Local
:: Western Cape Championships 2010 - Race Report :: (211 Reads)
Posted by
warwick
on Monday, May 03, 2010 - 07:18 PM
Due to the public holiday being on a Tuesday this year the long weekend allowed 4 days of sailing. The weather reports promised building wind over the four days with 16-24 knots predicted for Tuesday, the last day of sailing. A varied fleet of some 256 boats were entered for the regatta and this included more than 60 Catamarans of all shapes and sizes as well as a very strong fleet of 21 Dabbies and 40 Oppies and about 20 420’s, plus a number of Sonnets, Lasers and various other boats. The organisers did a sterling job of arranging the regatta and thankfully put the 505 fleet in with the dinghies instead of with the Cats.
In contrast to the size of dinghy sailing fleets in the country, the size of the oyster farming area in Saldanha seems to be growing rapidly and this year saw a large area near the middle of the bay on the Saldanha side of the coal terminal congested with buoys and oyster nets, which have the nasty habit of getting tangled in your centreboard or rudder, just when you don’t need it, for instance just before the gybe on the reach towards the downwind mark. The course was the usual trapezoidal form for this regatta and in some of the races, typically on the third day (Monday), the Oyster farm was right between the reach mark and the downwind mark making a straight run impossible. In their defence the bridge boat had set the course as long as they could in the Northern end of the bay and race durations were in the order of 50 minutes to an hour each.
The first day was pretty light, with the wind only filling in, later in the afternoon and The Holm brothers Rudolph and Ferdinand dominated the racing with bullets. Murphy seemed to have roosted in the rigging of Thomas and Peter Funke and they had to retire from the second race with a stuck spinnaker halyard, allowing Dudley Isaacs to get his best place in the regatta while the father and son Ham duo were relegated to a rather distant third after tearing their spinnaker in a capsize. The Cape boats from VYC were having their own tussle for the remaining places and Sean Ballantyne showed his consistency with a number of 5th placings, while Ruan De Hart and his keen young crew Damien Botha started with a DNC and a well sailed 4th place.
The second day promised to be light and only two races were sailed in breeze which was dropping all the time. Racing was scheduled to start at 10h30 but the wind only came through at around 14h00 The third race was started in enough wind but as the race progressed a large hole developed in the middle and left of the course and those who went right made significant gains, only to have them neutralised when the race was abandoned. Some feel that this decision was taken too early, as the leaders will still able to keep up a reasonable speed, and as it turned out the wind came up again while everyone was packing up. After the second day the results had the Holm brothers solidly leading the regatta with the Ham team just one point ahead of the Funke brothers in third due to their DNF in the second race.
Racing on Monday started just after 11h00 when the wind filled in and a total of 4 races were sailed. The regular tussle between the top four was tense at times with positions at the front of the field being determined by raw boat speed as the course was not very tactically challenging. The right side seemed to pay on most beats until someone chose the left and made significant gains. What was clear was that it almost never paid to play the shifts through the middle of the course as the congestion near the start boat and up the middle of the course almost always meant disturbed wind and even more disturbed water and slow going. Most teams were consistent in their positions on the third day, the Holm brothers however couldn’t keep the Funke brothers from winning the first race of the day after a brilliant start which saw them cross the whole fleet on Port. It pays to keep your eye on the wind even in the last minute before the flag comes down. The Ham family team and Dudley Isaacs/Rob Clark were in a constant tussle for third and true to form Alexander and Warwick fought their way into third on each of the four races. Grant Ballantyne made it clear he was standing back for no one and kept Ruan De Hart and Damien Botha in his wake with son Sean playing the afterguard.
The last day was predicted to be the day when the wind would blow and predictions of 18-20+ knots were being bandied about in the boat park, but it took most of the day before the wind finally came through. In the first race the Holm brothers kept up the pressure and Thomas and Peter held them to a duel with spinnakers straining on a very tight reach to the first wing mark and just came out in front. Two breakages later in the race cost them their hard earned first. Both the top and bottom reaches were very tight and saw most teams two sail reaching instead of fighting their spinnakers. In the second race the Funke’s were able to dominate and win the last race of the regatta, but it was too late and the Holm brothers had won the event convincingly.
The 505’s were testing some very interesting tracking devices during this event and in addition to the tracking devices some boats had tiny video cameras mounted on top of their masts giving a birds-eye view of the action on board. These tracking devices give post race feedback of boat velocities as well as pitch, yaw and roll movements as well as collecting heart rate monitor data of the crew or skipper. The system, produced in South Africa, is still under development and promises to be a useful training tool, especially with the video feedback showing every movement on board plus a whole lot of useful information about sail shape, mast bend and crew and skipper co-ordination in various manoeuvres.
It was a bit disappointing that only 7 boats made it to the regatta as this is a very well run event and served as the last salt water event serving as preparation for the teams attending the 505 worlds in Denmark in July-August this year. There was a lot of interest in the 505 fleet from the youth at the regatta, who should be our focus to accelerate growth within the class.
The 505 class would like to thank the Western Cape Organising committee for a fantastic event and look forward to next year’s regatta.
| Western Cape Championships 2010 - Race Report | Log-in or register a new user account | 0 Comments | |
|
| |
| Comments are statements made by the person that posted them. They do not necessarily represent the opinions of the site editor. |
