Durban

Vasco da Gama Ocean Race 2015 starts on Saturday 25 April 2015 at 12h00 and is jointly organised by the Point Yacht Club & Algoa Bay Yacht Club

Some useful information for all skippers, owners and crew:

Welcome to Durban – We have a wonderful entry from out-of-Durban boats, many of whom have now arrived.

First here was Star Spirit – the boat which made her way via road from Gariep Dam to East London and then on her own bottom to Durban. Rocket arrived from Cape Town as the Queen Mary 2 was leaving Durban on Monday evening. She was followed the next day by Wallbanger from Port Elizabeth. Next in was Gumption at midday on Wednesday who had made a relatively quick passage from Cape Town. Nemesis from Port Elizabeth was next. Still to come are Alacrity from Richards Bay and Al-Mount Gay Rum which is on passage from Cape Town.

Welcome to the 2015 Vasco da Gama Race – and HUGE thanks for the massive effort you have all put in to compete this year. We have not had out-of-KZN boats competing since 2008.

Entries to Date:

1. Al Mount Gay Rum: Rob van Rooyen – Farr 38 – IRC
2. Majimoto: Jon Marshall – Farr 38 – IRC
3. Nemesis:  Anthony Bailes – Fast 42 –   PHRF
4. Bellissama: Vernon & James Goss – Hanse 401 –  PHRF
5. Yolo: Dale Kushner –  Sunfast 3200 –  IRC – LATE WITHDRAWAL
6. Bellatrix: Gregg Hurter – First 40 –   IRC
7. Gumption: Nicholas Mace – Simonis 40 – IRC
8. Ray of Light: Michael & Heidi Kavanagh – First 44.7 – IRC
9. Rocket: Herbert Karolius – Simonis 54 – IRC
10. Alkistis: Christo Moller –  Sun Odyssey 40 – Rally mono
11. JML Rotary Scout: Grant Chapman – Tosca 39 – PHRF – LATE WITHDRAWAL
12. Star Spirit: Willie Pretorius – Sun Fizz 40 – PHRF
13. Numzaan: Ron Schwalbach – Prout cat – catamaran
14. Deo Volente: Trevor Donald – Lavaranos 36 – PHRF
15. Alacrity: Dave Taylor – Taylor 37 – IRC
16. Skitzo: Nigel Milln – Fast 42 –  IRC
17. Wallbanger: John Tudehope – Simonis 35 – PHRF
18. HQ2: Grenville Wilson – Open Ocean 750 cat – multihull

Regrettably Yolo and the Rotary Scouts have been late withdrawals.

Important Time lines (all dates being 2015):

• Late entries close – 17h00 on Friday 17 April.
• Welcome Function at PYC – Thursday 23 April 18h00
• Registration – Wednesday 22 April – 12h00 to 17h00
• Registration – Thursday 23 April – 10h00 to 17h00
• Skipper’s Briefing – Thursday 16h00
• Safety talk (SAS Offshore committee chairman) – Thursday 17h00
• Registration – Friday 24 April from 10h00 to 17h00
• Safety Scrutineering to be complete – Friday 24 April by 12h00
• Crew Lists –  Friday 24 April by 12h00
• Competitor breakfast at PYC – Saturday 25 April from 07h00 to 09h00.
• Race Start – Saturday 25 April at 12h00
• Final Race Cut-off time – Wednesday 29 April at 12h00
• Prize Giving (18h00) at ABYC – Wednesday 29 April at 18h00

The crew breakfast on the morning of the start has been sponsored by MDM Marine Services who represent Raymarine in South Africa.

Official Race Documents: Race Secretary Lucy de Freitas has all the race documents that require completing, in a pack for each skipper. Please collect these from her at the PYC next week.

Regrettably with Durban being a ‘Port of Entry’ we have been informed of relatively new requirements for boats leaving for another local port. We hope to have all the key role players in this at the PYC on Friday morning from 10h00 to 12h00 to ensure that this paperwork runs smoothly.

All skippers are requested to please make sure they have a copy of each crew’s ID document available.

The less said about this the better!

Satellite tracking of the race has been made possible thanks to the generosity of Phil Gutsche and GIMCO (Gutsche Investment & Management Company). Please support our race sponsor (www.gutsche-investments.co.za)

This year’s race is being tracked by Yellowbrick – a UK based company which specialises in tracking yacht races. Many of the major sailing events in the world are tracked by Yellowbrick.

The race tracker will be updated every 15 minutes after the start.

The link to Yellowbrick will be: http://yb.tl/vascodagama2015

When one logs in to the tracker there are various blocks of information available to viewers. On the left you can see the yacht information, with each yacht name listed along with its country flag. The colours are automatically chosen, and the yacht icon on the map will have the same colour as on the list.

At the top of the list are the ‘groupings’ – typically yachts will be grouped into classes.

The leader board reflects these groups, and shows the yachts in each group and their ‘leader board’ order based on the correct handicap.

Once the race starts, the public race viewer will update automatically with new positions. The leader board will update every time a new position comes in for each tracker. Position reports should be simultaneous for each yacht – e.g. if they are set to transmit every hour, regardless of when they were turned on they will synchronise together to get a GPS fix on the hour, and then transmit as soon as possible after that.

Data does sometimes take a couple of minutes to get from the tracker, through the satellites, and into the race viewer, but all the position reports should have their GPS fixes at the same time to allow for accurate leaderboarding.

A Race Viewer app can be downloaded from the app store allowing viewing on a phone or tablet. Search the app store for ‘YB RACES’.

