WEDNESDAY NITE RACE 31 October 2018

With a bit more of a South in the Breeze.. winds gusting from mid teens to mid twenties.. the water was flat... IN the prestart a large Class A boat came across on port and did a slow tack using their powerful momentum and only going through the wind well after we had too dip them. Ordinarily we would suffer as one cannot be to lee in this situation, but as it happened this boat stalled as it used all it's momentum up.. Disappointing to have to share a line with fifty footers in a cans race.. not very safe if things go wrong..
Yolo got a fair start well within the CLass A boats.. and made for the First mark.. winds were gusting, but good easy sailing. Around the mark and a reach.. Yolo opted to set pole.. but not sure it added to performance due to the angle... At this point Yolo was well ahead of class..
Downwind followed by a beam reach and a good beat and reach to finish.
The crew as usual kept eeking what they could out of the boat..
Sailign was enjoyable with the flat water.
Yolo maintained her class lead on line and eventually won on corrected time.
Aboard were: Dale, Ian, Sieger, Cath and Antoinio.

Wednesday Night Race 24 October 2018

A hot balmy evening in Cape Town.. Indications were that there might be no wind on the water... but there was.. For the start there was a NW.. The pin being favored... Our start was Class A and B sharing the line so much faster boats and even some 50 footers were jockeying among 30 footers.. not ideal and with stronger breeze not safe.. With this in mind, it did not make sense to fight it out with a bigger boat so tried to go down the line a bit... the problem is that a much larger boat below gives an easy leebow and to weather takes the wind... so either way, we needed to let the fast boats move away from the line as quick as possible... Notwithstanding that, Yolo got a mediocre start but in our class one of the better ones.. nice flat water making sailing easy... got the boat going and found a nice lane to tack into with only the Class A boats to worry about... Then a couple of well planned tacks using the wind shifts and setting ourselves up for a slight windshift we could see closer to the top part of the course... Getting to the weather mark among the class A boats and well ahead of Class B boats... then a downwind Sail to Number 2 mark... and what started as a fetch to the finish.. .with us sailing into the convergence zone where a ESE was making its presence known.. while in this zone the bigger boats had more momentum and those behind were still on the tail end of the breeze which allowed some of them to catch up... and two were able to pass us on this leg.. fortunately the breeze slowly came in.. and we were able to finish just behind them giving us the first place on corrected time.
This was one of those great evenings to be sailing in Cape Town.. warm breeze and flat water..
Aboard were: Dale, Ian, Sieger, Cath, Antoinio and Arran.

WED Nite Racing 17th October 2018

Nice SE on the bay, not too strong.. Getting a slow start squashed between Class one boats.. a good leg to Paarden Island hanging in just behind the Class one boats... Followed by a downwind leg, perhaps a bit underpowered with the configuration and passed by a Simonis 35 and keeping the inside on a Farr 38.. good gybe at Milnerton.. and gave chase.. then breaking for a lower line and after catching a puff at the right angle got ahead and held that the the leeward mark, good rounding and sailed a good beat back to the weather mark.. followed by a reach to the finish.. Finishing first on line in class and first on corrected time. Aboard were : Dale, Ian, Sieger, Cath, Antoinio and Arran.

ROUND ROBBEN ISLAND RACE 13 October 2018

A firm favourite on the program which always brings a good entry. Perfect weather, with a SW and flat water.. around 14 knots for most of the race.. ideal sailing...
This race had a pursuit start and you could round the island going either way.
Yolo got a good start.... well actually too good... and got recalled for being over the line early.. fortunately was able to do this without losing too much ground.. A mid line start and manged to stay in the breeze till it started to lift.. fast sailing around 2/3 the way to the island, the wind freed enough to hoist the kite and sail very tight in the hope of a bit more of a lift.. this lift came and gave us good speed to catch up to those ahead... Squaring off around the island, keeping the inner lane and getting the perfect gybe angle sailed down the North side of the island and then hoisted jib and dropped kite for a fetch to the finish... playing the oscillations..
A great day on the water, not often one gets to sail in Cape Town with flat water with a steady breeze... making this a quick race.
Overall a second and first in class.
Aboard were: Dale, Ian, Sieger, Cath, Denis and Willem.

Wednesday Night Race 10 October 2018

With lots of wind forecast... all were happy.. Nice flat seas, wind.. fresh air. Yolo got a cracker start... and hung in with the Class one boats on the first leg. Nice downwind followed by a fetch and then a beat back to weather and a reach to the finish.. Nice conditions, nice sailing, We were very light on the rail with only 5 aboard... but we worked the boat and managed. Came first in class. Aboard: Dale, Ian, Sieger, Cath, Antonio.

RCYC Opening Cruise 6 October 2018

As always a festive day at RCYC. Yolo took to the water and joined the procession under motor to do the sailpast in the V&A... dipping burgee and three cheers.. and then straight back to club. Good time was had. Aboard: Kushner Family, Ian, Sieger and Cath.

Delivery MB to CT 3/4 October 2018

With a crew member having flown in from overseas for the race it was decided to give him a quick experience of the Garden route.. namely a quick visit to Knysna and tghe Cango Caves in Oudshoorn.. The boat was then left in MB and Daniel Frieslaar was engaged to Deliver the boat back to Cape Town..  Daniel and his crew departed Mossel Bay around 2am and motored the first 12 hours after which they got the SE and was able to sail most of the rest of the way back at good speed, only motoring the last section when the wind dropped. They docked at around 2pm on Thursday 4th October.. giving them a very respectable 36 hour passage.

MBR 2018 27th September 2018

The Start was in 12-15knot breeze at 9am on the 27^th September. Quite sublime with Yolo getting a good start, kite up and off looking for wind and trying to sail a good VMG. Getting close to Hangklip the winds started to increase with speeds picking up, more then expected. Eventually deciding to be conservative and drop the kite. Then poling out the jib. Occasionally gybing to ensure best VMG to Agulhas. Speeds were good and sailing was great. When in the Agulhas area we heard on the Radio the MOB incident on Silver Girl. Dale spent time thereafter on and off the phone trying to follow and make sure everything kicked in as it should.

After Agulhas the winds died for a while with some two sail fetching on a comfortable seas with a rising moon. Around 3am a cloud/front was noticed in the west and soon after it started drizzling and the winds increased.. For a short while it rained and we had the strongest wind of the race from behind. After this we spend the rest of the race gybing to maintain VMG with us rounding St Blaize and sailing hard on the wind the final mile on flat water.

In summary, we enjoyed the race and the conditions. The sea and wind were what one could expect given the conditions.. .the forecast was better then what was experienced

.

Boat performed well. No issues.

Yolo finished at  13h23 with a total elapsed time of: 28h 23m.

Second Overall, First under ORC.

Aboard were: Dale, Ian, Cath and Hans.