The races were split up as follows:
Race 1- Cape Town to Dassen Island Gate
Race 2-Dassen Island GAte to Mykonos
Race 3-Total of Cape Town to Mykonos.
This means, that if you have a bad leg one or two.. it will carry forward into Race 3. A different way of calucuating.
Race 4- A Popular Pursuit Race in the Saldhana Bay.
FRI:
The start in Cape Town was in very light conditions with perhaps the odd NW puff carrying the boats till they met with the SE just before the first mark(Paarden Eiland) Once round this mark, it was kites up and a easy sail down the coastline... minding that one did not fall back into the lighter conditions again to the West. At some point the SE started to run out with a very light Westerly meeting the fleet at the convergence. Yolo transitioned well... but later while passing Robben Island Yolo ran out of wind, with the boats ahead just manaing to hang on a bit longer and pulling dramatically away. Yolo then spent well over an hour drifiting slowly with the boats ahead getting close to the horizon.. Eventually a Southerly filtered through.. and progressively increased with Yolo using the kite and managing some really good fast sailing.. just before Dassen, dropping the kite for about 15 minutes to lay the GAte and thereafter kite up again and a fast sail to South Head.. Knowing the conditions we changed to a J4 in anticipation.. A good gybe angle for South HEad was found and a fast sail between South head and Jutten Island.. with gusts in the 30's and Yolo managing the kite. A kite strike and rounding close to the landsend... and a fast sail across the bay to the finish. This was a good race and Yolo would have done well if not for the light patch which Yolo got stuck in.. but hey... that that is what yacht racing is about.. Race 1-15th, Race 2-4th, Race 3-11.
Saturday:
This was the Pursuit Race. As race rules disctate that you cannot change crew numbers each day.. we sailed with the same 5 as we did no the Friday which meant for the conditions the Yolo crew were a bit light.. Full main and a J4. A perfect start, good first beat raplidly hauling the smaller boats... round the first mark, up with the Kite and a blast off to the next mark.. getting good speeds on the way with the wind gusting. A kite strike at the mark and a beat to Number two mark just laying it on one tack, then a fetch to North Bay where the winds were a bit lighter and Yolo feeling a bit underpowered again, beating out of the bay, Yolo optioed to sail to the puffs working her way upto Jutten Island where the winds were better... Once roudn Jutten Island, Kite up and a fantastic blast down to the next mark with the boat getting some super speeds.. behind us, some of the boats were struggling with their kites.. 33 knots of wind was recorded.. Then around the mark on the last beat the big boats started to come through... but Yolo managed to pass a boat on the last beat.. and only a 49 footer and a 40 footer from IRC passed Yolo on this leg.. round the weather mark and a good downwind kite run to the finish.. Great race.. 3rd in this race.
Overall Yolo got a 7th in this event, which the crew are satisfied with... such is this event.
Ashore crew stayed at the Farmhouse Hotel in Langabaan... and meals were taken there.
The race crew as follows: Dale, Ian, Sieger, Shane and HAns(from Dubai)
The boat was delivered back departing at 11pm on the Saturday evening. Reports were of high winds on departing and head winds of around 21 knots till close to Dassen after which it progressively reduced to 8knots towards the end.. Boat arrived late morning on the Sunday. Aboard were: Ian, Sieger, Shane and Newby aboard Warwick Strutt.
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