Race Report 2006 Table Bay Race Week While we know there are plenty of Anarchists down on the tip of the African continent, we don’t hear from them too often. Like sunny San Diego, Cape Town is all about 'Year Round Racing and Partying. They’ve got a hell of a lot more wind than us, but they’ve also got those sharks… DrunkenSailor858 filed this report with us, reminding us how great the racing is on the edge of the Southern Ocean and we’re going to send him some swag for his trouble. Send us an interesting story from your neck of the woods, wherever the hell it is!
Cape Town threw its customary Sou’Easter at all of us for this year’s Table Bay Week in South Africa. With winds up to 45 knots there was plenty of action and lots of breakages. The Fleets were small but any of the top 4 in both classes could have won. Class 1 IRC had 8 entries including a Mumm 36 back from some big modifications, the new 54 foot canter Prodigy, and the Farr 38 AL defending her the fourth consecutive years. Many of South Africa’s America’s Cuppers were back on holiday and most of the boats in Class 1 had one or two aboard, promising to make the racing tight and competitive. Class 2 had the usual suspects: A pair of J27s and L34s, a Laser 28 (my ride) as well as a Farr 38 that somehow managed to squeeze into the class by removing all of their big head sails. This pissed off a lot of class two sailors as we now had a Farr 38 in class 1 and a Farr 38 in class two, and in the breeze the Farr just walks away from everyone else with its 10ft greater waterline. Race 1 started in about 25 knots but ended in 35 knots or more. What made it worse was that the Race Office wanted some entertainment, and gave us an Olympic course: Triangle, W/L, Triangle. And the jibe mark was set VERY tight. Class one got away cleanly and had a very tight first beat with 4 boats getting to the top mark at once. On the following reach there were some stunning shots of close high speed racing.
Once everyone had finished it was a hard slog back up to the harbor in a now very strong and building SouthEaster of 40 knots. Even though damage was done the rides were well worth it. The North Sails truck was heavily loaded once everyone got back to the dock. The sail makers had a very late night sewing. Day two dawned with an early start for us as one of the guys staying with us was a sail maker and we ended up being his only lift to the loft to get repairs done. The wind today had dropped but not by much. The Race Officer was nicer today, giving us a windward/leeward race. The boats were able to put up normal kites and actually race instead of just surviving. There were still a few boats falling over but not as many as the day before.
This race was very close in IRC 2. On corrected time, the L34 Lapwing and ourselves on the Laser 28 UkuZwana ended up with the same corrected time, down to the second. What are the chances of this happening? The big boat IRC 1 class was being dominated by AL (Farr 38) being sailed by a group of South Africa’s top young sailors, with the average age aboard around 22 years. Class 2 was also being dominated by a Farr 38, Hocus Pocus. The next 4 positions were all within a point of each other. Day 3 was the long distance race, with nice, late starts. Class 1 started at 11:00 while we, in class 2, started at twelve. Class One’s course started from the bridge hut on the harbor wall, round Paarden Island mark, then to a laid mark down off Kooberg power plant, back half way to Blouberg mark, then back to Kooberg and to the finish at the bridge hut again. Class 2 was the same except the lap to Blouberg was not included. At the first start, two winds were fighting with each other with the result being near-calms, and lots of boats were bobbing around, trying to get around the Paarden Island mark and back in to the Westerly. Not long after the start, Prodigy (the canter), reported that its rudder had decided to join the keel and start canting on its own. This boat has been struggling a lot with breakages. The day before, they lost someone over the side and a crew member got washed into the push pit and they had to get the NSRI out to get him off with a back injury. Once back in to the westerly everyone enjoyed a tight reach down to Kooberg. Once round the mark it was a straight tack back to the harbor wall. About 300 m from the line everyone fell back into the big hole between the two breezes. Everyone really enjoyed the long distance, it was nice not having to beat back in to a howling South Easter like previous years, where masts and keels have been lost and many have arrived long after dark.
The big promotion for the night was for Jagermeister. There were very “nice” girls walking around selling shots, and with each shot came the free prizes. Our table managed to claim all but a few of the prizes the shot girls brought with them. We went through 2 bottles of the stuff between about 10 of us very quickly, only problem was the promo ended early as we had drunk out all their stock. But the party went on. Day 4 started with a wreath being laid for Bertie Reed. A very solemn moment and very fitting that this year was the first time in a long time that Bertie’s old BOC boat Voortekker was sailing in Table Bay Week. The wind for the day was a nice gentle SouthEaster for the first race but after that it changed and the Race Office made a quick decision and moved us into a westerly for the second race. There was close racing the whole day, with lots of close mark rounding and luffing matches. One of the many close calls was Smack Water Jack luffing us up into the paths of the Mumm 36 coming upwind. Much screaming going on but they let us through just in time.
In Class 1, AL one every race. Second was Geoff Meek on the Pacer 42 and third was Mark Sadler, Shosholoza skipper on the Wellborne 46 Hi Fidelity. Class 2 was won by Hocus Pocus, also a Farr 38. We pulled through from 6th on the first day up to 2nd overall after winning the last two races. If we had been on form on the weekend we could have defended our title. Lapwing was 3rd. This year’s Table Bay Race Week was very enjoyable. Hopefully next year there will be more entrants in the two IRC classes. Everyone else that didn’t have a IRC certificate was entered in to a cruising class that did bay races each day. Many had enough crew and racing experience to race IRC but the owners just aren’t that keen to get their IRC certificate. That partying went well into the early hours with free beer, wine and food the whole night. Many must have been feeling like it was the next day at work. Here are some of my observations of a very interesting week:
01/05/07 |
Photos
by 
As the
wind built damage started to appear. Class one lost the most boats
in this race. Auto Atlantic Thunder Child let the main fly just
a touch too far in a gybe, bending the boom round the shroud. The
Mumm 36 soon discovered that there was something near
the top of the mast that seemed to be hooking their
kites as they blew 2 out of their 3 kites in the same place. Even
our AC sailors were chasing their kite around the place at one point. 
We blew
a kite and got caught on camera. It was our own stupid
mistake. Two panels in the head got ripped while we hoisted
it and the first time the bag collapsed and re-filled it was in pieces. We
didn’t lose much, by the time it was back down on deck the new
one was clipped on and ready to go up again.
In the
second race the two J27s and us all seemed to be sailing at the
exact same speed, rounding the marks at the same time. On the last
run two of us set off from the top mark at the same time both going
along around 11 knots just meters apart. They got us on
the line by one second but on corrected time we won
by 3 minutes.