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Pictures from Trevor Wilkins
Race report by Trygve Roberts Results
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| Fling Regatta (3rd to 5th February, 2012) by Trygve Roberts
"Yankee two five niner, decimal zero zero eight - bearing one seven zero degrees - mark layer - copy please - Fleets Alpha, Bravo and Charlie your course for this morning is Tee Four, repeat Tee Four - starting ten hundred hours - repeat 10 hundred hours - breeze steady from the south east at one seven zero degrees - note fleet Alpha distance to first mark is one decimal seven nautical miles - fleets Bravo and Charlie distance to mark is one decimal three nautical miles - it's a beautiful day in Cape Town for some boat racing - racing will start on time" ... all this in an American drawl repeated frequently on VHF channel six by Irvine Laidlaw's international Race Officer, Peter Craig, which had many skippers scratching heads trying to unravel the constant stream of instructions and information coming from the bridge boat in an unfamiliar format and not being helped much by wind in the microphone, which blurred and distorted much of the sound. After a few races most of us got the hang of it. The inaugural Fling Regatta in 2011 proved to be a great success. Lord Irvine Laidlaw put some sparkle into the RCYC summer sailing programme by donating generously. Rick Nankin took charge of organizing and that combination of money and local sailing experience, combined with exceptionally good weather (in the form of three consecutive days of moderate westerlies), produced a fabulous regatta. Roll on 2012 and the second Fling Regatta appeared on the calendar in exactly the same slot. Initially entries were slow to come in, but with lots of prompting and cyber promo bulletins being put out, eventually entries reached critical mass reaching forty two by the cut-off date. Most of the big name boats were entered, and it was good to see Ballyhoo Too back on the water under Geoff Meek's experienced hand, but there were one or two notable absentees. The biggest fleet was the Div 1 Club fleet (14) which also hosted the three sports boats in their division, followed by IRC (10) and Div 2 Club (9). This year's Fling Regatta took an interesting turn when all the boat owners and partners were invited to dinner at Lord Laidlaw's palatial home in Noordhoek. The estate and especially the grounds I could best describe as living in Kirstenbosch Gardens. It is jaw dropping in it's grandeur. At the dinner, guests were introduced to the principal race officer, Peter Craig, from the USA, who in his easy going and amiable style, informed everyone that dialogue with competitors on the radio is discouraged. In other words - LISTEN! The event kicked off on the Friday afternoon with race one scheduled to start at 17h00. There was one small problem though - a 35 knot south easterly, which turned Table Bay into a seething mass of white spindrift. Only five yachts ventured out , only to be turned back with a "race abandoned" announcement from (a suitably chastised by the Cape Doctor) PRO. Needless to say the bar did a roaring trade that evening. The next day, the good Doctor was more or less spent and sent the last bit of energy onto the eastern corner of the bay to produce a moderate south easterly, which made for very good sailing conditions. Racing started exactly on time (applause!) with the first race of the day being a windward/leeward with a downwind finish. After the first leg the weather mark was moved 5 degrees to accommodate a windshift. Nankin immediately took charge of the IRC fleet with a definitive win. In Club Div 1, it was the Fast 42 Maestro (Ankie Roux) which sailed a good race to take the bullet. Club Div 2 had a good tussle with the L26 Esmeralda (Bernard Farmer) taking the honours. Race 2 took place back to back with the format changing to a triangle/sausage with a downwind finish. The breeze was starting to go light and get shifty. The first reach became unsailable with a spinnaker, leaving the second reach as a one leg beat. The entire course had turned into a shambles after the wind shifted 25 degrees, but there was nothing the PRO could do about it at that stage. At least there were no holes and the final leg did see boats carrying spinnakers, although it was a very tight reach. These legs suited some boats better than others and the J133 Speed of Yellow (Patrick Holloway) came out tops in the IRC fleet, with the Farr 38 Rockstar (Brian Gardener) and Team Escape (L26 - Rodney Tanner) pulling off wins in Div 1 and 2 respectively. After a 30 minute wait for the slower boats to finish the breeze died down to 2 or 3 knots. The PRO decided to move the entire course closer to the