SPRING REGATTA -22-24 September 2012

Racing Season had begun with Spring regatta taking place in Simonstown. We raced in IRC (IRC provincial championship)ass 1 devision which had us sailing against 40 footers with us having the slowest rating in the fleet. Quite a challenge.
Day 1: 3 races sailed in a good breeze with lots of oscilations in the breeze.
Day 2: 2 Races Sailed in breeze gusting in the early 30 knots.. boat performed well. A few boat decided not to race and some retired.
Day 3: A meduim distance race. We were able to read the wind conditions which allowed us to hang in with he bigger boats for most of the course. We won this race.

Overall we came 2nd. This was good especiually considering that this was our first proper regatta with the boat. Aboard were: Ian, Dennis, Sieger, Sarel, Phillipa, Hans(from Dubai) and Dale. Boat performed well.

DELIVERY RACE -CT to Simonstown

Weather forecasts were varied.. with most Grib sites forecasting light conditions but the SA weather service talking about 25knot south easters.. We decided to race in any event.. the race started at 9:10am, with us getting a cracker of a start, we immediately went to kite hoist but the kite had a wrap which lost us some time while we sorted it out.. then followed some light conditions eventually dropping the kite and started beating. Around a hour and a half into the race we decided that the conditions would not improve and if we carried on it could take 24 hours plus to finish the course. We therefore elected to retire and motor the rest of the way.. We were first to do so, the rest of the fleet started to do the same around an hour after us.. The conditions were very pleasant to motor in.. making for a great day on the water.. We made the Simonstown breakwater at 18h20.. with Ian supplying the lift back to CT. Aboard were Dale and Phillipa.