SAIL Magazine Vol 2 by Ingrid Hale

SAIL ROYAL CAPE YACHT CLUB CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

2010/11 Racing Season

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www.princessyachts.com PRINCESS SA +27 (0) 21 4190722 · rob@yachtbrokers.co.za www.yachtbrokers.co.za · www.princessyachts.co.za

High performance Flybridge Motor Yachts and V Class Sports Yachts from 38–130 feet

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SAIL WELCOME RCYC

or those of you that have read the book The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, you’ll probably agree that sailing worldwide is sitting at the point of greatness. As the book outlines, over a period of time, a brand, a sport, in fact anything, will have a moment where the strategic build-up sets it loose. Over the years, the creation of spectator-friendly events teamed with the promotion of sailing as a career has resulted in the sport having a highly credible proﬁle with sponsors and spectators alike. There is “real” money supporting the international ocean races, and what’s most exciting is that they all choose Cape Town as a stopover – with Royal Cape Yacht Club there to welcome them. What’s more, Royal Capers are making their mark on the international sailing circuit too. The ﬁrst issue of Sail in 2010 contributed to RCYC’s tipping point. It was well supported, receiving great feedback from all over the world. It also helped establish a sense of community by showcasing what we are all involved in. There are more people than ever on the water and new boats are being launched all the time. There is also a huge sense of fun but there’s stiff competition too. I’d like to thank the team that put this issue of Sail together and the contributors who gave life to the regattas with their pictures and words.

Ingrid Hale Publishing Editor-in-Chief

Contents 3 Commodore’s letter 5 Welcome to Cape Town 6 News and views All the Royal Cape Yacht Club’s news

12 Local and international sailing round-up 14 IRC Racing 18 Mykonos Offshore Race 20 Crocs Summer Regatta 22 Lipton Cup 24 Twilight Series 26 Mid Summer Fling Regatta 28 Introducing Cape Fling

To view the digital version, go to www.issuu.com/sailrcyc.

31 Club Division sailing 34 Cape to Rio Race 38 Clipper Round the World Race

SAIL

40 Volvo Ocean Race 42 Global Ocean Race

T H E O F F I C I A L P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E

ROYAL CAPE YACHT CLUB

PUBLISHING EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ingrid Hale MANAGING EDITOR Kim Richter ART DIRECTOR Piers Buckle (Fresh Identity) ADVERTISING SALES Jeanne van Rooyen, Shirley Roos (Jeanne van Rooyen PR and Special Events) CONTRIBUTORS Nick Muzik (cover photograph), Trevor Wilkins, Brenton Geach, Di Meek, Kirsten Veenstra, Manuel Mendes, Helen Bartholomew, Matthew Thomas, Trygve Roberts, Luke Scott, Bruce Parker-Forsyth, Andrea Giovannini, Harry Brehm, Dave Hudson, Gordon Kling, Hylton Hale, Xavier Mecoy, Alex Petersen, Heather Ewing, Oliver Dewar, Nick Leggatt, Gary Sindler, Mark Sadler, Paul Wyeth, Mark Lloyd, Dan Nerney, Rick Tomlinson, Mariette du Toit-Helmbold SPECIAL THANKS Mariette Roodt-Koffman; Harriet Symons; Marcus Reuters; the commodore John Martin and his general committee and ﬂag ofﬁcers; Garmin for the use of their rubber duck (which is always available to the photographers during regattas), and the drivers – Ian “Chunky” Meggy, Matthew Thomas and Toni De Villiers. CONTACT RCYC Tel: +27 21 421 1354 | Fax: +27 21 421 6028 Email: info@rcyc.co.za | www.rcyc.co.za FOR LETTERS AND ENQUIRIES, CONTACT: Ingrid Hale Tel: +27 83 309 3895 | Email: sailrcyc@live.co.za

44 Long haul Follow Phesheya-Racing’s European campaign

46 Best of British Why Cowes Week is one of the most celebrated regattas in the world

Breaking the line The 2010 Rolex Commodore’s Cup was all about building the best teams and ﬁne-tuning massive logistics

Victory is ours RCYC’s Team Sheraton returns to the 2010 China Cup to succesfully defend their title

RCYC events calendar All the ﬁxtures from July 2011 to June 2012

Seen at sea Royal Capers in action on and off the water

Adventures on the high seas Keeping track of Royal Capers abroad

Next generation sailor A local sailor proves his worth on the international scene

PRINTING Paarl Media Paarl ©Royal Cape Yacht Club. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or be transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior permission from the publisher.

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Leopard 44

SaIL rcyc

Letter from the commodore

ailing is what the Royal Cape Yacht Club is all about. Led by our rear commodore sailing, Hylton Hale, we strive to continually improve our racing and participation. The outstanding number of sailors who subscribe to the big, glamorous events are testament to our success in this arena. The iconic Cape to Rio Race (see p34 for the full story) was re-instated this year with the incredible co-operation of the Consul General of Brazil’s office in Cape Town and the Commodore of the Iate Clube do Rio de Janeiro. South African Chris Frost, in his state-ofthe-art yacht Prodigy, took line honours and we were thrilled when RCYC’s Gerry Hegie (25) won the overall handicap trophy, thanks to the generous help of the City of Cape Town (after which his entry was named).

For the year ahead, it seems we have a sponsor onboard to stage one of the best IRC regattas. Professionally run and with the focus on attracting the best sailors in the country (and hopefully a few internationals), it will be backed by a well-orchestrated media campaign to further uplift the standard of our sailing and the sport in general. The intention is that the standard of the competition will allow our sailors to get National and Provincial Colours for their excellent efforts. I would like to sincerely thank all our sponsors who, however big or small their contribution, make racing at this level possible. In particular a huge thank you to Heineken, City of Cape Town, Worldsport, Club Mykonos, Crocs, Irvine Laidlaw and Lewmar/Central Boating. I would also like to highlight the value of individually sponsored yachts and self-sponsored entries, without whom we would not have the fleets we have. On the social side, our rear commodore Vitor Medina and food and beverage manager Riaan Bezuidenhout – with the assistance of Brigette Walker and their teams – continue to provide a top-class facility.

“The club’s big events are fantastically supported, which is indicative of a happy club” The club’s big events like the Opening Cruise, Commodore’s Wife’s Dinner, Christmas in July and our New Year’s Eve bash are fantastically supported, which is indicative of a happy club. Our club is continually being upgraded and well maintained by the rear commodore outside house Tony Blackwell and very ably assisted by Gary Sindler, Ian Meggie, Edmund McCauley and their teams. Finally, to all our staff, the flag officers and general committee, the members who so ardently support the club and make it “alive” – you are the people who make it easier for me to carry out my duties and be proud of the true spirit of the RCYC. Yours aye

John Martin Commodore RCYC 2010/11 w w w. r c y c . c o . z a

SAIL RCYC

Mining & Aggregates

Welcome to Cape Town Black empowered, JSE-listed Afrimat is one of the largest suppliers of a broad range of construction materials and industrial minerals, including aggregates. Mining & Aggregates is making its mark by supplying the highest

ooking back, the last 300 years of the Cape’s history have been defined by its role as a sea port. While this was done chiefly for trade, occupation of the Cape by various nations has lent many ingredients to the cultural melting pot that is the Mother City. Today, trade – and the sharing of cultures across oceans – continues as the City of Cape Town welcomes berthing cruise liners and their visitors, sees to vessels in need of repair and servicing, and, together with the Royal Cape Yacht Club, hosts ocean races such as the Clipper Round The World and the Heineken Cape to Rio Yacht races. Our ocean has been a gateway to trade for centuries, now we are embracing leisure and sporting travellers from around the world. Ocean travel has never been more appealing – as a way to experience life and to cut back on carbon! What sailing and shipping bring to Cape Town is a global cultural interaction. We are blessed to have active working harbours, a prestigious yachting marina at the V&A Waterfront, the world-class RCYC and other Cape yacht clubs at the service of this exciting sector. It is our privilege to host sailors and passengers from around the world. Cape Town welcomes you!

quality aggregate while at the same time ensuring a minimal environmental impact. Operating its own crushing plants, Mining & Aggregates also provides earthmoving, plant hire, sub-contracted transport and quality assurance services. Mining & Aggregates supplies to large scale civil engineering and infrastructure projects as well as to the group’s Concrete Products and Readymix divisions. Afrimat also services blue-chip clients supplying products such as readymix, concrete products, mobile contracting services and industrial minerals.

Telephone: +27 21 917 8840 Facsimile: +27 21 917 1174

Mariette du Toit-Helmbold CEO Cape Town Tourism

Maxx Corporate Communications©

www.afrimat.co.za

SET SAIL

All the Royal Cape Yacht Club’s news

tHis is oUr PlaYgroUnD

And RCYC, with some of the world’s most exciting and scenic sailing right on our doorstep, is your club

At your service The 106-year-old RCYC based in the heart of Cape Town offers its members a host of excellent services. Did you know…  RCYC members get discounted prices at The Galley and Terrace restaurants and at the bar. Recent specials include mouth-watering dishes such as oxtail in a red wine sauce, braised lamb shank, Peking duck on orange tempura potatoes and West Coast sole.  The club offers live entertainment every Friday night.  Visitors and yacht owners enjoy peace of mind knowing the 24-hour RCYC security is vigilantly patrolling the mooring and parking areas.  All 400 RCYC moorings are fitted with fresh water supply, lighting and a 220V electrical supply (book in advance with the marina manager at marina@rcyc.co.za).  For boat repairs, RCYC offers an 18-tonne lift capability teamed with a hard area that accommodates both short and long-term repairs. A chandlery is positioned in the lay-up area, offering both equipment sales and contractual maintenance assistance (email marina@rcyc.co.za or ship chandlery Action Yachting at actyot@iafrica.com).  Members and guests have access to a 24-hour wireless internet facility, a laundry service (at a nominal fee), as well as a library full of handy reference books, sailing-related fiction and fascinating old documents (see p8).  Both members and non-members have access to a range of versatile venues – most with breathtaking views – available for function hire, 6

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think anything from 20 to 400 guests! Members get preferential rates (email brigette@rcyc.co.za).

Membership: we want you! For a membership form, go to www.rcyc.co.za. The club’s website is a mine of information on all things sailing, so make this your first port of call if you have any sailing needs. As well as all the latest info on events and regattas, boat ratings, moorings and weather, there’s a full service directory, including everything from accommodation to yacht valuations. Apart from keeping abreast of info on the club’s website, you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Sailing talks and movies: don’t miss out The club has enjoyed a hugely popular series of sailing talks on Wednesday evenings during the off-season. We’ve had up to 90 people attending, keeping our members’ interest in sailing buoyed, and of course benefiting our food and beverage sales. Recent talks by notable sailors and other experts have included topics on crew organisation (by Mike Giles), safer and faster racing (by Dave Hudson), trimming your sails (by Rick Nankin), your safety (by the National Sea Rescue Institute’s CEO), tactics and the tactician (by Andrea Giovannini). We will be showing sailing DVDs on Wednesday nights now (through to October), please come and join us. Contact the sailing office on 021 421 1354 if you’d like to know what’s showing.

SAIL newS & VIewS RCYC

PHOTOGRAPH www.NICKMUZIK.CoM

First mates

RCYC would like to thank the 2010/11 committee members for their outstanding service to the club. Sail asked them what their ultimate onboard luxury was when they headed into the blue:

John Martin (commodore)… A copy of Sail magazine to be enjoyed with boxes and boxes of chocolates. Mike Peper (vice commodore)… Good crewmates – people who will helm, trim, cook and bring beer. People who agree that the more time spent on the water the better – which is the reason we always give when finishing up on the bottom half of the results page! Tony Blackwell (rear commodore outside house)… Decent company. Vitor Medina (rear commodore inside house)… A fridge and ice so we can always have lekker cold sundowners! Hylton Hale (rear commodore sailing)… Enclosed heads, this is quite a luxury on a race boat.

Ray Matthews (honorary treasurer)… the wine storage built under the main galley table – most of the crew enjoy a glass after a day out. It’s just a pity our meagre wins don’t keep it adequately stocked. Annalene Bindeman… Kingsize bed with a soft warm duvet (captain’s cabin!) Harry Brehm… A cold beer from the fridge. Dale Kushner… On a long distance trip, it’s definitely high-speed broadband internet and my trusty SAT phone. Gary Sindler… Good music. Polla Wasserfall… A case of beer. Kirsten Veenstra… Definitely Wilna Roux’s legendary sweetie packet that would appear when we had long sessions on the rail when I sailed on Maestro. w w w. R C Y C . C o . z A

neW YorK neW YorK

Royal Cape Yacht Club is proud to announce its entry in the prestigious Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Regatta to be held in Newport, Rhode Island, USA during September 2011

treasUre troVe

FareWell to Colin Farlam

Whether you’re after info on how to build a boat, how to prepare for a cruise, the best routes to take when sailing around the world, how to cook fabulous meals at sea or simply to immerse yourself in some fiction, stopover at the RCYC’s small but wellstocked library. If you would like more information, please contact the club’s librarian, Rupert Toms, on 083 597 3346. The key for the library is available to members and visitors at reception.

