South African Sailing has invited Chamera, Director of Racing of the Polish Yachting Association to the clinic and hope that this will be the first of many development clinics for our sailors, sailing instructors and coaches.

Chamera visited South Africa last year in October to present the ISAF International Race Officer Seminar. He brings a range of skills and years of coaching and sailor development experience that will be most beneficial to all racing coaches and sailors who wish to improve their racing skills.

Point Yacht Club has agreed to host the clinic on behalf of South African Sailing. Lloyd McNeill has undertaken to make all the necessary arrangements with regards to camping, meals, boats and equipment. The SAS Lasers and 420’s will be available for sailors who wish to participate in the clinic. Sailors will be required to pay a refundable damage deposit for the use of the boats to cover insurance excess.

At this stage we cannot advise a final cost per person but we will make every effort to make the clinic as affordable as possible to all. More information with regards to course content and costs will be communicated to you in due course.

For more information please contact Sue McWha at suemcwha@telkomsa.net.

This year the Regatta was hosted by Rochester Yacht Club, on the Genesee River off Lake Ontario.

The team consisted of Saskia Butcher on the bow, Louise Meek on the jib and halyards, Tiffany Baring-Gould on Kite and tactics and Dominique Provoyeur on the helm.

The team arrived at the regatta site three days early to get acclimatised and do their first and only bit of training together. The main reason for lack of training was that Baring-Gould is South African but now lives in UK and Meek lives in Johannesburg.  Provoyeur has previously sailed with Butcher in August, when they both crewed on the all-woman’s Lipton Cup Team, Slayley.

Said Provoyeur: “We were, however, very fortunate to get good weather for all three of our training days, and could therefore get real benefit from our time on the water.   I was the only one who had sailed with all three crew members on previous occasions, so we really had to make the extra effort to work hard on communicating all manoeuvres.  By the time the racing began, we were pretty comfortable with what we all needed to do on the boat, so it just came down to how well we jelled on the race course.

“The first and third day of racing was cancelled due to either too much wind or too little wind, which was a little frustrating since we had all travelled from around the world to be there to race.  But such is this game that we play, and all part of one’s ability to focus, relax and be able to refocus with as much determination as ever before.

“All in all we had six good races, three a day.  The first day of racing was in 3-10 knots, flat seas with the breeze coming off the land, which made it very shifty and gusty.  It was imperative to keep one’s eyes out of the boat, and really be aware of the whole race course, there didn’t seem to be any timed oscillations, so it was a matter of getting to the puffs as quick as you could or gybing for the fingers coming down the course.

“The second day, the weather was completely different, 12-18 knots with a very confused sea state.  Before the first race, calls of ‘man overboard’ were coming over the radio and some boats even returned to the harbour.  The wind actually dropped off a bit and was more towards 15knots by the time racing got underway and with the big waves, we were actually searching for more power to get through them.  Having said that we probably could have gone even softer on the rig, it probably would have help us, punch through a bit better.  Hindsight is beautiful.

“We ended the regatta with 2, 2, 4, 8, 9, 10 and with three boats on a count out for third.  We lost on one and won one putting us in fourth overall out of 35 teams.  The fact that we got all of our results in the top 10 was pleasing to me, as this shows that we kept calm even when things were not all favourable and worked ourselves back into the race and once we were in the top five we were comfortably able to stay there.

“In general, I was extremely happy with the communications on the boat, each team member was calling their duties with confidence and without hesitation.    We did struggle a bit with boat handling, but this could be expected due to the fact that we had a chartered boat, and the set up was slightly different to what we are used too. This was our first regatta as a team, and if one thing stands out is that we will all jump at the chance to sail together anytime.  In fact we are at present planning to either go to Miami or Sydney for a month or two in 2010.”

Seriously close one design racing is what this event was all about. Despite the fairly small entry of six boats, those that were on the water enjoyed outstanding close quarter racing with many of the races seeing four Pacers finishing within 30 seconds of each other.

Ant Wentworth’s ‘Felix the Cat’ ended up as overall winners, notwithstanding the top four boats all finishing on 10 points each for a four way tie. Second placed ‘Regent Express’ ended with an identical scoreline to ‘Felix the cat’ where the tie was broken on the better position in the final race – the very race where ‘Regent Express’ skippered by Trygve Roberts had a halyard break and sent them plummeting from a possible first place right down to last in the final race.

They jury-rigged a second halyard and fought back to finish fourth in the final race, but it was one point too little for the overall win. Finishing third overall was Andrea Giovaninni  on ‘Pacer 3’ fresh from a similar podium finish in the Lipton Cup.

