Wrap up with Andrew Tarboton

Point Yacht Club

Interview with Andrew Tarboton

Wrap-up 49er World Championships: 16 – 21 November

Settling back home in Hamble, near Southampton in the UK, Andrew Tarboton is recovering from one of the toughest regattas he, and his sailing partner Graeme Willcox have ever had the honour of competing in.

The only South African representatives took on the worlds’ best in this year’s 49er World Championships in San Isidro, a province just north of Buenos Aires. The six day regatta hosted by Club Nautico was their best hope for qualifying for the Rio Olympics.

With only three slots in the 49er class for Rio up for grabs, the hopeful Safa sailors were in for a long shot, “The regatta was a fiercely fought spectacle of the world’s best sailors, with all the top teams’ present gunning for the three spots available. As it turned out, those three places were taken by teams finishing in the top 10 overall, showing just how tough it was.”

“Buenos Aires is a really challenging sailing venue due to many factors including the brown water making it difficult to read the wind, the shallow water making the chop really short and steep, and the storms...” emphasising, Tarboton regales.

“And none more so than the fourth day of the regatta, the first day of the finals. We missed out on Gold fleet and so the race committee had sent us out first for the day.  There were many storms swirling around the area, affecting the wind and conditions dramatically. We got off to a decent start with good boat speed and were picking off those in front of us well.”

“We rounded the bottom mark in the top 10 and decided initially that the left hand side would pay and thus picked off a few more places. We noticed a big right hand shift near the top of the course and decided to go to the right on the downwind leg. The five boats that rounded the top mark in front of us decided to go left downwind, but we stuck to our game plan and pushed right into the new wind and building pressure.”

“This paid off and the boats that had gone left were far behind near the bottom of the course. The downwind was really tricky as the big wind quickly built the chop, but we managed to keep the boat going well and hold off the other boats right to the victorious gun at the finish. This was a huge relief and a sense of real achievement set in with that race win.” stated an obviously chuffed Tarboton.

Talking about the conditions and courses, Pietermaritzburg’s Tarboton said, “We sailed windward-leeward courses - starting at the bottom of the course, making our way into the wind, back downwind, into the wind again, and finally downwind to the finish, generally a two lap race.”

“The wind was generally light and switchy, with very little pressure behind it. In the three weeks we were there, there were only two windy days which suited us more.”

“Our final result was 52 out of 61 boats. We were aiming for top 50, but just missed that goal. Fifteen races were completed over the six days, and in those races we scored a first, an eighth and a few results in the teens, so we are walking away with a few positives.”

“Many of the big names were in the Silver fleet with us – we were up against a Chilean, Swiss and Uruguay team; the second Austrian, Belgian, German, Italian and French teams; two British and Korean teams; a few teams from New Zealand and Argentina; all of the Swedish and American teams and the top Brazilian, Indian and Canadian teams.  Among these teams were well-known competitors and teams ranked in the top 25 in the world. Due to the strength of the 49er fleet no one is guaranteed qualification into gold fleet.”

Chatting about what they learnt while they were in Argentina, Tarboton recounts, “The weather was very kind to us, providing warm temperatures and very challenging sailing. Frequent storms meant the wind direction was never really settled, and the wind strength was generally light.  We found ourselves struggling for straight line boat speed through the chop and due to lack of time training in those conditions, so we have learned a lot about boat setup for power, and how to keep the boat driving in such tricky conditions. We have learned also that the work we have put in this year with our starts and boat handling is paying off and we are moving up the fleet.”

Looking ahead, Tarboton mentions, “We now have a week or so to gather our thoughts from the regatta and formulate a strategy moving forward into the winter training months here in the UK. We hope to get some coaching from one of the top guys in the class and build up to our next event, the Princess Sofia Trophy in Palma in April 2016.”

But for now, the dream of racing at Rio 2016 is not to be!

Chatting to sailor, Myles White

Pictured here is Myles White before he competed in the recent Bart’s Bash, the biggest sailing event in the world.

Pic by Chris Clark

Point Yacht Club

Interview with Rear Commodore of Dinghies: Myles White

Perhaps one of the most passionate dinghy sailors in Durban, Myles White from Pinetown has recently been elected as Point Yacht Club’s Rear Commodore of Dinghies.

