Wednesday Night Race 26 October 2016

Forecast was for good Westerlies... at the start line, we could recognize the wind pattern forming... So set up to start and approach accordingly.. Getting a good start and immediately tried to build way in a dying breeze.. to ensure we got to the puffs as quick as possible. slowly entering the light breeze area and then more breeze and so on... till we were in more solid breeze.. (while most of the fleet were still struggling in the light breeze in the start area) Yolo made a few tacks on the upwind to compensate for wind shifts and got the the weather mark with Class one boats.. A downwind leg with the pole.. which required a gybe... and then around number 2 mark and a fetch for the finish.. the wind died right at the finish area which slowed the race.. Overall Yolo got a first place.. having scored in the early part of the race. Aboard were: Dale, Ian, Sieger and Cath.

RISK SA REGATTA 21/22 October

This event is more of a corporate event with the sailing crews teaming up with corporate to race this event. Yolo had the good people of Altech Netstar aboard... A great bunch with lots of enthusiasm. The Friday evening race was held in a nice 15 knots breeze.. sailing was idealic... with nice spinnaker legs. Yolo managed to hang in there with the bigger boats, while playing the shifts a bit more actively.. and got a second place in this race. For the Saturday Race, the decision was that there won't be spinnakers as the breeze was building(suits the larger boats).. It was a pursuit race so from the start, Yolo went on the chase and rapidly pulled in the boats ahead.. but still needed to make distance on the rest of the fleet.. As it turned out, Yolo went into the leeward mark in second place and was overtaken by a few boats on the final leg, giving Yolo a 6th place.. So still on the podium.. with a 3rd place overall.. so everyone was happy. The Race Crew aboard were: Dale, Ian, Cath and Dale S.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT RACE 19 October 2016

Good Breeze on the bay., gusting to 30 in the starting area, but sea was flat.. Full mainsail and a J4.. only 4 aboard so a bit light.. Good start, but as the Class one yachts were starting with us. we slowly got rolled by a few.. we had our competition well placed though. Nicely around Paarden Island in a good pack, pole up and a fair run/reach to next mark managing to retain the inside at the mark, a smart rounding and a reach to the leeward mark fighting off a larger vessel trying to pass, eventually the two larger vessels ended up having their own tussle, approaching the mark Yolo took it conservative and did not fight for the inside with a Muira who was guarding it.. rounding on the outside and in their dirties so went off a bit of speed to clear the zone, then hardened up but was in a lower lane From behind came a larger boat who came up to the stern and started shouting weather boat and started pushing up, forcing Yolo to stall out to avoid contact.. Although this boat was not even racing in our class but was tail ending their class they felt that this was a good match... tsk tsk. As it was this incident cost us first place in our class on corrected time.. After this incident Yolo had to tack away to clear air, which was the header tack and did a short leg and then tacked back, but had to start dipping behind boats on the tack back.. which would not have been the case if the incident had not happened.... putting us in a different lane. we even lost placings with our competition in the process.. tacking back for Harken Mark, then around Harken and to the finish. 2nd in Class, Aboard were: Dale, Ian, Sieger and Cath.

