Sailing Magazine
12th / 13th April at Fishhoek Beach Sailing Club
This turned out to be a wonderful event with some excellent ‘calls’ by the race committee. I think everybody underestimates the amount of work that goes into organising an event like this. Generous sponsorship once again by Sturrock shipping enabled FHBSC to donate over R 20,000 of our entry fees to the NSRI. The NSRI were on standby on both Saturday and Sunday and if you saw how quickly that the wind got up on Monday you will know that we would need them in an emergency – many thanks to the NSRI and also those other rubber Duck and rescue boat owners who assisted.
With the unseasonal heat wave and a ‘High’ hanging over Cape Town all the weather forecasts pointed towards no wind at all on Saturday. The race committee made an early decision to run the race on Sunday when the forecast looked more promising. There were no complaints as False Bay looked like a mirror on Saturday.
In spite of a northerly wind being forecast for Sunday the race got underway just after 10 o’clock in a very light southerly which gradually swung towards the North East. Progress to the lighthouse and to Miller’s point was painfully slow. The Commodore of Fishhoek beach sailing club, Caroline Hutchinson and Gail Petrie were first round Roman Rock Lighthouse but then headed off back to the Philippines and ran out of wind in the middle of the bay. The race was shortened at the Millers point mark and Mark & Sarah Obree were first round, with Gideon Scott (making a welcome return to Hobie Sailing) snapping at his heels. Gordon Nel & Annelies Slabbert, another sailor that we have not seen for some time, were close behind followed by Klaas de Rooy and Suzanne Morton. As you can see from the results event turned out to be a Hobie 14 benefit however it was Dave Power who was the first Hobie 14 around Millers point with the eventual winner Jimmy Cairns far back.
Halfway down the returning leg to Roman Rock Lighthouse the predicted NW wind came through strongly enough to ensure that everybody was double trapezing on the way back. We would never have guessed that this would happen. Jimmy Cairns made up miles on Dave Power with Jack Hartland’s challenge ending in a spectacular capsize just off the lighthouse. The ‘Old Sea dog’ Klaas de Rooy managed to get by all the opposition on the way back to Fishhoek but was very worried by the proximity of Gideon Scott as he came up to the beach so much so that he landed 400 m down the beach and told Suzanne to ‘RUN’. Sure enough Suzanne beat Gideon by some 30 seconds – a team effort. Andrew Rissik sailed with Chantelle and it was good to see that they were still talking to each other at the end.
The Tigers had a subdued day with Allan Lawrence just beating Richard Goldstein back to the beach. Poor Mark Kopel & Julian Power came all the way down from Joburg for the event only to think that they were back at the Vaal Dam with the wind conditions and to make matters worse they ended up dead-heating with Constantin Hatzilambros and Jurgen Fleiss. Next time Mark get a runner like Suzanne.
There were a couple of well-known dinghy sailors around and they were very impressed with the Hobie vibe and organisation.
There were no protests in spite of our race officer starting the races according to Mozambican rules instead of the ISAF ones.
Top Ten Finishers were:
