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Derek Wilkes, Rear Commodore of the RNYC and myself made a lightning trip to Maputo last week to finalise dates and other issue for this years Vasco da Gama Race from Maputo to Durban.

The race start is Thursday 31 July 2008. The start time will be at approximately 15h00 - about one hour prior to high tide. I am also pleased to announce that Mozambique's cellular network, mcel has confirmed their sponsorship of the race for another year. With a fixed start date now things will move swiftly from here - so please have a look at the info provided. Below is a very general overview of how things stand at this point in time.

The Race
For those new to the race, it´s a 300 nautical coastal race with Richard´s Bay as a possible bolt-hole in adverse weather. The race has a big collection of magnificent trophies, with Clube Navale adding a new one this year. As an incentive for the Cape boats, this trophy will be presented to the winning Cape boat on handicap.

Anniversaries & Organising Clubs
The race this year is a very special one as is forms part of the Royal Natal Yacht Club´s 150th anniversary celebrations - and the 95th anniversary of Clube Naval. A special medallion is being struck to mark this occasion, and will be presented to all crew.

Royal Cape Yacht Club is pleased to announce that the VDO Viewline Table Bay Week 2008 regatta will take place between the 14th and 18th of May 2008. Please visit www.rcyc.co.za for more information, entry forms and notice of race.

South African organisation to overhaul Cape Town BoatBuilding Academy 

The Provincial Government of the Western Cape is providing the Cape Town Boatbuilding and Technology Initiative (CTBi) with grants and expertise to overhaul its boat training infrastructure, according to CTBi's February newsletter. CTBi is an associatin of boatbuilders in the Western Cape region.

"The Boatbuilding Academy at False Bay College is undergoing a true overhaul, and we look forward to offering you a new facility in July," read the newsletter. "We are doing everything in our power to address the previous shortfalls. The Academy will be run in a different management style, with CTBi as a partner in the daily running and strategic planning of the Academy." The newsletter noted that two new "skills managers," Glynis Taylor and Keith Davies, have been hired to reestablish the Academy within CTBi's framework.

The organisation is also recruiting lecturers and a manager to run the new Boatbuilding Academy from within the marine industry. (25 February 2008 - IBI Magazine)

This humerous personal account of the J/22 worlds written by Rob Watson. Enjoy!

For sailing pictures of the event click here. For general pictures click here.

The 2007 J22 World Championships, sponsored by Eikos, were held at Point Yacht Club between the 14th and the 21st of December. In reality, preparations started more than five years earlier when South Africa was successful in its aim of becoming the host country for the event.

For Steve Thysse and myself (respectively the skipper and midships on board J22 185, Windgat), the first thoughts of entering came to the fore during the 2006 J22 Nationals as we pulled our hapless foredeck, John Brownhill, from the water after he tried to make yet another unsuccessful bid for freedom during the challenging conditions. Little did we know at the time that the event we were working towards would be such an incredible experience and the comprehensive sailing lesson it turned out to be.

Thursday 13th December

Following a year of entering a variety of regattas across the country, our crew (now including the boy BJ Smit as foredeck) convened at Transvaal Yacht Club on the morning of Thursday 13th December at 4am. Being a fine and upstanding member of society, I was unaware that there was actually a four o’clock in the morning as well as the afternoon and was subconsciously paraphrasing Robin Williams from Good Morning Vietnam (what does the “o” stand for? O, my God it’s early) as I drove through the gate.

Windgat was standing ready to go on her trailer, looking particularly resplendent in her new livery courtesy of sponsors RSA, The Security Division of EMC, Tipping Point and Adaptive Mobile. Despite some less-than-helpful chuntering from the skipper (he’s clearly not a morning person), we got the boat hooked to the car and began the eight hour journey to Durban.

In spite of arriving at PYC with just three wheels on our wagon due to a Thysse-baiting bearing failure, the crew were in good spirits as we checked in with the organisers. As the boats were due to be put in the water at the Naval dockyard on the other side of the harbour the following day, a fateful decision was made to find the location that evening.

Finding the Ark of the Covenant may have been easier. As we proceeded to explore previously undiscovered parts of KwaZulu-Natal, desperation and dehydration began to set in. Finally, just as BJ and Steve were drawing lots to see who would be eaten first, we were lucky enough to be spotted by Dominique Provoyeur from the all-girl team of MACS. Not only is she Sailing magazine’s “Sailor of the Year”, she also possesses a directional acumen that would make Tenzing Norgay proud. This was shown by the ease with which she led us straight to the comprehensively hidden and clearly top secret Naval base...