He said after the event he could not believe how competitive the Pacer fleet was and had underestimated the quality of the racing. 

What a pleasure to go sailing on absolutely flat water in fresh breeze in shorts and T-shirts.

This is something the guys from the Cape seldom get to do. Conditions on the Vaal for the first two days suited the Pacers perfectly with fresh breezes and flat water which makes the Pacer 27 Sport a delight to sail.

This was the third Pacer 27 Nationals and certainly different from the first two, where Rick Nankin and Mark Sadler dominated the results. This event saw four of the six entries each winning a race. The regatta was never a foregone conclusion till the final day.

Fresh to strong winds on the Vaal (18 to 32 knots) saw the Pacers ripping through the fleet downwind reaching speeds above 16 knots and providing some spectacular broaches for those seeking visual thrills.

The only non Pacer that could keep up was the Farrier trimaran. The weather was exceptionally good for the first two days, whereafter  it faded completely not allowing any additional races for the entire weekend – a first in the last six years that DAC have had no racing during this annual event on any given day. No-one really complained as the first two days were simply fantastic for keelboat racing.

Deneysville Aquatic Club hosted the Pacer Nationals as part of their annual Keel Boat Week regatta, which attracted some 50 entries of mixed classes, with the Mistral, J22 and Hunters all making class. Three Pacers undertook the long journey from Cape Town, as did one from Port Elizabeth with the final two being Vaal Dam based. Amongst the crews were some very good sailors, many who have sailed at world championship level.

There was no question as to how tough the competition was going to be. On several of the boats there were sailmakers and hot-shots within the industry. It would be a tough event to win for sure.
D.A.C. as always proved to be a competent and friendly club who did a sterling job of feeding and entertaining the sailors, whilst Race Officer Trevor Hulleman competently and patiently ensured the required number of races were completed.

Five races were sailed over two days leaving the next two days with zero wind and no racing at all.
Felix the cat and Regent Express had a dead tie for first overall with both boats having a scoreline of first, second, third, fourth, but in such a tie the boat with the better result in the final race wins the tie-breaker. Felix the cat had a third versus Regent Express’s fourth (where they broke their jib halyard).

Team RaceAhead have steadily developed into two powerful racing teams, and both ashore and on the water they were great ambassadors for SA and for the sport of sailing in our country.
 World championships this year were held in the open North Atlantic off the coast of Cascais in Portugal in perfect racing conditions – moderate to strong winds and at times the kind of waves that we often see off our own Atlantic seaboard in winter.

There were 56 teams from the UK, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Australia and our two from SA. 
Racing on “City of Cape Town” were Wandisile Xayimpi (20) Jamie Waters (28), Neil Malan (19) and Dave Hudson as skipper.

The “Spirit of CapeTown” team was Taariq Jacobs (19 – helm), Marlon Jones (20), Ashton Sampson (29), and Roger Hudson (31) who skippered the team. 
Between the teams they won seven of the 14 races that decided the title over the 5 day event 
Going into the last day of racing, “Spirit of Cape Town” team were only two points behind the leaders – the 2009 UK national champions led by highly respected British helmsman Craig Burlton.

After a classic bit of match-racing at the start of the last race that left the UK team languishing mid-fleet, our guys began their charge toward the front of the pack. Sadly they ran out of time, and the title was decided in the final minutes of the last race.

At the same time the  “City of Cape Town” team was engaged in a great final race tussle for the bronze.
 After 10 races they had been only five points off the lead, and with four races still to go at that stage it was felt the championship was well within our reach. Then unfortunately two tactical errors in the next two races took us out of contention for the title 
All the same, nailing third place by winning the final race – our fourth win of the championship – left the young team in very high spirits
.

As Roger Hudson said at the prize-giving: “It was devastating to have come so close to taking the Championship this year without being able to clinch it in the final moments. At the same time we gave it absolutely everything we had, and its clear that both teams have greatly improved their skills and abilities. at this level of competition.

“I believe we are beginning to show what the RaceAhead approach to top level interntional competition can achieve. And we are unlocking and developing a wonderful pool of talent and commitment that we are finding amongst young South African yachtsmen.”

All the athletes were selected based on South African Sailing selection criteria for their respective classes at the 2009 South African Sailing Youth Nationals at Mossel Bay in December 2008, as well as the class provincial and national regattas.

The members of South African Sailing’s 2009 Youth World Team are:

Boy’s One Person Dinghy Laser Radial: Matthew Shaw, Girl’s One Person Dinghy Laser Radial: Claire Walker, Boy’s Two Person Dinghy 420: Brevan Thompson (skipper) and Callum Kilpin (Crew) Open Multihull Hobie 16 with Spinnaker: Matthew Whitehead (skipper) and Calene Loubser (crew).

