COMPETITIONS
Story by Bryan Jooste Photos by Kappie
K
ING Neptune was much more forgiving in 2021 than he was the previous two years, which allowed everyone four days of hard fishing off Sodwana during the 2021 OET. It was a welcome taste of freedom after the last two years of hardships on and off the water. Early in Februar y 2021 Nico Zaayman, Chairman of MDSAA, set the goal of making the OET bigger, better and more exclusive than ever before, without losing the heart and soul of this prestigious event. The tournament committee came to the party with new radical changes to the points structure and prize allocations. Marlin release points were dropped from 600 to 200 per release, sailfish dropped to 50 points and a multiplication factor came into play for more than one billfish and species released per day. Gamefish caught on 10kg line would receive double points, and those caught on 37kg line one point per kilogram. The 10kg and 37kg line classes would be scored separately for overall points, and prizes would also be allocated separately Mercur y brought two 150hp motors to the competition as the prize for the boat with the most combined points between 10kg and 37kg line classes. They would also be crowned the overall winners of the competition. All this put the OET in a different league with three top prizes for the week. Total cash prizes for the week came to R460 000 which was divided between the top five teams in each category.
26 • SKI-BOAT January/February 2022
