Fantastic Interclub 2012 Success

This weekend saw our annual Interclub and River-champs event being one of the most enjoyable in a while, brilliant weather, fantastic tide, great company, and the entertainment on the water ( and at prize giving) that 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.

William on his Finn won the Open A fleet beating the Arnolds on their Dolphin (The results never lie!!!) The Grand-master Trevor won the prestigious River-champs wheel in style actually discarding a ‘bullet’. Matt and Pam made an appearance, the former losing his toe-strap and the latter her nerve (all in jest! The lady’s skills were indispensable on the Bridge) As I mentioned before, the antics of the locals during moments of stress is legendary and we were not disappointed with Mrs Lawrence having to be talked down from turning the Miracle’s spinnaker into a body bag after a particularly challenging race and Competitive Colin vented some useful ( if not legal) verbs after his crew lost the whisker pole overboard!!

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.

I just have to say that whatever Tim’s accolades were on the water will always fade in comparison to his young son’s 'Dancing naked without a star!' in front of the entire sailing community at prize giving. This is what makes RYC so different.

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

Fun Long Distance Pursuit Race

This Sunday we will have a fun long distance pursuit race in whichever direction Di and the weather decide to send us. The start is 12:00pm on a falling tide in a predicted 15 - 25 knot East. Fantastic Sonnet weather.

Sailing School

Sailing school begins again this Sunday at 10:00am for all as we start to get our youngsters ready for the Eastern and Southern Cape Inter-school Regattas.

Nautical

Terms Cat's Paws- Light variable winds on calm waters producing scattered areas of small waves.
Halyard- something that only breaks or jams when you are winning!

Nautical quote of the week.

"Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made, for somewhere deep in their oaken hearts the soul of a song is laid." -Robert N. Rose

That's all for now Friends and Family, see you on the water.

Kindest regards,

Andrew Butler