The church was filled with people from many walks of life, all with a commonality of purpose – to bid farewell to a dear friend, Colin Farlam. He was RCYC’s honorary historian, with a collection of ancient books and dog-eared sepia photographs of sailing memorabilia stuffed into equally dog-eared brown envelopes. Just allow him the time of day and you would have been enriched by his amazing memory and depth of knowledge – he had a story on every yacht and personality. His passion for things that are driven by sail had no bounds. He sailed in Royal Cape One Design and later built his radio-controlled replicas with fine detail, talking of the day when the America’s Cup would

Discover the club’s library

This highly competitive regatta has attracted 22 entries from six continents and represents the top yacht clubs from around the world. It will be sailed on identical Swan 42 yachts supplied by NYYC and crewed by Corinthian (non-professional) sailors only. The Royal Cape team selected is as follows: • Dave Hudson (skipper) • Martin Lamprecht (helm) • Hylton Hale (trimmer) • Gui Verhovert (trimmer) • Gary Sindler (cockpit) • Nicholas Mace (halyards) • Colin Whitehead (main) • Carl Richter (mast) • John Martin (team manager) The bowman is still to be announced. The team will be training hard under the guidance of Rick Nankin during the coming months aboard Windpower, a yacht very similar to the Swan 42. Our thanks to Phil Gutsche for his contribution. We wish the team well.

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A loyal and passionate member of Royal Cape Yacht Club since 1962, the club’s honorary historian was well respected for his impressive sailing knowledge. By Trevor Wilkins be competed with these yachts. How he got the yacht and mast into the back of his Volksie was something to experience! If the phone rang at 5.30 in the morning I knew it would be Colin – excited about some ancient photograph that he had found… could we clean it up and digitise it? Thanks to Colin there is a fine collection of historical photographs now in the archives of RCYC’s library. Colin grew up in Sea Point and was Scout of the 7th Green and Sea Point Troup. He was well respected at Standard Bank where he spent most of his working life. A warm-hearted, slightly eccentric man who was a quick-witted conversationalist – Colin, we will miss you.

SAIL newS & VIewS RCYC

noW DoCKeD

If you’re big on sailing technology, look no further than the iPhone in your pocket For wind meters, tide planners, charts, boat bookings and more, simply download one of the killer apps available. Here are our top three:

MotionX GPS ($2.99): Packed with useful features and functions for racing and cruising, it’s super-easy to use, has a fast response and clearly displays information. Features include: SOG, VMG, ETA, Waypoints (time to waypoint, waypoint tracking, waypoint import via email), Record Track of Trip and Import of Maps.

AyeTides ($9.99): Displays tides and currents for this week or next year for 9 900 locations around the world. Also available for your iPod or iPad as a standalone application, no network connection is required for this to function. Features include: tides tables and interactive graphs, sun rise, moon rise, how the tides respond to the moon.

Ship Finder (£2.50): Provides near real time “virtual radar” AIS maps. Easy to use, it’s an amazing app for anyone interested in shipping, cruising and sailing in locations across the world. Great if you want to know what boats are out there or want to see where your friends are. Features include: Live moving ships, ship route trails, search by vessel name, ship and technical information.

Doing it WitH Passion loUD & Clear An online sailing community for all classes of dinghies, keelboats and multihulls

Congratulations to RCYC members Kirsten Veenstra and Ian MacRobert who have launched the comprehensive sailing website Gybeset (www.gybeset.co.za). Together with RCYC’s website (www.rcyc. co.za), this is a worthwhile tool for all your sailing requirements. Excellent for networking with other sailors around South Africa, equipment and online regatta entries – check it out!

We were thrilled, and encouraged, by all the feedback we received on the first issue of Sail. We would love to hear your comments on this issue. Email sailrcyc@live.co.za – we welcome all feedback.

What a great magazine – well done! After seeing the mag I followed up on my side to see how I missed the opportunity to advertise with you and I see that my busy schedule had me think I’d missed the communication, so thank you for including me and for offering Garmin the opportunity to be involved. –Mike Clarke, Head Of Marine, Garmin That’s a great-looking magazine and packed with content. Many congratulations to the editorial and production team. –Oliver Dewar, Communications Director, Global Ocean Race 2011/12

PHOTOGRAPH DAN NerNeY, trevor wIlKINs

The magazine looks great, congratulations. –Josh Hall, Race Director, Global Ocean Race 2011/12

Bom Dia The extremely popular annual Portugal Day Race had 62 entries this year. The pursuit race format always makes for a very social and tactical day’s sailing – of course the folk dancing and live band only add to the fun. Well done to Vitor Medina on Far Med who won the day’s racing.

I collected my magazine at RCYC last week and really enjoyed reading it. I think it’s an excellent publication with good in depth detail on all events that our local sailing publication neglects. You should think about entering the sailing magazine market. Once again, well done. –Neil Gregory Gee, judging from the pics, the mag looks quite swish, much more so than I would have anticipated. Nice one. –Alex Petersen Wow, what a superb publication. –Teresa Wolmarans, Lake Deneys Yacht Club PRO The editor reserves the right to edit for space and clarity. w w w. R C Y C . C o . z A

SAIL RCYC newS & VIewS

sa’s got talent

The Royal Cape Yacht Club supports and is incredibly proud of the following three youth development sailing initiatives

IZIVUNGUVUNGU Izivunguvungu Sailing Academy is named after the Zulu word for “a sudden gust of wind” – and that is exactly what the school has been through this last sailing season! Supported by the SA Navy, RCYC and others, the school trains up to 45 kids a week, developing future crewmembers and skippers. The young sailors have been achieving on many levels. Asenathi Jim and Ashwynn Daniels did South Africa proud by finishing fifth out of 98 boats at the 420 World Championships in Haifa, Israel. Asenathi received the 2010 South African Sailor of the Year award. Howard Lehoto and Renaldo Mohale went to Perth for the Mirror World Championships. Two teams took part in the highly contested Lipton Cup, one finishing ninth. In the offshore programme, the school has been very active. They entered the classic Cape to Rio race, and the team showed the ropes to many a seasoned sailor until technical problems forced them to seek assistance. On the return a severe storm battered the yacht causing the breakage of the mast and their boat was lost at sea. The crew of Kader Williams, Kenwyn Daniels, Anthony Edwards and Joweal Klasse managed to keep the boat afloat for four days until a ship rescued them from the stricken vessel.

SAILPRO Markus Progli and Andrea Giovannini started SailPro in 2009 to increase participation in sailing. Instead of the 100 people who learn to sail every year in South Africa, SailPro wants to raise that figure to 3 000. SailPro makes sailing a mainstream sport, just like rugby or cricket. SailPro works full-time with nine schools who train twice a week with coaches and have events on Saturdays. Ninety kids go through the programme each term, and it boasts a 100% retention rate. The school programme uses team racing as a format on 420 dinghies. Team racing is highly tactical, fast paced and, importantly, a non-sailor can learn how to team race in a month (while becoming proficient in fleet racing takes years). This is not to say the kids don’t fleet race, the programme is designed to increase participation in sailing. SailPro encourages the learners to join yacht clubs. It’s a feeder programme into the big boat scene where many of our school sailors are seen floating around the quays of RCYC where John Martin and others find boats for them to race on. Sponsors of SailPro include the Royal Cape Yacht Club and Central Boating. 10

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Over the past year, the local leg of the RaceAhead training programme focused primarily on dinghy sailing. RaceAhead helps talented youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds bridge the gap between local and international competition. With young Ashwynn Daniels joining Izivunguvungu’s crack helm Asenathi Jim to go after the strongly contested 420 spot in the SA Youth Team, it was a great opportunity to ratchet up the standard of 420 racing locally. RaceAhead provided two new 420s for the programme and chartered another four from Zeekoe Vlei Yacht Club. Together with the two existing Izivunguvungu boats, the eight-boat squad was under way – coached by David Rae and Dave and Roger Hudson. Ashwynn’s brother Kenwyn was invited to team up with three-times SA Champion 420 crew Marlon Jones in the second RaceAhead boat as sparring partners, with a brief to put the triallists under maximum pressure. This they did! The intense contest between the training partners over the next few months was a joy to watch. But just as important was the steady improvement in the rest of the 16-person squad. At the end of the day, after qualifying for the team, the boys finished ninth in the Youth Worlds in Turkey, and then a remarkable fifth in a fleet of 83 at the Open 420 Worlds in Israel.

PHOTOGRAPH trevor wIlKINs

RACEAHEAD

MALLORCA–CAPE TOWN–WELLINGTON – PUNTA DEL ESTE–CHARLESTON–MALLORCA

START 25SEPTEMBER2011

www.globaloceanrace.com

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SaIL L o c a L & I N T E r N aT I o N a L r c yc

Riders on the storm

The unpredictable waters off the Cape promise invigorating and thrilling sailing. Strong winds and big seas keep sailors alert but enamoured with the sport that gives them this freedom.

Local

PHOTOGRAPH WWW.NICKMUZIK.COM

14 18 20 22 24 26 28 31

IRC racing Mykonos Offshore Race Crocs Summer Regatta Lipton Cup Twilight Series Mid Summer Fling Regatta Cape Fling Club Division sailing

International 34 38 40 42

Cape to Rio Race Clipper Round the World Race Volvo Ocean Race Global Ocean Race

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Uncharted Waters IRC racing takes its bearing. By Harry Brehm

ith several new entries in the IRC division, we have a very competitive range of boats, especially around 40ft. It’s refreshing to see newly launched boats like Pacer 376 Southern Storm finding their way to the top of the IRC class so quickly. All boats racing under IRC seem to have a chance for a podium position – great testimony to the fairness of the rating system. There is a general trend to make our major sailing events more interesting. A wide variation of courses and more flexibility to choose the course and distance for each race are better solutions than the usual windward-leeward courses of the past. We have seen a lot of race activities in our club during the 2010/2011 summer racing season. As usual the IRC race season starts off with the very popular Spring Regatta in Simon’s Town in September. The whole IRC racing fleet from Cape Town makes their way via the Cape of Good Hope to Simon’s Town where the unspoilt, beautiful surroundings make the

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regatta well worth it. This is always a great start to the season. The Royal Cape Yacht Club’s Wednesday night Twilight Series starts in October every year and is a real crowd-pleaser, with good numbers of boats on the water and a great vibe for the sailors after racing. The results are done on club handicap to promote the fun aspect of this series. Next on our calendar is the Crocs Summer Regatta in December. This season saw one of the most competitive IRC fleets battling it out in two different classes, with 12 entries in the former Class 1 and seven in the former Class 2. With interesting courses and a tightly packed fleet, the last race decided the first five positions! The lunch break between the racing enables the crews to fire up their braais and have a good time socialising with other boats while laying in the pack at anchor. IRC racing also has a new addition in the sailing calendar with the Mid Summer Fling Regatta in early February. It’s usually the windiest time of the season, but the Cape Doctor had mercy over the three days

PHOTOGRaPHS trevor wilkins

SaIL LocaL rcyc

of the inaugural regatta this year and we were able to sail in a moderate breeze. There were a few boats missing from the regatta, but hopefully they will join in next year as the competing crews thoroughly enjoyed this event – both on and off the racecourse! For this season’s Mykonos Offshore Race, most sailors prayed for wind for a spectacular downwind race. With the southeaster back in full swing, 128 boats had a frenzied send off in the early morning. For some of the boats, the first jibe after the weather mark was something to be remembered. At least 10 boats almost ended up on the beach and had a wake-up call par excellence. Later, the wind became patchy and none of the boats that were further out to sea made it on to the podium. Friday night is party time at Club Mykonos and the next day we saw a few sorry fellows on their way to the Pursuit Bay Race. The wind stayed with the fleet all the way and the big boats reeled in the smaller boats. Next would have been Cape Town Sailing Week in March, however a few glitches in the organisation, no confirmed sponsor and probably too

many races during the previous months meant that we did not get enough entries to make this one of our main sailing events. We missed out on our IRC Nationals and an event that has great potential. We need to ensure we don’t lose this premier sailing event entirely. The next IRC Nationals will be brought forward and will take place during the Spring Regatta. The 2010/11 summer sailing season is over now and we have time to lick our wounds and reflect on the great season behind of us. One thing is certain: the racing in all our classes has been closer than ever. A bitter side effect is the alarming number of incidents during our races. It’s really not a great way to end a race, with a hole in your topsides because of a battle fought too hard. This must be addressed with all skippers – a collision has to be avoided, even if you have right of way. Let’s make the new racing season even more successful and hopefully we can schedule the Cape Town Sailing Week with a bigger gap between it and all the other events so that we can attract a healthy number of entries for all our major regattas. w w w. r c y c . c o . z a

Necessity

Perfectly formed

The IRC fleet is growing, with many new boats being measured and rated under IRC this season. Here are some of the newcomers

IRC rating 0.982 First 34.7 Owned and skippered by Carol and David Booth, this new entry won a fair amount of races and the boat has clearly delivered. This could become the boat to beat in IRC 2 in the new season.

