Western Cape

Sparcraft Spring Regatta

The Sparcraft Spring Regatta took place at Zeekoeivlei Yacht Club (ZYC) over the wwekend of the 8th and 9th of September 2007.

Saturday's wind was almost gone by the time the racing was about to start soon after 14h00 in the afternoon. The race committee wanted the results from at least one race and decided to shorten course for the bigger boats. The Optimist fleet read the signal wrongly and paddled home all cheerfully screaming and chatting. Only one boat remained in the race, Alex Lehtinen didn't want to give his convincing lead away and was awarded at the end with a race win as wind came back allowing him to complete the full course. Little brother Ed had second thoughts about retiring from the race, returned to it but later retired (RAF) from it after he realised that paddling towards home before deciding to carry on with the race wasn't quite according to the rules. The rest of the fleet could only blame themselves for not being a bit more focused, all now scoring a DNC.

Sunday was much more windy, also rather cold, and the fleet was tested in different ways to Saturday. The NW breeze was never really steady and major shifts gave something to think about to the whole fleet. Michael Crosland, Josh Rubenstein, Nikolai Sivertsen, Matthew Smith, Rosie Finn, Heidi Burger and Lehtinen boys were showing the best pace from race to race and some of the races were really close until the very end.

In the last race we saw quite a few OCS's with Michael and Ed coming back, but Josh, Alex and Nikolai all scoring an OCS. Michael's last race was ruined as he took quite long to decide that he was going to turn back, while Ed came back straight away, tacked right and got a beautiful lift to bring him back to the race. Alex lead until the last rounding but was first overtaken by Matthew Smith on the last beat. At the end we saw a real video finish between 5 boats - Ed managed to squeeze a boat length ahead of a block of four, Rosie, Nikolai, Matthew and Josh, to take the last race and steal the overall second from Michael with only one point difference, also loosing to Alex by one point only!

Rosie Finn sailed well in a borrowed boat and took the fourth place to Knysna. Fifth was Matthew Smith, sixth Heidi Burger and seventh Josh Rubenstein who dropped back due to his OCS in last race, like did Nikolai Sivertsen.

Another eager sailor had to watch from a spectator boat as Alex Burger followed Rosie Finn to skipper his boat on the water while Alex is waiting to get rid of his cast which he has been forced to wear since breaking his arm a few weeks ago.

In a week's time we will see how the Western Cape Oppie team performs in the EC Championships in Sedgefield, see you all there!

Prize Winners in Optimist A fleet:
1. Alex Lehtinen 9p.
2. Ed Lehtinen 10p.
3. Michael Crosland 11p.
4. Rosie Finn
5. Matthew Smith
6. Heidi Burger