Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett
The very valuable assistance of the Navy is often mentioned in dispatches pertaining to the Lipton Cup. In recognition of their services the City of Durban awarded the local naval base S.A.S. lnkonkoni the “Freedom of the City”. What a grand gesture.
Reporting on the event then was Bianca Lavies who lamented the fact that they do not let women, reporters or photographers, on their guardships!
The name of Wilfred Hancock has, for several previous Lipton contests been at the forefront of all reports, so it hardly came as a surprise that he, with ‘Mariquita’, won S.A.’s most valuable sporting trophy for the fifth time last year. No other individual skipper has ever achieved that feat in the history of the contest.
So it was hardly surprising that he won again this year – scoring another “Grand Slam”- or winning convincingly in every single one of the five races.
As was usual there was much speculation and banter as to who may lift the Cup. ‘Sun Rose’, skippered by David Cox for the Point Yacht Club, had new Ted Hood sails and had been doing well, winning the recent Durban off-shore series closely from Wilfrid Hancock.
‘Tarpon’ (FBYC) had David Abromowitz on the helm, a man with many years crewing experience, but his first time as a skipper in the Lipton Cup.
Basil Joyce, South Africa’s former Sharpie king, took the helm of ‘Tintomara’ (SANSA) and a brand-new skipper of ‘Sunmaid’ (HYC) was Colin Bowley, her new part-owner.
Dinghy man, Bob Nuttall of Durban, was also a new Lipton Cup skipper, at the helm of ‘Avocet’ for the Zululand Yacht Club.
Then there were the old hands at the game: Wilfrid Hancock (‘Mariquita’ – RNYC) the defender, and Ronnie Chedburn (‘Yvette’ – RCYC); Stan Moffat (‘Sea Swallow’ – BYC), Hamish Campbell (‘Hjalmaren’ – ISC); Bill Boulton (‘Rapid’ -HMYC); Hoogie van Hoogstraten (‘Trickson II’ – ZVYC).
Thus the fleet consisted of 11 yachts, and as reported by SA Yachting magazine, was the full compliment of South African Thirty Squares. I have not yet been able to ascertain what happened to the 12 yacht, ‘Chiquita’.
Race 1. Wind was a very light easterly. Square course of three mile legs, starting to windward.
This was one of the longest Lipton Cup races as the last boat crossed the finishing line well after sunset.
First a 15-minute postponement through lack of wind. Then slowly at the gun, the fleet trickled across the line. ‘Hjalmaren’ first, followed by ‘Yvette’, with the beat to the first mark taking 2½ hours.
‘Mariquita, who was well back at the start, had made up a lot and was the first to round the mark, followed 1½ minutes later by ‘Yvette’ who was followed two minutes later by ‘Tintomara’. Next were ‘Hjalmaren’, ‘Tarpon’ and ‘Sun Rose’ who were close.
The next leg took less than an hour. ‘Mariquita’ increased her lead on ‘Yvette’ by seven minutes. ‘Tintomara’ was still third. ‘Tarpon’ was fourth.
And then the brightly-coloureds spinnakers went up. ‘Mariquita’ continued increasing her lead and was 12 minutes ahead of ‘Yvette’ at the next and last mark.
On the final run ‘Tarpon’ managed to gain two places, to finish second, approximately nine minutes behind ‘Mariquita’.
‘Yvette’ was third followed by ‘Tintomara’, ‘Hjalmaren’, ‘Sun Rose’, Sunmaid, ‘Trickson II’, ‘Sea Swallow’, ‘Rapid’ and ‘Avocet’.
Race 2. Light easterly wind. windward/leeward course (two legs of six miles each).
‘Mariquita’ drew ahead soon after the start and was leading at the first mark by 2½ minutes from ‘Yvette’ closely followed by ‘Tarpon’. Next was ‘Sun Rose’, ‘Hjalmaren’ and ‘Tintomara’.
On the run back to the finish the first three yachts were extremely close, providing a breath-taking finish, ‘Mariquita’ leading ‘Yvette’ by only 12 seconds. ‘Tarpon’ followed nine seconds later. ‘Sun Rose’ finished fourth, followed by ‘Tintomara’, Sun Maid, ‘Trickson II’, ‘Hjalmaren’, ‘Rapid’, ‘Sea Swallow’ and ‘Avocet’.
Race 3. Wind 10-14 knots NNE. Small triangle, 2½ miles each leg, to be rounded twice.
All boats bunched round the eastern mark at the start, but then spread out on the beat that followed with ‘Mariquita’ taking the first mark, 20 seconds ahead of ‘Yvette’ who was followed by ‘Sunmaid’, ‘Hjalmaren’ and ‘Tintomara’.
At the next mark ‘Mariquita’ and ‘Yvette’ were so close that they rounded it at the same time, but ‘Mariquita’ again drew 35 second ahead on the run that followed. She increased her lead till she crossed 3 min. 50 sec. ahead of ‘Yvette’.
