Merry Christmas!

Hout Bay Yacht Club wishes all members and friends a truly great Christmas!

Fair Winds and Smooth Sailing for 2015!

Youth Summer Sailing Course at H.B.Y.C.

Hout Bay Yacht Club Youth Sailing

Learn how to sail Dabchicks and Lasers 

over three fun-filled days of the school holidays 

with our qualified instructor.

VENUE: Hout Bay Yacht Club

Hout Bay Harbour

Cape Town

DATES: 19 to 21 Dec 2014

5 to 7 Jan 2015

TIMES: 9:30 - 3:30 daily

AGES: 11 to 16 yrs

COST: R500 (lunch & course material included)

Enquiries & Bookings, contact:

Anne: (021)790 3110

Lisa : 082 572 2715

See the Poster

Orphan's Lunch!

Having missed some of the recent Orphan's Lunches, I must declare this one to have been a fantastic success! The organisation and catering was outstanding, the spirit was awesome, and there was a very generous spirit to make it a very successful auction! 

News just in reports R22-000 was raised for the charity, which goes a long way to feeding orphans and indigent pensioners in Hanberg. This is a fantastic effort from a relatively small number of people and is something Hout Bay Yacht Club can be extremely proud of. It also makes the lunch that much more special. This is the Real Spirit of Christmas!

Special thanks to all those who made it happen - especially, Paul and Liz Pigneguy who organised the event, with support from Taffy and Shirley as always, and to Robin Parker for running the auction as usual. Never mind Werna, who runs the charity!!!! What a champion! (who have I missed?)

I suppose the Scottish Minstrels should also get a mention, see them here!

Orphans warming up...

Cheer up you lot!

Beware of the Pig! 

Mischief or what, the Scottish Play is conceived....

"This is definitely my beer!!"

" .... then again - maybe not .... "

Celebrity Auctioneer in full swing!

HBYC Club Champs 2014 (Now Postponed till 2015)

(Postponed until early 2015, due to lack of availability of most teams at short notice)

Brief NoR and Course Card here.

More details will follow.

Please confirm entry soonest to RC Sailing, Richard Evans.

JML2 takes it this week....

A lightish NorthWester, with some cloud and rain unfortunately brought variable and shifty winds into the bay.  L26s do well in these conditions, and Keegon did well to produce a clear win on corrected time.

Megafreight, who crossed the line first, was second on corrected time, followed by Faraway and then Aquamania (Theo Yon) - who must have tripped somewhere - in fourth place. Thats the beauty of Hout Bay Sailing - nothing is a given!

Full results here.

Following the racing was the book Launch of Jack Mudds new book "Jack of all Trades" - quite amusing. There was a great attendance, and a great social evening as it turned out.

Volvo Boats arrive in Cape Town!

Abu Dhabi

DongFeng

Crew of Abu Dhabi at the Prizegiving

Abu Dhabi crossed the line just a few minutes ahead of DongFeng - about 3 miles lead -  this after 25 days and 17000 miles or so!!! Man alive - is that match-racing or what!? Just imagine the stress on these crews! This is largely due to the boats being identical for the first time, its all up to the crews...and - er - the navigators. These two boats looked to be in really good shape, which is just as well, as they have a fair bit to go still. I don't think I envy these guys too much.

An hour or so later I happened to be in Pick'nPay, getting some emergency wine supplies, when I noticed two young guys ahead of me in the queue dressed in red Musto Sailing gear. We took a chance and asked them - in English - if they were from the DongFeng? Of course they were - and very amazed we'd made the connection - and then bubbled on about Cape Town for a few minutes to say how happy they were to be here and especially in Cape Town - and what a nice reception they'd had. I would have to agree - it was quite impressive! And what lovely humble and nice people! They were just buying some pleasantries to remind themselves what life on land is all about - 25 days in a washing machine is not for everybody I think. They deserve a good rest now.

Keep an eye on this race, it will be one of the most interesting Volvo's ever! Personally, I think the formula is just about right now. And go see the boats sometime, for yachties, this is quite some eye-candy.

See Trevor Wilkins pics of the arrival of Abu Dhabi here - awesome!

Wednesday Results!

Unusually small fleet this time - despite conditions in the bay being excellent for sailing! Was it the Volvo race or Guy Fawkes? I hope not the latter. Anyway, the braai in the club was quite notable, if Audrey's Facebook pic was anything to go by!

1 JML2
2 Savannah
3 Faraway

More results here.

Old Bulls fight back!

Well after the various upsets of the previous weeks, Megafreight came roaring back to cross the line first this time, and producing a clear win on corrected time as well. Well done to them! Second across the line was Faraway, and only a few seconds behind them was Skebenga.Now I know this is supposed to be a handicap race - and indeed it is - but the battle for line honours has become very interesting with each of Skebenga, Faraway and Megafreight capable of crossing first! Not sure how Skebenga is managing this but it's quite amazing.

Anyway, back to the story, summary results on corrected time:

1. Megafreight
2. JML2
3. Faraway
4. Aquamania
5. Skebenga
6. Savannah

Full results here

Skebenga crosses first!

For the first time in ages and ages, line honours has not gone to either of Faraway or Megafreight! Skebenga, a well equipped Fast 42, is starting to show her potential in no uncertain terms. In last night's race, she crossed a full 87 seconds ahead of Megafreight, and about ten minutes ahead of Faraway. Conditions were extremely light and I have no doubt that a few holes played some part in this all, but it is equally amazing to see Skebenga do so well in such light wind. Well done Paul and team. There is definitely a new player at the front of the fleet! Watch this space.

Well done to JML-2 for winning on corrected time.

It is also nice to see Reaction in the fleet, we do need an RCOD to look at!

Results on corrected time:
1. JML 2 
2. Megafreight 
3. Skebenga 
4. QBI 
5. Faraway 
6. Savannah 
7. Reaction 

Full results here.

Wednesday Race Results

Five boats started in a 10kt Southerly. 

Megafreight took a clear lead and won by a massive margin! 
Savannah second on corrected time, followed by JML2, Skebenga and QBI.

Full results here.