It is important for skippers to know that once the units are switched on and working, the ‘off’ button will no longer work as the ‘off’ function is disabled by the tracking company.

Boats will only be tracked on the race, and not on passages to home ports after the race has finished. Tracking units will be removed from boats immediately after the finish.

The race viewer will show the time as South African time. ON previous races the time was shown as UTC.

Each ping contains a time, position, speed and course over ground value. Our system then calculates a velocity made good and distance to finish, estimated time of arrival (on the water) and estimated corrected time (handicap). This is then shown on the leader board with provisional rankings for each class. As each boat finishes the recorded finish times will be uploaded to make the leader board more accurate.

There are occasions when the satellite pass may be missed. Don’t be alarmed!

The boat speed shown is in fact the speed the vessel was travelling at the time it ‘pinged’ the satellite. So don’t get excited when you see a high speed, and certainly don’t despair when you see a low speed. These will even themselves out over time, so take an average every few hours to get a better idea as to how they are going.

The bottom line is that the system we are using is a guide for the public following the race, enabling those at home to get a picture as to where each boat is in relation to the others – and how they are doing.

Should a boat be in distress, it has a host of lifesaving items with which to indicate it is in distress and that outside assistance is required. The Tracker will not provide this information, and race organisers will not assume that if a tracker fails the vessel is in distress.

Skippers are URGED to ensure that their crew and their families and followers receive this information.

Thanks to Phil Gutsche of GIMCO (Gutsche Investment & Management Company), who has generously sponsored this aspect of the race.

Car Hire: Should anyone need to rent a vehicle in Port Elizabeth at the finish of the race, we have managed to get a special rate via Bidvest Car Rental. Bidvest Car Rental is supplying the vehicle the Race Committee are driving to and from Port Elizabeth. Bookings can be made via e-mail on: res@bidvestcarrental.co.za. Please ensure that the rate code: S10 is quoted at time of reservation so that the special rates are used for the bookings.

Please support our sponsors.

We will be using Facebook as the prime means of disseminating news of the race. The official Vasco Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/VascodaGama2015

PLEASE remember to LIKE this page and SHARE it with your family, sailing mates and anyone who may follow the race.

The race website address is: http://www.pyc.co.za/vasco-2015

If you have not already book-marked these sites and added them as ‘favourites’ or ‘groups’ – please do so now.

There are two key functions at the Point Yacht Club prior to the race starting:

1. Thursday 23 April is the official welcome function starting at 18h00.
2. There will also be a crew farewell breakfast at the PYC on Saturday morning (25 April) prior to the start. This is not a compulsory parade, but available to competitors who would like one last ‘feed’ prior to embarking on the race. The crew breakfast on the morning of the start has been sponsored by MDM Marine Services who represent Raymarine in South Africa.

We would like all boats to be moored in Clipper Corner from this weekend if possible. Please chat to Lucy or Malcolm Manion (Marina Manager) as to where you should moor.

Moorings will be allocated to boats on arrival in Port Elizabeth. There is water and electricity available on their marina.

Crew lists are an important aspect of race documentation for various reasons. We do need to know numbers, as do our partners in Port Elizabeth, so please, if you have not supplied this information let us have it as soon as convenient. Please note that all crew in the race have to be members of SAS. Would all skippers please sort this out with their Club, or Runa at the SAS Office (031-301 3078). This is a requirement of the Notice of Race.

Each boat is required to undergo a safety inspection prior to the start. Gavin van der Meulen will be doing this check. Skippers may make an appointment with him from NOW for this. There is nothing untoward in terms of this inspection. It is done to give the organisers peace of mind that when the fleet puts to sea they are all fully compliant with the safety regulations. Please contact Gavin to arrange your inspection on: 083 708 3830 or meulen@yebo.co.za

Port Elizabeth Welcome: As has always been a tradition in the Vasco da Gama Race, all crew receive breakfast when they finish the race – irrespective of the time of day or night! This will be available at ABYC.

This race has a good number of trophies to award.

There are three new trophies added to the already impressive list of trophies for this race:

1. The Dave Cox Memorial Trophy will be awarded to the 1st Line Honours boat in the PHRF division.
2. The de Beyer Memorial Trophy will be awarded to the 1st PYC boat on handicap in PHRF.
3. The ABYC trophy will be for the 1st ABYC boat on handicap.

Choose Life Youth Trophy: This trophy was presented to the race in 2012 by Vernon Goss. It is awarded to the first under 25 youth sailor on IRC handicap. It’s a wonderful trophy for an up-and-coming sailor to win. Please would you advise Lucy (sailing@pyc.co.za) of the names and dates of birth of any crew under the age of 25 – so that we can use this information for publicity for this worthwhile award.

Navigator’s Trophy: Please would every skipper advise Lucy (sailing@pyc.co.za) of the name of their navigator as there is a Navigator’s Trophy in the IRC division.

Vasco Virgins: It is always worth knowing how many crew are doing this race for the first time. Would skippers please advise Lucy (sailing@pyc.co.za ) of these names.

Organising Committee Contacts:

• Chairman: Richard Crockett – 083 265 3885
• Principle Race Officer: Jimmy Melville – 082 900 8573
• Race Secretary: Lucy de Freitas – 083 340 3089
• Safety Scrutineer: Gavin van der Meulen – 083 708 3830
• PYC Rear Commodore Keelers:  Jon Marshall – 083 703 2995
• Media: Sophie Thompson – 083 609 8729