Cape Fling

Xtralink (formerly 8 Seconds)

IRC rating 1.316 Corby 49 Owner Lord Irvine Laidlaw has not spared any expense in preparing his boat for the strong southeaster conditions in Cape Town. The boat has shown a lot of potential in the longer running and reaching conditions but has struggled to perform upwind equally well.

IRC rating 1.094 Leisure 42 Now owned by Dale Kushner who has continued the boatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success from last year, despite its heavy displacement. A third place under IRC in the Heineken Cape to Rio Race was another fine result.

Lobelia

serioUs contenders

IRC rating 1.068 IMX 40 Owned by Gordon Kling with Rob Meek as a regular helmsman; a successful seasoned campaigner on the IRC circuit.

These are some of the top IRC boats to beat, most of them are old hands on the Cape sailing circuit

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Regent

Docksafe (formerly Addis in

IRC rating 1.044 Pacer 27 The fox terrier of the fleet! She may be small but she packs an almighty punch, successfully campaigned by the enthusiastic Trygve Roberts.

Cape) IRC rating 1.034 A35 Owned and regularly skippered by Alex Monat, this boat is designed for racing under the IRC rule. She has already scored an impressive list of results on the Western Cape racing and regatta circuit.

PHOTOGRaPHS trevor wilkins

SaIL LocaL rcyc

Southern Storm

Ray of Light

IRC rating 1.127 Pacer 376 Owned by Tim Dykins and skippered by Harry Brehm, this boat did a great job upsetting some of the well known boats shortly after she was launched. The boat won two Twilight Series in a row.

IRC rating 1.094 First 44.7 Owned by Michael Kavanagh who has started to change his First 44.7 from a cruising boat into a serious around the cans IRC boat. Once all the cruising gear has disappeared it will be a hot contender.

Ballyhoo Two

Pants on Fire

IRC rating 1.098 Modified Mumm 36 Owned by Rick Garratt and skippered by Dave Hudson with a development crew from RaceAhead, this boat showed some good pace and was well sailed in most of the races.

IRC rating 1.016 J 105 Owned by Dwayn Assis, it didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take this boat (originally from Durban) too long to get a grip in the windier sailing conditions in Cape Town. Pants on Fire could cause some surprise in the coming season.

A-L

Corum

IRC rating 1.012 Farr 38 The immaculately prepared IRC winner continues to impress. Skippered and owned by Robert van Rooyen with a young and enthusiastic crew.

IRC rating 1.130 IOR 45 Owned and skippered by Jannie Reuvers and partners, the potential of this ex French IMS racer will continue to grow.

Puma Unleashed

Windpower

IRC rating 1.177 Pacer 42 The cat unleashed by owners Ingrid and Hylton Hale continues with their campaign to develop a young and professional sailing team.

IRC rating 1.164 Landmark 43 this IRC powerhouse owned and skippered by Phil Gutsche with the experienced Rick Nankin helming, spent the Cape winter in the UK competing in Cowes Week and the Rolex Commodoresâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Cup.

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SAIL RCYC StoRY RunneR

Sail hard, play hard

The magic of the Mykonos Offshore continues. By Trygve Roberts

ykonos Offshore entries grew to 128 this year, setting an all time record for any offshore regatta in South Africa. Boats of every shape and size entered, including small keelers like Buccaneers, all the way up to the state of the art Corby 49 and every form of multihull. In some ways it’s the modern sailor’s version of a mini local Trans-Atlantic – with all the thrills of an exciting downwind run, followed by a stay in a safe harbour and plenty of partying. The organisers seem to understand just what the sailors are looking for. The 2011 event was even more impressive than the illustrious 2010 regatta, with more glitz and glamour, a few changes in the ﬂeet splits and a change on the pursuit race course. Add to that some pretty girls, plenty of cold Champagne and TV coverage, and you have all the razzmatazz that brought boats and crews from all over the country to sail in this spirited regatta.

Cape Fling heading up towards the Paarden Eiland mark.

Racing started on the Friday morning in a very strong south-easterly with gusts in excess of 40 knots (kn), setting the ﬂeet off to a fast downwind start for the 65 nautical mile (nm) course from Table Bay to Saldanha Bay. A compulsory gate at Dassen Island meant navigators needed to plan ahead carefully to stay in the best pressure. With the ﬂeet safely tied up in the marina at Club Mykonos, there were many tales of blown spinnakers and crew lost overboard. It had been a really tough day on the water, but the scantily clad Mykonos girls waiting to welcome the salty sailors with just-popped Champagne soon distracted tired bodies and minds. It is no mean feat accommodating almost 1 000 crew and 128 boats in the relatively small marina at Mykonos, but with the co-operation of Mykonos management, somehow it all happened in an orderly fashion. All was not plain sailing on the water though.

A hundred-odd boats rafted up in the marina. For info on the Club Mykonos marina, go to www.clubmykonos.co.za.

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SAIL StoRY Ru Ln on CA eR L RCYC

This is the undisputed king of coastal regattas in South Africa

With the Cape Doctor at work, Hi Fidelity flies out of Table Bay under full sail.

PHOTOGRaPHS trevor wilkins

Results There were several protests, a few collisions, a dismasting, one inverted multihull capsize, and many tales of harrowing experiences on the water. And this is all part of the allure. Saturday morning arrived quiet and peaceful with a gentle southerly kissing the turquoise waters of the bay. This year’s race was perfect, with the wind picking up to about 22kn by late afternoon, providing excellent conditions for the whole fleet. Sponsors and regatta organisers were thrilled with the massive turnout at the prizegiving and after-party, as well as the great show covering the regatta that was televised on SuperSport 1. This is the undisputed king of coastal regattas in South Africa – make sure you’re part of it next year.

IRC 1 1st Hi Fidelity (Welborne 46) 2nd Windpower (Landmark 43) 3rd Cape Fling (Corby 49)

E De Villiers P Gutsche / R Nankin I Laidlaw / X Mecoy

IRC 2 1st Unruly (Pacer 27 Sport) I Gibson / R Tanner 2nd Pacer 1 (Pacer 27 Sport) T Dykins / R Turner 3rd Music Sebago (Pacer 27 Sport) G Nottingham / R Vlieg IRC 3 1st A-L (Farr 38) 2nd Pants On Fire (J105) 3rd Just Fun (Mount Gay 30)

R van Rooyen D Assis / M Mendes B Preston / M Devitt w w w. R C Y C . C o . z A

Puma Unleashed heading for Clifton.

Social encounters G

The annual Crocs Summer Regatta redeﬁnes what fun sailing is all about. By Gordon Kling

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enormous co-operation to get this to work. Discussions are ongoing and approval for 10 boats to come ashore appears to be in the offing.) This season, the ﬂeet provided a sight for shore-based spectators when it put in for lunch opposite the beachfront restaurant at Granger Bay. The crew of one top boat (and some of those who happened to be nearby) were treated to a comprehensive wine tasting by a well-known Constantia vintner. Some feel the lunch breaks could be longer to provide more time for eating, imbibing and just plain fooling around and this will be considered for the next event. Top contenders Lobelia, Southern Storm, Windpower and Hi Fidelity line up at the start.

PHOTOGRAPHS TREVOR WILKINS

ood fun, highly competitive and an innovative means of preserving a cherished tradition with a great vibe. That’s the Crocs Summer Regatta held annually by the Royal Cape Yacht Club in mid-December and now heading for its fifth year in Table Bay. Weather conditions have been near idyllic for good sailing and the time slot competently fills a vacuum left by the late and lamented Rothman’s Week and Table Bay Week. (The former a victim of the demise of cigarette brand advertising, and the latter a decision by the RCYC sailing committee – which the benefit of hindsight has left some people maintaining was a big mistake.) Chairman of the regatta organising committee and Springbok yachtsman Rob Meek felt strongly that there is a need for a premier IRC race event during the peak holiday season. After all, Cape Town is the capital of ocean race sailing in South Africa but there was virtually nothing on at a time when its profile should be at its highest. Rob’s initiative has paid dividends but not without considerable effort and a somewhat worrying start. “In the beginning we were a bit disappointed with the number of boats but the quality of the event is growing. Last year we had almost all the top boats in the ﬂeet of 37 – split almost down the middle between Club and IRC classes,” he says. The racing, featuring several out-of-town boats, including those from Johannesburg, Durban and England, has become progressively competitive, particulary in IRC. Yet the emphasis is on attracting the weekend sailor as well as the rock stars and making full use of their vessels. “We have these wonderful boats with galleys, heads and accommodation so we want food prepared on board and even to have crew sleeping aboard after some of the wilder parties at the yacht club.” If that sounds like a Cape Town version of the ever-popular Mykonos Regatta, that’s the intention. Carrying a braai on board is recommended and there are added attractions such as a race to, and break at, spectacular Clifton. Special permission has been obtained for anchoring for lunch off Robben Island. (Plans are afoot for permission to land on Robben Island, perhaps overnight, but it is a World Heritage Site and Rob believes it will take

SAIL LoCAL RCYC

Trygve Roberts and crew on the nifty Pacer 27 Regent Express.

To avoid sole reliance on windward-leeward courses, the committee looked at premier regattas overseas, including the Rolex Commodores’ Cup and Cowes Week with its one thousand plus entries, sailing around Antigua Island and up and down the Solent. Club stalwart Matthew Thomas has been principal race officer for the past two years and certainly “there has been more to the courses than racing around the cans”. Virtual class valedictorian for IRC in Cape Town and skipper of the Pacer 27 Regent Express (fifth in IRC 2 last year) Trygve Roberts says: “Thomas did a great job under extremely trying conditions, but more importantly he maintained a friendly, jovial disposition for the entire event and never denied a request for a repeat of the course, no matter how many times it had already been announced!” Despite a recent degree of race attendance lethargy (witness the cancellation of Cape Town Sailing Week in March this year), the future of the regatta seems assured. The skipper of Windpower, last year’s IRC Class 1 winner, Rick Nankin, believes it has deservedly become a permanent fixture. Regarding all-important sponsorship, Rob says he has not yet had feedback from Crocs but “they have been extremely happy with the coverage they get and are likely to continue.”

Idyllic conditions in Table Bay.

Time to relax. Boats raft up off Robben Island for lunch.

Results IRC 1st Windpower (Landmark 43) 2nd Corum (Briand 43) 3rd Ballyhoo II (Mumm 36) Club 1 1st Always Well (7.5 First Class) 2nd Flyer (Beneteau FC10) 3rd Sheshisa (Bavaria 38 Match)

P Gutsche / R Nankin J Reuver / M Joubert R Garratt / D Hudson R Thomas / L Burger J A van der Westhuizen L Rabie w w w. R C Y C . C o . z A

SAIL RCYC LOCAL

Above: Orion Challenger heads down to the bottom mark in the 2010 Lipton Cup. Below: The 2011 RCYC Lipton Team: Morgan Evans, Cameron Boustead, Paul Largesse (helm), Gui Verhovert (skipper), Trevor “Farmer” Spilhaus and Sandy Power (not pictured).

