Happy Endings… Ahoy Twilighter The magnificent Lufthansa Twilight Series touched down with a light thud [being the massive windless hole around buoy #8] last night, bringing to an end one of the most memorable twilight series’ I can recall at RCYC. We have been very lucky with the wind, and having so many yachts participating in the series adds such colour to the horizon and to a healthy midweek release of energy in our bay. As a yacht club, we have owned the bay with Lufthansa this summer! The race last night included the unfortunate rounding of #8 in all courses; and #8, as you could see, was in no wind before, during and after the race! Oops. Thanks to the bridge for your efforts throughout the season, we’ll chalk up the courses set last night to a case of Lost in Translation! as there was a clear request at about 5.15pm for all courses to stay up and down the beach. You may be interested to know that yet another of our marks was discovered to be missing yesterday…this time it was the Milnerton mark. Thanks to marina manager Neville Norton for replacing this with an inflatable mark at short notice yesterday afternoon. Despite the lottery of a wind hole, it was a nice evening out nonetheless, and there was some very nice speed down the beach with kites up…and some close sailing within the fleets. Thanks for all the positive comments we’ve received about the series, as well as the bleats about the courses last night – it keeps us all on our toes! Here’s a brief overview of the whole Lufthansa Twilight Series: The first stanza, sailed in support of Community Chest between October and December last year, sported a total of 77 yachts across 7 divisions, two of which were new divisions – being the Cool Cat Class and the Division 3 Spinnaker division. Out of 9 dates with the setting sun, only 2 were blown out. Rollover Robbie had a hand in one of the blow outs! The second stanza, sailed in support of the NSRI between January and March this year, sported a total of 71 yachts across 6 divisions, with not a cat in sight! Out of 8 dates with the setting sun, only 1 was blown out. Rollover Robbie had a hand in the only blow out! That is an incredible hit rate of 14 out of 17 races. I have no memory of anything close to this hit rate in the past 10 years. In fact in the Oct – Dec 2012 series, 5 out of 9 were blown out, and I think I can remember one series with just 3 races sailed. Ouch. A quick look at participation over the whole series shows an increase in Division 1, to the extent that it has overtaken Division 3 in terms of numbers on the water. There is plenty of scope for growth in Division 2, and a healthy balance in Division 3. In terms of results, the best performer in the series is the Div 3 Spin yacht Hors d’ Oeuvre, an L26, who scored a remarkable 7/7 wins in the first series and 6/7 wins in the second. That sends a clear marker out for competitors to challenge…maybe we can get a fleet of L26’s to challenge this yacht in the next series? The most closely competitive fleet appears to be Div 2 Spin, where any of the yachts in the fleet could win on any given evening, and in fact all yachts in this fleet did score a win in the second series. The biggest crowd pullers are the Division 1 non spinnaker fleet, with big yachts like Thunderchild, Picasso, Argonaut and Strumpet often out with big crews aboard, soaking up the atmosphere of the event. The most hardcore seem to be the Div 1 Spinnaker fleet – afraid of nothing and always looking good – nice to see this division is growing again. The largest fleet on the water is the Division 3 non spinnaker fleet – described by some as the life and soul of the club! Well done all. A big thank you to Lufthansa, for supporting our twilight sailing. While we understand and respect your German precision and service, we can also now see a softer, warmer side to your outstanding brand with each Wednesday evening’s setting sun. Willkommen beim Segeln in Kapstadt! Thank you for your warm embrace! Next week, we will have a big party with Lufthansa after the Flag Officers Team Twilight Race, and award prizes for the overall winners of the combined results of both the Community Chest and NSRI series’, something that has not been done before as far as I know – certainly not recently. Please sign up for the Flag Officers Race on the notice board, or call the sailing office with the details of your yacht and which team you would like to sail for…all yachts are welcome. The only proviso is that we want to keep the teams relatively even in terms of numbers, so please enter accordingly. Once each team has three yachts in each of the three divisions, we will open the teams up further. There will only be three divisions on the night, and all divisions may fly spinnakers if they wish [we are keeping an option open that we may have a cut off if it is too windy and declare the race non-spinnaker]. Afterwards, there will be a lekker band, and some refreshments...and of course the chance to win return Business Class tickets to Europe aboard Lufthansa. You are in the draw if you hand in your appropriately stamped Lufthansa Twilight Boarding Pass before 10 March – there is a drop off box at Reception. I was very pleased to hand mine in last night, and am holding thumbs for a lucky win! Good luck to all members who have entered the draw! Meet you at the baggage carousel…! Luke
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 14:44:26 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015