Durban's Sailing Prodigy Off To The Youth Worlds

Point Yacht Club

Youth World Championships

Sanya, China: 10 – 15 December

Durban’s sailing prodigy, Benji Daniel is about to hit Chinese waters as he takes on 19 other nations at the Youth World Championships.

The 47^th edition takes place at Sanya Beach on Hainan Island, in the south of China with race days scheduled from the 10 – 15 December. With an expected 400 sailors from 70 countries, the crème-de-la-crème of the next generation of international sailors, under the age of 19 will go up against each other in nine classes. Only one team from each nation is selected to participate in each class.

Daniel, who was crowned the 29er World Champion in Alamitos Bay, Long Beach in August, will be changing it up. He trades in his familiar 29er to compete in the 420 class and will be sailing with the promising talent, Rivaldo Arendse from Cape Town.

Point Yacht Club’s star sailor will be heading to his third youth world champs, having raced in the 29er fleet with Durban’s Chad Stevenson in Langkawi, Malaysia in 2015 and then in Auckland, New Zealand last December, finishing both times towards the back of the fleet. His raw talent was revealed when, in an impromptu pairing with Cape Town’s Alex Burger, ignited them onto the international stage, and ultimately the top spot on the 29er podium.

The hard-working, modest sailor stated, “We are heading to China with realistic expectations. For Rivaldo and me, this is very much a getting to know you phase. We have never sailed competitively together before, and aren’t hugely familiar with the 420s so we aren’t going to put any unnecessary pressure on ourselves!

“Rivaldo is a really nice guy, he is 14 and I have just recently turned 17. Youths is going to be his biggest event yet. We are both really excited, and justifiably nervous as well. The other teams have a few of years on us, and have the advantage of sailing competitively together in massive regattas. It will be a major learning curve for us but so long as we stick to the basics, we will be alright.”

With his last exam scheduled for the 1^st of December, the Grade 11 pupil at Thomas More College will be putting his pen down, handing in his paper, and then dashing to the airport to fly down to Cape Town for some last-minute training with coach, former Olympic sailor Roger Hudson.

“It has been an unexpectedly exciting year. School and exams have been my main focus, so I can start the process of applying for uni. Between the chaos of school, I have been doing loads of quick trips down to Cape Town for training, firstly with Alex leading up to the 29er Worlds and now for the Youth Worlds. Having jetted off to Long Island beach in July and now to be representing South Africa lining up against some awesome sailors in China, it all seems quite surreal.”

Sailing under the shadow of one of the tallest statues in the world, the Guang Yin will see 70 Nations competing in the 47^th Youth World Championship taking place on the island of Hainan.

For more info visit www.pyc.co.za or like the club’s Facebook page.

Youth Nationals at Wiggleswade Dam, Eastern Cape

Point Yacht Club

Youth Nationals

Wiggleswade Dam: 13 – 18 December

The Festive holidays are about to get off to an enthusiastic start for Point Yacht Club’s youth sailors as they head down to the Eastern Cape to Wiggleswade Dam for the Youth Nationals.

The six day event that starts this Sunday will have a strong contingent from Durban participating. The fleet of youngsters includes 29er sailors, Benji Daniel (Thomas More College) and Chad Stevenson (uMhlanga College) who should be heading to Langkawi at the end of the month for the ISAF World Youth Championships. The 29er team have been pushed to their limits in their training by fellow 29er sailors, Michael Dickenson and Rob Tarboton, who have been instrumental in preparing the team.

Joining them will be the Oppie gang, with four optimist sailors representing the club. Lead by Callum Gaughran (Kearsney College) and Liam Fennessy (Northwood) who competed in Poland recently. The South African sailors will be joined by the two Bowman lads, the experienced and talented Iain and his younger brother, Scott who will be racing in the novice fleet both from Hillcrest Christian Academy.

The two Hannahs will add a bit of flair to the team, with Hannah Fokkens (Danville) taking on the Laser 4.7 sailors and Hannah Tiedt (Kloof High School) racing in the Laser Radial fleet. Joining Tiedt in the Radial class are Ross Gaughran (Kearsney College) and Sam Lombaard (Michaelhouse).

Sean Hurter (Clifton College) will be sailing in his favourite class and taking to the water on his Dabchick. Rounding up the team are Dylan Albert (uMhlanga College) and James Butler (Westville), regular faces in the catamaran fleet. They will be taking down the only multihull from Durban racing on their Hobie 16, armed with a spinnaker.

Rear Commodore for Youth Sailing, Nik Albert stated, “We have an incredible bunch of kids heading down to the Eastern Cape. We have almost every class covered with our team. It is exciting times for our team as this is one of the strongest teams we are sending down. Our youth are doing remarkable things on the water, with a number of them travelling to Poland, Wales, Langkawi to name but a few places that we have been fortunate enough to participate at.”

