THE Bashboard has been tallied and Durban sailing and Point Yacht Club feature six times on the leader board on the biggest global sailing event, Bart’s Bash – The Second Sail that took place on Sunday, 20 September.
South Africa had the second largest turn out on the water on the day out of 62 countries that took part, the United Kingdom walked away with first place. A total of 365 South African sailors ventured out onto the water on the day, doing the country proud, the South African team of Alex Schon and Marc Hiles were crowned overall winners of Bart’s Bash – the second edition of this event.
Competing on their Nacra F20 under the Lake Deneys Burgee, Schon said the weather prevented a lot of people from participating in this year’s competition, “This year we had winds of 35 knots and with a short, sharp chop this made for a wild ride, with our Nacra 20 at times launching itself right out of the water. We had a fantastic ride and took a somewhat conservative approach. With only Marc out on the wire, we managed to keep our beast upright. I think that the tough conditions prevented more people from attending, but I really believe that this event needs to grow and that the great work that is being done needs to spread throughout the world, in particular throughout Africa,” he said.
Most venues around the country reported strong winds on the day that prevented the youth to come out in numbers. Despite the strong conditions, Point Yacht Club’s Jethro Brophy-Tintinger from Umbilo, who took top honours on the day, came sixth overall in the category of winds over 18knots, with Gavin Wadsworth from Durban North placed tenth. Brophy-Tintinger placed 39th overall.
Luke Wagner from Hilton got a top ten finish with his eighth place in the category of Adult Skipper and Tim Wickham helming Ithebe finished seventh in the category Buddy Sailor. Point Yacht Club scored an impressive ninth worldwide, the top finishing South African yacht club, in the category of Biggest Fleets with 123 competitors.
A total of 14,357 sailors participated this year globally, with 472 venues hosting the event. On the day 7 578 boats were on the water in 62 countries. Commodore for the Point Yacht Club and Clipper Round the World skipper, Craig Millar, said although the numbers had dropped significantly from last year’s competition, the turn out was still impressive. “The figures, although down from last year’s phenomenal feat and Guinness World Record, are still absolutely mind-boggling. A total amount of 38 266 938 meters were sailed, which is almost the equivalent of sailing around the world once. Sailing around the world took me a year, but it was achieved in a day by over 14 000 sailors.
Out of the 7 000 boats, there were a total of 624 classes competing. But, what for me is the most fascinating stat is that a total time of 486 days was sailed on the day; that is a long time to be on the water,” said Miller.
The dates for the third Bart’s Bash were launched this week with sailors around the world diarising Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 September 2016. For more info visit www.bartsbash.co.uk or www.pyc.co.za