HEAD TO HEAD

ith the upcoming Lipton Cup now being hosted by Knysna Yacht Club and this year’s event scheduled to take place in Mossel Bay in August, the Royal Cape Yacht Club found itself in the unique position of having to find a team to challenge for the cup. With winning and returning the Lipton Cup to RCYC as the primary goal, it was decided that selection trials would be held and that a challenger would be selected from the competing teams. Three teams signed up for the trials: Gui Verhovert sailing Dynamic ID Systems, Gerry Hegie sailing RaceAhead and Aidan Horn sailing Jewish Maritime League. Simple windward-leeward courses of 0.4 nautical miles (nm) were set in light variable conditions in mid-May and teams were required to complete two rounds and finish downwind. This produced racing that was extremely tight, with the lead changing on each leg as Dynamic ID Systems and RaceAhead battled against each other. Sailed by the young Bishops High School dinghy team, Jewish Maritime League was well sailed, but not quite on the pace. (This young team won every start on the first day but were simply not able to hold on to their lead as the races progressed.) However, chatting to this team after the event, it is clear that they will present a formidable challenge in the future as their keelboat sailing experience grows. Selections trials are different from a normal regatta in that the final selection of the team is up to the sailing committee and does not necessarily have to be the team that wins the trials. It is the sailing committee’s job to select the team it thinks can successfully challenge for the Lipton Cup and return it to its long time home, Royal Cape. With this in mind, teams are watched closely around the course and special attention is paid to how the teams interact with each other and how they control the other boats, as well as their individual boat speed. Dynamic ID Systems narrowly won the first two races. With the score standing at 2–0 to Gui’s team, Gerry desperately needed to win a race to stay in contention. Having watched how the teams had traded positions around the course, it was very clear that he could do this. With

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a clean start and fast sailing, Gerry won the next two races to tie the series at 2–2. The race committee decided to abandon racing due to the poor wind conditions. The results were now tied and it was clear an additional day’s racing was needed to make the final decision. The final day of racing took place at the end of May in medium air conditions with the wind predominately from the south-west at 10 to 15 knots (kn), with bigger gusts and choppy seas. The team sailing Jewish Maritime League opted not to race. Skippers had been warned that they were not to simply match race each other around the course, as this would defeat the object of the trials. Race 5 started and both crews fought for the pin end of the line. With an amazing tussle around the course, Dynamic ID Systems got away and led to the finish, followed closely by RaceAhead. There was a collision on the start line of Race 6 that enabled Gerry’s RaceAhead to get away first and lead the entire race. Crossing the finish line and displaying their protest ﬂag, Dynamic ID Systems informed the race committee that they were protesting RaceAhead for the incident on the start line. With the results now standing at 3–2 and with Race 6 under protest, the pressure was on. A clear win for Gui’s team would hand them the victory on the water and a win for Gerry’s team would mean that the final result would be decided in the protest room. With so much at stake, the start was extremely closely fought and the first boat away was Dynamic ID Systems, helmed by Paul Largesse who simply put the boat into overdrive and led to the finish. With the teams so evenly matched, this was the type of racing that everyone had hoped for as it made the selection of the RCYC Lipton Cup Challenge Team straightforward. Watching the racing over the two days, it is clear that the quality and skill level of our sailors is superb and this was the best sailing I have watched in a long time. Congratulations to Gui Verhovert and the crew of Dynamic ID Systems on their selection as the challenger representing RCYC in the 2011 Lipton Cup Challenge.

PHOTOGRAPHS MATTHEW THOMAS, TREVOR WILKINS

Hard-core racing takes the selection of the RCYC Lipton Cup Challenge Team down to the wire. By Matthew Thomas

Lipton Cup leaves Table Bay It was no small upset when RCYC lost the Lipton Challenge Cup. By Kirsten Veenstra

The Royal Cape Yacht Club was once again the host club for Lipton in August 2010, after Greg Davis and his team from RCYC on Dalys Insurance took the 2009 title and retained their four-year run of Lipton victories. An amazing 25 entries were received, including some of South Africa’s top names in sailing, an impressive number of young teams from MAC, ZVYC, Bishops, FBYC, UCT and TSC, as well as three youth development teams and Dominique Provoyeur’s all-woman entry, Bandito. The Lipton Cup 2010 was blessed with six days of wonderful sailing, mostly in sunny conditions and light winds, although the first day of racing had heavy winds of about 20kn and very big swells. On the days when it looked like racing might not happen, race officer Di Hutton-Squire sat patiently on the committee boat looking for wind – and find it she did! Although False Bay Yacht Club’s Intasure gave the

defending team on Knysna Yacht Club’s Colorpress a serious run for their money, they did not quite cut it and Colorpress won Lipton 2010 for Knysna Yacht Club. This year’s challenge will be held at Mossel Bay Yacht and Boat Club from 19 to 26 August. Although it’s sad to see Lipton leave our waters, for now, change is also a good thing. A huge thank you must go to the Lipton Trustees, chairman Vitor Medina and his committee, RCYC and all the sponsors, sailing chairman Ron Keytel, race officer Di HuttonSquire and all the bridge crew, mark layers and marker boats who gave up their week to contribute to such great sailing. E www.liptoncup.org.za

Results Club Division 1 1st Colorpress (L26) 2nd Team Intasure Marine Insurance (L26) 3rd Orion Challenger (L26)

Greg Davis / Gareth Blankenberg (KYC) Andrea Giovannini / Markus Progli (FBYC) Ricky Robinson (RNYC)

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How to make friends and inﬂuence people

You don’t need to be a sailor to join in the twilight racing on Wednesday evenings, but you’ll be popular if you are! By Trygve Roberts

ew sponsors Central Boating climbed in to take up the latest sponsorship available for the 2011 leg of the Royal Cape Yacht Club’s Twilight Racing calendar. They must have been well pleased with the exposure they gained through this massively popular event. Whoever the genius was who thought up the concept of midweek twilight sailing deserves a medal. It started a long time ago and has grown and changed over the years, but continues to be the dominant summer sailing platform for RCYC. This is now a worldwide phenom24

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enon at most yacht clubs. The original concept was that it was meant to be one big jol with loads of beer and guests on-board, no spinnakers and definitely not be taken seriously. Over a period of time, the more serious sailors were separated from the more casual ones and given their own start. They called this the Spinnaker Class and an allowance was made for this more competitive group to fly spinnakers. During the 2010/2011 Twilight Series, the race committee instituted several new changes to the racing format. The typically 60-plus strong

PHOTOGRaPHs trevor wilkins

SaIL LocaL rcyc

fleet has been split into three separate starts, so catering for the smaller boats to sail shorter courses and to keep the faster competitive boats separated on the racecourse from the “beercanners”. Call it what you like, but from the smallest, slowest boats to the biggest heaviest cruisers, they all take it seriously. Unfortunately the increasing number of incidents recorded this season is testament to this. There have been several serious collisions with considerable damage to boats. Another rule from the past – “there shall be no protests” – has also fallen by the wayside, with more and more protests being lodged. This is actually a good thing as it encourages a learning process for the errant skipper. The club and marina really come alive from about 4pm on a Wednesday afternoon as boats, crew and visitors start arriving for a few hours of fun on and off the water. The club usually plays host to about 600 people in a festive mood. It’s quite the place to be in Cape Town – virtually every woman there looks like a model who’s just stepped off the pages of a magazine. (Not that the sailors complain!) By 5.30pm the marina empties out as up to 80 boats leave their moorings for a quick race around Table Bay. The biggest problem the club faces is the south-easterly wind. It starts up in September and finally calms down towards the end of March. Effectively, that means the entire Twilight Series is sailed primarily in these winds. And they are strong. (Most of the RCYC sailors agree that there is no such thing as a moderate south-easterly in Cape Town.) In a bad year, the club will cancel up to five Twilight races due to gale force winds, when it becomes too dangerous for skippers to safely handle their boats on a crowded racecourse. The club uses a general guideline of 30 knots as an upper limit. Two senior members of the sailing committee will agree on whether a race should be cancelled or not. These decisions are typically made close to 5pm, which still allows members and visitors to enjoy a drink on the deck over a windswept marina and wait for the homebound traffic to die down. In more recent times, frequent road blocks in the harbour precinct as well as a national safety policy of “water on the water, beer on the pier” has seen a gradual reduction in the amount of alcohol consumed. But Twilight sailing is here to stay and continues to be the number one draw card to RCYC for sailors and non-sailors alike.

The Twilight Series offers participants everything from a sunset cruise to a highlycompetitive run in the southeaster Results Club 1 1st A-L (Farr 38) 2nd Picasso (Sovereign 54) 3rd Touch & Go (Lightwave 395)

R van Rooyen R Alexander D Smith

Club 1 Spinnaker 1st Southern Storm (Pacer 376) 2nd Puma Unleashed (Pacer 42) 3rd Mini Mace (Melges 24)

T Dykins / H Brehm H Hale N Mace

Club 2 1st Solitaire (Compass 47) 2nd Vortex (L34) 3rd Mafuta (Bavaria 36)

D Elcock M Atkins M Lourens

Club 2 Spinnaker 1st Necessity (Beneteau 34.7) 2nd Always Well (First Class 7.5) 3rd Lapwing (L34)

C & D Booth R Thomas A Keen / J Burger

Club 3 1st Far Med (Muira) 2nd Saiorse (Atlantis 36) 3rd Thalassa (Mediteranne 37)

V Medina T Blackwell W Brooks

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Summer affair

The new Mid Summer Fling regatta brings new sailing concepts to the Cape racing programme. By Hylton Hale

Cape Town Stadium provides an impressive backdrop for the ﬂeet.

Above: Rhett Goldswain’s crew aboard Thunderchild. Below: Lord Irvine Laidlaw’s Cape Fling challenges A-L.

n October 2010, Lord Irvine Laidlaw from Scotland approached the Royal Cape Yacht Club’s Rick Nankin with the idea of the club hosting a mid-summer regatta. Irvine offered a prize for every yacht that entered. With this in mind, Rick and his team put together the Mid Summer Fling, loosely based on the Caribbean fun regattas, such as Antigua Week. Given the short notice and squeezing the event into an already full programme, the organising team was pleasantly surprised by the 28 boats that entered. This included an IRC racing fleet of nine boats, one of which was of course Irvine’s newly re-launched Corby 49, aptly named Cape Fling that was shipped to South Africa specially for Irvine. A David and Goliath match up was on the cards for this fleet, with the Farr 38 A-L and the Melges 24 Mini Mace squaring up to the almost 50ft Cape Fling. Other notable entries were the ever present and well prepared Windpower, the loud and proud Puma Unleashed and Lobelia, the team in yellow shirts. In the Club Division, 11 boats represented the popular and hugely competitive Division 2. The boats to watch were Jackie Brand’s well sailed Impact and Peter Bam’s L26 Hors d’Oeuvre. In Division 1, unfortunately only five boats made the effort, which was surprising considering the large number of yachts moored at RCYC in that size range.

Results

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T Roberts M Kavanagh M Lourens J Brand R le Roux / B Gardener R Matthews / R Tanner P Gutsche / R Nankin R van Rooyen Rob Meek / Gordon Kling

PHOTOGRAPHS TREVOR WILKINS

Club Division 1 1st Regent Express (Pacer 27) 2nd Ray of Light (Beneteau First 44.7) 3rd Mafuta (Bavaria 36) Club Division 2 1st Impact (Impact) 2nd Ancient Mariner (H23) 3rd Eko Energy SA (L26) IRC 1st Windpower (Landmark 43) 2nd A-L (Farr 38) 3rd Lobelia (IMX 40)

SAIL LoCAL RCYC

The regatta was held over the first weekend of February, the first race being sailed as a twilight race in front of Granger Bay’s bars and restaurants, giving the patrons a sunset spectacle. A warm southwesterly met the fleet with the race officer Doug Alison getting the race started at 5pm sharp. The IRC boats got off first. The improved Cape Fling took line honours but ended up seventh on corrected time. A-L sailed a flawless race and, after the handicap calculations, found herself in first place with Windpower second. In Club Division 1, the Pacer 27 Regent Express, ended up first and in Division 2, Jackie Brand sailed a fantastic race to take the honours on her yacht Impact. On day two a light northerly wind greeting the fleet. Again Cape Fling got line honours and ended up second after a superb effort. Windpower won the race with Puma Unleashed taking third. In Club Division 1, Ray Of Light took the number one spot away from Regent Express and in Division 2, Jackie Brand again took the honours. With the northerly wind settling into a steady 12 knots (kn), Race 3 – a medium distance race to a mark off Robben Island, then onto Barker Rock off Clifton and then finish – saw the fleet changing positions regularly as tacticians tried to coax their skippers through the numerous wind holes on the Atlantic Seaboard. Ultimately, the IRC winner was Windpower, with A-L and Cape Fling taking up the rest of the podium. In Division 1, Ray Of Light again took the honours and in Division 2 Hors d’Oeuvre won comfortably with Eko Energy second and Impact third. One of the interesting additions to the Mid Summer Fling was that at least one race per day is helmed either by a lady or the owner of the

Based on an Antigua Week format, the Mid Summer Fling provides competitors with a unique sailing experience.

yacht. This concept was received with mixed opinions, but once everyone had a go, it proved to be quite popular. The last day dawned with light, fickle winds; two races were scheduled with some round-the-cans racing. The battle for the top podium position in IRC was now between Windpower and A-L with a few points separating these two rivals. In the larger Club Division 2 fleet, Impact had a healthy five point lead over her rivals and just needed to play it safely for the day. In Club Division 1, Regent Express was now the clear leader. At the colourful prizegiving ceremony, Irvine undertook to support this new event in 2012 again, along with more innovative ideas.

