Flying Dutchman, Dolphin & Enterprise Classes

GP14 NSA Provincial Championships

Pretoria Sailing Club, October 2003

Early on the Saturday morning of the event, as the boats were arriving and rigging, a good, steady wind prevailed from the east. However, as it often happens with this direction, as soon as sound signals for the start of the racng went off, it started subsiding.

One race was held in the morning. By the time the last boats finished, there was not enough to start a second. An early lunch was called for. Over lunch, puffs from the north started appearing.  Three races were held in the afternoon. A passing thunderstorm caused some concern, but it went to the east. It did bring a bit of wind, but from the opposite direction.

 A start time of 09:00 was called for on Sunday morning, in the hopes that the races could be completed before they faded. There was sufficient wind for three races to be completed. The wind was from the N/W, over the hill behind the clubhouse. This resulted in large shifts getting to the weather mark.. Where possible, Olympic courses were set, otherwise club courses were used.

All classes struggled to get their members to enter the event. The Dolphin class was the largest, but also had far fewer than normal. The Enterprises and Flying Dutchaman classes just managed to get ten boats to qualify for a SAS gold medal.

In the Flying Dutchman class, Nigel Trevarthen & Gavin Breckle did not have too much trouble. Their main competition came, as usual, from Dirk von der Fecht. He in turn had competition at times from Willem. In two of the races, the leading boats stopped to wait before the finishing line to ensure the tail enders were not out of the 20 minute time limit.

The Dolphin class was dominated by Tim Addison & Rosanne Roos, who won four of the seven races and were second in the others. This class was also plagued by  a low turnout. In the past, Dolphin numbers, particularly when sailing at PSC, comfortably made over 30 entries This year, with 16 boats sailing, they could only qualify for gold and silver medals.

In the Enterprise class, competition was close between Hofmann, Davies and Mitchell, with single points separating the 3 at the end. The winner was decided in the last race over the last few metres of the last beat to the finish. Kim Davies went to the right, Pat Mitchell went to the left and got a lift from that side to win overall.

For the full results for each class, go to the Results section

Addison & Roos

Mitchell & Marsh

Trevarthen & Breckle