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Scimitar Cup

Posted 5 months, 28 days ago

Scimitar Cup
This years Scimitar Cup was sailed over two weekends - the 2nd and 3rd of February and 1st and 2nd of March 2008. The first day's racing took place in a strong South Easter with a large swell. Brian Reynolds and Harry Lamprecht on the committee boat, Lady had a hard time getting their pick to settle and had to reset the line and pin a number of times. The course was windward- leeward and made all the more difficult as the top mark was a smaller buoy which was difficult to spot in the conditions. Two boats OCS and breakages on Wild Thing whittled the fleet down even further. A course length of two hours ensured that the sailing was hard, wet and tiring. Back on Lady, Harry and Brian had a trying time keeping the mark laying duck under control and tethered, as the duck had a mind of it's own successfully breaking loose and trying to make friends with a passing fishing boat. Young David Moorcroft on Wild Thing made a fine job of playing 'Rescue Ranger' and flung himself into the water to return the duck to it's rightful place. A sponsored braai and music followed a long and tiring day for the sailors. Sunday, dawned with 30 to 40 knots of howling west and it was prudently decided to can the racing for the day. The second weekend and day three and four of racing were quite the opposite. Fine weather, flattish seas, sunshine and great sailing. Eugen Lombard, Tian and Lesley Webber did the committee boat honours on Saturday afternoon and Eugene and Lesley again on Sunday. Saturday's course was again a windward leeward, but with a twist.The pin and committee boat were designated as bottom marks of the course as a gate, the top mark was set slightly off to try and give the assymetric boats a bit of a reach and boats were allowed to pass through the gate and round either mark. A variation on the America's Cup course. The 8 to 10 knot South East wind moved to the East and failed to give the expected tight reach. A shortish course was set and the boats went off on a journey that would take them five time around the top mark. Hard work for some boats, like Chinook as the guys on the pointy bit can attest with the shorter than normal beats, two or three spinnaker gybes and the weather drop, as all boats opted to go around the pin, necessitating having to reset the kite on the way up. On Cooking I was drenched in perspiration the second run down and by the time the fifth run came along we were so confused and had made so many mistakes that we never even got the kite up. As we finished the last round the predicted Westerly bluster could be seen marching up the course to engulf the stragglers. Sunday saw a lot of our amateur weather pros get it all wrong. The predictions were completely contrary ranging from major wind to no wind. In the end we decided to take the fleet out, lay a starting line and get a top mark down later. The wind settled in the East North East and we decided to go racing after setting the top mark just a little to the South as this is the direction that the wind normally swings to after a short time in the North. At least we were right in that assumption and Eugene wisely shortened the course to three rounds when it clocked over to south east. A little bit of waiting and the settling wind made the Bell Buoy a perfect natural mark for our final race of the day in a fading south east. It was good to have Sea Mole, Tikalox and Skybird along for the race. Just how does Josef manage to race alone with a spinnaker up and make coffee? Results Full Story »

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