Wednesday, December 22, 2010

CROCS! In every sense of the word.....

The annual Crocs Summer Regatta has just been completed. There is a comprehensive write up with lots of excellent pics here: www.pacer27.co.za

Monday, December 6, 2010

Man Over Board


SAILING PERFECTION
Every now and then Cape Town dishes up a perfect sailing day – a respite from the tedious south easterlies – and this race was strangely supported by less than 10 boats. For those that did not make it, you missed out on a near perfect day on the water. No kelp, no plastic bags and a moderate to fresh south westerly kissing a sparkling ocean. Add to that a drag race up the Sea Point promenade and a quick visit to Clifton . Great stuff.

Read teh rest of this story here http://www.pacer27.co.za/

Friday, November 26, 2010

Trapped by an oil rig in a 35 knot gale

There we were trying to exhibit first class seamanship when things started going awry very quickly - right inside the harbour.....


"Must be the season of the witch" sang the 70's rock group 'Bloomfield Kooper Blues Band' which very few of you will remember. It's that time of year when the Cape Doctor pumps for days on end and sets the populations' nerves on edge; of exam times and of end of year stress. I found this bit of information on our famous summer breeze via Google:
The prevailing Spring and early Summer wind , the South-Easter (otherwise known as the "Cape Doctor") arises as a spin-off from anticyclones deep in the Southern ocean. It arrives at the peninsula by way of False Bay, its velocity often being given a boost by the "corner effect" round Cape Hangklip. One arm of the South-Easter sweeps around the eastern flanks of Table Mountain, where its moisture, picked up from the ocean and the warm waters of False Bay, helps to keep the vegetation green through the heat of summer. It is also a vital factor in the pollination of many plants, including the Silvertrees. The South-Easter continues on around Devil's Peak, before descending on the city. There, it behaves somewhat in the manner of a trapped tiger, careering around in the bowl between mountain and sea. A couple of days of this is enough to purge the city's air - nowadays it is the smog instead of the plague of old which is banished. The South-Easter tends to overdo the cure, outstaying its welcome. A possible record was its performance in November 1936, when it howled without a break for 15 days, ravaging suburban gardens and penning the staff in the upper cable station for 5 days.
So there we were at the yacht club having arrived from the Northern Suburbs where there was only a hint of breeze to arrive at the embattled and windy foreshore where the car park ar RCYC was a cauldron of airborne sand being whipped up by a 30 knot south easterly. The last two races have been cancelled due to excessive wind. Was this going to be the third one in a row?


Full story here: http://www.pacer27.co.za/news.html

Monday, November 8, 2010

Four yachts testosterone damaged

It's supposed to be light hearted twilight racing at the end of a working day, but it would seem some skippers take things a bit too far. Go here http://www.pacer27.co.za/archive/03_Nov_10.html to read how these things happen.

Then a few days later it was the revenge of the sports boats, where we posted a very good result winning a bay race by an amazing 22 minutes over the second placed boat. That story accessible here: http://www.pacer27.co.za/news.html

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Regent Express performs well in the Harken RI race

There is a full write up on this annual event sailed in almost perfect conditions. A misjudgement of wind strength by the race committee saw the start times of the faster boats being slowed too much resulting in many of the smaller class 2 boats doing well. Go to http://www.pacer27.co.za/ for the full story

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Epic return trip to Cape Town

I think yesterdays sail back must rank as possibly the most enjoyable of my life. 

With only 230 kgs of crew mass on board I went ultra conservative and rigged a reefed main and the North “#4” small jib despite the forecast indicating only 14 knots of wind.
It howled all night at our home and when I picked Joshua and his pal Allesandro up in West beach it was pumping there as well. I was fully expecting to abort the trip on arrival at Simonstown, but strangely the south easter was very much as forecast with the odd white cap here and there. Very much sailable.

