Sailors battle it out for Jonsey Sprints
Gavin Smith on Zing won all three races at the Point Yacht Club's recent event.
A ZINGER of a performance by Gavin Smith, on Zing, matched the sweltering weather offshore of Durban during the first day of the Jonsey Sprints recently.
Smith earned himself line honours in the monohull class in all three races. In the first race, Smith and his crew had a fantastic start and set a decent pace to the top mark. On the rounding, the team faltered a bit, hoisting the kite for the downwind leg and then opted to drop the spinnaker and glide to the bottom mark with their jib and main sail.
This marginally slower pace didn’t lose him any ground, and his team finished two minutes ahead of second placed Nhlanhla Phakathi, sailing magnificently on PYC Challenger.
Race two of the Jonsey Sprints was shortened to one lap. Latecomer Bill Ellens, on his trimaran Magic Drgaon, rounded first, with Zing hot on his tail. Ellens misunderstood the shortened course flag and bolted up for his second lap. Zing tacked and made her way for the line, fortunately the zippy trimaran noticed the fleet were making their way for the finish and tacked on time to make the finish without losing too much ground. Ellens crossed the line 27 seconds behind Smith, while Phakathi crossed the line in third, 13 seconds behind the tri.
In the final race of the day, Magic Dragon edged to the front after a sluggish start and boldly stayed ahead of the pack. Ellens finished the full two laps in a stylish 48 minutes, 26 seconds, eight minutes ahead of the first monohull, Zing. Changing gears, Refeloa Zililo and his team on iThemba crossed the line in third place, 22 seconds behind Zing.
ALSO READ: Father, son duo lead the charge
There was a superb tussle in the one design class, with three L26s on the water in training for the most prestigious sailing event in South Africa, the Lipton Cup. Phakathi took the L26 honours twice with Zililo taking the L26 win in the final race. Hannah Fokkens, skippering the third L26, SLFC also finished well throughout the day, notching up two fifths overall and a fourth in the last race.
Phakathi, on PYC Challenger, disappointingly had a bad start in the third race and battled to recover and finished sixth overall. The less experienced team on iThemba ended their day with two thirds, and a fourth.
The first race of the day had the three boats finish within six minutes and two seconds of each other. In the shortened race, the three Ls pushed each other hard and all crossed the line within 100 seconds of each other. In the final race the time gap was below two minutes.
Joining the big boats on the day, half a dozen Hobies stretched their legs ahead of the Easter Regatta that incorporates the Hobie 16 Provincials and an open Hobie class.
The Jonsey Sprints concludes on Sunday, 25 March.
Do you want to receive alerts regarding this and other Highway community news via WhatsApp? Send us a WhatsApp message (not an sms) with your name and surname (ONLY) to 060 532 5409.
You can also join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
PLEASE NOTE: If you have signed up for our news alerts you need to save the Highway Mail WhatsApp number as a contact to your phone, otherwise you will not receive our alerts
