To those of you who took the trouble to go to Midmar and participate in the Midmar 9 Hour race, apart from the first lap, the breeze filled in and a great days sailing was held by all. Our thanks and appreciation to the Midmar members who spent so much time and effort getting thing right I'm sure you felt it was worth while in the end.

This Wednesday 5th March RNYC host the fun sail evening and our race officer will be Greg Challis assisting Jimmy Archak well done guys and thank you for stepping in to the breach.

This coming weekend 1st& 2nd March RNYC host another Keeler mini regatta with the amended format of 2/3 races windward leeward in the bay on Saturday and 2/3 races around the cans offshore on Sunday. The race officers will be the men from Phezulu in the form of Kevin Taylor and Colin Atkinson. Let's support them with a fine turnout. The Dinghies will also be welcome on Saturday afternoon in the bay.

The SAS KZN committee is planning to give a presentation soon on the new regulations for small craft operating out of Durban Harbour so watch out for the notices and make every effort to attend. The changes in the regulations have put a lot more responsibility on the Owner and his Designated Skipper to ensure the safety of the craft and crew and the sailing committee has prepared a crew safety declaration and indemnity form which will be available for those owners wishing to use them. They in NO WAY absolve the owner or skipper from his duties to ensure the safety of those persons who choose to sail on his or her boat, but put a little bit of discipline back into the very casual attitude we have developed with regard to basic boat and crew safety.

If you want to use these documents they can be had from the front office and you use them entirely on your own recognizances.

Summertime is for sailing
Don't waste it.
Rear Commodore

"Kim Chow" the 40ft sloop sailing single handed, east to west, by the Canadian yachtsman Glen Wakefield has made rather slow progress this week due to very light north westerly winds and on one day did only 22nm in 24 hrs. Distance to Cape Horn 3000nm. "Jacana" the 35 foot steel yacht bound for Australia which has two people on board has also been having light wind which is unusual for the roaring 40s.

It was reported on the net that Fanie Oosthuizen on Thalasse a Mauritius 37 has left Maputo after carrying out minor repairs.

Out of the 20 yachts held up in Tanga on the Tanzania coast three have left to sail east to the Seychelles. Sanyati ( RNYC) Blue Moon (RNYC) and Kayaishera (ABYC) are well on their way, Sanyati reported landing a 18kg Blue fin tuna today.

Now cyclone Ivan is lashing Northern Madagascar and at this early stage it is expected to maybe cross the channel. Norman Kloppers on Regal the Maxim 38 says he is staying put in Bazaruto and will dig himself in behind Bengura Island.

Wizard in the ARC Rally was reported by the Italian maritime mobile net on 14297.5mhz at 1800utc to be in the Pearl Island group, ship track gives their position to be on the 15.02.08 at 37 n - 01.00 w and no radio contact for 10 days.

Good Sailing & Good radio propagation.

To all those who put so much effort into Sunday and Saturday my grateful thanks a turnout of 38 boats for the Memorial pursuit was terrific and I hope a great sail was had by all. It is obvious that we need to address the question of IRC rating for boats that must be considered exceptional racing boats as they cannot be compared to those cruiser racers which make up the majority of the fleet. However having said that there were certainly races within races and one that springs to mind was the Skitso/Phezulu challenge which finished a mere 22 seconds apart after some 80 minutes of racing. To all those competitors who took part thank you, you made the day a success.

This coming Wednesday PYC hosts the fun sail and we hope the usual grand turnout will take place.

The weekend sees the running of the well known Midmar 9 hour race which is a lot of fun so if you can get a berth on a sailing boat do so and come up to Midmar and join in the fun. As so many of our sailors are participating there is no Saturday racing but on Sunday PYC are hosting the Formula A1 racing off Suncoast beach. Great prizes have been promised by the organizers of the Formula A1 so get you r boat out there and enjoy the racing.

Summertime is for sailing
Don't waste it.
Rear Commodore

Notice to members

Parking Pay & Display Meters have now been put up in front of the Club.

Memorial Race
It was great seeing so many yachts on the water this weekend. Not only did we have the Memorial Races on Sat & Sun but quite a few of our cruising yachts went out to watch. Most of Durban's sailing community joined the sailors on the lawns for prize giving where we cast our thoughts back to our sailing friends who are no longer with us. Thanks to our many sponsors we were able to give prizes to all who completed and the weather was definitely on our side allowing good sailing, lovely music & plenty refreshments. The young ones decided that the swimming pool was the place to be.

Graham Hartlett from MSG Marine donated a Standard Horizon VHF Radio which was raffled & raised R920 for Rescue.
Fast yachts made a mooring step which was won by Aquilla in the lucky draw.
Thanks to all who joined us on this beautiful February day.

Gailforce