Wednesday Night Race 12 October 2016

Wednesday 12/102016 was our first Wednesday evening race for the 2017 season. On board for the race was Ian, on helm, Cath in the cockpit and foredeck, Sieger on Halyards, and we had two foreign guests, Roddy and Sharon, from the UK. Dale sent his apologies as he was unavailable and Shane on Regardless as he will be doing the Cape to Rio Race aboard Regardless, so he needs to start partaking in all the Regardless events to get fully upto speed with the Rio crew. The race conditions on the day – Southerly wind in the 8 to 21 knot range, flat water mostly, with a bit of wind chop. The wind was quite shifty at times on the second beat, form the Laid mark back to the Harken mark. We started the race at 18H00, with the Club Class 1 non spinnaker fleet, 5 minutes behind the IRC class, Class 1 & 2 spinnaker fleets(Yolo sailing Class 2, non spinnaker). Approaching the line on port, below the rest of the fleet, we tack on to starboard at the gun, to get a clean start. However it was not long before we were overhauled by the Fast 42, of Richard Stubbs. And so ended up picking our way through some dirty air, up the first beat as the bigger class one boats slowly sailed over us, one by one. None the less, we managed to round the Paarden Island mark, first in our class, hot on the tail of the Class 1 boats. A little further back was Regardless in second position. We tried to keep her there, but eventually we were passed by the faster Simonis 35, on the way down to Milnerton. We managed to get the J2 out on the pole, after some coaching from the back of the boat, and some effort from the front end. This allowed us to stay in striking distance of Regardless, who rounded Milnerton and the offset laid mark, around 100m ahead of us. We had two good roundings, considering the manoeuvres required by our small crew. The beat back to Harken was in a very shifty 21 knot Southerly breeze. But we managed to keep up the boat speed with good trimming by Cath on the main traveller. Regardless crossed ahead of us, by a few boat lengths, about a third of the way up the beat, as he headed inshore. We decided to continue on towards the mountain on port tack, weaving our way through the shifting breeze until we were just short of the lay line. Taking inshore on starboard, we crossed ahead of Regardless by around 10 boat lengths. We also passed the Fast 42, Skitzo, the Simonis 35, Scattering ( Spin. Class 2 ). The reach back to the finish was a smooth ride, as we kept Skitzo and Regardless, at bay, to finish 45 seconds ahead of William. 2.06minutes on corrected time. Not bad for our very depleted crew and two guests, against the full Regardless Rio crew.

RCYC OPENING CRUISE 8 October 2016

A firm favourite on the calendar which everyone seems to enjoy.. Nice conditions on the water with a nice breeze and very flat conditions.. but as it was just a short spell on the water before back to club, Yolo chose to motor the sailpast... The opening cruise signifying the start of the season and hopefully some summer weather... Aboard were: The Kushner Family, Ori, Sieger, Shane and Cath.

DELIVERY Mossel Bay to Cape Town 1st October.

Team Yolo spent the day in Mossel Bay, waiting for the intended wind shift.. as soon as the shift was noted in the early evening on Saturday the 1st October, Team Yolo made to sea.. once around St Blaize, there was good winds and reaching to be had with good speeds making progress through the night. In the morning rounding Cape Agulhas and then the “home leg”.. with the breeze getting stronger and stronger as one got closer to Cape Point, which is normal in a South Easterly pattern.. Yolo chose to sail Some 30 NM South Of Cape Point, where a final gybe was executed to lay final approach to Cape Town.. winds at this point were peaking at 36knots and top speeds were around 18knots.. so sailing was fast and wet in the night hours.. A good sail to Cape Town.. with the delivery taking some 31 or so Hours.. Aboard were Dale and Ian.

MBR 2016 (Mossel Bay Race)

With the original course, now back into play.. it was to prove some great racing. Start was on time, YOLO getting a good start on the downwind start line, followed by a few gybes as one tried to wend one’s way out of False Bay while still maintaining the breeze. The breeze eventually shifting and leaving Yolo in a dead wind patch for a period.. then down the coast.. the sea state was up with a fair amount of slop requiring one to sail higher then intended in order to keep the downwind sails filled to maximum. Perfect for A Sails.. Generally a rhumb line was sailed to Agulhas changing sails to suit the wind shifts, the plan was to sail offshore for a while after Agulhas and then gybe on the expected windshift and then make rhumbline for Mossel Bay, gybing again on the next shift.. this worked out according to plan. There was never a moment that we were not in range of another boat, so it kept one on one’s toes.. and the race was short enough to be in rough range of the faster boats. Yolo completed the race in 35 hours, fifty three minutes. Mossel Bay went out of their way to ensure a seamless arrival and opened their facilities to all.. All went well aboard. Aboard were: Dale and Ian. No problems aboard.