Among the other yachts there were three keen runs for the finish. ‘Hjalmaren’ and ‘Tintomara’ were a close third and fourth followed by ‘Sun Rose’ and ‘Sunmaid’. ‘Tarpon’ finished seventh. ‘Trickson II’ and ‘Rapid’ also had a close run for the line, which gave ‘Trickson II’ an eighth and ‘Rapid’ a ninth. Next was ‘Avocet’ who was not last as in the other race, but had managed to keep ‘Sea Swallow’ behind her throughout.
Race 4. Wind 10 knots north-easterly. Course windward/leeward, 3¼ miles each leg, twice to be sailed.
‘Tintomara’ led the fleet across the start line followed by ‘Mariquita’, ‘Hjalmaren’, ‘Avocet’ and ‘Tarpon’. ‘Sun Rose’ retired after having been luffed on to the guardship by ‘Avocet’. After the first beat the first three boats were close in rounding the windward mark.
‘Mariquita’ was first, 25 seconds ahead of ‘Tintomara’ and ‘Hjalmaren’. Following were ‘Tarpon’, ‘Yvette’, ‘Sunmaid’, ‘Trickson II’, ‘Rapid’, ‘Avocet’ and ‘Sea Swallow’.
On the run that followed ‘Hjalmaren’ came through to within 50 yards of ‘Mariquita’, who was ahead of ‘Hjalmaren’ by only 32 seconds at the next mark. ‘Tintomara’ rounded 1 min. 13 sec. later, followed by ‘Tarpon’, ‘Yvette’, ‘Sunmaid’, ‘Avocet’, ‘Rapid’, ‘Trickson II’ and ‘Sea Swallow’. ‘Hjalmaren’, however, dropped back to fourth on the beat.
Again the first boats were close at the windward mark. ‘Mariquita’ leading ‘Tintomara’ by only 15 seconds, followed by ‘Tarpon’ and ‘Hjalmaren’ who were five seconds apart. Next were ‘Yvette’, ‘Sunmaid’, ‘Avocet’, ‘Rapid’, ‘Trickson II’ and ‘Sea Swallow’.
‘Mariquita’ increased her lead on the last run to win by 2 min. 37 sec. from ‘Tintomara’. ‘Tarpon’ was third and ‘Hjalmaren’ fourth. Following were ‘Yvette’, ‘Sunmaid’, ‘Avocet’, ‘Rapid’, ‘Trickson II’ and ‘Sea Swallow’.
Race 5
At last the wind that the competitors had been waiting for all week arrived, a 22 mph (19 knots) south-westerly. The course, the small triangle. 2¼ mile each leg. to be rounded twice.
The first leg was a reach. ‘Mariquita’, ‘Sun Rose’, ‘Hjalmaren’ and ‘Yvette’ started on the leeward side of the line. ‘Rapid’ was recalled and returned to restart.
‘Mariquita’ tried her spinnaker, but took it down. ‘Sun Rose’ was the first to get hers up followed by ‘Tarpon’, who gained three place doing so. ‘Mariquita’ was first round the first mark, closely followed by ‘Yvette’, ‘Tarpon’ and ‘Hjalmaren’ all very close. ‘Tintomara’ came through on the beat, to round the next mark second followed by ‘Yvette’. The first three boats stayed in that order for the rest of the race.
‘Rapid’ sailed her best race in the series, finishing fifth behind ‘Tarpon’ who had a difficult time. Her runner had broken as had her jib block. Her crew had their hands full hanging on to it and pulling the mast back. David Abromowitz, ‘Tarpon’s’ skipper still today vividly remembers that race and recounts it with enthusiasm.
And so Wilfrid Hancock equalled his fantastic record of 1958, winning all five races for the Lipton up. He had now won the cup five times in ‘Mariquita’ and once (in 1958) in ‘Sunmaid’.
One would have expected all the attention to have been on Hancock and ‘Mariquita’, but Jimmy Whittle’s ‘Snowgoose’, one of many spectator craft stole the show as his wife, Doreen, had been caught in the mainsheet just before the start of the final race, and went overboard. With her sails flapping ‘Snowgoose’ went full astern to collect her – wet, shocked, but unhurt. An interesting aside to this incident was that a spectator craft, at the time she was in the water, was busy hauling in a shark while another fin circled!
‘Snowgoose’, earlier in the week made front page news in all the national newspapers as she had been under fire for 10 minutes from the Police force who were practising shooting at the range next to the mouth of the Umgeni River. ‘Snowgoose’, interested only in the racing, had wandered into the line of fire! Three bullets hit her, one of going through her hull just above the waterline, one splintering the companion way and one hitting the boom. Fortunately no one was hurt.
‘Mariquita’s’ winning crew were: Wilfrid Hancock (skipper); Lofty Courtman; Cyril Warne & Joe Phillips.
READ “Ten Minute Terror for Yacht Crew” HERE: 1966 07 07 – mercury – ten minute terror – national library _Redacted2
