Annually over a hundred sailing dinghy’s gather at Pretoria Sailing Club in January for the Charity Regatta where all profits got to the NSRI. This year saw the greatest turnout in 7 years with 108 boats. This is fantastic considering the last few years of economic meltdown.
The regatta is open to all classes, so there were Finns, Lazers, GP14’s, 505, Mirrors, Oppies, Dabbie, Dolphins, some Enterprises, Gypsies, Flying Dutchmen and the odd fireball. The Mirrors and the GP’s were hosting their Northvaal Provincials.
To the racing - as sailors we can always ask for more wind, however the highveld is not known for this and over both days light tactical sailing was required. On Saturday the wind was around 6 knots for the first race, but steadily dropped to almost nothing by days end. This made it difficult for the middle to rear of the fleet as the holes became bigger, and as is light air sailing the rich get richer and poor get poorer. Many sailors battled to finish within the allocated time.
On Sunday the Race Officer got us going early, so early infact that it caught some top sailors unaware and some were gifted good positions as most of the fleet were late – pay back for the previous day. Again in true highveld style the wind dropped steadily during the day making the last race again a little like going to a casino. The regatta was over and the bridge officer did well to get in the maximum 6 races.
In the Dolphin class (12 boats) John Wright did not have things his own way and pipped Steven Haywood by two points. Lothar and Enid Klass were always in contention in third. The GP14’s (13 boats) had a three way tussle between defending champs Pat Mitchell/Andrew Marsh, Mark Biagio/Stephen Doubell and Peter Clayton/Megan Peers. Biagio/Doubell managed to right the wrongs of day 1 on day 2 with 3 firsts to clinch the championship from overnight leaders Pat Mitchell/Andrew Marsh, with Peter Clayton/Megan Peers always in the mix till the very end. In the Lasers (20 boats) the game was on between Bridget Clayton and Stefano Marcia. Stefano’s strength on day one (with two wins) was enough to secure him the class win from Megan and Leon De Raay in third. The Finns (15 boats) had an extremely close event with only 3 points separating the top four as they consistently finished each race in the top four. Andreas Bohnsack emerged as the victor, followed by Chris Moreton and Tim Addison. In the 505 (9 boats) fleet Kyle Klaas/Robert von Gruenvewaldt were to strong for the rest, despite a late charging Peter Funke/Thomas Funke who finished third, from the consistent Rudolph Holm/Ferdinand Holm. Warren Hadley dominated the Dabchicks (8 boats) with 5 wins out of six, Oliver Crab was second followed by Megan Eccleston. In the Oppies (12 boats) Marcello Marcia and Tristan Rogotzki were trading first places, when the discard was taken into account Marcello emerged victorious, followed by Tristan and Dominic Van Der Walt. It was nice to see a few more Mirrors (6 boats) on the water, clinching the series was Ryan Robinson/Ricky Robinson. The enterprise fleet (6 boats) was won by Andrew Connold/Jame Mcguire.
All in all a fantastic event, for a great cause, best you diarise this event for next year, that’s for sure.