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TESTING THE WATERS

Just in case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a new boat on the water. The Royal Cape Yacht Club welcomes Cape Fling. By Xavier Mecoy

ord Irvine Laidlaw of Rothiemay, Scotland, owner of the Riechel Pugh 82 Highland Fling, has campaigned his boats around the world, including Asia, Australia, the US, UK, Caribbean and Europe. But until now, he has never sailed in the waters off the Cape, where he makes his home for four months every year. In May 2010, Irvine struck upon the idea of finding a boat to race in Cape Town for the southern summer. Irvine is a competitive man – both in car and yacht racing – and has a very long history in the yachting world. Starting in the Eighties in Hong Kong, he has owned a variety of boats spanning the IOR and IMS years, a Farr 40, a 12-metre, two Wally yachts and four Swans (ranging from 53 to 112ft). When looking at the local fleet, we initially looked at boats in the 42 to 43ft range. But we could find nothing that met with our expectations for a planning boat – very fast off the wind. The next level was to look at IRC’d TP52s, but after studying a weather analysis for the summer season, we considered these too lightly built for the more demanding Western Cape waters. We finally decided on the Corby 49 that was based out of Melbourne, Australia. The boat had a good pedigree and was built to withstand the rigours of the Sydney to Hobart race. The boat was then packed up and shipped to Cape Town, where she is now known as Cape Fling. 28

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Irvine is highly committed to local sailing, last year giving a generous donation to the Izivunguvungu Sailing School to help give less privileged young sailors the opportunity to sail dinghies, as well as learn about keelboat racing on Cape Fling. Irvine also felt there was a gap in the RCYC sailing calendar between the Crocs and Mykonos events and now sponsors the new Summer Fling Regatta (see p26), which was met this year with great enthusiasm and deemed a success by everyone who participated. The Cape Fling crew is really looking forward to next years’ event – we hope it will stretch to four days with three races per day. Everyone who is out on the course is there to race, so we need to get as much sailing in as possible. To date we have really enjoyed the sailing in Cape Town. The bay races are challenging, with several significantly different breezes on the course. The need to anticipate and change gears very quickly certainly makes for interesting racing. A short hour-long race may see as many manoeuvres as you might see in a 30-mile course elsewhere in the world. The one drawback of sailing here is the number of days of racing that are cancelled due to too much wind. But at least the upper limits are considerably higher than other parts of the world. For the 2011/12 season, we are planning to return with a new keel (a more traditional foil built for lift rather than the laminar flow foil we currently have) and a slightly lighter rig. We are also currently in build of Highland Fling XII, a Riechel Pugh IRC 52 boat that we take delivery of in October this year. Lighter and more sail area then a TP52, this should be blazingly quick. With four events in the Mediterranean on the 82, the three regattas here and up to five events on the 52 in Florida and the Caribbean in the next year, we are very excited about a busy and fun year of sailing!

PHOTOGRAPHS INGRID HALE, TREVOR WILKINS

SAIL RCYC LOCAL

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Royal Cape Yacht Club’s members relished the opportunity to race against an international boat of this calibre.

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PROFILE Sarah Niedzwiecki

PROFILE Xavier Mecoy

Nationality: UK Career highlights: A lifelong sailor, 30-year-old Sarah made the move from serving cocktails at superyacht regattas in the Caribbean and joined the Highland Fling racing programme in 2007. This has allowed her to sail with some of the top sailors in the US, Europe and now South Africa. In being involved with the build of the latest Highland Fling Maxi, she was trained by Harken for the deck hardware, including winches that at the time no other boat had. She was part of the RSB Rigging team that put the boat together, and is now the on-board rigger for the programme. She is the only woman in the programme and the only woman onboard.

Nationality: Australian Career highlights: RYA accredited Yacht Master, Xavier has captained nine boats. Currently serving as captain of Highland Fling X owned by Irvine Laidlaw, Xavier has navigated the Wally 80 between the Caribbean, Atlantic and Mediterranean, and successfully competed in top regattas. His additional highlights include racing for the Australian, German, English and French teams. In the past 20 years, Xavier has overseen several multi-million dollar refurbishments of yachts. He has accumulated over 120 000nm delivering yachts to over 30 countries, including boats ranging from small 50ft race boats to superyachts, such as the 141ft Mystere.

On-board rigger

Professional yacht captain

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NEW DIRECTION, NEW DIVISION Too fast? Too slow? Just right… This is Club Division sailing at RCYC. By Luke Scott

PHOTOGRAPH TREVOR WILKINS

fter extensive consultation with club sailors, particularly those in the old “Class 2” and those towards the low end of the handicaps of old “Class 1”, the sailing committee decided to insert a new division between the old “Class 1” and “Class 2”. Thus, three divisions were born. The new intermediate division finds a home for the very competitive class of yachts of handicap one to 1.05. These yachts were too slow for Division 1 and too fast for Division 3. Simply put, there are the big dogs, the intermediates and the caravan class. Then there are those who fly kites (even on a short course), and those who don’t… We have a wide variety of yachts and yachties competing in our fleet, sharing a common love for sailing and just getting out there. Yachting is a fantastic sport for everyone to enjoy together, where, incredibly, the latest yachting technology can be trumped by an ancient skiff. Summer sailing brings them all out onto the water, primarily for the favourites – the Twilight Series and the Mykonos Offshore. Both attract big numbers and seeing 80-plus yachts on the water is a pretty impressive sight. For most it is about participation, but for many it is also fiercely competitive. Sometimes it is chaos. There are a number of other popular club events, including the year-end Crocs Regatta, the new Mid Summer Fling, the Round Robben Island races and the Portugal Day Race. The autumn and winter series

are still going strong with a fleet of about 20 yachts. The short- and double-handed series have also become popular with a similar turnout. To bring you up to speed on the latest developments in division sailing, let’s examine it within the context of the most recent Twilight Series as an example. It must be said that the caravan class does not like to start first, nor fly spinnakers, nor sail in strong wind. We learnt this at the last Twilight Series. A fiercely competitive bunch, these sailors negotiate the course in heavy displacement cruisers as well as some of the littlest, wettest yachts in the fleet! Some of the liveliest banter both on and off the water comes from the salty sea dogs in this fleet, with debate around handicapping often the hot topic. Expect anything between 15 to 25 yachts on the start line. Then there are the new intermediates, a very competent group of sailors on yachts with the smallest differential in handicaps. This division is based around the L34 class and their nearest competitors, and has a pretty even split between those who fly kites and those who don’t. Since there is no Division 3 Spinnaker Fleet (yet), those with a Division Three handicap who want to fly a kite, sail in this fleet. Expect all 25 yachts on the start line each week. The big dogs have most of the rock-star sailors and the flashy equipment, and have the biggest range of handicaps, making it quite W W W. R C Y C . C O . Z A

SAIL LOCAL RCYC

NEW DIRECTION, NEW DIVISION Too fast? Too slow? Just right… This is Club Division sailing at RCYC. By Luke Scott

PHOTOGRAPH TREVOR WILKINS

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Sail r c yc i n t e r n at i o n a l

TRUE SAILING SPIRIT With huge international interest, the tactical Heineken Cape to Rio Race is ofﬁcially back in all its glory. By Alex Petersen

Line-honours winner Prodigy leaving Cape Town.

ith over 3 000 nautical miles of Champagne downwind sailing, the Royal Cape’s South Atlantic Race has attracted many of the world’s top sailors over the years. But after a gap of eight years, a return to Rio as the destination was an apt way to celebrate the 40 years since the inaugural race. Since 2003, the event has twice headed to a warm welcome in Salvador, the historic capital of Brazil’s state of Bahia. But mooring under Sugarloaf Mountain is undeniably something special. Both the city of Rio and the prestigious Iate Clube do Rio de Janeiro were incredibly welcoming, and once again brewers Heineken were aboard as race sponsors. The change of route worked well, where Isle de Trinidade was left out as a mark of the course, making the race faster and more interesting. (The next race will be the same except that there will be a limiting latitude written into the Notice of Race, that being the latitude of Tristan da Cunha.) A spectator fleet of almost 100 craft were out in Table Bay when, at noon on 15 January, the fleet set out. The 18-strong fleet included entries from Australia, Norway, Germany, India and a healthy component of racer-cruisers in the 40ft range, signalling competition for the prestigious handicap prize, the South Atlantic Trophy. That it was a smaller fleet was due in part to the date – earlier by a year for a mix of reasons. But the fleet size was probably due as much to the sombre global economic conditions. Generous sponsorship from the City of Cape Town supported two youth teams. Four crewmen from the Izivunguvungu Sailing School, a sailing development centre for disadvantaged children, which is based in Simon’s Town, were sailing The Spirit of Izivunguvungu (see p10 for more on them). The second team was on the 41ft City of Cape Town – three outstanding young local sailors and four young Brazilians, all trained at Project Grael, the outreach school in Rio initiated by Olympic sailor Torben Grael.

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A tracking system was introduced for this race and proved to be a resounding success. Royal Cape Yacht Club acquired 20 transponders from Xtra-Link specially for the race, and installed one on each competing yacht. It enabled the positions of the fleet to be reported via Immarsat satellite, and to be listed on the Heineken Cape to Rio Race website, encouraging an amazing following of the race. (The website attracted half a million hits, with the armchair sailors getting so enthusiastic that RCYC was asked to increase the frequency of updates!) Favourite for line honours was the Durban yacht Prodigy, a high-tech 54ft Simonis/Voogd design. Indeed on the first day Prodigy was staking clear claim to line honours with a scintillating 249-nautical mile (nm) run. The brisk first few days seemed to set the pattern for the race. Surprise early handicap leader was Aussie Jon Sanders, aged 71, on Perie Banou II, an old S&S 39-footer, with a run of 190nm. It was after an earlier Rio Race in 1975 that Sanders went on via Panama back to Perth to complete his first circumnavigation. This year’s race would be part of his eighth. Early handicap battles featured Dale Kushner’s Xtra-Link and Cape Storm skippered by Sean Cummings for top places, but the most intriguing performance was from Gerry Hegie and crew on City of Cape Town. The 41ft yacht was consistently having 200nm plus runs, exceeded only by Prodigy and the German 63-footer Grand Filou. “We split the watches: RSA vs Brazil,” Gerry emailed, “to see who does the most mileage.” Notably the yacht was on a far more northerly course, a route that was to pay dividends. Over the next few days the battle became fiercer. Prodigy had earlier moved swiftly to the top of the handicap table with a 24-hour run of 254nm, while Xtra-Link was hanging on to second place, but clearly was not getting the breezes she wanted. Skipper Dale Kushner emailed: “Our current approach is to skirt the South Atlantic high unless we see a gap.”

RCYC members enjoy a performance by Flat Stanley at the Cape To Rio send-off party. City of Cape Townâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s winning crew with RCYC commodore John Martin.

Winning skipper Gerry Hegie arrives in Cape Town. Almost 100 spectator craft give the fleet a warm send-off.

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Sail r c yc i n t e r n at i o n a l

The Robinson family on Ciao Bella were awarded for their spirit and skill. The crew of The Spirit of Izivunguvungu celebrate their arrival in Rio.

The position of the high – well south and spread out almost to the Brazilian coast – was to prove troublesome for most of the fleet. Some days later, well north, City of Cape Town had a run of 261.5nm, the best of the fleet, and moved into top handicap spot. Further south, the Sailing Family Robinson, parents Mike and Gill with their five youngsters and nephew Bradley all on the 35ft Robtek’s Ciao Bella were worried about their ninth position. Tasked with the role of navigator, Kathryn, 25, called a family council. “Go north,” they said. It paid off with a roller-coaster run of 223nm. At times Ciao Bella was clocking up speeds of 28kn, an almost unheard of speed for a 35-footer. “We were cooking,” said Brennan, aged 20. “We were sailing that boat like it was stolen!” (The Robinson family, who crept into many of our hearts, were later awarded a beautiful trophy, handcrafted by RCYC member Herman Mory and duly named the Mory Floating Trophy. This was awarded “In the Spirit of Cape to Rio Race” for the spirit and skill the Robinsons displayed.) Things were not so bright aboard the SA Navy yacht Yachtport SA, a Fast 42, still quite far south. “Hectic night, huge seas,” signalled skipper David Herman just a week into the race. “Masthead heavy, bag wrapped, blownout and shredded. Crew exhausted”. The loss of the big spinnaker proved costly. By the end of second week, the fleet was surprisingly spread out. Going north also gave Spirit of Izivunguvungu, then lying eighth, a good run of 207nm, while Derek Shuttleworth and crew on Me-to-Me were also seeing some good 200nm plus runs. Further back in the fleet, the 36

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cruising fleet was far more relaxed. Robbie Dove, skipper of Hot Ice reported: “Five-star meals for both lunch and supper... all washed down with a chilled Chardonnay – but as there are eight of us on board it isn’t much!” Dinners included roast lamb, fillet steak or dorado braais. Indeed most of the cruising yachts reported good fishing and idyllic sailing. Ten days into the race, the Izivunguvungu crew had moved up to fourth handicap place with a brisk run of 219nm. Sadly their problems were just beginning to surface though. Diesel leakage had contaminated their water supply. Then the water-maker also proved faulty. Closer to Brazil, skipper Kader Williams alerted race HQ to the problem. With the satellite positioning proving invaluable here, race director John Martin assessed Team Izivunguvungu’s plight and radioed the closest yacht, Xtra-Link, 20-miles off, to rendezvous with the thirsty crew and offer much-needed water. Xtra-Link’s skipper Dale Kushner was awarded the seamanship trophy for his sportsmanship and humanitarian contribution. But it dealt a harsh blow to Izivunguvungu’s race chances. Meanwhile the battles were continuing almost to the finish line offshore of Copacabana. Engulfed in calm water, Prodigy stalled just 20 miles from Rio, before a light dusk breeze wafted her almost to the finish. Then for seven hours she anchored against the contrary tide just 500m from the line until 7am when there was enough breeze to cross the line for a time of 15 days, 23 hours and 57 minutes. The last 20 miles had taken 14 hours. Just 24 hours later the young team on City of Cape Town crossed the line to take the prized South Atlantic Trophy. It was an emotional welcome for the Project Grael sailors. Later at the gala prizegiving, Grael team-leader Samuel Goncalves expressed his thanks. “This race has changed my life, changed our lives,” he said gesturing at his teammates. It was a sentiment echoed throughout the fleet. Sailing from Cape to Rio de Janeiro is far more than a yacht race, for many of the sailors it is a life experience not to be missed. E capetorio.heineken.com

