The total fleet was 34 craft, which was only a little fewer than the usual turn-out and given the economic down-turn can be considered more than satisfactory.
As usual, many of the visitors from as far a field as Cape Town and Gauteng made use of the concession allowed during a regatta to camp in the club grounds. The neighbouring Mossel Bay Boat and Yacht Club was particularly strong in support with a large fleet of junior sailors and a very happy camp-lager.
Bridge Officer Evelyn Osborne was given interestingly varied wind conditions to work with, which enabled her to set a variety of courses and made for absorbing sailing.
On the first day of competition the winds were light and variable from the difficult, for Islands Lake, southerly quarter.
On the second day of competition the Weather Gods provided superb sailing conditions with a strong 15 knot South Easter, gusting up to 20 knots. This enabled five races to be fitted in and every opportunity for the skilled sailors to show their worth.
On the final day of competition the wind shifted once again but this time to the South West. Two final races were fitted in to give a satisfactory 10 races in all and to allow two discards.
The best competition out on the water was in the Open Fleet which lumped together 14 craft as varied as Dabchicks, Fireballs, GP 14’s and Sonnets with even a Hobie 16, a Mirror and an RS Feva.
At the top end of the Open Fleet were two Fireballs sailed with great skill by Ann Moody with her husband, Will, as crew, against Anthony and Di Parker. However, neither seemed to be able to match the speed of Tim Manley on his Dabchick who was freshly back from successfully defending his National Title. He was able to beat both of these international skippers on handicap confirming the high standard of Dabchick sailing in the country.
The Laser Fleet was as strong and as competitive as ever with 11 entries. Six of these were full rig and complied with the regatta minimum of five entries to sail as a separate class.
All of their races were dominated by Alan Keen of Zeekoevlei Yacht Club.
Alastair Fraser, of Knysna Yacht Club, was always close behind and made sure that he was never able to relax.
The remainder of the Lasers were a mix of radial rigs and one interesting 4.7 competitor from George Lakes, Sandy Joseph. As a skilled lady skipper in the club she had intended to sail a radial, but when the wind go up swopped to a 4.7 rig. This provided a most interesting comparison out on the water of the difference in performance offered by these two variants. In the light winds she was under-powered but, when the wind got up was able to keep up with ease, especially on the beats. She ended up as a close second place behind Jim Foot from Port Elizabeth when Portsmouth Ratings were applied.
The Junior Fleet, sailing on a separate inner course, was a neat mix of four Optimists and five RS Teras.
Although the Optimists did not technically qualify as separate class in terms of the Notice of Race it was decided to treat them as such in the interests of better sailing.
Jonathan Rees, freshly back on his home waters from an excellent 8th place in the Optimist Nationals had it all his own way with a perfect score. Much closer competitor was evident in the battle for second place between his club mates, Georgou Divaris and Nathan Page.
In the final tally, Georgou took the honours.
In the RS Tera Class it was again a GLYC competitor, John-Marc Olivier, who returned a perfect score of 10 firsts, but he did not have it all his own way. Close tacking duels were often seen between him and second placed Dane Henegan of Mossel Bay.
The regatta has a long and proud history which started close to 50 years ago in support of an embryo tourist industry in the South Cape it has continued to play its role as tourism in the Garden Route has blossomed. It has always been well supported by local business and this year was no exception. Sotheby’s once again came to the party as the main sponsors.
Senior Results:
Open Fleet: 1 Timothy Manley GLYC (Dabchick); 2 Anne & Will Moody GLYC (Fireball); 3 Anthony & Di Parker GLYC (Fireball).
Full Rig Lasers: 1 Alan Keen ZVYC; 2 Alastair Fraser KYC; 3 Bill Turner GLYC.
Radial/4.7 Lasers: 1 Jim Foot GLYC; 2 Sandy Joseph GLYC; 3 Dave Jones GLYC.
Junior Results:
RS Teras: 1 John-Marc Olivier GLYC; 2 Dane Henega MBYBC; 3 James Hellstrom GLYC.
Optimists: 1 Jonathan Rees GLYC; 2 Georgou Divaris GLYC; 3 Nathan Page GLYC.
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The Open Class winners are (from left) Timothy Manley, Anthony and Di Parker and Anne and Will Moody.