White’s romance with the sea began when he was nine years old. He first jumped on a wooden optimist, launching off the public slipway. Two years later, White together with his older brother, Tony joined the Point Yacht Club and started racing one of the 13 club Cadet dinghies. “I still remember the sail number, it was 6219 and the boat was called Ritchie. I crewed from my brother for four or five seasons, our hard work was rewarded with us winning the Club Class Championships and then being invited to the World Championships in Trieste in Italy.”

Due to a combination of problems, their opportunity to represent South Africa didn’t materialise but the fledgling sailor continued to impress on the water. He stepped up to helming, learning on an Optimist before acquiring a Dabchick. In his first ever Junior Provincials at Albert Falls, he scored a third overall. In years to follow the charming lad quietly began notching up results in a variety of classes with bronze and gold Provincial medals as well as bronze and gold National medals, also winning the prestigious Jonsson Cup.

With only two long distances races under his belt, the skilled sailor claims that the experience was enough to put him off distance racing for life. “I used to crew on a yacht, Reaction which still features regularly as a winner of the Cape Town to St Helena Race. My first long haul ride was a Durban to Amatikulu and back overnight race in a thumping North-Easter, while the second was a Richards Bay to Durban drifter.”

“I get enormous satisfaction from an afternoon of hard racing around the cans, followed by a hot shower, and a few cold beers – in that order.

After getting married, his sailing was curtailed from relishing being on the water all weekend racing on dinghies and keelers, to jumping on a boat whenever a busy family life allowed, “Sadly neither of my children enjoyed the sport and preferred land based activities. For about ten years I sailed sporadically, mostly on an old Laser I bought. “

I met John Marshall, and did a fair bit of sailing in the Hobie 16 class before he purchased the magnificent Majimoto. I became a regular feature as mainsheet trimmer, specialising in Wednesday night racing.”

“It was through my son meeting a regular face on the water, Chris Kloppenborg that I ended up being introduced to Estelle Buys who needed a skipper for her Flying Fifteen. And so in 2012, I moved back to dinghies and fell in love with these ‘old man’s boats’. “

“We immediately exceeded Estelle’s wildest expectations by winning both the Provincials and National divisions for the older classic boats, and with the sailing bug having bitten me properly again I started buying a new suit of sails, and then one of the newer Flying Fifteens which was never being sailed. These days I am like a dog with two tails, I am so enjoying my dinghy racing again!”

His long time crew member, Estelle Buys complimented him by saying, “Myles is forever the gentleman on the water, showing the utmost patience towards everyone on the water. He has taught me how to be kind and patient towards all our competition. He always offers a helping hand. A wonderful lesson that both he and sailing has taught me is to commit and finish a job, regardless of the result.”

Concluding, the Rear Commodore enthused, “After something like 40 years of membership I have now completed my first year on any Club Committee, and I am looking forward to applying some of the lessons I learned through Round Table and hopefully building on the recent success achieved in dinghy sailing at PYC. My objective is to get more boats on the water more regularly, and for people to have so much fun doing it that they keep coming back for more.”

White, together with Buys, is on the water, training hard for the upcoming Flying Fifteen Provincials hosted by the Point Yacht Club that take place in Mid-December.

For more info visit www.pyc.co.za or contact Amanda on 031 301 4784.

The Bashboard has been tallied for Bart's Bash 2015

IMG_6423.jpg: Benji Daniel and Chad Stevenson racing on their 29er during the Bart’s Bash – The Second Sail held in Durban hosted by Point Yacht Club, this image appeared on the front page of the Yachts and Yachting Souvenir Programme in the United Kingdom.

IMG_6493.jpg: Jethro Brophy-Tintinger sailing on the Hobie 14 and Luke Wagner helming Southern Storm, both sailors appeared on the Bashboard of this year’s Bart’s Bash – The Second Sail that took place in the bay hosted by Point Yacht Club.

Pic by Sophie Thompson

Point Yacht Club

Bart’s Bash Results

Harbour: Sunday 20 September

The Bashboard has been tallied and Durban sailing and Point Yacht Club feature six times on the leader board on the biggest global sailing event, Bart’s Bash – The Second Sail that took place on Sunday 20 September.

South Africa had the second largest turn out on the water on the day out of 62 countries that took part, the United Kingdom walked away with first place. 365 South African sailors ventured out onto the water on the day, and doing the country proud, the South African team of Alex Schon and Marc Hiles were crowned overall winners of Bart’s Bash – the second ever edition of this event.

