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2011 Youth National Championships

Several GLYC youngsters sailed in the 2011 Southern Charter Youth National Championships. They endured strong wind at times - the whole of Wednesday was lost due to wind too strong for racing. Some light wind races were completed as well provide a variety of conditions. Most classes completed 14 races in the week. With 211 boats sailing (the biggest for many years), Stof Vlei was covered edge to edge in sails. The water level was low, so most boats acquired mud decoration when capsizing.

As usual, GLYC's strength was in the RS Tera fleet, which had 25 boats. James Hellstrom established an early lead with a string of firsts. His closest competition came as usual from Nathan Page, who then started stringing his own series of first to start threatening James' lead. But then James came back to lead the last few races to be able to win overall comfortably. Nathan secured 2nd place from MAC's Matthew Allardice. Ashleigh Hellstrom was 1st girl in 9th place, ahead of Jedd Page (11th) and Jenna Lammers (14th) and Danielle de Wett (15th). Then came Sarah Young (21) and Robyn Hellstrom (23).

The Optimists had a huge fleet - 59 in the main fleet and 15 in a novice fleet - total of 74. Our Georgou Divaris came 10th in the main fleet, despite cracking an arm on the off day (skateboard crash!) He nevertheless carried on sailing with his arm in plaster! His brother Markos maintained the average by finishing 10th in the novice fleet.

There was a big fleet of 35 Dabchicks, where our Jayan Smart finished in 19th place. There were 15 Laser Radials and 13 Laser 4.7's, where our John Marc Olivier was in 7th place in the latter fleet. In the 10 boat Mirror fleet, we had Seth Young & James Koegelenberg in 6th place and Chris Brooks & Julian Leggatt in 8th.

Millenium / Toppies Trophy

Something different for the Millenium Trophy - real wind! 18 knots SE made for great sailing conditions.

Quite a long beat from Caravan to National and the Fireballs are talking about it should be longer? Anthony & Diane scorched round the course on Fireball, taking line and handicap honours in all 3 races. Alastair on Laser was being chased by the other Laser standard of Henry Paine in R1 & R2 but stayed ahead.

In the juniors (all Teras today), Nathan Page was always ahead of Jenna Lammers, Jedd Page and Danielle de Wet.

A Sprog was racing at GLYC on Sunday - the first for many years. Malcolm Osborne sailed his Sprog with Chris Brooks as crew. He was able to stay ahead of the Radials and was chasing the leading Lasers. Got 5,4, 2 on handicap, third overall behind Alastair. Rosie Finn and Dave Jones (Radials) are next. Dave Laing & Ferdinand (Fireball) missed the 1st race - scored 3 and 4 in their races.

Chris Thomas / Toppies Trophy Racing

Didn't happen! Heavy rain in the morning, together with school exams, proved to be a major deterrent. A few stalwarts turned up, had lunch, then went home. The rain did clear up in the afternoon and the wind died, but no one was really keen on rigging a boat.
"Sailing is fun in the Sun" - no sun -> no fun!

Kim / York Cup Racing

With strong south easters the previous few days and a strong westerly that came through the area in the early hours of Sunday morning, the sailors of GLYC at least hoped for a modicum of wind for their racing for the Kim Cup (seniors) and York Cup (juniors). But, it was not to be - just a light remnant of a south wester prevailed and only two races could be sailed.
The expected conditions must have frightened off many, as there was a reduced turnout for the racing. Ony one junior (Georgou Divaris) sailed his RS Tera Sport while nine senior stalwarts rigged their boats.
Leading the fleet in both races were the Fireballs of Anthony Parker and David Laing. Parker lead all the way round in race 1, but in race 2, Laing had a lead for most of the lead. However in the light conditions, he lost this lead in the final leg to the finish. Most of the fleet consisted of Lasers - 5 of them. New member Henry Paine lead this class in race one, but had a bad start to race 2. First Laser in race 2 was Malcolm Osborne.
On handicap, the Fireball of Anthony Parker & Ferdinand Holm leads this series. There is great competition for 2nd place - the Lasers of Dave Jones, Henry Paine and Malcolm Osborne are all tied on 7 points. This puts the Fireball of David & Mandy Laing down to 5th place.

