Long weekend sees KZN sailing provincial championships
Flying Fifteen and Hobie 16 KZN Provincial Championships will be in Durban this long weekend.
THE perfect winter weather will compliment this year’s Flying Fifteen and Hobie 16 KZN Provincial Championships with warm waters and blue skies greeting the competitive sailors over the “long” weekend.
Hosted by Point Yacht Club, racing is scheduled for four days from 16 to 19 June. The Flying Fifteen class will be able to sneak in an extra
two races on Youth Day with racing commencing in the bay to open up the regatta for them. Both classes will then take to the waters offshore for three days.
“With the majority of the Flying Fifteen sailors being based in and around Durban, we can get in the extra day of racing. For the Hobie guys, the interest spills outside of the city, so they opted to leave the public holiday as a travelling day for the sailors who will be travelling down to the
coast for racing.” enthused Point Yacht Club’s Rear Commodore for Dinghies, Myles White.
“We are hoping to get in a total of 14 races over the four day regatta, including the two bay races while the Hobies are happy to have a maximum of 12 races offshore. We are extremely lucky to live in one of the best sailing venues in the world that offer perfect year-round sailing conditions! Guys will travel from as far afield as Johannesburg to come and thaw out and get a bit of sailing in!” White continued.
The two main classes are sailed by two people; back to defend their titles are multiple winners, Patrick Harris and Jeremy Kriek in the small keelboat class and Peter Hall who sailed with his daughter Sarah in the catamaran class. Hall will be taking to the water with his son, Matthew (12-years-old) this time round.
Matthew is the current Hobie Dragoon National SA Youth Champion. Keen to relish the warmer conditions and get out on the water, joining the Hobie 16s will be a number of cats that are less than 18foot who will compete in the Open Class.
The combo of Harris and Kriek had a flawless regatta last year, winning every single race. No strangers to winning the provincial and national championships, they will have some tough competition from the 2014 winners, Paul Changuion and Tim Duguid as well as in-form sailors White and his
partner Estelle Buys.
Durban is the place to be if you want to participate in water sports in winter, with the start of the competitive winter season seeing the first main sailing event get under way. The Flying Fifteen and Hobie 16 Provincials are followed by the Inter-Varsity Match Racing Champs and the MSC Week, both taking place in July.
Visit www.pyc.co.za or join the Point Yacht Club Facebook group for more information.
