The Class Results for ABYC Week 2009:

1. Class 1 (51 Kilobytes PDF)
2. Class 2 (38 Kilobytes PDF)
3. Class 3 (52 kilobytes PDF)
4. Pacer 27 (45 kilobytes PDF)

Related: ABYC Week 2009 Report

The Algoa Bay Yacht Club held it's annual premium regatta over the long weekend of 30 April to 3 May 2009. At the same time the Pacer 27 class held it's Eastern Cape Provincial Regatta.

Four classes were entered; Pacer 27 (one design), Class 1 (for boats over 0.9 handicap using a spinnaker), Class 2 (for boats below 0.9 handicap using a spinnaker) and Class 3 (No Spinnaker). Race officer, Brian Reynolds looked to have his hands full with four seperate starts and finishes and three courses.

Start Line of Class 1 - ABYC Week 2009 With a total of 27 entries, down on the 42 of last year, the decision was made to combine the starts of Class 2, Class 1, and the Pacer Class - a total of nine yachts. Class 3 with 18 entrants sailed longer courses on Day one with a seperate finish line.

Four Pacer 27's travelled down to Port Elizabeth; from Dennysville Aquatic Club - Music (Rob De Vlieg and Guy Nottingham), Unruly (Nike Wilson and Iain Gibson), From False Bay Yacht Club - Felix the Cat (Anthony Wentworth) and from East London sailing under the ABYC Flag - Unmatched (Graham Wentworth).

In Class 3, Frans Loots sailed in from Cape St Francis on his trimaran, Banjo.

In the combined Class 1 fleet entrants were sailing for Line Honours, PHRF* and Class Honours for the Pacer 27's. Class 3 sailed for Line Honours and first on PHRF.

Algoa Bay always dishes up mild to moderate with a touch of wild wind for Algoa Bay Week and this year was no exception.

On Thursday 30 April the fleet waited until 11:30 a.m. for the west wind to kick up to a pleasant 12 knots. Class 1 sailed two races of 70 minutes each with the wind kicking to the South. The Class 3 race was a debacle with portions of the fleet missing the Offset Shark Rock Pier Bouy and other racers 'arguing' with shipping close to the Channel Marker. Many retirements and the potential for 9 protests against other class members and the bridge alike led to a gentleman's agreement to wipe the slate clean and scrap the first race for Class 3.

The PHRF results in Class 1 for Race 1: Felix the Cat (Anthony Wentworth), KMG Met (Justin Onvlee), Unruly (Mike Wilson / Ian Gibson)

The PHRF results in Class 1 for Race 2: KMG Met (Justin Onvlee), Felix the Cat (Anthony Wentworth), Challenger (Jim Foot).

Class 2 consisted of only one boat, Duette (Sean Wiseman) which sailed extremely well against it's 'competition' and was a dead certainty for Line, Class and PHRF Honours.

Class 3 ABYC Week Friday's wind prediction was once again spot on with the first race starting at 10:51 a.m. in a westerly of 14 knots. The course for the day was a triangle which certainly favoured the Pacer 27 class who took first place on handicap in two of the three races sailed. Class 3 sailed the same course. The second reach was a bit tight and made for interesting sailing as the yachts sailed past and amongst the Chokka Fleet that had anchored in the bay.

The youngest helmsman in the fleet, Jesse Martin (11) sailing on Le Chevalier (Ronnie Baer) opened the day's scoring with a first place in Class 3. Jesse has been sailing for 12 months and his normal ride is an Optimist Sailing Dinghy.

In the second race for Class 3 Banjo (Frans Loots) managed a first place over the line and on handicap followed by Seralon and Le Chevalier.

In Class II Duette continued their assault on the bullets unchecked.

At the end of Friday's sailing Principal Race Officer, Brian Reynolds, had five races in the bag for Class I, II and the Pacers and three in the bag for Class III.

The fleet returned home to legendary hospitality and subsidised meals from the Chartroom. Holding the flag high and hosting daily 'fines' meetings were the hard working Duette sailing and shore crews. Amazing how quickly a couple of quarts can disappear within a half an hour!

Saturday once again dished up a westerly which started at 14 knots and increased steadily to 25 at times. ABYC Commodore Ian Littlejohn was the new mark layer ably assisted by Chad Jackson (or was it the other way around) and, in deference to their age Brian Reynolds again set a windward leeward course.

With significantly more wind it was interesting to see the coastal based Pacer 27's begin dominating the day's racing in the last two races of the three races sailed.

The starts for these races were far more competitive with Duette sprouting more confidence and jousting for a front row start with the Pacers and Class I boats. KMG Met were OCS (on Course Side) in Race 7 and redeemed themselves with two firsts on handicap in the subsequent two races.

Class 3 once again sailed the same course and the day was given over to the bigger boats with Take Six (Doug Stannard) scoring two firsts on Handicap.

Sunday was as predicted - warm, swirly cats paws of breeze and not a chance of sailing. The committee boat, kindly loaned to ABYC by the SAPS Water Wing, motored out to look for wind and eventually decided to can the days racing at 12:30 p.m.

Prizes were awarded for Line Honours in Each Class, PHRF in Class 1, 2 and 3, Pacer 27 Line Honours and the winners were:

• Class 1 PHRF: KMG Met (Justin Onvlee, Andrew Ward, Rob Pressley, Sakhumzi Tyutyu, Steve Arnold, Sarah Arnold)
• Class 1 Line Honours: Felix the Cat (Anthony Wentworth, Allan Lawrence, Daniel Lawrence, Mathew Wentworth, Jenny Paarman, Sean Leslie, William Edwards)
• Class 2 Line Honours and PHRF: Duette (Sean Wiseman, Dion Milson, Alan Straton)
• Class 3 PHRF: Take Six (Doug Stannard, PJ Murray, Keith Barnes, Matt Gill)
• Class 3 Line Honours: Banjo (Frans, Jamie, Tanya and Francis Loots)
• Pacer 27 East Cape Champion: Felix the Cat (Anthony Wentworth)

My personal highlight: Actually getting to sail with a great bunch of guys on Duette and helping them achieve certain personal stated goals.

My personal lowlight: Watching helplessly as a Class 3 boat with literally hundreds of square kilometres of ocean around it, bore down on the SAPS's Fish Eagle and proceeded to crunch into the side. When last I checked the only time that one is in "Irons" is when you are trying to beat and not on a reach!

ABYC Regatta Highlight: Seeing how a few sponsors can make a great regatta - thank you one and all for the money time and committment to ABYC Week 2009.

* PHRF (Performance Handicap Racing Fleet) is a handicapping system used in yacht racing. It allows dissimilar classes of yacht to be raced against each other. The aim is to cancel out the inherent advantages and disadvantages of each class of boats, so that results reflect crew skill rather than equipment superiority.

PHRF is used mainly for larger sailboats of 7 meters and above.

The handicap number assigned to a class of yachts is based on the yacht's speed relative to a theoretical yacht with a rating of 0. A yacht's handicap, or rating, is the number of seconds per nautical mile traveled that the theoretical yacht should be in front of or behind that theoretical yacht. Most boats have a positive PHRF rating, but some very fast boats have a negative PHRF rating. Results are adjusted for handicap by the race committee after all competitors have finished.

Images: ABYC Week 2009.