Fantastic Interclub & River Championships 2012 Success

Where:- Swartkops river at Redhouse outside Port Elizabeth.
When:- 21 & 22 January 2012.

This weekend of the 21st/22nd January saw our annual Interclub and River-champs event being one of the most enjoyable in a while! The brilliant weather, fantastic tide, great company, and entertainment on the water (and at prize giving) will be talked about for some time!

The East London invasion kept us locals on our toes with a massive entry of 13 boats in all the classes. The 17 Lasers on the start line in race 1 on a very narrow river was a comedy of errors with both sides (that being Port and Starboard) losing count of the numerous collisions, infringements and loss of descriptive language control, and yet not one protest hearing the entire weekend. "Cool Running’s!!"

The wind was South-east to East the whole weekend ranging from 10 to 18 knots. Saturday was filled with four races and another two on Sunday concluded the event. The Bring-and-Braai on Saturday was well attended many thanks to Rhona and her shipmates for all their work on the salads and the manning of the tea and drinks table for the duration of the regatta.

The open junior fleet was won by Patrick Butler on his Tera Sport beating both the Tera Pro boats, young Mathew Lawrence who has just turned 12 did a fantastic job sailing a Gypsy with a school friend but could not overcome his boats handicap, but getting a prize for perseverance. Uncle Pete won the Open B fleet on his Gypsy and Steven Medcalf from ELYC took top spot in the Oppie fleet.

Thanks to the Girls in the loft for all their work and teaching most of us what a general recall flag actually looks like and to the rescue crews of Malcolm, Alastair and the Arnolds for their time and commitment.

Final results were (lowest score wins):

Senior Teams	RYC	18
	ELYC	107
Junior Teams	ELYC	26
	RYC	38

Well-done to all sailors!

Kindest Regards
Andrew Butler