Continuing, Albert said, “Good luck to the guys and girls, we hope they fly the PYC flag high and sincerely do the best that they can do! We are very fortunate as a club to have a host of fantastic, dynamic sailors who have been willing to pay it forward. I would like to thank Michael Dickenson for his awesome and fun training, and to the McNeill brothers who have kindly imparted their valuable experience from their experience of their Olympic campaign onto our youngsters.”

Concluding, the Rear Commodore mentioned, “Watch out sailing world, here come the Point Yacht Club’s team!”

Working hard behind the scenes, Trevor Gibb, the stalwart of youth sailing is down every Saturday, come rain or shine, to take and mould new youngsters wanting to join the Point Yacht Club junior programme. Gibb’s relentless in his persistence to get these little ones to learn to sail. If you would like to discover more info about this, contact Amanda at the club.

For more info, visit www.pyc.co.za or contact Amanda at the club on 031 301 5425.

So, Whose Line is it anyway?

Point Yacht Club

Whose Line is it Anyway

Harbour: Saturday 5 December

A small group of sailors ventured out in overcast conditions on Saturday to compete in the fun So, Whose Line is it Anyway? hosted by Point Yacht Club that took place in the bay.

Getting three races in, race officer Lucy de Freitas set a short windward / leeward course with the start and finish line midway down the sausage course. Four classes participated in the racing, with 6 Lasers and two Finns making up the first fleet, five Flying Fifteens and a 29er that swopped and shared crew made up the second fleet, and two multi-hulls and two Oppies completed the fleets on the water.

Having recently returned from work in Madagascar, Laser sailor Gregg Dobson dominated the Laser fleet, showing his prowess in the class with wins in all three races.  The long-time partners, Patrick Harris and Jeremy Kriek enjoyed topping the log in the Flying Fifteen class, with a tussle between husband and wife team, Michael and Heidi Kavanagh and Myles White and Estelle Buys for second place. One point separated them, with the Kavanaghs settling into second. Sneaking into fourth, only one point off of third place was Howick’s Anthony McMillan sailing with young Cameron Booth.

Getting in training ahead of the youth world champs, 29er sailors Benji Daniel and Chad Stevenson enjoyed themselves on the water, mixing it up with Daniel jumping onto Sam Lombaard’s Laser Radial and sailing single handed for a bit while Stevenson paired up with Lombaard on the 29er. The Michaelhouse school lad took the challenge of driving the fast dinghy and Stevenson taking up his usual role at the sharp end of the boat.

Having just returned from the NKA Hobie Tiger Spinnaker Provincials up at the Vaal Dam, Hillcrest’s Murray May teamed up with adrenaline junkie, Michael Dickenson to power their Hobie Tiger around the course. They snuck ahead of Bill Ellens sailing on his Halcat, having taken the win in the first race, Ellens retired after the second, giving the young Tiger team the edge to get ahead on the scoreboard.

The juniors of the fleets, the Optimists had two sailors heading around the course getting in training ahead of the Youth Nationals that will be taking place this weekend at Wiggleswade Dam. Callum Gaughran showed what he had learnt in Poland, taking the win ahead of versatile sailor, Iain Bowman.

This weekend, competitors can expect a long distance race with Race Officer, Lucy de Freitas sending all the sailors off on one start, with the boats stretching their legs adventuring around a bay. Then next week sailors will be heading offshore to compete in the much anticipated Flying Fifteen Nationals that Point Yacht Club will be jointly hosting with Royal Natal Yacht Club.

For more info visit www.pyc.co.za or join the Facebook group.

Fleet B

1 Gregg Dobson (Laser Standard) 3pts, 2= Richard Bates (Laser Standard) 8pts, 2= Denny Moffatt (Laser Standard) 8pts, 4 Sam Lombaard (Laser Radial) 17pts, 5 Keith Gregory (Finn) 18pts, 6= Denmar Nel (Laser Standard) 19pts, 6= Dave Booth (Finn) 19pts, 8 Benji Daniel (Laser Radial) 21pts

Fleet C

1 Patrick Harris / Jeremy Kriek (Flying Fifteen) 3pts, 2 Heidi Kavanagh / Michael Kavanagh (Flying Fifteen) 8pts, 3 Myles White / Estelle Buys (Flying Fifteen) 9pts, 4 Antony McMillan / Cameron Booth (Flying Fifteen) 10pts, 5 Clinton Hendrie / Patricia Kilburn (Flying Fifteen) 18pts, 6= Benji Daniel / Chad Stevenson (29er) 22pts, 6= Sam Lombaard / Chad Stevenson (29er) 22pts

Fleet D

1 Murray May / Michael Dickenson (Hobie Tiger) 3pts, 2 Bill Ellens (Halcat) 4pts

Fleet E

1 Callum Gaughran (Oppie) 4pts, 2 Iain Bowman (Oppie) 5pts

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