| Mykonos Off-shore Regatta 2006 |
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| MYKONOS OFFSHORE REGATTA - March 3rd/4th 2006 | pictures & results | |||
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Scribe: Trygve Roberts on the J27 - Smackwater Jack This is as good as it gets! Take a 20 to 30 knot breeze, add a downwind run, add huge ocean swells, add fifty seven yachts and about 300 sailors, a perfect light to moderate breeze for the second day and a calm to light day for all those heading back to Cape Town the following day; a generous sponsor; good accommodation; a funky rock band; a never ending supply of beer - and there we have it - A RECIPE FOR A PERFECT REGATTA! Good events don't happen by accident. They are meticulously planned. Hats off to RCYC and Club Mykonos (with a little help from the weather gods) for making this one of the top events in the Cape sailing calendar. The large entry (57), despite about 20 competitive boats still not back from Salvador, is a clear indicator that this is what sailors want. The Mykonos Regatta has grown in stature and now stands on the brink of eclipsing everything else on offer in the Western Cape. This regatta seems to satisfy most people's needs in that it consists of a downwind race on day 1 and a pursuit race around Saldanha Bay on day 2, leaving one with the option of returning to Cape Town on the Sunday, or leaving the boat at the Mykonos marina for a week or two. Berthing is free and Club Mykonos offers sailors a reduced rate for accommodation. It is a good example of a win-win scenario. Registration and the skippers briefing went off smoothly on Thursday afternoon with a large bag of gifts from sponsors. RCYC was a hive of activity as crews prepped their boats for the downwind dash to Saldanha Bay. Friday dawned cool with an 18 to 20 knot South-Easter on Table Bay. The big fleet got away promptly at 0830. The Cape Doctor always has a trick up his sleeve - This time the customary lift in the second half of the beat was just not there. We and everybody else had to put in at least one tack to clear the Paarden island mark. Our pin end start was going to cost us dearly as we had to stick in two tacks and duck several starboard tackers as we rounded about mid fleet. Rick Nankin on "Warrior" was predictably first at the weather mark and went on to take the line honours title for Race 1. Flying our biggest spinnaker, we were doing 8 knots for the first two hours, then 9, then, 10, then 11 and by Dassen Island with very big swells running in a SSW direction, we started to get our little boat planning almost continuously. As we headed down the West Coast, the breeze gradually built from 18 knots to a full 35 knots as we neared South Head .We started reeling the bigger boats in from behind and were sailing mostly above 14 knots for the final two hours. On one specific wave we recorded a top speed of 16.6 knots, which is our fastest speed ever on this boat. The gybe at South head in very big and uncomfortable seas was bad news for us as we broached in spectacular fashion. Our mainsail smacked the water just the same a way a Laser dinghy capsizes. We had one crew member thrown overboard, our keel was in the air and the mast in the sea, but the boat soon righted itself after we tripped the spinnaker halyard and we lost maybe a minute or two as we retrieved the kite and wet crew member and got the No.2 Genoa hoisted and poled out for the run through the channel, still doing 12 knots. The final fast reach over the much flatter water of Saldanha Bay saw our speed at 11,5 knots, giving us a finish time of 7 hrs 17 mins 59 secs and fast enough to give us a 1st overall on corrected time. The entire fleet was in by 1800 hours to the absolute pleasure of the bridge crew. Live music was provided by Club Mykonos as everyone got together to tell their stories of the days action on the water - and there was plenty to talk about. One boat crossed the finish line with their spinnaker flying like a pennant from the masthead. There had been hour-glasses and sheet over winds, jambed halyards, kelp on keels and rudders. I was asleep by nine. It felt like I had played three rugby matches and then run a marathon. Saturday morning was beautiful. The bay was that sparkling turquoise colour with a whisper of breeze from the west. New plans, new strategies were going to be needed. The pursuit race was postponed by an hour to allow the breeze to fill in. By 1030 the first of the small boats were off. Our start was scheduled for 1126. The weather mark had been set in the channel near Donkergat - right where there was no wind. Everyone sailed into this hole . When we arrived there must have been about 25 boats lying stationary near the mark. I had one of my crew stand as high as possible to check for where the breeze was on the glassy water and based on that information, tacked away from the buoy and remained in the breeze. We sailed a long loop around the boats and rounded the weather mark from an upwind position in 2nd place behind a Sweet Pea. A minute later, we were in the lead and heading off for the ore jetty. Hot on our heels were the two L34's Sensation and Lapwing. The course follows a series of (confusing to many) buoys in the harbour. Thank goodness for our chart plotter on board! Most of the small boats had been eliminated by parking in the hole for too long, but we could see our lead being steadily whittled away by Sensation. By Dial Rock, we were still in the lead, but only just. On the long beat out of the bay, Sensation got ahead. Going into North Bay, it was still Sensation, Smackwater Jack, and Lapwing taking the three front places. Another long beat to Jutten Island saw no changes in the leader board. The breeze remained light to moderate. A short spinnaker reach past Salamander Point and on to East Buoy, followed by a gybe and another downwind leg to North east Buoy, still saw no changes in the order. However, the big boats were starting to make an appearance. Halfway up the upwind leg to the Donkergat buoy, the 46ft "Hifidelity" overtook Lapwing and ourselves. We were in 3rd place, but there was still a reasonably safe margin for us to remain in that position. After a brief tacking duel with Lapwing, we came out about 5 boat lengths in the lead, only to find we had a Genoa sheet overwind. We had no choice but to let lapwing go into 3rd place, as we sorted the problem out. The final broad reach down to the finish seemed to be agonizingly slow as a whole batch of big boats had rounded the top mark and were hot on our heels - the closest of the bunch was the Fast 42 "Tenacity" and they managed to just pip us at the line by about 1 meter. That gave us a 5th overall and 1st in IRC Class 2. The prize giving was fashionably delayed with the following boats taking the honours:
After the prize giving, we were treated to some great music by a live band (of old ballies) and I must admit, their renditions of Bad Company's songs were good and especially their version of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta love" was brilliant. (This is a sailing report, not a music evaluation, so I will leave it at that). It would be remiss of me not to mention Sensation's crew providing the ladies with some dubious entertainment in the form of a Full Monty style strip show. Wonderful regatta! Well done to the sponsors and organizers. This event will keep gaining popularity. Sunday provided calm weather, flat seas and a gentle 10 knot southerly later ensuring everyone made it back to RCYC before sunset. Trygve | ||||
Pictures by Pam Newby from Carel v.d. Merwe's Farr 39, Freedom.
 First off, the Sweet Peas
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L 34 start
off to the first buoy... ok, which yellow buoy was it again?
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more pictures ( 5 pages )
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Results:  |
Class 1 IRC - Distance race Class 2 IRC - Distance race Multihulls - Distance race |
Class 1 Club H'Cap - Distance race Class 2 Club H'Cap - Distance race |
The Organisers, Royal Cape Yacht Club, would like to thank Club Mykonos for their support of this event.
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