Wednesday Nite Race 30th October 2013

Late October, one would expect warmer conditions but the day presented NW and W breeze.. Just before the start it started raining and was cold.. with squalls on the water reaching 30knots... Yolo only had 5 aboard so there was concern about being too light on the rail, so the decision was finally taken for the J4.. Good start was had which had Yolo ahead of the faster boats at the first two marks, sailing a beat type angle and a fetch. Thereafter the downwind from NO:2 to Milnerton has Yolo with Poled out J4 messing about with a Spinnaker Class boat... hanging in there as we were taking their breeze and the were pushing us up... this cost us(and them) eventually we saw the gap and gybed away.. rounding a bit behind where we should have been. In the meantime the winds had lightened and there was a sloppy sea.. so after the rounding Yolo struggled for height/speed and power. Suffering for the remainder of the race except in the puffs. The rest of the fleet had opted for larger sails.. so we had made the wrong call and it cost us. Yolo came 4th on corrected time. Everyone enjoyed the race and the different conditions we sailed in. Aboard were: Dale, Ian, Sieger, Sarel and newbie Jason. It was Ian's birthday aboard.

RISK SA- Sat 26th October 2013

This Risk SA is a new concept.. put together by RCYC and Risk SA involving teams made up of insurance companies or related to insurance industry paired up to racing crew on yachts where they can compete against each other. this is a high level event, starting with a Black tie event on the Friday evening and culminating with the prize giving on the Saturday evening.. which took place as a full banquet type event. kudos to Risk SA and the RCYC team. Now back to the Race. The weather was not as predicted, with 25-35knots actually blowing.. with Safety being the name of the game.. most boats opted to be conservative with crews who had little or no experience in sailing. Yolo opted for the conservative route, hoisting a J4 and put a reef in the mainsail.. With the reef in the mainsail, downwind performance would have been hindered as other boats had full mains.. and in fact hoisted their largest jibs for those legs.. Yolo started with an average start, opting to stay out the fray, Hark was the first mark which could be laid on one tack.. after which the Coke can was next. Yolo poled the foresail out.. and work downwind.. but lost some ground due to the smaller main.. on the upwind managed to pick up a place or two.. but not enough to make sufficient time up.. IN fact from the middle of the downwind there was probably no change in overall positions from then to the actual finish on corrected time.. The rest of the race was pretty much standard. Those aboard Yolo had a great time.. and enjoyed a great day on the water. Yolo had a great time, no problems aboard.. Aboard were: dale, Ian and Sieger from the regular crew, plus 5 great people from One financial services..

WED NITE RACE- 16th October 2013

Nice South Easter on the Bay. Winds were mostly in the upper teens. Flat Water.. Bit chilly. YOLO took the conservative start... and race for Paarden Island Mark, getting there as second boat.. On the downwind were challenged my the Farr 38 Freedom which kept trying to climb over Yolo..In the end, Yolo managed to have the inside at the Milnerton Rounding.. and did a good rounding. Freedom struggled to get set up quickly.. which allowed Yolo the additional distance. Thereafter Yolo and Freedom sailed in different breeze to the Harken mark. with Freedom in slightly lighter but lifted so they were able to point higher and make it in one go, with Yolo in a bit more breeze but more of a header which required two more tacks to make the mark. Once round it was off to Number 8 and then the finish. We held our own.. the only boat finishing ahead of our start was Scarlet Sun who was sailing the spinnaker class which they won.. Yolo won it's class on handicap. Aboard were: Dale, Ian, Sarel, Sieger, Tony and a new recruit for the boat..Jason.

Double Handed Race -12th October 2013

Although Yolo has entered only one race in the series to date and missed 2, thereby taking Yolo out of the final running.. Yolo was back at the start line. A SW wind at the start at around 17knots. Yolo got a good start and made for the first Mark, Landfall. There was a SW swell running.. with the winds gusting at times just over 20 at times.. Yolo rounded 4th, behind the faster boats. the J13.3 and us hoisted kites.. and Yolo blasted, reaching good speeds while catching the swells.. the top wind on the down wind was 30 for a moment. While we were thinking about the gybe, the spinnaker halyard slipped in the spinlock, so we thought it prudent to just drop the kite, which was just as well as we had over standed the mark and once Yolo had gybed, it was a tight two sail reach for the leeward mark. Due to getting the angles wrong, some of the boats without spinnaker passed us.. but just ahead at the mark. In the Mark zone, the winds had abated to around 12 knots... with chop, we decided to work on keeping up the speed rather then the height which the others seemed more focussed on... so we were able to sail through the others very quickly and get ahead.. as the winds started to come back, we started to play the many shifts with Yolo putting in many tacks to make her way to windward. Yolo Can first on corrected time. Aboard were Dale and Ian.

WED NITE -9th October 2013

First Wednesday night of the Season... A great turn out on the water... with just under 50 yachts. This is good for so early in the season. Winds varied between around 14-23knots.. with drifting conditions on he start line. YOLO got a good start, made for Paarden Island Mark, keeping the speeds up and working in the shifts on the beat. Yolo reached the weather mark just ahead of the fleet. NExt Mark was Minerton, the faster boats catching up and Necessity passing. Rounded the leeward mark and almost immediately tacked as there were shifts and we felt we could almost lay Paarden Island again. Necessity did not tack and did the full leg to the beach.. which cost them on the next leg. We managed to just pip them to Paarden Island because of this.. and off to the finish.. Necessity was in the process of passing, far to weather when we all ran into a drifting zone just off the finish mark.. with the whole fleet bunching up on the mark.. eventually we managed to drift across the line. We still managed to win the race by 1 second.. the first few positions were all separated by seconds. It was a good first race for the season and been a while since Yolo was on the water. Aboard were: Ian, Dale, Sieger, Sarel and Tony.