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Day 3’s Team racing was finally completed on wednesday afternoon when WP narrowly beat NVL to win the honours. The Bridge immediately took the fleet out to complete 2 more races by 20h00.

A further 3 races were completed in more Vaalie type winds on Thursday which saw the contingent from the North starting to show some form. Di Hutton Squire finished off the event on friday with 2 last races.Jessica Gibbons, new to dabbie sailing, came through in the last races and lead the race like a pro, to take line honours.

To summarise,James Stock, Jessica Hogg and JJ liddard dominated the regatta. Andrew Hill,Danny Jarvis , Gareth Baxter and  Chris Gough all challenged for the top positions making racing very tight. Excellent duels were evident across the fleet which bodes well for the future.

Western Province sailors again were the form side but having said that it was good to see newcomers to the fleet from NorthVaal taking part. James took gold, Jessica Hogg silver and JJ liddiard Bronze. First girl went to Jessica Hogg and the under 15 trophy to Chris Gough.

Thank you to TSC and the organisors and especially to Di Hutton Squire who agreed to complete the regatta by Friday to give the Vaalies time to get home.

Owen Baxter

 Click Here for the results

As much as the wind blew yesterday, it seems to have blown itself out today.

Only 2 Provinces contested the Team racing. Due to switchy winds and the wind dying, Team racing has not been completed. Northvaal won the first heat convincialy and were on their way to a 2nd win when a equipment failure resulted in them conceding the race to WP. The wind then died completely. At the time of writing at 16h30 no racing had been possible.

Click here for the latest results

Owen

The AGM was well supported with good debate and discussion. The following was voted in :

• Choice of using long or short top battens
• Option to use Mylar or dacron Sails.
• Owen Baxter Returned as Chairman.
• Technical committee to amend rules by 28/2/2008

I trust that this will be a benefit to class in respect of being seen to be moving with the times.

Owen

Monday was characterized by switchy winds varying from light to around 18 knots.

Tuesday has been blown out with wind speeds easily gusting up to 30  + knots.Only one race was sailed before sailing was called off.To see the results at the end of modays racingi    click here

I arrived at TSC on weds 3 days before the scheduled start of the National Regatta. Already I began to hear mutters that the dedicated Dabbie course had again become an issue. I was was informed that it was unlikely that we would have sufficient support to justify a seperate course as a few Dabbie sailors had defected to 4.7’s as a result of their worlds.(which is their right and I have no problems with)Apparently, despite what was outlined in the NOR, we needed “30 entries” to justify our own course !I informed the organizing committee that

• Lets  see how many enterred
• Where the magic 30 came from was a mystery to me.
• Why were they reneging on a prior agreement

It turned out that we had 27 entries and I requested that we be given our own course. Apart from the Oppies, there were 14 Laser entries,2 420’s, 4 mirrors and a few Hobie Dragoons.

The truth of the matter lies in the organisation. Despite all the distractions I think our turnout was reasonable. It is apparent to me that the organising committee has not done their job and do not have sufficient infrastructure or personnel to handle this regatta. Attention is being given to classes who have not shown their support,by even pitching up ,which has also caused a strain on resources.

A delegation by the organising committee came to see me a few hours before the tune up race and basically admitted that they did not have the personnel. In the interests of getting the show on the road I gave in and consented to Lasers sharing our course.

Somehow I believe we have been setup and we need to guard against this happening in the future.

Owen