George Lakes Yacht Club Inter Club Regatta

Sothebys / Junior Championships

The forecast strong wind did not materialise for first races of the Sothebys series, to the disappointment of Deryck Eckersley, making a rare appearance on his Sonnet. However, the wind was SW, rather gusty. It was a toss-up whether to go left or right up the beats to get the shifts correct.

Jayan Smart eagerly accepted the chance to helm Ant Parker's Fireball with Ferdinand (Ant feeling fluey!) He had a good dice against David & Rory Laing. The Laser charge was between Ali Fraser, Bill Turner & Malcolm Osborne, while Deryck lead the Sonnets and Evelyn & Di Parker sailed GP14 - the `new' series II version. They got it right in the last race to win that one. David won race 1 after Jayan had a quick capsize - but they recovered to be able finish 2nd overall. Jayan won race 2. The Fireballs couldn't get away from the rest of the fleet in race 3, allowing the GP14 and the Fraser Laser to take the top spots. Jayan leads the series from David and Evelyn.

In the junior fleet, comprising 8 Tera Sports, competition for first was between Nathan Page and James Hellstrom - Nathan nailed race 1, but James secured races 2 and 3. Jedd Page coped well to get 3rds in races 1 and 2, ahead of Ashleigh Hellstrom, but Ashleigh succeeded in getting 3rd in race 3.

Woodwise / de Klerk Racing

With the Fireballs away at their National Championships in Hermanus, it left the field open for the Lasers to take line honours in the Woodwise races. The 1st race was in a fluky SE, then went SW and improved in strength. John Marc took all the line honours from Evelyn and Sandy, but handicaps gave race 1 win to JM, race 2 to Cundell (jnr) & Michael on Mirror and race 3 to Cundell (sen) & Scooter on Mirror. The former leads the series from John Marc and Evelyn. Georgou (Optimist) and Chris Brooks (Mirror s/h) were the only juniors there. Meanwhile, in Hermanus, the Fireballs had to brave strong wind (and mud!) to compete in the Nationals. No racing on Saturday (gale force wind!). On Sunday the wind was also strong - over 25 knots. 4 races were held in the morning. Our leading team of Anthony Parker & Ferdiand Holm came second - relinquishing the trophy to the veteran team of Rick Nankin and Warren Schmelzer.

Commodores Cup / Jenvey Nissen Racing

Lovely wind at GLYC on a Sunday for a change! Was everyone watching rugby in the morning? - most arrived late! The Laing & Osborne Fireballs were moving pretty fast, Alastair lead the Laser fleet, but John Marc Olivier on a 4.7 won race 1 from Laing on handicap. There was a much reduced fleet for race 2 - this time the Laing Fireball was line honours and handicap winner, with John Marc 2nd, Alastair 3rds in both races. In the Teras, Georgou Divaris won race 1 and James Hellstrom won race 2.

President's Trophy

The usual light wind for the Presidents Trophy races! Did the juniors know this - there were none there! RO Jeremy managed to get 3 races complete. Fleet comprised 2 FBs, 2 Lasers, 1 GP14 & 1 Sonnet.

Ant & Ferdinand got all the line honours on their Fireball. The other FB of David & Rory struggled in the light wind. The GP14 of Evelyn & Diane did well - won races 1 & 2. Did some trawling in race 3 to get 3rd, but lead overall, tieing on points with Ant (2,2,1)

Mossel Bay Interclub Regatta

Mossel Bay Yacht & Boat Club re-instated their Inter Club Regatta after a break of several years. The event attracted a large number of junior and senior sailors from George Lakes Yacht Club. Knysna Yacht Club was only able to enter one boat in the dinghies.

A new feature for an interclub was the participation of three L26 keelboats – one each from Mossel Bay, George Lakes and Knysna. These boats sailed their own series.

