Rudy sails to fifth in Jonsson Cup

A ZIG-ZAG course in the bay had a fleet of 53 dinghies travelling to all corners of the harbour on Saturday with Jon Marshall from Westville claiming the honours in Point Yacht Club’s (PYC) Jonsson Cup Pursuit Race. While Durban North’s Rudy McNeill sailed to fifth place.

Marshall, the Rear Commodore for Keelers at PYC traded in his larger, more familiar chariot for a much smaller Laser. The race that got underway just beyond the Durban Marina saw the large mixed fleet head off in light conditions towards the harbour mouth.

“It was a bit of an obstacle course dodging the busy afternoon shipping movements. On our first beat up we encountered our first challenge, a massive container ship arriving with a bevy of tugs around her. We had a few more large vessels we had to quickly get out the way of.” Marshall said when back on land.

“It was a fantastic race, long and hard work but great to be out there with all the guys. I am delighted with the win and just managed to take Gregg (Dobson) as we made our way down to the finish.” an elated Marshall said.

Marshall was in one of the larger fleets with 11 full rig Lasers on the water and a couple of smaller Lasers getting in some water time as well.

The Flying Fifteens were the next best represented class with eight crafts taking up the challenge. There were a few larger ‘dinghies’ as well with a few youngsters getting in some training on the L26 Container World and two other keel boats participating.

Results

1 Jon Marshal (Laser), 2 Paul Changion / Tim Duguid (FF15), 3 Gregg Dobson (Laser), 4 Martin Zimmerman / Carl Zimmerman (FF15), 5 Rudy McNeill (Laser), 6 Andrew Walford (Laser), 7 Campbell Alexander / Chris Clark (FF15), 8 Anthony MacMillan (Laser), 9 Patrick Harris / Jeremy Kriek (FF15), 10 Gregg Hurter / Nic Albert (FF15)