More Sunday Race Results!

A fresh and steady Northwester, slightly cold conditions, and 5 boats ventured out. Course was set as two windward-leewards from Dunes-Chappies, which made fast and exhilirating racing, especially on Faraway, which was short of crew. There was great competition right until the end, where Faraway and Megafreight were both bearing down on Dunes mark before the finish. A sudden burst of Northwester saw Megafreight laid over for a few seconds, while Faraway just roared past with main flapping. As with last week, the pub kept going until late that day . . .

Results on PHRF:
1 Megafreight
2 Faraway
3 Hot Ice
4 Nandi
5 Savannah

Sunday Race Results

Perfect conditions, a flat sea, and a light but fairly steady SouthWester prevailed on Sunday morning. Sadly only 5 boats pitched, and Faraway had to withdraw being short of crew. Nevertheless, a great race ensued between Hot Ice, Savannah, Aquamaniac and Nandi. Course was set as three windward/leewards between Fish on the Rocks and Dunes Mark, with some tight racing inbetween. After racing, there was a pleasant atmosphere at the clubhouse deck, with wine and food and a short prizegiving running until mid afternoon!

Results on PHRF:
1 Hot Ice
2 Nandi
3 Aquamaniac
4 Savannah

Saturday's Yot Grot!

Buddies, Budding Millionaires and Bargain Hunters!

Sellers, Socialites and Spenders!

The second Yot-Grot of the year was a great success too. Another one is already being planned for June!

Club Champs Blown Out . . .

Hout Bay at 09:15 on Sunday morning. White horses and spindrift.

As a rather heavy web user, there is no page I use more than Windguru. And this weekend that extended to 1stweather.com, weathersa.co.za, including the synoptic charts and surface wind prediction models. Must have spent hours on this. Didn't help.

Much as it is an effort to setup something like the club champs, it is with equal reluctance that we called it off, both days, and quite early. Thanks to Chris, Jeremy and Keith (and others) who assisted with the calls, and moral support. Turns out the wind howled both days fairly consistently.

Not that we couldn't have sailed however, but it would have been a quite unpleasant in the somewhat wintery conditions. Half the fleet (2 pacers 27s, a Flamenca and the L26) would have been soaked. Never mind the bridge crew on the marina boat (don't worry about us they said, over umpteen capuccinos in the morning - which was just another way of saying "we aint going nowhere mate - shore-bridge or nutting!"

So Hout Bay's weather gods make their point again - who'd have thought we'd be blown out by the South Easter in mid-may . . .

Club Champs this Weekend!

left-click for fullsize

Some more pics from the Closing Cruise!

Maestro Jeremy Nel, Master and Commander and Chief of Parties, preparing to embarass half a dozen members for various things on presentation of a bottle of wine . . .

Nandi reaching at 8.5 knots back into the bay

Skebanga's fine lines, screaming across Kommetjie Bay

The Mad Hatters on Nandi. I think the chief Mad Hatter was taking the picture.

Quest was towed behind to pick up their hats which kept falling in the water.

Thanks to Nick, Sally, Linda and Peter for all these pics!

Thrills and spills of the Closing Cruise!

The review party doing their best to look innocent! - Commodore Chris Sutton and Rosemary, along with President Dudley Turner and Laurna. Discovery Cat was provided for the occasion by Ian Lamont - who has helped us numerous times in this way.

Closing Cruise Tradition is for passing boats to bombard the review party with water bombs etc, interesting salutes etc. However this review party was armed like a bunch of Somali Pirates, with water filled balloons and the like, and pelted the passing boats mercilessly. And this includes the good ladies aboard I'm afraid to say! The long-range water-pistol on Quest managed to hold them off temporarily, but as we had no motor we were a bit of a sitting duck in the light wind!

A nice turnout of 17 boats on the water! - and brilliant weather! This pic is from Roy Mcbride showing Nandi (right) followed by Domicella. The review was followed by an open water cruise to Vulcan Rock and Kommetjie bay, with flat water and a fresh breeze.

automatic bilge pumps would be nice . . .

The cruise was followed by an amazing spectacle of the O9er race. This involved eight middle aged or senior sailors, including a  few quite large ones, sailing these minute little wash-basins from the harbour out to the Dunes mark and back. This is a suprisingly difficult thing to do, even without the obligatory refreshment stations on start and finish . . . . One bloke was a bit heavy for the 09er and sailed it mostly underwater on the way back, to the amusement of many onlookers on the North Mole, some with cameras unfortunately.

Another lost his rudder in the water and spent an amusing while circling about under sail before they were happily reunited. Rescue services, on standby, were fortunately not required.

The 09er race was followed by a really good braai on the club deck, with many faces one doesn't routinely see at the club. There was a brilliant music from Herman bakker and Mike Larcombe, both very accomplished on piano and guitar respectively, who jammed together for several hours for us. They seemed to be having more fun than anyone!

During the early evening we held a short prizegiving, firstly for the Summer Series, and then for "Best Salute" (Nandi with their funny hats), 09er race (Rian and Keith, cheats), and a variety of other oddities - including Pierre Albertyn's birthday. Keith Gemell and elicited a handsome donation of a case of Swartberg wine which was awarded for these notable achivements, and mostly consumed on the spot as far as I could tell. . . .

Turned out to be a quite a late night for some of us.

Not for the first time - huge thanks to Jeremy Nel for this all!!!!!!

Megafreight Wins the 2010/11 Summer Series!

Jendo Ocenasek (left) received the Summer Series Trophy on behalf of Megafreight, for the 2010/11 Summer Series.

(thanks to Roy McBride for the pic!)

In second place was Faraway (Chris Sutton), followed by Nandi (Nick Fairley) in 3rd. The last series has been sailed on PHRF alone (no skippers handicap) and reflects a very competitive fleet in the club. With Hot Ice back in the water and back at the club with Pieter Roelofze, and Pacer-1 in the fleet (Rian Turner), things could get a bit interesting in 2011  . . .

Closing Cruise Sunday 17 April!

Attention all members, skippers, sailors, cruisers!

HBYC will hold a "Closing Cruise" on Sunday 17 April. Apart from the traditional Sailpast, we will hold a medium distance cruising rally out to Kommetjie or Vulcan in the afternoon, After that there will be a novelty race in O9-ers in the harbour (if you want to see Jendo and Chris Sutton swimming in the harbour nows your chance!). In the late afternoon there will be music and a braai at the club, and we will present the Summer Series Prizegiving around 19:00 Sunday evening. HBYC - its the place to be!

Yot Grot 2011

Another fun day at the club! Thanks to Jeremy for these pics of the Yot Grot held over the weekend!