Royal Natal Yacht Club Sea Sailing Adventure Regatta

Royal Natal Yacht Club

Sea Sailing Adventure Royal Natal Yacht Club Regatta

Durban Harbour and Offshore: 21 - 24 September

The Durban summer sailing season has gotten off to a flyer with the opening regatta, the Sea Sailing Adventure Royal Natal Yacht Club’s Regatta, being a resounding success over the September long weekend.

Four days of mixed weather as diverse as the programme of events saw 28 teams compete with entries significantly up from the previous year.

Recently elected Rear Commodore for the club, Phil Downing boasted, “Most competitors hailed the mixture of both land-based and sailing activities as generating a fusion of fun and serious racing involving the whole family, as the regatta’s recipe for success.”

The age old tradition, the nautical themed cryptic clue opened up proceedings on Friday evening with Steve Cawdron setting the Cryptic Clue questions and Paul Chinook marking them out. The teams spent the rest of the evening enjoyably muddling through the clues.

Mild conditions greeted sailors on Saturday morning, promising easy racing. The ocean however bared its teeth in the afternoon with gusts reaching 25knots sending the less adventurous scampering back to the moorings.

Sunday morning offered sailors beautiful light conditions, the ‘gin-and-tonic’ sailing conditions saw race officers adjusting the envisaged race course to suit conditions. The fleet competed in a ‘There-and-Back’ race that took boats up the coast just off Virginia Airport, rounding the marker and cruising back.

Monday’s bay race had the yachts fly around the harbour in a brisk south westerly with winds gusting past 25knots then settling to a comfortable crisp sailing breeze. Race officer, Hemraj Gokal set a competitive course with yachts dashing up and down both sides of the channel.

Wrapping up the successful event, all the teams went head-to-head in the highly competitive potjie kos cook-off.

“On the water, the A Division, B Division and Multihulls were all very competitive with worthy winners in each class.” Downing stated proudly. “It bodes well for the remainder of the season.”

Results

Racing Division

1 Choose Life Incognito; 2 Bellatrix; 3 Majimoto; 4 Aquavit; 5 Pallucci; 6 Container World Challenge; 7 Therapy; 8 Kimaya; 9 Wynleigh; 10 Zing; 11 Zap; 12 Flyer; 13 Prodigy

Cruising Division

1 Liquid Blue; 2 Bellisima; 3 Spindrift; 4 Legionnaire; 5 Inside Out; 6 Sundance; 7 Hobbit; 8 Thermopylae; 9 Alkistis; 10 Cuxhaven; 11 Nina

Multihulls

1 Bandit; 2 Ladybird; 3 Crazy Diamond; 4 Magic Dragon