Sailing Magazine
By Richard Crockett
This race has always had a special place in my heart which is why I follow it closely every year when not involved.
This years race was a blockbuster for two reasons – the first being almost ideal weather, and the second being the incredibly close finish between two line honours contenders, being ‘Regardless 2’ and ‘CFM II’.
Just 3 seconds separated these two on the finish line – the closest finish in the 55 year history of this 260 nautical mile dash down South Africa’s Wild Coast.
The next closest finish was 41 years ago in 1985 when Brian Tocknell’s ‘Shaya Moya’ – a 40-footer designed by Miller & Whitworth and Chris Bonnet’s ‘Spirit of Appletiser’ – a Petersen 33, converged on the finish line almost neck-and-neck. Just 13 seconds separated them – with line honours going to ‘Shaya Moya’ and the overall handicap honours to ‘Spirit of Appletiser’.
With ten entries and nine starters, and a very eclectic range of boats, this always had the makings of an interesting race. What fascinated me was the fact that there were four L34s competing – the most for many, many years – with an all-women crew sailing aboard ‘Money Penny’. Back in the day L34s dominated the race in great numbers, all with top-class crews too.
One ALWAYS has to take a very close look at the weather for this race as the wind direction and strength play a key role in determining tactics. This year a south-wester at the start, clocking round to the north east late on the first day is what dreams are made of – and the makings of a fast race. While no records were broken it was still a fast race.
The current was also doing the right thing, although the key racing boats did make a long foray seaward to be in its core – some almost 60nm off the coast. But that’s what one has to do to take full advantage of the fast south-flowing Agulhas current and the free miles it offers.
One of the smallest boats in the fleet, ‘Aweh’ at just 32-foot on the waterline, was furthest out almost all of the race until she altered course to close the finish line. Of the finishers at the time of writing, she had sailed the most distance – which has hardly helped her overall on handicap as he finished third both over the line and on handicap.
The two key protagonists in the line honours duel sailed parallel courses until daybreak after the first night when ‘Regardless 2’ went inshore and ‘CFM II’ stayed out. It was only with about 18nm left to race that their courses crossed for the first time, and that’s when their battle really commenced. ‘Regardless 2’ wore the line honours crown for the bulk of the race and had about a 1.5nm advantage over her rival, but as they closed ‘CFM II’ appeared to have better speed and chased down that gap all the way to the finish line – just missing line honours by three seconds.
After the first four boats had finished the wind switched to the south-west, leaving the balance of the fleet a very long, hard and wet slog into the finish.
This race has finally embraced two-handed racing, with two entrants in that division – ‘Free Spirit’ being an L34 and ‘Zephyr’ being an L36. Sadly ‘Free Spirit’ lost all steering on the first night and had to retired. She also required the services of the NSRI who were quick to respond to her plight.
This is a great race which requires a concerted and sustained effort to encourage bigger fleets in the future.
Results so far (cut-off time being 16h00 today – 26 June)
Line Honours
1 Regardless 2 – Peter Blofield – 34 hours – 25 minutes 44 seconds
2 CFM II – Nigel Milln – 34 hours 25 minutes 47 seconds
3 Aweh – Dale Kushner – 38 hours 30 minutes 38 seconds
4 Adios – John Tudehope – 40 hours 42 minutes 02 seconds
ORC Handicap
1 Regardless 2
2 CFM II
3 Aweh
4 Adios
