“Talking Sailing” From My Archives. Da Gama Race Photo-Finish

The pic that piqued a lot of interest . The closest finish ever in the Vasco da Gama Race from Durban to East London. ‘Shaya Moya’ skippered by Brian Tocknell just pipped ‘Spirit of Appletiser I’ skippered by Chris Bonnet to the finish line. ‘Spirit of Appletiser I’ was the overall handicap winner.

by Richard Crockett

On Saturday I posted some Vasco da Gama Race info with a pic of the extremely close finish between ‘Shaya Moya’ and ‘Spirit of Appletiser I’ – just seconds after 265nm of racing.

It created a major amount of interest and comment, so there’s no better time than the present to reproduce the report of that race in 1985 as written in SA Yachting magazine.

So many of the people depicted in the pics are still around, with some really young crew aboard ‘Shaya Moya’ who were doing their military training at the time. One being Anthony Spillebean who is the Race Director for the next Cape to Rio Race.

In that pic of Shaya Moya the crew are, L-R: Glen Saunders; Steve Rogers; Chris Binnington; Tony Cunningham; Dave Heath; Jimmy Melville; Nancy Pierce-Jones and Brian Tocknell. In the front are Neil Tocknell and Anthony Spillebean.

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE:  1985 06 – SA Yachting – 000055 – OCR

This years Vasco da Gama Race from Durban to East London starts at 11h00 on Sunday 16 May.

The fleet can be tracked via YB Tracking HERE

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