SAIL R C YC I N T E R N AT I O N A L

BRING IT HOME

A South African skipper has been selected to lead one of the crews for the life-changing Clipper 11/12 Round the World Yacht Race. By Heather Ewing

With the 10 international yachtsmen who will lead teams in Clipper 11/12 revealed after a lengthy and rigorous selection process, the search is already underway for suitably qualiﬁed men and women to follow in their footsteps. The ninth edition of the race, which will start in 2013, will be contested by the brand new ﬂeet of specially designed 70ft yachts that are currently under construction. Skippers wishing to register their interest in applying for one of the most challenging positions in sailing should email sirrobinknoxjohnston@clipper-ventures.com.  www.clipperroundtheworld.com

Route Leg 1 4 892nm 36 days Southampton, UK

Leg 2 2 496nm 18 days

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (via Madeira)

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Leg 3 4 128nm 23 days

Cape Town, South Africa

Leg 4 3 702nm 28 days

Leg 5 6 430nm 53 days

Geraldton, Western Eastern Australian Australia port, Australia

Leg 6 4 936nm 33 days Qingdao, China

Leg 7 4 457nm 38 days

Californian port, USA

New York, USA

Leg 8 3 259nm 22 days UK

PHOTOGRAPHS TREVOR WILKINS, BRENTON GEACH

ape Town has again been honoured by being selected as one of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race’s stopovers in the forthcoming race. This will be the sixth time in eight editions that the race will have visited Cape Town. Setting off from the UK in August, the fleet should sail into Table Bay mid-October. More than 200 crew and their support look forward to the warm hospitality and reciprocity they have enjoyed at RCYC so many times in the past. For one of the skippers it will be a particularly special moment. On 6 April, South African Juan Coetzer was announced as one of the 10 elite yachtsmen who will lead teams in the eighth edition of the race established by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. Juan, 34, was born in Pretoria and moved to Cape Town when he was 18 years old, living and working here until he moved to the UK and became a training skipper with the Clipper organisation. Now he will take charge of one of the 10 stripped down 68ft racing yachts and command a crew of non-professional sailors who come from all walks of life as they compete in the gruelling 40 000-mile, 11-month race. Juan says, “It has been a lifelong dream to sail around the world, so to be selected as a Clipper Race skipper is wonderful news. A South African friend of mine, Craig Millar, was a skipper in the Clipper 05/06 Race and he knew of my passion to do this and suggested I came over to the UK and give it a try.” As he found out about the Clipper Race he moved to the UK and started working at Clipper’s HQ, first as a training mate and then as a training skipper to get the experience he would need to lead a team of sailing novices around the world. His sail training experience coupled with his racing background will make him a force to be reckoned with. And he can’t wait for Table Mountain, Lion’s Head and Signal Hill to loom into view. “I’m really looking forward to the race from Rio de Janeiro to Cape Town,” says Juan. “Especially the final approach into the bay with Table Mountain visible in the distance. There will be lots of my friends and family there to welcome us in and it will also be great to see some of the boats I used to work on. “The crews can expect a fantastic stopover in Cape Town,” he adds. “The people are extremely friendly, the food is great with wonderful steaks and delicious wine, and the city has a really good vibe to it.”

The fast crowd O

ver 65 cities bid to host the 2011/12 Volvo Ocean Race stopovers. After a rigorous selection process, Cape Town was one of the nine cities selected, and only one of four repeat stopover countries. The level of service delivery and rally of local support here are the cornerstones that keep the boats returning time again. This edition of the Volvo Ocean Race Cape Town Stopover is set to be the most exciting stopover yet, with an In-Port Race, a Pro-Am and Try Sailing on the stopover schedule. The Pro-Am, which does not count for any points, will give guests an opportunity to sail with the professional crew in three short races on Friday, 9 December. On Saturday, 10 December, the crews will then participate in one In-Port race with points counting towards their overall result. 40

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Try Sailing and Academy Team Racing both form part of this year’s Volvo Ocean Race Academy, a youth sailing initiative. The Academy Team Racing, in association with the International Sailing Federation, will run 10 team racing clinics with optimist dinghies, followed by two days of racing to support sailors at grass routes level. Try Sailing will provide opportunities for children age seven to 11 to experience sailing for the first time on Ludic training boats. This year will be the first year there will be global live television coverage of the In-Port Race and the Race Restart. Enthusiasts will be able to follow the boats closely via live tracking on the website, as well as race online against friends and the actual teams using real-life weather data in the world’s biggest online sailing community. Thousands of visitors will ﬂock to the race village to interact with the sailors and experience the

PHOTOGRAPHS RICK TOMLINSON/VOLVO OCEAN RACE, DAN ARMSTRONG PHOTOGRAPHY

The Volvo Ocean Race, the Formula One of ocean racing, will once again be returning to our shores. By Bruce Parker-Forsyth

SAIL I n t e R n At I o n A L R C YC

Above: Thousands of Capetonians line the V&A Waterfront yacht basin to bid farewell to the 2009/10 Volvo fleet. Left: A bird’s eye view of the impressive Volvo 70’s as they start Leg 2 from Cape Town to India in the 2009/10 race.

We are family

Royal Cape Yacht Club welcomes Mar Mostro

Once again RCYC has adopted Puma’s Mar Mostro for the duration of the VOR. This association gives club members direct access to the team and a number of events will be planned at the club and at the Puma base. The club has arranged some members-only exclusives, including a Puma party at RCYC on Wednesday, 7 December 2011, where they will be able to rub shoulders with Ken Read and his crew. Wednesday night racing will still take place and some lucky boat owners will have a Mar Mostro crew member sailing with them for the race. The southeaster let us down last year, but we hope to be able to run the programme this time around. Watch out for more details on the RCYC website.

VOR exhibitions and interactive experiences. (In 2008, over 900 000 people passed through the village!) Top South African event management and marketing company Worldsport has been involved with the VOR over the past 10 years. They are working closely with the Royal Cape Yacht Club to create a sailing regatta and legends evening as part of the festivities. Members will be advised of all activities as they are confirmed. E volvooceanrace.com

Route Leg 1 6 500nm 20 days Alicante, Spain

Leg 2 5 430nm 21 days

Cape Town, South Africa

Leg 3 4 600nm 21 days

Abu Dhabi, UAE

Leg 4 5 220nm 18 days Sanya, China

Leg 5 6 705nm 17 days

Auckland, New Zealand

Leg 6 4 800nm 14 days Itajai, Brazil

Miami, USA

Leg 7 3 590nm 11 days

Leg 8 1 940nm 7 days

Lisbon, Portugal

Lorient, France

Leg 9 485nm 2 days Galway, Ireland

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SAIL R C YC I N T E R N AT I O N A L

SPEED TO BURN

Following the success of the Portimão Global Ocean Race 2008/09, the second edition of the double-handed, round-the-world race for Class 40 yachts has tripled in entries and is proving to be a highly popular choice for circumnavigating, racing yachtsmen. By Oliver Dewar

“The Brazilian stopover was one of the highlights of the first race,” he confirms. “However, the small island of Ilhabella chosen for the stopover would be unable to cope with the increased size of the 2011/12 race and the fleet’s logistical demands. Punta del Este has the space and infrastructure to service a large racing fleet and the local support and enthusiasm in Uruguay has been overwhelming.” The move of the race base in Cape Town followed different circumstances: “We have been acutely aware of the recent changes in berthing availability at the RCYC and have worked closely with John Martin, commodore of the RCYC, and Steven Bentley, harbourmaster at he Global Ocean Race 2011/12 (GOR) departs from Palma, the Waterfront, who are totally committed to retaining serious offshore Mallorca, on Sunday, 25 September this year with an extremely races in Cape Town,” he explains. “It has been agreed that we will base competitive fleet for a 29 000 nautical mile (nm) lap of the the GOR fleet at the Waterfront,” Hall confirms. “This in no way changes planet split into five legs with stopovers in Cape Town, our strong link with the RCYC, which has kindly given all our sailors Wellington, Punta del Este and Charleston before the final sprint across temporary membership of the club for the stopover. The RCYC will also the North Atlantic into the Mediterranean and the finish line in Palma. be a venue for some of the yacht haul-outs and GOR functions,” he adds. Immediately after the prizegiving in Portimão following the first “We greatly look forward to the warm embrace that the club always race, GOR Race Director, Josh Hall, and his race organisation team offers, and to doing some Wednesday night racing with the members!” regrouped and began swiftly building the foundations for a second race: A further evolution since the original race has been the introducan urgency triggered by the exceptional level of enquiries from potential tion of a charity sailing programme. The Global Vision Sailing Trust is entries. Within months of officially announcing the Global Ocean Race, the an initiative that directly owes its foundation to the Cape Town stopover city of Palma had secured the rights to host the event, quickly identifying in the 2008/09 race. Piers Williams, chief executive of the Global Vision an opportunity to engage with an international event. Sailing Trust (GVST) recalls the moment: “All the skippers from the race Meanwhile, team entries rapidly signed-up for the race. By Christand members of the race organisation headed down to Simon’s Town to mas 2010, 18 double-handed teams had committed to the GOR from the meet up with the Izivunguvungu Sailing School,” says Piers, who was UK, USA, France, Holland, Belgium, the USA, New Zealand, Italy, managing a British Class 40 team in the 2008/09 race. “It turned out Germany, Ireland and South Africa – with Lenjohn and Peter van der Wel to have a profound and lasting impact on all of us,” he continues. The making a second return to the race with Ocean Warrior and Nick Leggatt mixture of dinghy racing and interacting with the Izivunguvungu and Phillippa Hutton-Squire with Phesheya-Racing confirming a place on youngsters was compelling. “We decided right then that this was a the start line. moment to seize and set up an international charity programme based With the increasing popularity of the event and a surge in growth on the extraordinary day we had spent.” The GVST programme involves of Class 40, major changes to the race format were necessary: Josh and shipping a fleet of RS Vision dinghies around the world to each stopover, his team signed a six-year contract with the Class 40 Association as following the GOR racing fleet, and running a daily sailing programme exclusive provider of round-the-world races for this rapidly expanding with underprivileged young people, involving local yacht clubs and class and the decision was made to initiate a double-handed, Class sailing associations. “It is really going to mean a lot coming back 40-only event, changing from the mixed, single-handed/double-handed, to Cape Town, which was the birth place of the charity,” adds Piers. Open 40/Class 40 format of the original race. The Global Ocean Race 2011/12 fleet will arrive in Cape Town The Leg 3 finish port was also moved from Brazil to Punta del Este, at the end of October 2011 after over 6 400nm in the Atlantic in Leg 1 Uruguay, to accommodate the from Palma, Mallorca. The fleet increased fleet size and – for Leg 1 Leg 2 Leg 3 Leg 4 Leg 5 will start Leg 2 from Cape similar reasons – the Cape 6 430nm 6 500nm 5 300nm 5 200nm 3 650nm Town to Wellington, New Town base was moved from 37 days 38 days 31 days 30 days 21 days Zealand, on Sunday, 27 the Royal Cape Yacht Club to Palma, Cape Town, Wellington, Punta del Este, Charleston, Palma, November 2011. the V&A Waterfront. Josh Mallorca RSA New Zealand Uruguay USA Mallorca explains the shift in locations:  globaloceanrace.com

Route

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PHOTOGRAPHS TREVOR WILKINS, KAI WINGENFELDER, GLOBAL OCEAN RACE

Long haul Follow Phesheya-Racing’s European campaign. By Nick Leggatt

n March 2010, Phillippa Hutton-Squire and I started racing the Class 40 Phesheya-Racing in Europe. This has been part of our preparation for the Global Ocean Race, a double-handed round the world race that starts in Mallorca in September 2011 (see p42). Our ambition is to become the first South African team to complete a double-handed racing circumnavigation and the first South African boat to complete a round-the-world race in 13 years. Our training in Europe last year saw us competing in a variety of races, from speed trials to fully crewed round the cans, to double-handed offshore racing and more, and in so doing we became the only boat to complete two Round Britain and Ireland Races in 2010. We came fourth in the double-handed Shetland Round Britain and Ireland, 26 minutes behind the winner, with Phillippa beating the next woman by nearly three days! Our biggest challenge has been trying to raise sufficient funding – whenever we are not sailing, we are working towards trying to secure backing for our project. We still have a long way to go on that score and it is sometimes difficult creating the time to promote ourselves while 44

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SAIL R o YA L C A p e R S A b R o A d R C Y C

Regatta revival? Class 40 has introduced some exciting alternative regatta formats Class 40 developed as a reaction to the escalating costs of the 50and 60ft classes and to bridge the gap between them and the smaller Mini and Figaro classes. The emphasis has been on creating a fast boat for short-handed offshore racing. The water ballast system makes them difficult to race around the buoys in the traditional way and so the French, in particular, have developed some interesting regatta formats to create crowd-pleasing inshore events to promote the class. Some of these ideas could potentially be developed to encourage fun events at clubs like Royal Cape. In Douarnenez, France, we had two days of “drag racing”-style speed trials, beam reaching between two buoys set three miles apart, and starting or finishing off a grandstand set on the end of the breakwater. A continuous live commentary was provided for the spectators ashore and the event was combined with a marine festival in the town. In two days each boat could complete as many “runs”

delivering the boat between events in the UK, France and Spain. The Class 40 rule is a fantastic development in ocean racing and has created boats that are exceptionally fast yet relatively affordable and very robust. Our boat is one of the older ones in the fleet, but it’s still competitive offshore and very reliable. In over 10 000 miles of sailing this past summer, our worst damage was a broken batten and TA Ad 210x148 4/16/10 a bent pulpit 10:55 causedAM by Page a bad 1spinnaker drop! E www.phesheya-racing.com

along the course as they liked, simply announcing their intended start time to the race committee five minutes before departure. At the end of the weekend each boat had its best runs averaged out and a winner was announced from the boat with the lowest average. At the La Chrono event in Lorient, France, we also competed in a form of time trial but in a slightly different format. For La Chrono we started between the breakwaters whenever it suited us best and headed either clockwise or anti-clockwise around Groix island, the choice being left up to the skipper. Each boat had to complete a minimum of four roundings of the island in three days, with at least one rounding per day otherwise a heavy penalty was applied. The total length of the course was about the same as a rounding of Robben Island, so it is a lot of sailing to fit into a long weekend! More than four roundings could be completed but only the fastest four counted towards the boat’s final score.

CY CMY

BEST OF BRITISH With 8 500 competitors racing over 1000 yachts in more than 43 classes, it’s easy to see why Cowes Week is one of the world’s most celebrated regattas. By Di Meek

Flying high with the Extreme 40s. The magniﬁcent America’s Cuppers BMW Oracle and Britain’s Team Origin.

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s the UK’s longest running and most successful sporting event, Cowes Week attracts spectator crowds of over 100 000. They come to revel in the non-stop shore-side festivities and exhilarating on-the-water action where races start every five minutes across two start lines to the deafening boom of cannons! Steeped in tradition and ranked among the highlights of the British summer social season, the event has been sailed in the Solent between mainland South Hampton and Cowes on the Isle of Wight every August since 1826. Olympic, America’s Cup and world champions, local and foreign royalty, the rich and famous are spotted on many a weather rail. And at the 2010 event, over 30 of South Africa’s best sailors, most of them from Royal Cape Yacht Club, were also there to spice up the contest. The bulk of the South Africans were campaigning three yachts in two different classes as a warm-up to the Rolex Commodores’ Cup when they would come together to compete as a three-boat national team a week later. They were: Windpower, a Landmark 43, owned by Phil Gutsche, skippered by Rick Nankin and specially shipped from Cape Town to Cowes for the event; Tokoloshe, a King 40, owner skippered by Michael Bartholomew and campaigned from the Hamble nearby; Jeroboam, a J109, chartered for the event and skippered by Dave Hudson with Shosholoza skipper Mark Sadler as tactician. Having dominated the Laser SB3 circuit in the UK and Ireland, Hudson and his Race Ahead crew had acquired considerable local knowledge to help bring them overall victory in the J109 one design class after eight days of superb racing at Cowes. Bartholomew and his crew on Tokoloshe also put in a solid performance having had two successful seasons racing in the Solent to take a second overall podium place in the highly competitive 31-boat IRC Class 2 fleet. Nankin and crew on Windpower, most of whom (including helmsman Mike Clarke and Gutsche) had never raced in the notoriously tricky Cowes conditions, enjoyed a steep learning curve to finish midway up the leaderboard. It’s noteworthy that Commodores’ Cup rules allowed only one professional sailor on board the smaller boats and two on Windpower. Professionals were also not permitted to steer the boat, which ruled Nankin out as helmsman and so the helm was given to Clarke for both events – a decision that paid off as Windpower was the best placed South African yacht in the 2010 Rolex Commodores’ Cup.

SAIL R o YA L C A p e R S A b R o A d R C Y C

PHOTOGRaPHS Rick Tomlinson cowes week 2010, di meek, www.lloydimages.com

The crew attempt to free Windpower’s keel from the notorious sandbanks of the Solent.

Conditions demanded an extremely high standard of sailing and Table Bay sailors had to quickly develop skills for negotiating two-knot tidal currents and learn specialised techniques to avoid the sand banks – such as sailing right into the shallow water before doing a nifty “double bump” tack away or, as famously recorded on camera, getting stuck in the “putty”, as Windpower did. There were also complex wind patterns to read, choppy waters and fleets of slower day boats to avoid, not to mention high-speed leisure craft, hydrofoil ferries, commercial shipping, and even the Queen Mary zooming through the courses! Hard to stay focused too when just to starboard current America’s Cup holders BMW Oracle with James Spithill and an all-star crew is going head to head in cut-throat America’s Cup match racing against triple Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie on Britain’s Team Origin in a new event re-enacting the original America’s Cup race… Or when a fleet of magnificent Open 60s with celebrity guests and the biggest names in ocean-racing are running under spinnaker in the annual big boat sprint around the Isle of Wight for a £10 000 charity prize… Or when the mesmerising antics of the pro-sailors on the eight Extreme 40s are displaying terrifyingly high hull-flying manoeuvres to thumping rock music and grandstand cheering crowds. Other South Africans at Cowes included: Paul Willcox on the helm of the Ker 46 Tonnerre with a few wins in the IRC Class 2 fleet; Paul Standbridge skippering the Sultanate of Oman’s giant tri-maran Majan; Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire on the Class 40 PhesheyaRacing fresh from the 2010 Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race; and loads of former South African America’s Cup Team Shosholoza sailors, designers and shore crew. Cowes itself is the Mecca of all things sailing, with a party atmosphere and entertainment programme hard to rival. Spectators six people deep crowd the shoreline to watch the starts and finishes off the historic Royal Yacht Squadron. A running commentary broadcast live by Cowes Radio and visuals beamed onto big screens ensure total sailing coverage wherever you are. The locals are oblivious to the intermittent drizzle and crowd the village streets, yacht clubs, marinas, pubs, bars and restaurants throughout the day and long into the night for the live bands, themed parties, balls and street theatre – all in the name of sailing! E www.aamcowesweek.co.uk w w w. R C Y C . C o . z A

Breaking the line For the South African campaign, the 2010 Rolex Commodores’ Cup was all about building the best teams, ﬁne-tuning the logistics and racing against world-class sailors. By Helen Bartholomew

10 in Class Three. Their Cowes practice was in one boat and they competed in another, Inspara, a J/109. Unfortunately Rick was not able to make it to Cowes, but his input and funding were vital to the campaign. Skipper Dave who also co-ordinates RaceAhead, the project for aiding South Africa’s young sailing talent, was able to ensure two of their top Laser SB3 sailors were on board. Mark Sadler, skipper of Shosholoza, the South African entry

PHOTOGRAPHS ROLEX/KURT ARRIGO

t looked like a long shot to organise the required three boats for a team entry to the Rolex Commodores’ Cup in 2010, but Phil Gutsche, Mike Bartholomew and Richard Garratt pulled it off. Eddie Warden Owen, the CEO of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, approached Mike and Rick Nankin to consider putting a team together – and a lot of time and effort later, it actually happened. The three teams consisted of a total of 37 members who all had to be housed, fed and generally looked after for the practice sailing during Cowes Week and then for the blistering hot-paced eight days of racing in the Rolex Commodores’ Cup – just over three weeks. Class One boats were only allowed two professionals; Class Two and Three, one each. At least half of the crews had to be South African citizens. This proved difficult for Mike Bartholomew’s boat, Tokoloshe, a King 40 designed by Mark Mills, as they are based in Hamble and have been campaigning in the Solent very successfully for two years. The regular crew has several professionals and many nationalities in the mix. In Class Two, Tokoloshe had to put together a new crew combination of 12, as many of her regulars were not eligible. In Class One, Phil Gutsche’s Windpower, a Landmark 43 (another Mark Mills design), had a crew of 14 – mostly from Cape Town, including Rick Nankin who skippered. But in no small undertaking, the boat was shipped over from Cape Town and back again! Rick Garratt and Dave Hudson took on the mammoth task of finding and chartering a suitable boat for their team of

w w w. r c y c . c o . z a

SaIL r o ya L c a p e r S a b r o a d r c y c

2010 Commodores’ Cup crew lists Windpower (race with 14 crew) Phil Gutsche, owner (RCYC) Rick Nankin, skipper and tactics (RCYC) Mike Clarke, steer (RCYC) Andrew Cape/Rachel Howe, navigation Gary Lyttle, main (RCYC) Iain Park-Ross, trim downwind (RCYC) Hein de Jamaer, trim upwind (RCYC in 2010, now Knysna Yacht Club) Craig Sutherland, cockpit 3 Hylton Hale, grinder/worker (RCYC) Duncan Mckechnie, pit 1 Mark Gelman, pit 2 Dave Van Niekerk, mast Nic Baigrie, mid bow (RCYC) Ken Venn, bow (RCYC)

in the previous America’s Cup, and tactician here, was able to lend a hand helping the Laser sailors adapt to big boat racing. The racing was incredibly tight and, if you analyse the results carefully, you can see how intensely each race was fought – mere seconds and minutes separate the placings, even in the longer races. Ireland, who won, had been trying for years to win this Cup, as had several others. Many crew, previously top-rated professional sailors at some point in their lives, were now racing as “non-pros”, having moved on to other careers but bringing that invaluable experience to the Cup. Although a “non-professional” status event, it was full of legitimate first-rate sailors! South Africa came seventh overall out of the 10 teams – a hard-fought-for position and one to be very proud of. The experience gained by our teams competing at this level and far from home is enormous. The camaraderie was huge, with crew staying all over Hamble, and in Cowes each team was billeted in rented houses. Cowes Week’s hectic social events were an eye-opener for the first timers as Commodores’ Cup week was a far more serious affair. The pride that came with racing in world-class company was keenly felt – so many thanks to all those who made it possible. E Commodorescup.rorc.org

Tokoloshe (race with 12 crew) David Bartholomew, boat manager (RCYC) Mike Bartholomew, skipper and helm (RCYC) Pete Selby, navigation/tactics Sean McLoughlin, main Alex Voye, cockpit Anthony Spillebeen, cockpit (RCYC) Phil Riley, cockpit Marlon Jones, cockpit (RCYC) Georgie Bartholomew, pit Lucie Jervis, pit Robbie van Rooyen, mast (RCYC) Johnathan Riceman, mid bow Craig Cossar, bow Inspara (race with 10 crew) Dave Hudson, skipper, helmsman (RCYC) Mark Sadler, tactician, main trim, helmsman (RCYC) Alaistair Shaw, inshore navigation Roy Dunster, genoa and kite trim Simon Eatwell, genoa and kite trim Oliver Dawson, genoa and kite trim Chris Garratt, pit, offshore navigation (RCYC) Dirk de Jager, pit, offshore navigation (RCYC) Wandisile Xayimpi, bow Marlon Jones, bow w w w. r c y c . c o . z a

SAIL R C Y C R O YA L C A P E R S A B R O A D

Thirty boats, representing 19 different countries, competed in the 2010 China Cup.

VICTORY IS OURS

Team Sheraton celebrate another victory.

