Two of ABYC’s newest additions to the fleet took part in the Cape Town to Mykonos race this past weekend; Tony & Siggi Bailes on Nemesis (Fast 42) and John Tudehope on Wallbanger (Simonis 35). Phil Gutsche’s Warrior didn’t make it to Cape Town in time so he entered on Windpower.
So, it is safe to say that ABYC Sailors had an away game this past weekend.
Darryl Garnet on Nemesis sent this report:
Tony and Sigi Bailes, owners of Nemesis, a Fast 42 design (at Robertson Factory in Cape Town, not the Durban one) invited a stack of local ABYC sailors down for the Mykonos Offshore regatta this weekend past. Carl and Natashia van Wyngaardt, Mark Dawson, Mike Cullum and shore crew Cathy, Jenna and Tammy Bailes and myself (all from ABYC) and Sigi’s brother in law Mike Kavanah and his son Sean sailed this past weekend.
For those of you who might not have sailed in Cape Town waters, there is a rather large imovable windshadow creating thingie called Table Mountain. Its a bloody frustration during the summer months because it gives you the illusion of calm during the blow from the Cape Doctor.
We docked out on Friday morning at about 7:45am ready for the second start (IRC and Division 1) at 9am. I tell you what, its magic to be on a start-line watching boats like Windpower, Nitro, Cape Fling and Vulcan powering up for a start. It would have been better if there was more wind! We started off in light conditions of maybe 5 knots on a run to the Paarden Eiland mark where the Cape Doctor awaited. Maestro (Fast 42) and Spilhaus (Swede 55) built a strong start in our division (division 1). Our tactic was to stay as far off of that damn mountain as we could and sail downwind in the light Westerly that had built up. We finally got to the Paarden Eiland mark and we were whisked off to Mykonos with the help of the Cape Doctor. We stuck the newly purchased Asymetrical Spinnaker up and watched as the forestay went limp and we shunted down toward Bloubergstrand. Tony wasn’t used to having to gybe so many times (come sail a Pacer boet!) and we had and interesting Port/Starboard with Tenacity having to gybe away quite quickly!
The wind died down and things started looking rather grim. Luckily the wind hovered around the 6-8 knot mark and we managed to turn the one and a half tennis court sized asym into somewhat of a oversized gennaker. It paid heavily for us to stay inshore as we did and we ended up overtaking 180 (our Fast 42 competitors) and we sat on Jacana’s rather sleek looking ass all the way to Dassen Island. The wind picked up after we left Koeberg and we made heavy way towards Dassen Island.
Let me tell you something for nothing. It’s k*k sitting on the weather rail, in a westerly, on the West Coast and not wearing foulies. The sun shines but the wind blows right through your bones! Anyway, we rounded Dassen Island and were hunting Maestro down as he WAS the benchmark for all Fast 42 racers.
It was rather fun watching Felix the Cat (Pacer 27) come skipping past us as if they had their own weather system. It brought back fond, wet memories from 2011 with Russel Morgan on his Pacer 27. We enjoyed a flatter sail toward the entrance to Langebaan and the dreaded entrance through the gap between the mainland and Jutten Island. 4 years ago, we watched Thunderchild get knocked over from our vantage point on the Pacer and wondered what was going on ahead until seconds later we were knocked down and lay flat on our sides uncontrollably for about 2 minutes until the Pacer regathered herself and went on sailing. I was waiting for it to happen on the 42 foot beast we were sailing on. Thankfully wise heads prevailed and we dropped it just before the point and just before we watched MWAH (J111) get knocked over!
From then it was a beam reach into Mykonos. We didn’t manage to catch Jacana but we got close and to our surprise we beat Maestro by 10 minutes!
The distance race has three races within one race. There is a race from Cape Town to Dassen, Dassen to Mykonos and Cape Town to Mykonos. Nemeis and her ABYC crew managed three fourth places in these races.
Day 2, Pursuit Race:
Low tide is a bitch. Lemme tell you that! Watching yachts flailing round while their keels sit firmly on sand below them sends an uneasy feeling through your soul. Boat after boat ran aground trying to get out and thanks to some good thinking of some of the powerboats creating some swell they managed to get unstuck. On Nemesis, we hiked out to leeward to tilt the keel and only felt a slight resistance as we sliped out ready for our race. We had a good chuckle at the crew of Corum who were hiking out on their boom and they still ran aground!
We had a good start and were second around the first mark after a good beat. Bag up in 35 knots as we watched the fore stay go limp again! Giddy-up old girl! Heehaaw! We flew down to the the Saldanha port mark and hardened up for a fetchy type beat to North Bay. This was where we came across familiar faces. John Tudehope (Dances while Walks) has just bought himself a Simonis 35 mod was scooting along in front of us. Quick waves and “nice boat bru’s” were exchanged and racing took first place again. We were hunting Bad Habit down as that was first place for us in the pursuit. Spilhaus was still in front of us having had a strong run downwind. We entered North Bay and had to make some decisions: “Do we go up to a island and then tack to get across the bay or do we tack immediately and try catch the lifts and flat water from Jutten Island.” We chose the latter and realised the wind was dying and had to put a bigger Jib on. Up came the number 3 and Mark changed up quite quickly. We made it across the bay thinking we had lost a few spots but we had gained quite a bit! Close in around Jutten and we stuck the big asym up one last time. We were off and we overtook a few boats on our way the the fuel area in Saldanha. we were pretty calm compared to the boats around us and we dropped quite early and conservatively. Nitro blasted past us making it look like we were looking for a parking spot!
We rounded the bottom and made our way on a beat to the final mark. Chugging along, one of the soft shackles snapped or came loose and it forced us to crash tack and would you believe it, the other soft shackle undid itself and we had lost our jib. We dropped the Jib slightly to tie the sheets and and we tacked back just before we got out the current. Bad Habit was firmly in our sights now. We rolled over Spilhaus and rounded the mark with Bad Habit about 100 metres ahead of us. Up went the asymmetrical screecher. Probably the wrong bag to go with but we had to make the best of it. Bad Habit kept us out and we lost to them by about 10 metres in the end! What a great race. 30nm and it came down to 10 metres.
Nemesis ended 1st in the Fast 42 class and third overall in division 1! Not bad for a bunch of rowdy P.E people!
Thanks to Tony and Sigi for a great opportunity!