Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett
The Vasco da Gama Race has a reputation for being tough and unrelenting, but in 1987 that changed as the race was downwind ALL the way.
This is what I wrote as an introduction to the report in SAILING Mag: “Any crew sailing the Wilbur Ellis Vasco Da Gama Race for the first time must have wondered why it has been dubbed the “acid test of seamanship” and regularly referred to as the toughest in the country. If any race could be dubbed a milk-run, this was it. In fact someone dubbed it the “Vasco Pyjama Party”.
It went something like this: across the start line (in less than 10 knots of wind), round the southern breakwater at Durban’s harbour entrance, hoist the spinnaker and settle down for a gentle downhill slide (at approximately 20 knots) all the way to East London. It was almost as simple as that.”
And very close it was too at the finish. Roy Close’ s ‘Close Again’ skippered by Terry Clarence sneaked into East London at 02h13 hrs, eight minutes ahead of ‘Warrior’ skippered by Ernie Shaw, with ‘Sensation’ skippered by Neil Bailey four minutes later, and ‘Hot Touch’, a Farr 38 a further four minutes behind. It was an incredible finish. After 260 miles of racing, sixteen minutes separated the first four boats, with the first three being L.34’s.
READ TWO REPORTS HERE:
