Point Yacht Club
Dinghy Class Champs Day Five
Harbour: Saturday 7 February
A splendid fleet of 24 dinghies participated in the fifth
day of the Point Yacht Club’s Dinghy Class Champs held in the harbour on
Saturday.
Returning after a long absence, Patrick Harris and Jeremy
Kriek returned to the water in their brand new, glisteningly beautiful, carbon
hull Flying Fifteen, Ffigjam. The highly decorated sailors showed their class
as they powered to the front in their division, with a comfortable lead in all
three races.
In the Laser class, Gregg Dobson returning home from work
in Madagascar loved being back on the water. He took the line honours in the
first race, but got jammed up at the start in the second race, finishing in
seventh and then a fifth in the final race. Trent Bingham also returned from a
long absence from sailing, claiming the honours in the second race, but was
forced to retire from the third race due to his kicker breaking. Another
long-time absent sailor made his welcome return. Rowen Clark from Pennington
took to the water after a number of years. It didn’t take him long to get back
into the swing of things, finishing in seventh in his first race. He managed to
up a gear and finished in fourth in the second race, then improved some more in
the final race finishing third.
The only lady in the fleet, Frances Van Breda showed up a
number of the blokes with a fine tally of a fourth, a sixth and a third in her
three races.
A colourful fleet of Hobies also came out to compete to
get in some water time ahead of their Nationals, the upcoming Hobie Epic to
Richards Bay and the 9 Hour at Midmar. The entire fleet opted to retire from
the first race, all camping out on the sand bank in the middle of the bay due
to the winds dropping off.
Peter Hall sailing one up on his Hobie 14 came first in
the second and third race with a tussle for second place occurring between
Michael Dickinson and Hannah Fokkens on their Hobie 16 and 14 year old Dylan
Alberts racing on his Hobie 14. Dickinson helming the Hobie 16 took second
place in the second race, meanwhile Alberts snuck in ahead of the larger Hobie
in the final race, much to his verbal elation at beating the older and more
accomplished Dickinson.
The multi-coloured and multi-class fleet of 24 dinghies
consisted of a Mirror, a Dabchick, Hobies, Lasers, Flying Fifteens, RS Teras, a
29er and an RS Feva.
After the first race, the breeze shifted from an
Easterly, moving around to a South Easterly, causing the Race Officer, Kevin
Bingham to make a course adjustment. Bingham managed to get in three windward
leeward races in near the T-Jetty. As the afternoon drew on, the 8knot breeze
dropped to a gentle 5knots, forcing Bingham to shorten the final race.
This weekend sees two events hosted by Point Yacht Club,
the conclusion to the Dinghy Class Champs and the first in the Jockey Series
offshore of Durban. Race Officer Ron Pet has organised a tactical sausage
course for the keelboats, ensuring lots of action as the bigger boats are
required to carve through a set of ‘gates’ in the centre of the course and will
have two options to round at the bottom mark.
For more info visit www.pyc.co.za or like
the Point Yacht Club’s Facebook page.
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