Yet another Crocs sponsored event! The guys in Cape Town must be doing something right! The focus of the "ex" Table Bay Week regatta has shifted. Below is an outline of the new concept:

With the primary racing week shifting to May, the idea is to make the December regatta focus on fun and family sailing, based loosely on Antigua Race week in the Caribbean. We aim to make this attractive to racing as well as cruising boats and will include both IRC and Club Handicap. The main ideas which we would like to include in this new format are set out below:

• There will be no windward/leeward courses; instead we will sail to interesting places around Table Bay, much like the Bay Race at Club Mykonos.
• We will set courses in response to the wind direction on the day; the fleet will end up in locations such as Clifton Beach, Bok Point, Robben Island or Granger Bay. The fleet will raft up in these anchorages for lunch, swims ashore and a general demonstration of seamanship. In a south west wind, for example, we will finish off the beach at Clifton, anchor there for lunch then re-start there after lunch.
• We will set a course for the cruising boats and catamarans which is shorter and includes more reaching. The racing boats will do a longer course with some serious upwind work. Starting and finishing will be generally be done by the "Butt Cat" and the "Sea Princess" will be set as a distance mark.
• We will use both IRC and Club handicap and share the silverware equally. There will be a fun prize giving each day after sailing at the Club.

Social events will include a welcome party on Friday evening, a braai on Saturday evening and the prize giving on Monday evening. Crocs will provide their footwear product as prizes and sub sponsors will provide food and beverage.

Rob Meek
Event Organizing Committee Chairman
Regatta website for NOR, Entry form etc

Story by Trygve Roberts: 

Before you start sniggering, the word Crocs does not refer to semi-geriatric sailors like myself with numerous physical ailments, but to the ubiquitous open plastic shoes worn by every non-fashion conscious citizen - and what a great sponsor they turned out to be. Let's hope they are as chuffed with us as the other way round.

The indefatigable (this has to do with his energy and not his size) Manuel Mendes phoned me a few days ago and asked me if I would like to do some match racing. In his usual informal and persuasive manner he roped me in, before I even had a chance to really think about it. It was only a week later when I figured it all out and figured that I would be up against the very best sailors in South Africa, including Mark Sadler and Ian Ainslie, both of whom have spent the last four years doing match racing in Valencia on Shosholoza. Well, all I could say (quietly to myself) was "GULP!"

I have never done match racing in my life, so I had a lot to learn in a very short space of time. I also discovered that the first day's racing would be an elimination series to single out the best of eight skippers in a qualifier, who would then go through on the final two days to do battle with the heavy-weights. To be fair, I didn't give myself much of a chance. Most of my fellow competitors were as clueless as myself and it would prove to be a baptism of fire for all of us.

I'm not going to write too much here about the racing or my abysmal lack of performance, but I would like to take you through the process. It's not something I would recommend for the average pensioner!

Boats of choice were four fairly well preserved J22's. To even out the playing field, the Organising Authority (OA) decided that all the travellers would be taped to the centreline and that no spinnakers would be allowed. Rig tensions were set up identically by an independant third party. This might have had something to do with a 30 knot South Easter blowing that morning and the OA wanted to ensure the boats would not fall apart at the hands of the first batch of wannabees.

The OA had also given two one hour, shore based, training sessions in the rules of match racing. I had been told I could bring my own crew, which is how Morgan and Greg weighing in at a respectable 200+ kgs came to crew in this series. I figured with the strong wind forecast, I wanted to be as close to the maximum all-up weight of 275 kgs. So I boarded the spectator boat with the other four skippers and some stand by crew with my mind trying to absorb all the new rules. I had also asked if I could bring my own crew, only to find that I drew the wrong boat and ended up with guys I have never sailed with before. This did not do much for my self confidence.

Without going into too much detail and boring you to tears, I need to explain how the start sequence works. Thirty years of conventional starts was not going to help me much. Besides a myriad of flags and signals I am not accustomed to, a new design of boat I have never sailed on, and a gale force wind we all had to contend with, the two boats are required to approach the start line from the WINDWARD side on opposite tacks and go into what is euphemistically called the "dial up". The line is also extremely short which means some very tight manouvering has to be done. I read somewhere that match racing requires a "quick mind". Believe me - this is accurate!

Durban 2010 and Beyond has won the second race of the Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race from La Rochelle to Salvador da Bahia crossing the finish line at 15:45 UTC on Tuesday. The South African team has gained the maximum ten points by winning the first ocean crossing of the Clipper 07-08 Race. The result has moved them to the top of the overall leader board from their fifth place position at the end of Race 1.

“I’m pretty elated but also exhausted,” said Ricky Chalmers, skipper. “We had a bit of a scare there right at the end when the wind died on us, but by chasing the clouds we managed to find some again and cross the line”

Durban 2010 and Beyond came alongside the pontoon at SUDESB’s Terminal Maritimo da Bahia in Salvador to fireworks and a rapturous welcome from local dignitaries, friends, family and dozens of Brazilian media and 07-08 crew who will be joining for Leg 2. A local woman dressed in a traditional Bahia costume gave the crew ribbons to wear on their wrists, a local custom that grants the recipient three wishes as the ribbon is tied on with three knots. One of the winning crew, Msawenkosi Johannes ‘Joe’ Xaba from Durban was excited to have arrived in Brazil “It’s been awesome!” exclaimed Joe “The best part is getting into port after an amazing adventure.”

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