beach near Milnerton, where a steady 12 knot south easterly was still blowing. I will give him full marks for enthusiasm, professionalism and energy for the task at hand. There was no time wasting. The result of that was three good length races squeezed into a day where it looked from the outset unlikely to happen with huge zones of flat calm all around the race course. No doubt sound local advice from Rick Nankin had much to do with the sensible placing of the courses. Everyone raved about Race 3, except your scribe, who experienced a main halyard failure just after the start, and having to retire from the race. Conditions were perfect and the breeze direction and strength held true for the whole race. Nankin had the Landmark 43 on song again to take the top spot in the IRC fleet with Necessity (Beneteau 34.7 - David Booth) and Team Escape (L26) winning Div 1 and 2. Back at the clubhouse, amidst some good blues being belted out by a guitarist/singer at the pub and loads of good food/cold beer being consumed by happy sailors, the crowds enjoyed a beautiful, warm sunset - in complete contract to the raging south easter just 24 hours earlier. The forecast for the final day's racing was bleak, with hardly any wind in the offing, but somehow Table Bay, inevitably seems to come up with some breeze. The temperature in the city would reach a soggy 39C by the afternoon, but by 09h30 the fleet were all heading down to the start area set off Milnerton beach in a gentle, but steady south easterly. Once again the windward/leeward format was selected and those of us in sports boats could palpably heard to groan as the sporties have no chance of podium places unless they can plane on W/L courses. A very healthy level of competition was playing itself out amongst the sports boats (2 x Pacer 27's and 1 x Melges 24) with very close finishing times. With a large ship parked half a mile upwind of the bridge boat, several boats came badly unstuck when the breeze faded to almost nothing in the lee of the ship. This race was also designated to be have either the owner or a lady helming, which made for a nice, easy going vibe on the water. The 5th and final race took place after a one hour delay and a complete shift of course with the start near Granger Bay. This race was scheduled as a medium distance race which was started in very light breeze from the WSW. It was slow going for most of the boats in all the fleets except possibly, the Corby 49 Cape Fling, which was going really well. Most competitors were surprised when the race was not shortened, but Peter Craig stuck to his guns and the next windward/leeward leg had to be sailed as well. Inevitably (local knowledge might have been better in this case) the breeze sank away to a hushed calm with only some of the IRC fleet having finished, when he pulled the N over X and announced the race was abandoned. That is always a bitter pill to swallow when one has spent two hours in light breeze and sweaty clothes coaxing every last bit of speed out of the boat. But then again, that's sailboat racing for you! There were some surprising results in the IRC fleet with the usual jockeys not at the top. Notably not on top of the list was the Farr 38 (A-L) and the Landmark 43 Windpower. Irvine Laidlaw's Corby 49 Cape Fling had to be content with a 2nd place behind Gordon Kling's IMX 40 Lobelia who took top honours in the IRC division. In the hotly contested Div 1, David Booth's Necessity held off strong challenges from the Fast 42 Maestro and Alan Keen's well sailed L34 Lapwing which had performed consistently well throughout the weekend. The light conditions had a major impact on the sometimes predictable results at RCYC, which was good to observe. Amongst the smaller boats, the two L26's of Rodney Tanner and Bernard Farmer took the two top spots with Ray Matthews' pulling off a 3rd overall in his heavy steel cruiser Cabaray. In my book, that was the top performance of the event and Ray Matthews gets my "Man of the Match" award. Despite the light hearted vibe of this regatta, the competition was hot, with several individual recalls in most of the races being the norm, but there were however, no general recalls. This was probably due to a decent length start line being set square to the wind with very little bias. Despite only having completed 4 races, a discard was allowed, which seemed to satisfy the majority. There is definitely something special about this event, but good sponsorship and jacked up organization are always going to be key ingredients in ensuring a successful event. Oh yes - and the weather too. Irvine Laidlaw in jovial mood at the prize giving, promised his support for the 2013 event - this to much applause. |
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