The Manex WC Dinghy Championship was held, once again, at Saldanha Bay from the 25 to 28 March 2005. It was a fantastic event where 11 action packed races were sailed. Competition was tough as everyone wanted a piece of the action. If you missed it, you missed out!
It was your typical WC Dinghy Champs with light to medium breezes, 18 Mirrors on the water and a bunch of Mirror people in the far right hand corner of the campsite chatting about "koeitjies en kalfies" after a hard days racing. The only foul weather was when it rained on Sunday evening. But that didn't stop the braai fires from getting lit and soon the rain surrendered.
The top eight showed exactly why they are in the SA Team to represent South Africa at the Worlds in August this year. It provided for much excitement on the water and the level of competition was very high.
Waldo and Scott took the honours followed by Nigel and Candice. Fuad and Francois weren't far behind, also finishing on the podium. Kuba and Daniel also did well to finish fourth and Robert and James came in at fifth, being the only one's outside the top 3 to win a race.
The first two races were sailed on the Friday with Nigel showing everyone around the course in the first race. Waldo, Kuba and Fuad were hot on his heels but the man was just too fast. Eric, Robert and Marvin gave each other a hard time followed by Henio and Gary. The first race was under the belt and everyone was jacked to go. The second race Waldo, Kuba and Fuad got their revenge and finished in that order. Fourth place went to Marvin, who sailed a good race, with Nigel coming in at fifth
Saturday was very eventful and four races were sailed with Waldo and Scott walking away with three bullets. Fuad and Francois also managed one and finished top 4 every time. Nigel and Candice also made top 4 in every race, having a ding dong battle with Fuad. Robert and James had a fantastic day and sailed very well in the lighter airs. Eric and Charl as well as Henio had gearbox problems and battled a bit in the first two races, but eventually they found second gear and did better in the last two. Marvin reminded us that he was still there. Gary had his best race of the regatta in race 3; and Lappies got his first of two single digits on his scorecard in race 4.
A very pleasant day's sailing was behind us followed by a fun prize giving by Mike Robinson. He did it ssso often and ssso well. Anyway… guess you had to be there. The crew of Shosaloza also made a presentation and told us a little bit about themselves and their activities.
Sunday races 7, 8 and 9 were sailed. Robert and James got off on a flying start and won the first race of the day. Nigel was also very eager to close the gap on Waldo and won the other two. Waldo didn't have the form he had on Saturday but he was still nipping on their heels. Kuba was trying hard to catch Fuad on points; and Lappies had a cracker of a race in race 8, finishing 6th. Eric was sailing very consistent and so was Henio.
On the last day it was all fun and games. Nigel needed to catch Waldo, Fuad needed to catch Nigel, Kuba needed to catch Fuad and Robert needed to catch Kuba. It was still close between the top 5. In the end they all sailed very consistent and the positions didn't change. It was nail biting stuff.
A very good regatta is now behind us and the quality of sailing was tremendous. Well done to TSC for organizing a good regatta. Saldanha proved once again to be a great sailing venue. See everyone next year!