Regrettably I don't have any pics for this race - there was quite enough action to see! A moderate South Easter was forecast, and in fact was quite light near the beach. The race officers nominated a course around all the four marks in the bay, which would take us up to Chapmans Peak, which has some nice long stretches on the way. Nine boats turned up for the race, including a new entry "Merry Waters" (Tosca 36), and set off in light conditions across the line at Dunes. By Fish on the Rocks the wind was a steady 15 knots, and soon after increased to 25+. Some of the smaller boats were clearly overpowered, with the Pacer Aquamaniac heading off into the sunset at about 10 knots sideways! Quest, my Flamenca, furled the jib to just a small piece, and battled to get around the Chappies mark after much difficult tacking near the mark. Faraway (Farr 38/40), broke each of her jib-sheets as I understand, costing her quite some time. Nandi coped reasonably well in the strong winds but clearly had some work to do as well. Before round two, Quest retired with a damaged genoa, Merry Waters and Savannah retired being out of time, and Aquamaniac retired after a severe mauling in the catabatics under Chapmans Peak. Shosholoza soldiered on and finished honourably, with no notable trauma, as did "Pacer 1" fresh from her win of the Mykonos Race.
It was Megafreight, conservatively sailed, who coped best and went on to take the overall lead, not unusually!
Overall results:
Megafreight No 3 Jendo Ocenasek 1.080 1 02-Mar-11 19:12:17 1.000 4360
Faraway No 3 Chris Sutton 1.120 2 02-Mar-11 19:14:23 2.000 4663
Pacer One Rian D Turner 1.080 3 02-Mar-11 19:33:47 3.000 5753
Shosholoza Pat West 0.925 4 02-Mar-11 19:53:01 4.000 5995
Nandi Nick Fairley 1.005 5 02-Mar-11 19:49:40 5.000 6311
Savannah Keith Gemmell 0.910 6 02-Mar-11 DNF DNF 10.000
Quest Justin Phillips 0.840 7 02-Mar-11 DNF DNF 10.000
Aquamania Dudley Turner 1.000 8 02-Mar-11 DNF DNF 10.000
Merry Waters Mervyn Pietersen 0.930 9 02-Mar-11 DNF DNF 10.000