RNYC Dinghy Bay Series and PYC Sigma Series

Royal Natal Yacht Club and Point Yacht Club

Durban Harbour: Dinghy Bay Series

Offshore: Sigma Series

November got off to an uneventful start for Durban’s sailors with two events taking place this weekend.

The first on Saturday afternoon was day one of the Royal Natal Yacht Club Dinghy Spring Series held in the bay. Overcast and drizzly conditions greeted the braver sailors that ventured out into the unpleasant conditions. A tiny fleet of five dinghies participated in a windward leeward short sprint in the bay.

Race officer, Derek Wilkes managed to get in three races before having to call it a day due to shipping movements right where the short course was laid. The intermittent rain together with winds of around 3-5knots made conditions slow going for the small boats.

The second event had 11 boats participate in the first race of the Sigma Series hosted by the Point Yacht Club.

The intended course was going to be the more challenging bunny ear course where the boats had to head along the coastline from Vetches Pier towards the Blue Waters Hotel and back to the start where they had to turn around and head offshore towards the fairway mark and then head back to the finish line.

The predicted light easterly breeze greeted sailors but the tranquil conditions deteriorated for sailing leaving the hefty boats with hardly any power in their sails.

Race Officer, Ron Pet announced to the fleet after as the time neared an hour that racing would be abandoned as most of the sails just fluffed around, not driving the boat anywhere.

Pet made a general announcement to all yachts racing that the race was abandoned, the leader of the race, Glenwood’s Sean Jones sailing on his fast flying multihull Bandit responded, “Correction Race Officer, the announcement should have stated ‘All yachts bobbing, racing is abandoned.’”

Round two of both events take place this coming weekend. For more info on both events visit www.rnyc.org.za for the Dinghy Spring Series, or visit www.pyc.co.za for the Sigma Series.

Results

Royal Natal Yacht Club

Dinghy Spring Series

Saturday 1 November

Day One

1 Trevor Gibb / Ian Bowman (Mirror) 4pts, 2 David Curtiss (Rebel) 7pts, 3 Cameron Parle (RS Tera) 10pts, 4 Chad Stevenson (Extra) 13pts, 5 Dylan Alberts (Hobie 14) 13pts

Point Yacht Club

Sigma Series

Sunday 2 November

Day One

Racing Abandoned

Bandit (Sean Jones), Bellatrix (Gregg Hurter), Bellissima (Vernon Goss), Caversham Caprice (Richard Crockett), Crazy Diamond (Wayne Smith), Container World (Eli Brophy-Tintinger), Flyer (Brad Rayson), Majimoto (Jon Marshall), Ray of Light (Heidi Kavanagh), Zap (Graham Rose), Zing (Gavin Smith)