For a few weeks the excitement has been building on the Theewater Sports Club’s Sailing WhatsApp group (if you would like to be included on this group, please send your number to Lise at the Office.

We ended up with 16 entries which is far more than we have had over the last few years. 5 Stadt 23s, 4 Hobie 16s, 2 Jaguar 22s, 1 Flamenca, 1 Pirate, 1 Vivacity 20, 1 Topaz, 1 Sonnet. The forecast was for light Westerly winds swinging round to medium South Wester.  The 7.3 nautical mile circuit of various buoys on the dam did not go right down to the Bridge to enable the safety crew to see all the boats at all times from the Bridge Hut at the club. 

Skippers met at 08:00 for a briefing. Club VHF radios and a couple of private VHF radios were scattered amongst the fleet, so we could all keep an eye out for any issues on the water. Errol and Shane on the NSRI boat were on standby, with Errol patrolling the top end of the dam.

At 09:00 the hooter went for the start of the race. In no wind boats slowly crawled across the start line led by Ian and Guy on Wide Awake. It was great having their sons joining them for the day. Some boats stayed ashore and waited for the wind to come through. Erik made coffee on board Oulik and settled in. While the tortoises slogged away, the hares in the form of Gordon and Sinta on the Hobie took their time rigging. The wind started picking up to a light Westerly. By the time the fleet started rounding the first mark at the dam wall, Gordon had caught up and was first around the mark followed by Mary-Ann on Umoya.

The first circuit took about 2.5 hours for the first boats. There were great tussles all through the fleet. By mid morning, the wind was up and down and quite fluky. As the front boats fell into holes and chose the wrong path, the fleet caught up. Nigel on Staggerlee and Mary-Ann on Umoya were having a great race. It is always good to have boats exactly the same to race against. Coming down from the dam wall on round 2, Staggerlee managed to cross ahead of Umoya for the first time and immediately Umoya took the lead back and extended again. By this stage, there were boats spread out all over the dam.

As we approached the dam wall for the 3rd time, we pulled up our spinnakers going round the mark and headed back down. Gordon and Sinta were ahead on the Hobie, followed by Umoya and Staggerlee. Kuba on Panna Wodna was further behind. Just after Gloria Bay, Gordon and Sinta ran out of wind and then Umoya and Staggerlee started running out. With bags up running down the dam in a SW, we had boats running up at us from the bottom of the course in a NW with the hole in the middle. As we sat becalmed, Panna Wodna pulled up their spinnaker at the dam wall, caught the wind and brought it all the way down to where we were. That’s sailing for you!

The SW filled in to about 15-18 knots. The 3 Stadts passed Gordon sitting in a calm patch still. He had taken his life jacket off in the heat to get some clothes off. The wind picked up quite suddenly and he did not have time to put it back on before screaming past us again at high speed. After rounding Buoy 4, Gordon fell off and the boat kept going for a while before capsizing. This left Gordon a distance from the boat, with no life jacket on. By the time the Stadts came around the mark, Staggerlee was just in front of Umoya with Kuba not far behind. As we passed Gordon swimmimg, he raised his arms. Nigel asked him if he needed help and on getting no reply, immediately dropped his genoa and turned around to help him. Umoya sailed on, but immediately hailed NSRI on the radio and directed Shane to where Gordon was. Kuba also dropped his genoa to try and give assistance as well as Reuben on the Sonnet. Nigel threw a life ring to Gordon who was in a lot of trouble. NSRI were at the jetty and came speeding out and picked Gordon up. A bad situation was narrowly averted. Thank you NSRI and those who assisted. Lives take precedence over racing. Kids: wear your life jackets. You never know what is going to happen!

As we resumed racing into the 4th round, the wind swung to the SE and picked up further. Finishing the 4th round at 17:03, Umoya had the decision to make, change down to the Worker Jib and carry on or stop racing. It was unlikely we would make the Dam Wall by the 18:00 cut off and we would be at the furthest end of the dam. As Staggerlee crossed about 2 mins behind  and turned for home, we decided to do the same. Kuba finished about 5 mins back. Erik on Oulik finished about 20 minutes later.

There were many stories of triumph from everyone. Wayne on the Pirate Floki with 2 novice girls and his young granddaughter, Rosie (the youngest competitor) managed 2 rounds. Johan van Dyk, who I met for the first time, did 1 round on the Vivacity Aqua Rouge. Steve and Shelley on Blondie and Guy and Ian on Wide Awake also had a good one design tussle managing 3 rounds, with Wide Awake finishing ahead. Tony Largier put his boat in the water for the first time in a few years. Tony and Des Mudge could only get there late and joined in for 3 rounds.

When the handicaps were applied, the 3 Stadt 23s had the fastest correct average speed. Nigel was given 8 minutes redress for stopping and Kuba 5 minutes. This gave Nigel and crew the win on Staggerlee. Kuba was tied with Umoya and the tie break went to Kuba for stopping. It was a bit of a thumbsuck in the end on how long they had stopped racing. Erik came in 4th, Dieter and Warner on Stadt23 Merlin with a few cooler boxes 5th and Wide Awake 6th. Those sailing 4 rounds completed 29.2 nm (straight line distance between the marks) and Umoya recorded 33nm in total for the day.

Gordon and Sinta put in the most time on the water of the Hobies (as well as time in the water!). Jonathan Oliver and Andrew Gray joined in on Hobies, separately and together and had a blast. Geoff Stroebel also joined in on his Hobie. I also saw a Hobie 14 in the mix during the day, not sure who that was and Chris Storey in a beautiful traditional boat with a star on the sail sailed along with us for a while.

Everyone was pretty tired but exhilarated by the end of the day. The feeling was that we should do this more often! The event brought sailors and club members together, creating a great spirit and it was great seeing all the boats out on the water together.