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:: 505 BP Trophy Results - Freestate Champs :: (259 Reads)
Posted by
warwick
on Thursday, May 13, 2010 - 02:59 PM
The Freestate Championships/505 BP Trophy held this last weekend (8-9th May) at Aeolians was an ideal opportunity to get in some last minute racing before the cold claws of winter take their hold.
Unfortunately the turnout was rather poor in all three classes but the teams who attended used the good wind and had some very exciting and close racing. There were only 4 505 teams there, 7 Oppies and 2 Dabbies!
Alexander and Warwick Ham showed that the results of their training was starting to pay off and dominated the event, while Rudolph and Ferdinand Holm tried as hard as they could, in Albrechts second boat (Ramkat), to keep up the pressure but finished a close second. Albrecht and Willem Buhrmann were given one bullet when, on the last reach of the last race in steadily building breeze, the two front boats took each other on in a duel over who would take down their spinnakers last!
The approach to the leeward mark was quite tight and due to the steadily increasing gusts things were getting a bit wild. This was made all the more interesting by the scattering of a couple of Oppies and Dabbies rounding the mark. The Hams were chasing down the Holm brothers and had decided to put in a last ditch effort to catch the boat in front of them. In spite of the crew taking a few dips on the wire and plenty of spray, they caught the Holm boat close to the mark, when suddenly during the late takedown, another gust hit and Rudolph and Ferdie capsized within touching distance of the mark. Miraculously they managed to miss the juniors bobbing around and even more suprising, Alexander and Warwick managed to miss the Holm centreboard... , but also the leeward mark. This let Albrecht Holm through for their race victory and sealed the regatta victory in the hands of the Father and Son Ham team.
Those who missed the event missed some really good sailing, and even better catering provided this year by Cobus and Elmare Bester of the Optimist class, who made sure we all ate well. Our thanks also go to the Besters as well as to Cor Langhout, his team on the water and Aeolians club for providing a well run event under ideal conditions.
Please drop us an Email and let any one of the Exco know what is preventing YOU from attending the calendar events. We need your input to improve the future racing calendars and build the fleet towards our aim of hosting a 505 Worlds in PE, South Africa in 2013.
If you have a boat but are unable to sail why not lend your boat out to some aspiring youngsters who will sail it in events regularly. Even better you could consider selling your boat on so that another team can get it on the water again and raise the general level of competition in the fleet.
Get on the water - you'll love it!
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