“Talking Sailing” From My Archives. Stormy – the Final Vivid Race-Winner

by Richard Crockett

In this final piece on Kees Bruynzeel and his yachts, ‘Stormy’ took him to third spot across the line and on handicap in the 1971 race, and was bettered in 1973 as she brought him overall honours.

In this editorial he describes how she was built, and the specifications too, but what one does need to factor in to that fine 1973 Rio Race victory was the fact that Bruynzeel was not well as he had suffered two heart attacks, and Doctors advised against him doing the race. Instead he hired a nurse as a cook for ‘Stormy’ and went racing!

“l took a qualified nurse, Diana, as cook, two excellent watch captains ” Hutch” and Arthur Holgate, a crew of four very experienced men and most important followed the advice of the weather specialist at the club literally! It brought us on a course far north of the rhumb line, but promising more wind.

“And it worked.

“The first week we did more miles than any of our 41 competitors but, measured to Rio, there were four or five yachts ahead of us. Notwithstanding that we stuck to the course and when we reached the island of Trindade which we had to leave to port, we were well ahead of the whole fleet. We gave the island a wide berth and kept our lead for the last 780 miles of the race to Rio.

“We arrived after 21 days and 12 hours with a good margin”.

READ IT ALL HERE:  Pages from 1980 02 – SA Yachting – OCR