“Talking Sailing” From My Archives. The 30 Square Lipton Era – It’s A Wrap

by Richard Crockett

Today I will wrap up the 30 Square Metre era of the Lipton Cup, but before doing that I will briefly cover the final contest in 1973 which was held on Table Bay.

At the Mayor’s Reception during the previous contest in Durban it was sportingly announced that the leading Cape boat would name this year’s Lipton Cup waters. Not unexpectedly ‘Tarpon’ (SBYC) nominated Table Bay, from 9 – 13 April.

The wind gods were on the side of the sailors for this contest as it was reported to have had the “best Lipton weather I have ever experienced” as stated by John Waller.

‘Sunmaid’ (HYC) boosted the fleet to eight for what was to be the final contest in 30-Square metre yachts.

Ultimately Jimmy Whittle lifted the Lipton Cup for the RNYC, with the Point Yacht Club a close second and Henley Midmar third – the top three being Durban yachts despite sailing on Cape waters.

Race 1
A steady 15 knot south-easter provided what appeared to be a pretty lack-lustre race with few position changes. ‘Sunrose’ took the gun, followed by ‘Trickson II’, ‘Tintomara’, ‘Yvette’, ‘Tarpon’, ‘Hjalmaren’, ‘Sunmaid’, ‘Mariquita’.

Race 2
A patchy south-easter of 10-knots gave this race some needle with the lead changing several times.

On the run down for the beat to finish, ‘Sunrose’ had spinnaker trouble, allowing ‘Tintomara’ and ‘Yvette’ to slip past. On the beat home, ‘Sunrose’, ‘Tintomara’ and ‘Yvette’ battled it out together while ‘Trickson II’ went inshore and closed the gap to finish a mere five seconds behind ‘Sunrose’, followed by ‘Yvette’, ‘Tintomara’ and ‘Tarpon’ . All the above finished within two minutes of the winner. Then followed ‘Mariquita’, ‘Sunmaid’, ‘Trickson II’.

Race 3
In a varying 5 – 10 knot south-easter, ‘Tarpon’ and ‘Hjalmaren’ engaged in a luffing match to the first buoy. ‘Tarpon’ led the whole race and happily found that the last leg was a fetch, not a beat home. ‘Trickson II’ was disqualified from the race.

Race 4. Wind: North-west. 4-10-knots and patchy.
This was an unexciting race in a 4 – 10 knot north-wester. After a hard final beat between ‘Tarpon’ and ‘Yvette’, covering each other too closely, allowing ‘Trickson II’ to slip between them.

Race 5
This was a very light wind race with 3-knots from the north at times, dropping to nothing at times. From the start all the yachts except ‘Tarpon’ and ‘Sunrose’ went inshore towards the docks and benefited greatly.

On the last leg of the first triangle, everyone drifted along with spinnakers sagging, but at the last buoy a stiff south-wester came through and everyone went spanking home on a fetch, with ‘Tintomara’ taking the gun from ‘Trickson II’.

‘Sunrose’s’ Winning Crew Were: Jimmy Whittle (skipper); Arne Kode; Ronnie Kode; Joe Harris & Don Pfotenhauer.

Conclusion & Statistics
This brought an end to the 30-Square era which produced some interesting statistics.

• Royal Natal took 8 victories in this period followed by Zeekoevlei YC with 4, Royal Cape YC with 3, Point YC and Clube Naval Lourenco Marques with 2 each – and single victories by Henley Sailing Club, Redhouse Yacht Club and Hermanus Yacht Club.

• In 22 contests there were 13 different winning skippers.

• Wilfred Hancock won 6 contests, all for the Royal Natal Yacht Club.

• Noel Horsfield won three times, with Sonny Thomas and Jimmy Whittle winning twice each.

• Cryril Warne was the most successful crewman having been in the winning crew 8 times. Joe Phillips followed him with 7.

• ‘Mariquita’ was the most successful boat with 5 wins followed by Rapid, ‘Trickson II’ and ‘Yvette’ with three wins each.

• As an aside, there is a delightful story about Wilfred Hancock, a gentleman who was highly respected by his peers. It goes like this:

On one occasion when he was practising with ‘Mariquita’ on Durban harbour in a stiff South Westerly wind his for’d hand could not get the spinnaker down and they were reaching fast towards the wharf near Cato Creek. He repeated politely to his crew: “I said drop the spinnaker – why can’t you get it down?” To which his crew replied: “We can’t, its F – – ked! Hancock then uttered his most famous words: “Well unf- – k it then!” ‘Mariquita’ managed to avoid the wharf, but after this incident a completely new word “Unhancock” was heard remarkably frequently by crews from their skippers.