Royal Natal Yacht Club
Lipton Challenge Cup
Team Announcement
The Royal Natal
Yacht Club has announced their team for the 2014 Lipton Challenge Cup that will take place on 24 – 29 August in
False Bay, Cape Town.
Hosted by the 2013 victors, False Bay Yacht Club, the Lipton Challenge Cup is the most
notorious yacht race in South Africa with teams travelling from across the
country in an attempt to claim the magnificent trophy. This is the 105th
challenge that is sailed offshore in South African waters.
Royal Natal Yacht
Club won the cup in 2012 bringing the challenge to Durban last year. The
team is led by Brennan Robinson who was part of the victorious 2012 team.
Robinson will be making his fourth Lipton
Challenge Cup campaign. His age belies his experience, along with the 2012
Lipton Challenge Cup win, he has two epic Cape2Rio’s under his belt along with
a long list of accomplishments in a variety of classes.
At the announcement, Robinson enthused, “We had a
fantastic start to our campaign, not having sailed together as a team we
managed to claim the title at L26 KZN Provincials held recently offshore of
Durban. But we still have a long way to go to get to the level needed to
campaign for the Lipton Challenge Cup.
I believe we will put a formidable challenge in for the 2014 cup.”
Back for their second appearance on B2G2, Trent Bingham
will be taking the role of helmsman this year and Nqoba Mswazi returns after an
impressive 2013 campaign on the bow. Mswazi has just recently competed in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race in
the cold, hard crossing from China to America in the midst of the Northern
hemisphere’s winter.
The youngest on-board happens to also be the youngest
sibling of South Africa’s top sailing family; Michaela Robinson joins her older
brother Brennan as part of the 6-strong crew. Michaela makes her first
appearance at the Lipton Challenge Cup.
Her sailing CV is as impressive as her older brother Brennan. She has competed
in numerous international regattas as well as doing the Atlantic crossing twice
in the Cape2Rio race.
Rounding up the team and the last of the new comers are
Thokozani ‘Deejay’ Latha and Refeloa ‘Waterboy’ Zililo. Latha gained invaluable
experience when he was part of the39-strong crew on board the tall ship Lord Nelson that that sailed from Durban
to Kochi, India. Zililo has just recently competed in the gruelling 300NM Vasco da
Gama yacht race from Maputo to Durban.
The team will be coached by Ricky Robinson, the previous
skipper of the 2012 winning team. They are joined by Sandy Samways as Team
Manager.
Commodore for the Royal
Natal Yacht Club, Graham Rose said, “We have high hopes for our young team.
This is the toughest sailing challenge in South Africa and we wish them
everything of the best as they represent our club.”
Positions of the team are
Brennan Robinson (Captain): Trimmer
Trent Bingham: Helmsman
Thokozani Latha: Trimmer
Nqoba Mswazi: Bowman
Michaela Robinson: Tactics
Refeloa Zililo: Halyards
For more info visit www.rnyc.org.za
or www.liptoncup.com.