The 2009 US Youth World Team will be led by Coach David Rae and team manager Colin Whitehead, both of whom bring extensive international sailing experience to the team.

The six are all members of the newly-launched SAS High Performance Squad – Under 18, which includes sailors identified as Olympic hopefuls in the Laser Radial Boys, Laser Radial Girls, 29er (open), 420 (boys or girls) and Hobie 16 (with spinnaker) classes and were born after 1 January 1991.

Claire Walker participated in the Laser Radial Class at the 38th Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship in Denmark last year and hopes that the experience she gained there will enable her to secure a place in the top ten this year for the Laser Radial Class. Matthew Whitehead won a silver medal in the multihull event in Denmark last year.

His extensive experience as inland and offshore sailor on a range of multihulls and keelboats makes him and crew Calene Loubser one of the top contenders for a medal in the multihull event at the 39th Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship in Brazil.

Matthew Shaw, a newcomer to the event, has represented South Africa at a number of IODA events before he progressed to Laser sailing. Matthew achieved first place in a Laser 4.7 at the All Africa games in 2007. He managed a tenth place at the Laser 4.7 Worlds in Hermanus in December 2007.

At the recent South African Sailing Youth Nationals Matthew obtained a first place in the Laser Radial Class.

Brevan Thompson and Callum Kilpin have both competed in International regattas in the Optimist and Laser 4.7 class. This young team has showed remarkable tenacity in that they managed to narrowly beat Youth World contenders Ashwyn Daniels and Jerome Williams from the Izivungu Vungu Sailing School at the 420 Western Cape Provincials and 420 Nationals to secure their place in the Youth Worlds team.

South African Sailing’s High-Performance Coach, David Rae, trimmer of the Americas Cup boat Shosholoza is extremely proud of the young team.

‘All of them have shown great determination and have put in a huge amount of effort to qualify for the South African Sailing Youth team. Participation at this level requires a lot of drive and self-motivation and all the members of the SAS Youth Team have shown that they have the stamina and willpower required to achieve internationally.’

The 2009 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship, the 39th edition of the event, will be held from 9-18 July at the the Iate Clube de Armação de Buzios (ICAB) in the city of Armação de Búzios, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil.

The event will be organized by the Rio de Janeiro State Sailing Federation together with the Federação Brasileira de Vela e Motor (FBVM) and the international Sailing Federation.

The ISAF Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship is the pinnacle event for Youth Sailing in the world, and the forum where future sailing champions are identified.

The President of South African Sailing, Rob M’Crystal and all the members of South African Sailing would like to wish our young team ‘fair winds’ and fantastic results.

The courses were facilitated by Dale Rae who has an international sailing background and has post-graduate Sport Training qualifications from the renowned UCT Sports Medicine Department of Tim Noakes .

Dale who currently heads the Western Cape Youth development portfolio is actively engaged in an innovative sailing training programme on Zeekoeivlei which draws its students from the nearby, previously disadvantaged community of Grassy Park in Cape Town.

Her passion for sailing and growing our sport is legendary. The original coaching seminar that was offered to Western Cape coaches was so well received that South African Sailing asked Dale to present the seminar to coaches in all the SAS regions.

Dale was assisted by her husband, SAS head coach David, who is a professional yachtsman best known for his role as mainsail trimmer on Shosholoza. Part of David’s portfolio is the development of High Performance Sailing in South Africa.

Bringing long experience into the mix, her other assistant presenter was Springbok yachtsman “silver bullet” Sailor of the Year 2008 Dave Hudson. Dave first obtained his national colours in the 1960’s and 1970’s notably in the Flying Dutchman class.

He has just completed a very successful season on the European sailing circuit where he came second in the World Championships of the exciting new Laser SB3 class. The Race Ahead Foundation, one of Dave’s initiatives for sailing is aimed at making the sport of sailing, with all of the benefits and opportunities it offers, more accessible to young South Africans from previously disadvantaged communities.

The wealth of experience shared by the three presenters was evident in the comprehensive and professional presentation and by the ability of the team to handle a wide range of topics and of coaching problems at all levels.

Although the seminar was aimed at the club-coach level, the new skills introduced will undoubtedly benefit all levels of sailing instruction from trainer level through to provincial coach level. The two-day seminar covered topics such as The Role of the Coach, successful coaching programmes, coaching resources, race preparation, getting round the course fast and beating the fleet.