! We welcomed Byron Ravenscroft and Mark Gale from East London and happy campers Johnnie (and Lisa) McGillivray from Port Elizabeth. It ticked all the boxes – we managed to get a development sailor on a Hobie Ben Hani (who will be keeping the one WCHCA 14 to sail in Knysna), we had both WCHCA Hobie 14’s sailing thanks to Shannon Du Plessis and as you can see from the photos even had some very good looking camp followers courtesy of Matthew Whitehead. Perhaps the overriding thing of the regatta was the number of gear failures. Most of the South African Hobie 14’s are showing their age having been made in the 70s and 80s and breakage is commonplace. Even Blaine’s championship winning 14 was bought new by him in 1980 ! When the only new ‘French’ 14 in the fleet broke a shroud there were no replacement shrouds of a suitable length available as on the French boats the shrouds go to the gunwale not the sidebar. You need to thoroughly overhaul your Hobie at least two weeks before – not in the boat park before the start of the first race. You must forgive me if I have not got all the stories this time – I was very busy trying to keep my mast in an upright position !
Day 1 – Friday 16th of January
The weather forecast did not look promising with gale force winds predicted on Friday and very light winds the rest of the weekend. For once the weather forecast was correct with driving rain and SW winds of up to 48 knots coming through early in the morning. The boat park campers were driven into the Sail Loft or took refuge on William Edwards beautiful new keel boat – moored alongside for the duration of the regatta. Only one boat was blown off a trailer but no damage was done. With high tide at 12.48 it was important to get sailing on the go by 10.30 or so – the winds moderated to around 20 to 25 knots with occasional stronger gusts but fortunately the rain held off. As you can see from the results 12 sailors decided that discretion was the better part of valour for the first race (or they were still fixing their boats in the boat park) and sat the first race out. With conditions moderating for the second and third races this was reduced to 6 sailors who decided that the wind was still too strong for them. Matthew Whitehead had his mast fall down in the first race and then had the indignity of being OCS in the second race. There were a total of 5 masts that came down some more than once. William Edwards had rudder trouble with the boat he had borrowed from Tony Gradwell to replace the famous ‘Eugenie’, and was heard to say that he would never sail a 14 again. There was an excellent braai in the evening at the yacht club.
Day 2 – Saturday 16th of January
With high tide being at 13.45 on the Saturday things didn’t look very promising up until just before 12 o’clock – see photos above. Gary Hubach had time to fit some rear view mirrors to his boat – as he said ‘so that he could see what Blaine was doing behind him’ ! A light southerly wind came through which continued to build throughout the afternoon up to a maximum of about 15 knots which made for ideal sailing conditions. Race officer Andrew Finn managed to get in 5 races with only the last couple of races being marred by the reappearance of sandbanks where you had previously sailed over. A sandbank at the end of the start line for races seven and eight made starting interesting to say the least. Nic Ryall had an excellent run with 3,2,3, and a 6th place his day only being marred by a main sheet traveller failing in race 7 when he was lying 3rd behind William and Blaine. Douglas Edwards managed to keep Blaine, his dad and Nic behind him to win race 6 and all the time the Knysna boys – Don Tait, Declan Nurse and Don Brink were quietly going about getting results in the top 10. Blaine and Robberg Sea Fisheries provided a mouth-watering fish braai in the evening.
Day 3 – Sunday 17th of January
KYC treated us to a champagne breakfast in the morning. Jimmy Cairns was able to show off his talents as a piper, piping in breakfast and advertising the Piping Tattoo to be held in Knysna on 28 February. As high tide was now at 14.36 and with a cut-off for racing of 15.00 it was imperative to get in races early. Race officer Andrew moved the course up towards the heads where the sandbanks were at least visable. A 5 knot current sweeping up the channel made starting interesting especially as you had to get over to the sandbank in the middle of the course as quickly as possible to avoid the tide. William Edwards took an early gamble to sail across the sand bank and was rewarded with a second place to Blaine. In the last race the surprise package was an excellent third place by Daniel Lawrence (son of Allan Lawrence – former world Hobie 14 champion) who had taken over Tony Gradwell’s 14 after getting totally frustrated with the rudders on the boat that he had borrowed.
The prize giving was so slick that the results and photographs were on Facebook before the prize giving had even finished. Each of the winners was presented with a handmade wooden boat by a local artist. Klaas de Rooy won the prize for the oldest competitor and Nic Ryall the one for the first junior. Byron Ravenscroft for the noisiest sailor !
K YC is to be thanked for a very memorable event – and at the wonderful thing is that they have agreed to host the Hobie 14 nationals again next year should no one put in an opposing bid
Results:
- 1st Blaine Dodds (KYC)
- 2nd Edwards William (KYC)
- 3rd Tait Don (KYC)
More photos and results at Knysna Yacht Club Facebook page)
