Crocs Summer Regatta 2012

A competitive 2012 Crocs Summer Regatta was enjoyed by a 60 strong fleet of boats over 3 days over the December long weekend. Regent Express was the Div 1 leader at the end of the first day's racing, only to drop down a position on the second day after losing a spinnaker halyard up the mast during Race 3. Point separeation amongst the top 3 boats in Div 1 was incredibly tight with a final margin of just 2 points!

There are loads of exellent pics by Trevor Wilkins and two video clips featuring the Pacer 27 blast reaching under reduced rig at www.pacer27.co.za

Pacer 27 National Championships & Mykonos Offshore 2012

For the 3rd year in a row Pacer 27 boat owners voted to run the nationals in conjunction with the Mykonos Offshore. The format has proven to be hugely popular, with every privately owned Pacer 27, bar Russel Morgan's one from PE, making the effort to attend. It provides a tough, but interesting combination of fast, furious and intense, short leg round the cans racing, followed by the two distance races. Crews feel stretched to the limit on the final day. It is, after all, a national championship event. Last year's champions Unruly, were present to defend their title, but the two Cape Town based boats in the form of Felix the cat and Regent Express, were not going to let that happen easily. These three boats were consistently on top form to provide for a hard fought, and close regatta. This is one design racing at it's finest.

To read the rest of this story, go here: http://www.pacer27.co.za/news.html

Fling Regatta 2012

Foreign funding and support from Lord Irvine Laidlaw coupled with local expertise in the form of Rick Nankin, ensured that the second Fling Regatta was as successful as the first. One can always guage the acceptance of an event by the volume of entries. This year they had almost doubled, to the tune of forty two boats, split into three divisions: IRC, Club Div 1 and Club Div 2. Just in case you didn't know, Lord Laidlaw has several yachts based around the world and all of them end in the word Fling . So he has Highland Fling in Scotland and Cape Fling here, and so on..... Capiche?
Go here to read the rest of this story: http://www.pacer27.co.za/archive/02_Feb_12.html

Crocs Summer Regatta

I know. I Know. Without great weather, one simply cannot have a great regatta. This years' Crocs Summer Regatta was about as close to a perfect regatta anyone could wish for. It ranks in the pole position of my top 10 regattas of all time. Well done to Rob Meek and his team. Forty two yachts entered over four divisions split into IRC 1&2 and Club 1&2. Competition in the IRC classes was ferocious with all the top boats being serious contenders. In our division (Club1), the organisers had grouped all the sports boats (4), a brace of 40 footers and a lone multihull. The biggest division by far, was in the Club 2 division, which numbered in excess of 20 boats.

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Man Overboard!

One minute we were reasonably under control bursting through the waves at high speed, and a second later I was catapulted off the boat to find myself under water and tangled in ropes. In almost 40 years of helming, I have never fallen off a keel boat before. That's enough to make most people panic. I opened my eyes to see which way UP was and hurriedly freed myself. I surfaced just three meters behind the boat, still coughing up a mouthful of sea water, and immediately made a valiant effort at swimming the gap. Easy? Nope, almost impossible - with a full set of oilies and boots on. Seconds ticked by as the gap between the boat and I increased at an alarming and despairing rate. No-one had yet noticed I wasn't on board.

Read the rest of this story here: Man Overboard!

Intasure Spring Regatta

Sixty six entries entries were received for the annual Spring Regatta hosted by False Bay Yacht Club and sailed in the pristine waters off Simonstown. The 2011 event threw a bit of a curved ball in that the usual public holiday making this a three day event, fell on a Saturday. That put pressure on skippers finding enough crew who could take the Friday off work, school or varsity. Taking into consideration the tough economic climate, the big entry speaks volumes for the popularity of this regatta and that notwithstanding a clash of dates with the Cape Town Boat Show.



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Horizon job!

Focussed concentration in the cockpit as Regent Express takes 1st overall in the annual PPS Challenge at Royal Cape Yacht Club in Cape Town.
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