Yacht club ends their year in style

GEORGE NEWS - The George Lakes Yacht Club (GLYC) ended 2023 with their traditional New Year Regatta on 30 and 31 December. The event attracted sailing enthusiasts from Gauteng, Cape Town, Gqeberha, Knysna, and even Australia with 36 boats sailing.

As always, the event's success would not have been possible without their sponsor Lew Geffen Sothebys International Realty (George).

A small fleet of six youngsters competed in a junior fleet on Optimists and O9ers; six Sprogs competed in a separate fleet while the rest competed in the big Open fleet of 25 boats.

On Saturday 30 December, racing commenced in cool, overcast conditions with light drizzle at times. A south-westerly breeze varying between 5 and 14 knots produced good racing conditions. Four races were sailed.

Sunday brought a forecast of a strong south-east wind, but conditions in the morning included patchy west winds and rain showers. After a delay, the fleet set out in a very light south-westerly breeze, allowing for only one race to take place.

This fifth race permitted the discard race to come into effect.

In the Open fleet, Finns dominated. It was only in the fourth race that the Fireballs of David Laing and Conrad Holm were able to finish ahead. Also contesting for top positions on handicap rating were the Lasers of Alan Keen and Warren Harvey, mixing it with the Finns of Georgou Divaris, Dudley Isaac and Michael Hill.

Divaris was consistently in first or second place to finish on top overall, ahead of Keen and Isaac.

The Juniors were, from left: Owen Conradie, Milan Nel, Cameron Simpson, Ruan Labuschagne and Dillon Wrethman.

The small fleet of Sprogs comprised four from Redhouse YC, one from Knysna YC and one from GLYC. The latter entrant, sailed by Jean Paul Buys and Daniel Kruger, proved to be a cut above the rest, winning all five of the races. In the first race, they dropped back because of a capsize, but were still able to catch up and to retake the lead.

Second place went to Sophie Hynch and Andrew Homslow of Redhouse YC with Drew Scott and Rika Olivier third.

The Junior fleet had three Optimists and three O9ers. Owen Conradie won three of the races to be the overall winner. Behind, there was close competition between Milan Nel and Cameron Simpson.

Especially in the earlier races, the lead was exchanged between these two, but Cameron was then able to pull off two race wins to secure second place overall.

The top three teams in the Sprog fleet at the GLYC New Year Regatta 2023 are, from left: Daniel Kruger and Jean Paul Buys (1st), Andrew Hornslow and Sophie Hynch (2nd) and Drew Scott (3rd).