Algoa Bay Yacht Club

ABYC - Port Elizabeth's Friendly Sailing Club

bird island

Bird Island Race Results 2014

A 00:05 start gun on Saturday morning 18 January 2014 heralded the start for an enthusiatic and determined fleet racing around Bird Island on the Great Circle Race.

By all accounts the sailing was excellent and tactical as John Tudehope reports:

Swopping the St.Francis Race with the Great Circle Race turned out to be a great success.

Eight boats were at the start line for the 00h05 start on Saturday off the Container Wharf and a moderate South West enabled the faster more competive boats to hoist spinnakers early.

The wind dropped off considerably as the sun rose and the first of the fleet rounded Bird Island around mid morning when the wind shifted to a moderate South East with occasional lulls and the run home relied on tactics and correct sail settings.

On board Lady who, by 09h00, was just past Sundays River, the two grizzled seamen on-board took advantage of the sleeping younger crewman and, after mental calculations, decided to turn back for port with the excuse that the sleeping crewman was not looking well.

Fling, facing a potential mutiny on-board and the concern that the previous night’s dinner from the one sea-sick crewman would not wash off the side of the hull, also turned for home.

Inyoni on the other hand returned back to moorings on Sunday morning 01h30, showing off their fishing catch.
Somewhere out on the race track was Headway who where just enjoying the sail.

With brand new sails Malgas has to be congratulated for an excellent performance (if she carries on like this the end of season prize giving will be very short and sweet).

2014 Bird Island Race Results:

Rank Boat Class HelmName TCF Finish Elapsed Corrected BCR Points
1 Malgas L34 Tony Bailes 0.95 14:53:15 14:48:15 14:03:50 0.95 1.00
2 Sewen RCOD Hennie Haasbroek 0.89 16:29:07 16:24:07 14:35:52 0.857 2.00
3 Jelly Baby J27 Sean Wiseman 0.947 15:38:00 15:33:00 14:43:33 0.904 3.00
4 Tikalox II Muira Rob Smith 0.89 17:24:32 17:19:32 15:25:11 0.812 4.00
5 Struan Stadt 34 Andrew Blain 0.897 17:30:47 17:25:47 15:38:04 0.807 5.00
6 Lady Astove (Cruising) Harry Lamprecht 0.860 DNF 9.00
6 Fling Sadler 26 Morgan Griffiths 0.800 DNF 9.00
6 Inyoni Muira Alan van Heerden 0.89 DNF 9.00
Bird Island Aerial
An aerial view of Bird Island. Photo: Alan Straton

Cape St Francis Race Cancelled

The scheduled Cape St. Francis 3-in-1 race unfortunately had to be called off at the eleventh hour due to the “fishing fleet” returning earlier than anticipated and thereby reducing the amount of mooring space available to the PE yachts.

At the skippers briefing on Thursday evening the sailors voted for an alternative option i.e. to do the “Great Circle Race” as the wind conditions favour that course.

Racing will start at 00h05 on Saturday 18 January.

The fleet will round St. Croix to starboard and then Bird Island to starboard hoping to pick up a homeward run back to Port Elizabeth.

Hlangana sinks

At 07h38 on Thursday 3 October, NSRI Port Alfred volunteer sea rescue duty crew were activated following reports of the yacht HLANGANA taking water and sinking with 7 crew onboard 4 nautical miles West of Boknes.

Leon Naude was taking Hlangana to Port Alfred, from Port Elizabeth, for routine repair when she ran into rocks on North reef of Bird Island at around 06h30 this morning.

NSRI rescue crew were put aboard the yacht to assist to bail water and a water extrication pump was transferred onto the yacht but by that stage the yacht was listing dangerously and the decision was taken for all crew to abandon ship.

“All casualty crew and our NSRI rescuers were transferred onto our sea rescue craft and the yacht keeled over on her side lying semi-submerged.

“On instructions from MRCC (Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre), in an effort to avoid a maritime navigational hazard, NSRI were instructed to attempt to sink the yacht but efforts were unsuccessful and a maritime navigational warning continues to be broadcast by Telkom Maritime Radio Services of the semi-submerged yacht floating at sea off-shore of Cannon Rocks.

Leon and his crew on Hlangana were a very familiar site offshore Algoa Bay when they acted as committee boat for national and local regattas. ABYC and I will always fondly remember Hlangana who has sailed to Rio de Janeiro and back as well as logging many miles up and down the South Africa Coastline.

A sad sad day for Leon – please join us in being thankful that there was no loss of life. Sterkte Leon.

Click here to read more and see an image of Hlangana on North Reef.

Hlangana - committee boat at the 2013 ABYC week.
Hlangana – committee boat at the 2013 ABYC week – in happier times.