RCYC’s Team Sheraton returns to the 2010 China Cup to successfully defend their title. By Gary Sindler and Mark Sadler

W W W. R C Y C . C O . Z A

PHOTOGRAPHS JESUS RENEDO/CHINA CUP/ THE POWER OF SPORT IMAGES

n October 2010, South Africa’s Team Sheraton, consisting of Royal Capers Ellian Perch, Mark Sadler, Martin Lambrecht, Gary Sindler, Nicholas Mace, Andy Mitchell, Guido Verhovert, Paul Willcox and Trevor Spilhaus, returned to Hong Kong to defend the 2010 China Cup International Regatta they’d won in 2009. The China Cup Regatta is a one-design event, where 30 Beneteau First 40.7 boats owned by the Chinese Sailing Federation compete. Ten boats are made available for local Chinese teams, a further 10 teams are made up of invited Beneteau agents from around the world to participate, and the final 10 are available to charter. RCYC-affiliated Team Tenacity was also there again with RCYC skipper Errol Stern and members Anthony Cassar, Clarence Hendricks, Le-Roy Rudolf, Marco Torbin, Greg Stern, Ian Coward, Mike Peper, Hans Kuijt and Dale Kushner. The regatta consisted of a distance race from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, with racing over the following three days including roundthe-buoys races (with the option of a bay race on one of the days). However, due to political pressure over starting an event in Hong Kong and ending the race in Chinese waters, the first race was cancelled. Team Sheraton used the trip delivering their boat to Shenzen to pace the stronger teams. It was soon apparent that Team Sheraton had plenty of speed and height in the windier conditions. The conditions were far trickier this year with a lot less breeze and far bigger shifts occurring during the day’s racing. Courses were mainly windwardleeward due to these unfavourable conditions. Although not having six straight wins as they had previously, Team Sheraton successfully defended their overall champion title with a substantial point lead and firm grip on the podium (four straight wins, a second place and a third place). Ultimately, they were the most consistent crew, with the strongest competition coming from the French teams. Team Tenacity finished in an entirely respectable tenth place.  2010.chncup.com

RCYC RaCing CalendaR 2011/2012 Main regattas – Western Cape circuit

DAY

JULY

Club championships RCYC rating/IRC

Match Racing

Fun PR events

Short-handed series

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

MON

TUE

WED

THU

2 PUMA Twilight & IRC Spring 3

5 Club Summer 1: Bay Race 6

3 Flag Officer's Team Race 4

1 Penny Pinchers Round 2 2 Cape Point Challenge (FBYC – RCYC) 3

FRI

SAT

SUN

3 MSC Week (PYC)

3 Club Winter 5: Bay Race 4

MON

4 MSC Week (PYC)

6 WC Match Racing Champs 7 WC Match Racing Champs 8

TUE

5 MSC Week (PYC)

WED

6 MSC Week (PYC)

9 WC Match Racing Champs 10

THU

7 MSC Week (PYC)

FRI

8 MSC Week (PYC)

SAT

9 PUMA Twilight & IRC Spring 10

7 PUMA Twilight & IRC Spring 8

8 Opening Cruise

12 Lion of Africa Ladies Day 13

10 Dassen Island Cruise

SUN

9 IRC Cans Series 1 / Club Winter 1 10

13 IRC Cans Series 2 / Club Winter 3 14

10 IRC Cans Series 3 / Club Winter 6 11

MON

TUE

WED

16 PUMA Twilight & IRC Spring 17

THU

12 PUMA Twilight & IRC Spring 13

FRI

SAT SUN

16 Kling Wines Double-handed 1 17

20 Kling Wines Double-handed 2 21

15 Harken Round Robben Island R1 16

19 Kling Wines Double-handed 4 20

MON

17 Penny Pinchers Round 1 18 Cape Point Challenge (RCYC – FBYC) 19

16 Crocs Summer Regatta 17 Crocs Summer Regatta 18 Crocs Summer Regatta 19

TUE

WED

23 PUMA Twilight & IRC Spring 24

THU

19 PUMA Twilight & IRC Spring 20

FRI

23 Spring Regatta (FBYC)

SAT

27 Club Winter 4: Bay Race 28

24 Spring Regatta (FBYC) 25 Spring Regatta (FBYC)

22 Kling Wines Double-handed 3 23

26 Club Summer 2: Bay Race 27

SUN

23 Club Winter 2: Bay Race 24

MON

TUE

WED

31 Lipton Cup

26 PUMA Twilight & IRC Spring 27

30 PUMA Twilight & IRC Spring

THU

27 Vasco da Gama start (Maputo) 28

FRI

SAT

SUN

MON TUE

Offshore events

w w w. r c y c . c o . z a

11 Dassen Island Cruise

SaIL caLendar rcyc

DAY

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

MON TUE

1 Workers’ Day

WED

1 PUMA Twilight & IRC Summer 2

THU FRI

5 Esprit de Corps

SUN

1 New Year’s Day

MON

3 Mid Summer Fling Regatta 4 Mid Summer Fling Regatta 5 Mid Summer Fling Regatta 6

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

SAT

SUN

11 Kling Wines Double-handed 6 12

10 Club Summer 5: Bay Race 11 Argus Cycle Tour

MON

TUE

WED THU

11 PUMA Twilight & IRC Summer 12

15 PUMA Twilight & IRC Summer 16

FRI

SAT SUN

14 Harken Round Robben Island R2 15

18 Club Summer 4: Bay Race 19

MON

TUE WED

SAT

PHOTOGRAPH Trevor wilkins

2 IRC Cans Series 3 & Club Autumn 3 3

8 PUMA Twilight & IRC Summer 9

7 PUMA Twilight & IRC Summer 8

6 Good Friday

9 Portugal Day Bay Race

12 IRC Cans Series 2 & Club Autumn 2 13

9 Easter Monday

16 CTSW: Warmup Twilight (TBC) 17 CTSW (TBC)

19 PPS Inter Proff. Challenge 20

16 RCYC Winter Regatta

18 CTSW (TBC)

14 IRC Cans Series 1 & Club Autumn 1 15

19 CTSW (TBC)

22 PUMA Twilight & IRC Summer 23

THU

18 PUMA Twilight & IRC Summer 19

20 CTSW (TBC) Public Holiday 21 CTSW (TBC) 22

FRI

24 Mykonos Offshore

SAT

25 Mykonos Offshore

SUN

21 Kling Wines Double-handed 5 22

24 Kling Wines Double-handed 7 25

21 Kling Wines Double-handed 8 22

26 Kling Wines Double-handed 9 27

23 Kling Wines Double-handed 10 24

MON

TUE

WED

29 PUMA Twilight & IRC Summer

THU

25 PUMA Twilight & IRC Summer 26

FRI

SAT

31 Seniors Race

SUN

28 Club Summer 3: Bay Race 29

MON

27 RSA Match Racing Champs 28 RSA Match Racing Champs 29 RSA Match Racing Champs 30

TUES

17 RCYC Winter Regatta

29 30 IRC Cans Series 4 & Club Autumn 4

The Sailing Committee is currently planning an overnight race towards the end of the year, announcements will be made through the RCYC newsletter. This calendar is available to download from www.rcyc.com. w w w. r c y c . c o . z a

2 sail rcyc social scene

seen at sea Royal Capers know how to kick back and relax on and off the water

1. The City of Cape Town arrives in Table Bay after the arduous trip across the Atlantic. 2. Admiral Koos Louw, a great supporter of RCYC and development sailing. 3. John Martin and Jeanne van Rooyen. 4. Boats rafted up off Robben Island during the Mid Summer Fling Regatta. 5. Paul van As, Kirsten Veenstra and Tracey Pels cruise aboard Maestro. 6. Phil Gutsche and Rick Nankin at Cowes Week. 7. The all-women crew on Docksafe in the Lion of Africa Ladies Race. 8. A crowded terrace at Club Mykonos. 9. Charmaine Warburton dressed for the Rio send-off party. 10. Taryn Hesse on A-L.

3 4

9 10

w w w. r c y c . c o . z a

PHOTOGRaPHS trevor wilkins, kirsten veenstra, di meek & brenton geach

SaIL r o ya L c a p e r S a b r o a d r c y c

Adventures on the high seAs Keeping track of Royal Capers abroad. By Matthew Thomas

nce again, as is usual for Royal Cape sailors, many of them were to be found sailing in numerous international events, all over the globe. Notable mentions from the last 12 months of sailing include: Harry Brehm and his crew from Southern Storm won the Wednesday evening Twilight Series and as a result were invited by Pacer Yachts to compete in the Spi Ouest regatta in France. Phillippa Hutton-Squire and Nick Leggatt Sailing Phesheya Racing, their Class 40. They were the first team entered into the Global Ocean Challenge and, until quite

PHOTOGRAPH Carlo Borlenghi, trevor wilkins

Mark Sadler, who has recently moved to Palma, was to be found all over the globe racing, including the St Barths Bucket Regatta on the 138ft ketch Rebecca (Class winner), on Highland Fling at the Palma Vela and at the Copa de Espana on a J80 with Dave Hudson.

recently, the only team with a female skipper. They’re currently in Europe competing on the highly competitive Class 40 circuit. Paul Willcox Selected as part of the Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing team that is competing in the upcoming Volvo Ocean Race, Paul has spent the last year helming the top RORC yacht Tonnerre de Breskens, a Ker 46 that dominated the UK sailing scene. Dave and Roger Hudson and RaceAhead This long-time RCYC member and his son, Roger, are the driving force behind the RaceAhead programme. This project is specifically designed to offer up-and-coming youth sailors an opportunity to compete on the international scene, primarily in the Laser SB3 class. This year saw the team – “Wadi” Xayimpi, Marlon Jones, Roger and Dave Hudson – win the 2010 Laser SB3 Nationals, against all three of the class’s ex-World Champions. Roger then teamed up with Ian Ainslie

for the 2010 SB3 Worlds and the RaceAhead/Proximo team finished second overall. Just recently, Team RaceAhead (this time helmed by Asenathi “Squirrel” Jim and with Dave Hudson ashore as the manager) competed in the 2011 Zhik SB3 Worlds and finished seventh in a fleet of over 100 yachts. With the rest of the team returning home after the event, Asenathi and Roger have stayed in Europe and are now competing in the highly technical, and Olympic classed, 470 class, with plans to use this training as a springboard for the 2016 Olympics.

Joe Haywood has been a regular on ICAP Leopard and was part of the crew for the Trans Atlantic Record. Roger Hudson has also been sailing with Ian Ainslie’s Team Proximo on the ISAF World Match Racing Circuit as well as the Volvo Cup, which comprises of five events sailed on Melges 24s, where they finished sixth. Cowes week saw many RCYC sailors competing in this prestigious event: Mike Bartholomew was there with his highly successful Tokoloshe and a mixed South African and UK crew. Rick Nankin and his Windpower team were there in force after shipping Windpower to the UK specifically for the event. Mark Sadler, Dave Hudson, Chris Garret, “Wadi “ Xayimpi, Marlon Jones, Simon Eatwell and Dirk de Jager were part of the crew on a chartered J109 that also competed and won their class with a race in hand. Looking forward, there are numerous events that will see members competing on the international stage in a variety of classes at every level. To them all, we wish them fast sailing and trust that they will return to the club with a selection of silverware. w w w. r c y c . c o . z a

SAIL RCYC PROFILE

NEXT GENERATION SAILOR Local sailor proves his worth on the international scene.

W W W. R C Y C . C O . Z A

Tonnerre helmed by Paul Willcox heads out to sea in the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland race.

“I’ve worked very hard and feel lucky to be able to make a living out of something I feel so passionate about” – Paul Willcox and his crew, including Paul as the primary helmsman, showed their mettle in hard sailing conditions prevalent for much of the race including a brutal 48kt on the nose. Not entirely new to the VOR, one of the world’s most demanding team sporting events, Paul worked with Team Russia in the 2008/09 campaign as a reserve sailor, as well as with the shore team. In joining the Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing team, he joins

some of the most well respected sailors in ocean racing, including: Skipper Ian Walker, navigator Jules Salter, watch captain Craig Satterthwaite, Simon Fisher, bowman Justin Slattery, Wade Morgan and Emirati stars, Adil Khalid and Butti Al Muhairi. They are currently undergoing a multi-continent training and testing programme that covers sail testing in New Zealand, navigation and weather training in North America, and sailing in Abu Dhabi.

Follow Paul and team at www.abudhabivolvooceanrace.ae for all the VOR action.

PHOTOGRAPH RICK TOMLINSON

ormer South African “Sailor of the Year” and Royal Cape Yacht Club member Paul Willcox has been announced as an under 30s crew member for the Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing team, the experienced United Arab Emirates entry in the 2011 Volvo Ocean Race (VOR). Clause 6.1.3 in the VOR’s Notice of Race states: “For all legs and in-port races, a boat shall have on board at least three crew members, not including the Media Crew Member, who shall be born on or after 1 September 1980.” The rule has been changed to include a third person under 30 for this edition, making it possible for more young sailors to be involved. Aged 28, Paul has most recently been involved with the successful campaign of the keelboat Tonnerre De Breskens 3. The Jason Ker designed 46-footer was created to be highly competitive both inshore and off, and the crew proved their capability by winning both RORC inshore and offshore championships for Class Zero in her ﬁrst season. Paul helmed Tonnerre, which went on to become the 2010 Royal Ocean Racing Club Boat of the Year. The Ker 46 was winner of Class Zero of the Sevenstar 1 802-mile Around Britain and Ireland Race by a massive margin of nearly two days! Owner/skipper Piet Vroon

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