by Richard Crockett
A Wind Worth Waiting For..
Today (Friday) was the penultimate day of the 70th anniversary Lipton Cup contest, and despite an abandoned race in the morning after the wind disappeared, the wait for the wind to fill in was worth it, as the race was keenly contested in approximately 7 knots of Westerly wind which combined well with flat seas.
The racing was initially close from the start gun, with the Royal Cape Yacht Club (RCYC) and the Defence Yacht Club (DYC) crossing the start line in unison. The pleasing part was that the Defence yacht from Saldanha Bay, skippered by Andre Bester, rounded the first buoy in second spot, their best position in the event so far.
Although there were some wind shifts throughout the race, none were too dramatic, although they did require the skippers and tacticians to do some serious head scratching to figure the fastest course on the downwind legs. There was lots of gybing downwind to get the best positions and steal a march on the opposition. But on the final leg the wind suddenly started dying, and three boats, DYC, SPYC and SBYC, sadly did not finish within the time limit
It was interesting that just two yachts in the fleet have symmetrical spinnakers, the other seven have asymmetrical spinnakers, and this allowed the Theewaters Sports Club (TSC) yacht to sail in a strait line downwind while the others had to sail deep angles to get to the same point, the leeward buoy.
This certainly played into the hands of the TSC yacht as she finished second overall, her third second place result in three consecutive races.
It has become pretty predictable where the RCYC yacht would finish, and today she did not disappoint her fans as she scored another convincing win on handicap, her fifth consecutive handicap win in five races.
Naturally RCYC leads the contest overall, and should, barring disaster, lift the coveted Lipton Cup trophy in victory after racing tomorrow.
Racing amongst the Pacers was very keen again today especially between George Lakes YC (GLYC) and King Shaka YC (KSYC), with the latter gaining an advantage shortly before the finish to take third spot overall.
RESULTS (provisional after 5 races)
1 Royal Cape Yacht Club 1 1 1 1 1
2 Theewaters Sports Club 8 3 2 2 2
3 False Bay Yacht Club 6 6 3 3 4
4 King Shaka Yacht Club 4 4 4 7 3
5 George Lakes Yacht Club 5 5 5 5 5
6 Milnerton Aquatic Club 3 2 7 8 6
7 Saldanha Bay Yacht Club 2 7 8 6 9
8 Seal Point Yacht Club 7 8 6 4 9
9 Defence Yacht Club 9 9 9 9 9
