Royal Natal Yacht Club
Zululand Yacht Club
“The last six days at the Ola Lipton Challenge Cup has
ignited a passion with the guys, we really enjoyed the competitive sailing and
are now hungry for more!”
These are the words of the upbeat skipper, Tyron de Jager
chatting while waiting to get their boat out of the water in Durban, having just
competed in the most prestigious sailing event in the country.
“Overall the whole regatta was fantastic for us. We went
in with a realistic goal of learning as much as we could, that and to enjoy
ourselves. I believe we achieved both of these.” a chuffed De Jager said.
The remarkably young focused team did their region proud
finishing in 17th position in South Africa. “We gave it our best.
Every day we went offshore with the aim of just finishing the race, we did that
and even managed to beat Ithemba racing for the Vaal based Lake Deneys Yacht
Club, our closest rival, that was a small victory for us.”
The team with an average age knocking on 20years have notched
up a phenomenal amount of experience racing against the crème-de-la-crème of
the countries sailors, “We got a taste of the intensity that these guys race
with. It was a massive boost for our sailing.”
“From a team aspect, on occasions it was extremely tense
but we pulled together. I could not have asked to be partnered with a better
bunch of guys. We only managed 12 official trainings before we left. Gerritt
has his whole career ahead of him, he is so talented. Chris is extremely keen,
strong and fit. Jacques was superb on the bow. Eugene kept the entire ship calm,
a good man to have on board. He also helped create a fun vibe on the boat.”
Laughing, he continues. “The week was filled with laughs.
On one of the days, we shouted across to Choose Life Lipton ‘Isn’t that a funny
place to leave a piano?’ pointing not far off from their boat. That confused
the guys for a moment, and got a chuckle out of them.”
Asked if the guys will campaign again? The answer was an enthusiastic, “We definitely want to. The guys and I have been talking about it non-stop! We can’t wait to get back on the water, show our club and our sponsors that have been so good to us that we are committed! We have fallen in love with the sport of sailing.”
“We are looking forward to sitting down with the new committee that is going to be elected soon to set a vision for the next year which will enable us to compete in a number of events, both back home and at some of the other events around the country. I look forward to racing in the MSC Week, the L26 Provincials and Nationals.”
But for now, de Jager is preparing on making the Zululand
Yacht Club’s MCU faster, slicker and one of the best L26s in the country. “She
is going to get a bit of a makeover, getting refitted and re-rigged. She is
already a beautiful boat and really light but we have a few ideas up our sleeve
to make her go even faster.”
“With a proper campaign, we aim to break into the top ten!”
a determined de Jager concludes.
No comments:
Post a Comment