It’s Going to Be A Shoot-out

All pics by Matt du Toit

The final day of the Lipton Challenge Cup contest has dawned with the stark reality that there are simply only two boats in the mix to lift the coveted Lipton Cup in victory. Unless of course miracles occur on the race course today!

So, there will be a shoot-out between the overnight overall leader, Royal Natal Yacht Club and the runners-up, Walvis Bay Yacht Club, in the two scheduled races today. It’s a winner takes all day – and it’s a day in which we will see intense competitive racing between these two with little, maybe even no quarter given by either. With luck the races will be spectacles themselves, which will ultimately become legendary in the annuls of Lipton Cup history, as was last year’s final race in which the overall winner was determined in the final 100 metres of the final race!

But, all the above assumes that there will be wind, and enough wind in which to stage fair races, as the weather forecast is looking a little “iffy”.

Not only will the wind and weather dictate how things pan out on the race course, but so too will other competitors who have so far just not been able to break in to the top two, and who still feel they have the talent and ability to steal some limelight and raise their own overall positions.

And the man who dictates and orchestrates the on-water activities is the Race Officer, Bruce Keytel, who so far has done a spectacular job under trying circumstances.

One team who will definitely be looking to up their game and snatch victory in the final race of the contest will be the Aeolians Club team who have won the final race in both of the last two contests, and who set victory in the last race this year as one of their goals. Can they do it? Well, we all have to wait for that answer.

The only given we have, is that the Lipton Cup contest will be sailed either off Durban or in Walvis Bay, Namibia next year.