THREE days of light winds tested a fleet of 48 yachts at the Hobie 14 Nationals, incorporating the Flying Fifteen and Laser Provincials hosted by Point Yacht Club, offshore of Durban from the 16 18 June. In the main fleet of Hobie 14s, a small but competitive bunch took to the water with 27 boats partaking in the Nationals.
There was absolutely nothing between the top two contenders, Blaine Dodds and Garth Loudon with both of them ending on 9 points each on the log. It was neck-and-neck throughout the regatta between the two big names in South African Hobie sailing. Blaine Dodd sailing for the Knysna Yacht Club scored two firsts, two seconds, a third and an eighth place, which counted as his race discard. Durban’s Hobie hero, Loudon sailing for Point Yacht Club, score card held two firsts, two seconds, a third and a fourth place, with Loudon’s fourth being deducted as his race discard.
Dodds added to his impressive tally of 37 national and regional titles claiming the win. The new sailing rules state that the result rests on the last race sailed, regardless if that is your dicscard race. Dodds finished third, one place ahead of Loudon.
A tired Loudon said after derigging his boat, “I did pretty well, it was really close. There was nothing between Blaine and me. I lost it by one position, I scored a fourth in the last race while Blaine scored a third in the fourth race. I prefer the stronger winds, but the conditions were the same for everybody. The youngsters are all light weights, so they did well with that advantage. The lighter stuff is much more of a challenge torace in.”
In the small fleet of seven Flying Fifteens, it was the formidable champions of Patrick Harris and Jeremy Kriek who took the honours. The duo have been hard at work preparing for the Flying Fifteen
World Championships in Ireland in a couple of months. Harris and Kriek were on top of the podium in three of their races, second in two races and scored a fourth in their final race. Cape Town’s Alistair Keytel showed why he was reigning National champion, dominating the first day at the top of the fleet. On the third day, he had mixed fortunes but his first day of racing saw him win the KZN Provincials.
Race Officer, Kevin Bingham had a challenging time on the water with the weather gods throwing loads of curveballs at him. He managed to get in four races on the first day, with the course needing to be reset after the first and second race as the gentle 8 knots clocked around from a south easterly to more of an easterly during the day. The second day, racing was abandoned just after midday as Bingham sat on the water waiting for the little breeze on offer settled to something decent but the maximum reading he recorded was 4.1 knots, to light for the main fleet. On the third and final day, Bingham managed to get two races in bringing the total up to six races.
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