Racing on Saturday commenced in a fresh south wester, producing good racing conditions, but challenging for those inexperienced in sea sailing. The wind veered to the south east and lightened as the day progressed. Race Officer Rob Holden had to alter the course accordingly. Three races were completed.

On Sunday, an early start was set in order to get racing in before the forecast wind died. However, the wind died before it was supposed too! A short course was set near the harbour and the race got under way. It had to be abandoned when what little wind there was faded completely. The fleet returned to shore in time to watch the SA – Wales World Cup rugby match. After this match, a light southwester had picked up and the fleet set sail again for one final race.

In the L26 division, the George Lakes boat, helmed by Bruce McCurrach, won two of the races to win overall, from Mossel Bay, helmed by Andre Bredenkamp.

The juniors fielded the largest fleet (16 boats), which comprised Tera Sport, Optimist, Mirror, a GP14 and a 420. Dominant in this fleet was the Optimist of Georgou Divaris (GLYC), who won 3 of the four races. His closest competition came from the Tera Sport of clubmate, James Hellstrom, winner of race 3. Third place went to the GLYC Mirror, sailed by Seth Young and James Koegelenberg. Mossel Bay's highest placed boat in this fleet was the 420, sailed by Andre Bredenkamp and Joppie Naude, in fourth place. Mossel Bay fielded 10 of the entries but fortunately our GLYC sailors were up front to be able to secure the interclub trophy.

The senior fleet comprised 12 boats – Lasers, Mirror, Fireball, Mosquito, Dart. The host club fielded the Dart and Mosquito catamarans. Dominant in this fleet was the GLYC Fireball, sailed by David and Rory Laing. They won the first race and their 2nds in races 2 and 4 secured overall first place. There was close competition for second place between GLYC's Lasers of John Marc Olivier and Malcolm Osborne. Osborne secured overall 2^nd place by winning the last race on handicap. Mossel Bay's challenge comprise the catamarans. The Mosquitos of Gideon and Pieter de Villiers were able to score 2^nd and 3^rd in the fresher wind of the first race, but were not able to perform as well in the subsequent lighter races.

The event proved to be a resounding success for George Lakes, winning all three divisions. The next major regatta is the Eastern Cape Championships, also hosted by Mossel Bay Yacht & Boat Club. This event takes place from 1 to 3 October, 2011.

GLYC Opening Cruise and Frostbite Racing

After the exciting completion of the Lipton Cup Regatta in Mossel Bay, where several GLYC sailors were competing, club sailing got under way on Sunday on Island Lake. A fresh south easter produced tricky conditions – helped to wash away the rust!

The Opening Cruise was attended by 28 boats, with the Rear Commodore leading the fleet past the Commodore in the committee boat anchored off the club house shore. This fleet comprised a large number of junior sailors on Tera, Optimist, Dabchick and Laser, bolstered by seniors on Fireball, GP14, Sonnet, Mirror and Laser.

After a short tea break, racing commenced for the first races in the Frostbite series. Eight boats competed in the Junior fleet. With the results calculated on a handicap basis, the clear winner in both races was Georgou Divaris on Optimist. In the first race, Nathan Page (Tera Sport) was 2nd ahead of James Hellstrom (Tera Pro), but these positions were reversed in the 2nd race. James and Nathan are tied for 2nd place overall.

In the Senior fleet, the Fireball of Anthony Parker and Ferdinand Holm established a big lead over everyone else. The other Fireball of David & Rory Laing fell behind, finding boat handling difficult in the gusty conditions. Malcolm Osborne was the first Laser in both races, but the Laser 4.7s sailed by Cundell Statt and John Marc Olivier performed well to get 2nd & 3rd places on handicap in race 1 and Cundell did a repeat performance in race 2. The Parker / Holm Fireball lead the senior Frostbite series, followed by Cundell Statt and Malcolm Osborne.

GLYC thanks the ladies who provided the delicious soup & rolls at lunch time and for doing the tea later in the afternoon. The day's proceedings concluded with a bring & braai, with a `communal' salad selection provided by the members.