RCYC
| RCYC |
Mykonos 2005 | |
| Royal Cape Yacht Club | ||
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18 & 19 February 2005 ORGANISED BY:
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Wild, wet, wicked, woes, and windy. Wow!
At the skippers briefing all yachts received a "goodies bag" filled with things to eat, caps, bottle openers including a solitary tiny bottle of 'Klipdrift ' which could be put to good use in the event of a crew member feeling too stressed out! - It's good to see the sponsors getting involved in the sailing community. Laminated course cards were a nice touch with all buoys GPS co-ordinates noted, making navigation easier. The format of the regatta comprises two races. Race 1 from Cape Town to Mykonos - a massed start for all fleets. Race 2 is in the form of a Pursuit Race within the Saldanha Bay/Langebaan Lagoon area and covers roughly 35 nautical miles. There is no discard. I sailed my J/27, 'Smackwater Jack' in IRC Class 2 and this report is by necessity, written from my perspective. Race One: Distance Race : RCYC to Club Mykonos (65 nautical miles)
At the start in Table Bay the Cape Doctor was pumping 30 to 35 knots. Many boats stuck reefs in, some of them double reefs, like the Swede 55, whose mainsail ripped from luff to leech under the top batten. To their credit they completed the race with a genoa and spinnaker, whilst their crew hand stitched the mainsail for the next day's racing. There was plenty of drama at the start, with a few retirees before the gun even went. One boat had their electrics on fire and the big drama was the 65ft 'Bossanova' running over a 31ft Miura, leaving a very large hole in the starboard quarter of the Miura. The skipper of the damaged Miura 'Julie 111', Robin Green, hauled out the duct tape and still managed to complete the race, whilst 'Bossanova' retired. The big boats, 'Warrior' and 'Wizard' took the lead immediately putting up spinnakers and had a neck and neck tussle doing 19 knots with only a few meters separating them. On our little J/27 we went deep to leeward of the fleet to prevent anyone luffing us and put up our spinnaker, only to spin out into a spectacular broach a minute later, as our log reached 15,8 knots. The Cape Doctor was speaking! We used a poled out jib for the next half hour and were still able to sustain a speed of 11 knots. Beyond Robben Island the fleet split up. We elected to stay inshore and soon had to move up to our biggest spinnaker as the wind moderated down to 20 knots and backed to the south. An hour later, the wind went WSW and increased to 25 knots, giving us a fast sleigh ride towards Saldanha, where the wind went south and increased to 30 knots beyond Salamander Point. Our time as we crossed the line was 7 hours 37 minutes and 10 seconds, giving us an average speed of 8.6 knots. The conditions suited the J27 well and it was clear that the L34 were making time on us the moment the breeze fell below 22 knots. We were pleased to hear we had won the first race. Results Race 2 - Pursuit Race (35 nautical miles) Saturday dawned cool and cloudy with a moderate southerly, which had built from 15 knots at 1030 to 25 knots by 1130 and would become 35 knots by 1500. The first boat, a Sadler 26 started at 1030, whilst the last boat to start was "Warrior" at almost 1300. Smackwater Jack's name appeared halfway down the list of starters, giving us a start time of 11:26. It was going to be another long, tough day on the water sailing a convoluted course with 4 upwind legs, 4 runs, and 3 beam reaches. Without local knowledge, one needed a good navigator to locate the correct buoys in the harbour area, or as most of us do, a GPS with fresh batteries! Starting in a fresh southerly of 25 knots, we quickly started reeling in the smaller boats, and the first run down to the ore-jetty had the two J/27's flying spinnakers and sailing above 11 knots. Once we had completed the circuit inside the harbour, the course took us into North Bay where we finally passed the leading boat and had the privilege of being the race leaders for a short while. Hot on our heels were the other J/27, 'Hillbilly' as well as the L34 'Sensation' and the Farr 38 'Al'. We took the risk of tacking early and sailed very close to the west shore of Jutten island, keeping us in touch with 'Sensation' and 'Al' On the corner of the island, both Sensation and Al overtook us, but we got our kite up and drawing quickly and closed the gap as we surfed on their transoms down the channel. On the next reach, 'Ballyhoo Too' had caught up and got an inside overlap at the mark. All four of us gybed around the mark and roared off to the northeast buoy, a short downwind run. The penultimate leg of this grueling race was a very long and wet beat into the teeth of a 35-knot southerly. The chop was short and ugly. We just slammed our way into it and gritted our teeth. We were lying 4th now. Halfway up the beat, a second Farr 38, 'Periwinkle' hauled us in, as did The Beneteau 47.7 'Gilly B'. Just before the weather mark, the 60ft 'Wizard" caught us as well. We were losing places fast plus there was a pack of big boats coming up astern. We would simply have to fly the spinnaker on the last downwind dash to the finish. The final downwind leg was a blast. The water was much flatter on the shore side and we simply stayed on the plane for the entire leg maxing out at 15,6 knots. What a way to finish a regatta. That last leg was an awesome sail. Despite another outrageous broach just short of the finish line, we finished 7th over the line behind 'Warrior' and 2nd in Class 2. This was a very good event where the organizers had put a lot of effort and money into ensuring its success. All the winning crews collected cash as part of the prizes as well as a bottle of champagne, whiskey, and biscuits. Not bad considering the entry was only R 130. The winds were fair - sometimes a little too strong, but always better than light winds. Well done Club Mykonos and RCYC. by Trygve Roberts |