We left at 0800 sharp and tackled that very long beat to Cape Point. We were fortunate to have a large school of dolphins swimming with us for almost 40 minutes. When we tacked, they came with us. There was one ‘little un' of only 2 ft length learning to surf bow waves. At that point I knew our trip would be a good one. We also sailed close by a whale but luckily it was swimming to the west and away from our track. The wind remained fairly steady in strength and we were able to sustain 6.0 knots upwind speed most of the time. Josh helmed most of the way to the Point. It was getting quite chilly near Cape Point as the sky went gray and overcast.

The sea was exceptionally rough at Cape Point. It was so bad that I didn’t want to risk putting the kite up, so we 2 sailed reached about half a mile clear of the land before hoisting the R1. There were at least 30 commercial fishing boats active in the area west of Cape point, so we planned to keep well clear of them. I was a bit concerned whether we would be able to hold the boat upright with the big kite up, but the boat behaved itself nicely and soon we had 10 knots + on the log. We had set the kite to clear Slangkop light, but typically we ended up sailing tighter angles than expected. I could feel some kelp on the keel, so when we gybed to clear Slangkop, we did a Mexican drop, reversed to clear the kelp, then got the R1 back up and headed back out to sea. We stood out far, until I was certain we could clear Karbonkelberg on a single gybe. The only boat we saw after Cape Point, was a large cargo vessel which passed us about a mile off heading south. There was something eerie about being the only pleasure craft at sea on a midweek working day.

After the next gybe, the breeze picked up to 20 knots and our speed started hovering on 12 knots with the odd foray into the 15 knot zone. I have never felt this boat so light and responsive, no doubt a product of the light crew mass. It was a fantastic sail from Scarborough through to Camps Bay – all of it on the starboard gybe. At one stage our ETA showed 1.30pm! The seas were very rough with huge swells off Hout Bay, but other than a few nose dives, the boat recovered well and sustained very high speeds with images of Volveo Open 60s with decks awash in white water. Josh did all the downwind kite trimming – he is a fast learner and soon got the hang of recovering the kite after those blistering surfs. I think he probably slept better than me last night!

At Camps Bay, the breeze started dropping rapidly, so we gybed back out to sea and picked up some fresh breeze. Here the seas were much flatter and we nailed 16,2 knots quite easily. Two more gybes got us to Green Point, where the breeze finally petered. Time for the donkey and we motored in past the breakwater at 4.15. 8hrs 15 mins from when we left. We sailed the whole way back with a reef in the main.

It was waaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy nicer than being at work!

Total distance: 65.1 nm
Max speed: 16.2 knots
Average: 7.2 knots
Time: 8hrs 15 mins

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Intasure Spring Regatta - FBYC

This event was exciting and highly enjoyable with thrills and spills in abundance. There were crash tacks to avoid whales, shredded spinnakers, broken gear, collisions and near collisions, man overboard scenarios, people shouting about suing each other for being luffed onto the wrong side of the committee boat, enough shouting and bad language from a certain top IRC boat to last most of us well into 2012 and prawning operations (of which perhaps first prize should go to Thunderchild for a full on dragnet operation right over the finish line). There were one or two exhibits of really poor sportsmanship and even gamesmanship which don't belong in the sport of sailing. Then were some competitors who had little concept of the racing rules. I suppose those are essentially all minor issues when one considers we had a large number of people enjoying the sport of sailing - that is first prize.
To read the full story go here: http://www.pacer27.co.za/

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Cape of Storms

The allure of rounding the Cape of Storms in a small boat has a morbid fascination for many. And so it was for some of the crew on Regent Express, who happily gave up a dry day on land to venture out into the wild waters around Cape Point on a day of wintry rain squalls. Despite the lofty ideals, we also needed to get the boat around to Simonstown for the annual Spring Regatta. We had been debating if it was easier slipping the boat and taking it over on the trailer or sailing it around, but the sail option won us all over.


Read the rest of this story and view more pics here http://www.pacer27.co.za/ under the LATEST NEWS banner.