Competing on their Nacra F20 under the Lake Deneys Burgee, Schon commented, “This year we had winds of 35knots and with a short, sharp chop this made for a wild ride, with our Nacra 20 at times launching itself right out of the water. We had a fantastic ride and took a somewhat conservative approach. With only Marc out on the wire, we managed to keep our beast upright. I think that the tough conditions prevented more people from attending, but I really believe that this event needs to grow and that the great work that is being done needs to spread throughout the world, in particular throughout Africa.”

Most venues around the country reporting strong winds on the day preventing the youth to come out in force on the day. Despite the strong conditions, Point Yacht Club’s Jethro Brophy-Tintinger from Umbilo who took top honours on the day, came sixth overall in the category of winds over 18knots, with Gavin Wadsworth from Durban North placed tenth. Brophy-Tintinger placed 39^th overall.

Luke Wagner from Hilton got a top ten finish with his eighth place in the category of Adult Skipper and Tim Wickham helming Ithebe finished seventh in the category Buddy Sailor. Point Yacht Club scored an impressive ninth worldwide, the top finishing South African yacht club, in the category of Biggest Fleets with 123 competitors.

A total of 14,357 sailors participated this year globally, with 472 venues hosting the event. On the day 7,578 boats were on the water in the 62 countries.

Commodore for the Point Yacht Club and Clipper Round the World skipper, Craig Millar stated, “The figures, although down from last year’s phenomenal feat and Guinness World Record, are still absolutely mind-boggling! A total amount of 38,266,938 meters were sailed, which is almost the equivalent of sailing around the world once. Sailing around the world took me a year, but it was achieved in a day by over 14 thousand sailors! Out of the 7,000 boats, there were a total of 624 classes competing. But, what for me is the most fascinating stat is that a total time of 486 days was sailed on the day; that is a long time to be on the water.”

The dates for the third Bart’s Bash were launched this week with sailors around the world diarising Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 September 2016.

For more info visit www.bartsbash.co.uk or www.pyc.co.za

Results

Keel and Dinghy

1 Catalyst (Jethro Brophy Tintinger - Hobie 14), 2 Therapy (Gavin Wadsworth), 3 Zing (Gavin Smith), 4 Southern Storm (Luke Wagner), 5 So Basic (Stuart Ritchie), 6 Skitzo (Nigel Milln), 7 Caversham Caprice (Jimmy Melville), 8 Bandit (Sean Jones), 9 Neptune’s Nymph (Phil Downing), 10 Bellissima (Vernon Goss), 11 Container World (Brenden Humphreys), 12 Alkistis (Greg Donkin), 13 PYC Challenger (Florence Marshall), 14 Crazy Diamond (Wayne Smith), 15 Shiloh (Tracy Bowman), 16 Deo Volente (Neville Bransbury), 17 Ithebe (Tim Wickham), 18 Mafuta (Robin Hulley), 19 Big Blue (Rory Simpson), 20 Vent de Cap (Andrew Pavid), 21 Hobbit (Sean Koegh) 22 Sea Witch (Vikus), 23 Magenta (Ricky Piper), 24 PGMT Clipper (Bernard Bussy)

Offshore: Sunday 20 September

Kitesurfers

1 James Lea, 2 Byron Watt, 3 Rossco Walters, 4 Alec Lanham-Love, 5 Bruce Gayham, 6 Craig Allsopp,

7 Leighton Moody, 8 Tim Green, 9 Neil Bell, 10 Ian Ferguson, 11 Cameron Carey, 12 Cameron Townsend, 13 Alex Jordaan, =14 Saleem Jonke, =14 Rob Chrystal, 16 Daryl Massey

Chatting to Andrew Tarboton - Olympic Hopeful

Pictured competing on Lake Garda, Graeme Wilcox and Andrew Tarboton glide through a tack as they compete on the European circuit recently. The team are competing in the 49er World Championships in the hope of qualifying for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Pic by Elena Giolai

Point Yacht Club

Interview with Andrew Tarboton

Currently competing in the biggest regatta of their lives, two South African’s are racing in the 2015 49er World Championships on the waters of Club Nautico in San Isidro, a province just north of Buenos Aires.

