinnaker run to Seal ISland.. at one stage it looked like we had chosen the right side of the shift but as we neared the island squalls came through which favoured their angle and we lost out.. the highest windspeed was 30knots.. we still had the kite up.. We rounded the island a few minutes behind them but after rounding the island the wind had died and we struggled to make headway.. while Our Dianne had found and stayed in more wind, allowing effectively for them to do a horizon job.. we eventually did get back into the wind and did a long take to the Surf break of Sunrise beach and then got lifted to Glencairn.. We were looking like we were recovering as initially they did not get the lift but it just kept on lifiting with us having to crack off and they got lifted to the mark. They were first on line and first on HAndicap.

The overall event was calcualted by putting the times of both races together and applying corrected time.. So we won the full event. Aboard were: Dale, Sieger, Leroy, Assaf, Dennis, Steven, Mark. Boat performed well.

Delivery to Simonstown 31st March 2012

Pic of Siger Rounding Cape Point.

We delivered the boat in preparation for the Easter Regatta, a club event which takes place in Simonstown...
Left Cape Town after 7:30am.. winds were Southerly 16 knots.. motored the first section in the lee of Sea Point..,.. Off Llandudno the winds were 20 knots with it settling down to about 9-11 knots by the time we reached Slangkop... We ended up motor sailing to Cape Point in a very slopppy sea with big swells.. After Cape Point we hoisted kite with the breeze increasing to the early 20's.. with the boat sailing nicely... We reached Simonstown roughly 9.5 hours after chucking off lines in CT. Aboard were Sieger and Dale. Boat performed well.

Double Handed Race 24 MArch 2012

Sailing aboard were Ian and Dale.. Strong Southerly... off the line quite conservative.. so needed to put the effort into catching up on the smaller boats.... We were able to hoist our kite straight after rounding the weather mark, in the strongish breeze and were able to comfortably gybe on the downwind... While on the downwind we decided to change to the J2(We started with a J4) in preparation for the upwind.. The downwind mark was Daeyang.. We dropped the kite just before this mark and rounded up just behind a 44.7.. then for the long beat back.. we worked the boat quite hard.. and read the wind right... which allowed us to finish soon after the 44.7..
We came first overall..

Mykonos Regatta 23/24 February 2012

FRI:
This was alomost as promised, the 60 odd NAutical mile dash down the coast.. With the usual no wind zone at the start followed by the struggle of whom would get to the breeze line first... well it was not us, by the time we hit the breeze line some of our nearest competitors were alreadzy past Paarden Island.. In the breeze we quickly got going.. round Paarden Island and the kite was up.. with breeze at around 25 knots.. we were quick... putting in gybes when closing in on Blouberg.. we sailed a mid route but suffered just past Robben Island with no wind... leaving us wollowing for 20 minutes which probbaly lost it for us... thereafter we had a great spinnaker sail.. with the best sailing in the Jutten Island area.. reaching goood speeds under kite.

SAT:
This was a pursuit race with us leading the full fleet until just short of Jutten where the wind died on us with a sloppy sea condition which is not good for a sunfast allowing the longer waterline boats to catch us and start to pass us....

Overall we tied for 4th on points but lost it on the tie breaker so we can 5th overall. Not bad for a first major event. Aboard were: Dale, HAns(who came down specially from Dubai), Ruan(back from travels) Leroy and Sieger. Boat performed well.

DELIVERY BACK:
This took place on the sunday morning(following day) we were fortunate that the full racing team were aboard.. we left early morning under motor in fog.. using the plotter to navigate.... we motored past Dassen while coooking breakfast(Stoves first use) and halfway to Robben Island picked up some breeze formt eh South West, so we were able to fetch for CT, deciding to take Robben ISland on the outside.. It was a great sail back...

FIRST RACE-11 Feb 2012

This was to be the first race... it happened to be a Double Handed Event, an event that we enjoy..
Sailing abaord were Ian and Dale. We got a good start in a light North Wester... we had to sail up a shipping lane and round a shipping mark.. as luck would have it, a ship was enroute through the racing zone so we had to chose a side, once we rounded the mark we had to quickly gybe in order to get behind the ship, gybe back and then hoist the kite... we managed to find wind in the rather benign conditions.... helping us to catch up with the fleet and had a reasonable beat back to the weather mark followed by a good downwind leg, with us having found and kept in the breeze the whole way.. the last leg was to the finished... we managed a second on corrected time.. which was really great.. boat performed well.. HAd a great day on the water..
Pics Courtesy of Theo and Shirley Van Der Hoek.