SOUTHERN CAPE NEWS - The calm waters of Island Lake, Wilderness, home to George Lakes Yacht Club, were once again the venue for the 2017 SA Sailing Eden District Interschool Regatta. The event attracted teams from 10 high schools and eight primary schools from Mossel Bay and George.
Unfortunately, schools from Knysna were not represented this year. In the high schools fleet, there were 29 boats in various classes sailing against on another on a rating system. These classes included the Topper, Laser, Gypsy, Tera and Dabchick. The primary schools had 22 boats, comprising Optimists, Tera Sport, O-9er and Feva.
On Saturday, April 1, after the rush to rig the 51 boats and the skipper’s briefing from GLYC Commodore David Laing, the fleet set sail in a light southeasterly wind. Four races were held that day. With the high school fleet starting first and the primary school five minutes later, it was apparent that the regular sailors had no problems with the complexities of sailboat racing.
However, for the many novices, shortcomings in their boat handling were apparent. Fortunately, in the light wind, the boats were very forgiving, but it required a lot of encouragement from the rescue boats to get the backmarkers around the course. As the regatta progressed, great improvement was seen in this regard.
On Sunday morning, Island Lake was flat calm at the scheduled start time, with not too much expectation of wind. However, after 11:00 a breeze started to fill in from the south and the first of three races could commence at 11:40. This breeze faded during the third race, allowing for an early finish, pack-up and prize-giving.
In the high school fleet, consistently up front were the Laser Radials of Sonja Stock of Cape Town representing Wynberg Girls High and York High’s James Hellstrom. These two shared the race wins to end up tied on points for first place. It was up to sailing’s tie-break system to give the overall win to Hellstrom on the basis of winner of last race. Third place went to the Dabchick, sailed by Kirstie Gehrung, representing Glenwood House College. Just off the podium in fourth place was the Gypsy sailed by Devon Dennis and Charl Geland for Pacaltsdorp High.
In the primary school fleet, overall winner was the Optimist sailed by Sean Vonk for Glenwood House Preparatory. Milkwood Primary of Mossel Bay took the next four places, with the RS Feva sailed by Oliver Holden and Johan Prinsloo in second place, ahead of the Feva of Sansar & Himmath Maharaj.
While the individual results were for personal satisfaction, the interschool aspect of the regatta reflected team performance. Team scores were based on the top three per school. York High of George fielded a strong team of 12 boats and had their top three well placed, ensuring a win for their school. Second school was Pacaltsdorp High, ahead of Sao Bras (Mossel Bay).
In the primary school teams, Mossel Bay’s Milkwood Primary secured an inaugural victory. Glenwood had a winning boat, but their other boats were a bit too far behind to provide enough support, thus had to settle for second place. Third place went to Pacaltsdorp Primary.
The host club, George Lakes, wishes to extend is grateful thanks to its sponsors, Sotheby's International Realty (George), Raubenheimers Attorneys and Hilland Environmental.
Article by Malcolm Osborne
'We bring you the latest Garden Route, Karoo, Hessequa news'