Graeme Willcox and home-grown talent, Andrew Tarboton, hope that over the remainder of this week, their dream of competing at the Rio 2016 will be realised. This is a tough ask, with only 20 teams getting the chance to compete in the 49er class at the Olympics, so far half of that allocation has been filled with two teams from Oceania and eight teams from Europe already qualifying in the 2014 World Champs.

The pair of Willcox and Tarboton has been campaigning for three years, “I personally have been trying for over five years, and after one failed partnering, I teamed up with Graeme to give it another go!” explained Pietermaritzburg’s Tarboton.

Continuing, “We started with a national ranking regatta in the UK, just for fun, we both felt we did fairly well, so I asked Graeme if he was keen to campaign. We have done more of the circuit each year and have competed at regattas in Spain, France, Italy, Holland, Germay, UK, Portugual, and now in Argentina.”

Having grown up on the waters at the Henley Midmar Yacht Club, 2015 is proving to be quite an auspicious year for Tarboton, having just recently gotten engaged to Lizzie Shawcroft, 2015 also marked him celebrating his 30^th birthday, with the conclusion to his year - sailing his heart out in South America in the hopes of representing South Africa next year at the Olympics.

“We have always been pushing the main pack, but due to our lack of time on the water, we generally fall just behind the pack by the finish. Our sailing has come a long way but the competition is relentless! To give you an idea of the competitiveness here, the London 2012 Gold medalists Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen didn’t make the medal race last week in the tune-up race.”

“The South American Champs gave us a chance to begin tuning the boat we have chartered and getting used to it, as well as learning the local conditions, so we were trying a lot of new things and experimenting with strategies and techniques. We finished 49^th out of 53 boats.”

“In the second day of racing at the Worlds, we notched up an eighth and 22^nd today so we are hoping to build on that, stretch our legs and move up the leaderboard. We pulled up to 46^th overall out of 61 teams, a good day on the water.”

Asked what is the most difficult thing about campaigning for Rio 2016; Tarboton states, “Lack of resources! We are competing at an amateur level in a professional world, many of the regattas we do, we are the only team without a coach, and have the least practice time of anyone there!”

“And the best thing about campaigning for Rio 2016 is that we have sailed in some amazing venues all over the world. Sailing with Graeme, when we really have the boat in the groove and going well, sailing is very addictive! Graeme is calm on the helm, always in good spirits, we make a formidable team.”

“I have always loved skiff sailing and have known since I was a boy, sailing on Midmar that I wanted to sail 49ers. Carving it up in 15-18knots of breeze, in big rolling swells on a 49er, the sort of conditions we experienced in Porto is what dreams are made of. I am most at peace in life when I am on the water; sailing is a fantastic experience for all your senses, so pure and so free!”

“When we were really young, my dad Rob would race his fireball at Midmar, and in the afternoon after racing, he would come back and take my brother, my mom and I out for a sail. These memories certainly moulded my life path. I was fortunate enough to sail the 2005 29er World Champs with my dad in San Francisco Bay and we won a race. And now a decade later here I am, striving towards competing at the Olympics.”

Residing in Hamble, near Southampton in the UK, Tarboton moved to England to be close to the competitive sailing circuit, “There are some stunning venues to go sailing in Europe, and you basically choose the conditions you want to sail in and there is a venue that provides those exact conditions! It is really easy to get anywhere in Europe, and the level of sailing is always high.”

The former Maritzburg College lad states, “If I had to give advice to anyone, I would really emphasise to follow your dreams and never give up! I have embarked on this campaign because I don’t want any regrets later in life, I want to look back and say that I gave it everything I had. I changed career, moved halfway around the world and took up the challenge I presented myself with. If I were to look at the challenge now, knowing what I have learned from it, I would be more hesitant, but ignorance is bliss and so plunge head first into your dreams and work it out as you go!”

The upbeat and optimistic character enthused, “After this it is back to winter training back in the UK, before heading out to Palma, Spain, in April for the opening event of the 2016 Summer Season. Lizzie and I will get a bit of downtime which typically allows us to explore with our puppy, Roxy. We love seeing new places and learning about people, past, present and future.”

Endeavouring in the present, the determined team of Graeme Willcox and Andrew Tarboton are pushing hard in day three of the 2015 49er World Championships taking place in Argentina where they hope to reach their ultimate goal of being qualifying and competing in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

For more info, visit http://49er.org/willcoxtarboton/ or https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/RSA49er