RACING SINCE DECEMBER:

The Tanga Race: As you all know, the 43rd annual Dar to Tanga race was sailed December 7th- 11, with 10 racers and 2 cruisers competing, including two boats who came down from Kenya to compete. Many thanks to Vodacom for very smart polo shirts and the great prizes, KK Security for sponsoring wonderful meals in Tanga, and TBL for a whole lot of beer, well-appreciated in Tanga.

The Friday start was an exciting one, with Don Stanley showing he has what it takes to keep bargers and boarders away as he crossed the line right on time. It was a rough beat up to Tanga with lumpy seas and relatively high winds, and one of our cruisers, visiting s/v Columbus, retired with gear failure. It was a tired and wet bunch of sailors who arrived Saturday afternoon in Tanga to be greeted by Mark Treserdern of TYC who rang us in as we arrived. We had a few unexpected guests: Oscar Charlie came in with a huge broadbill as an extra passenger, and a coal barge decided to join us at our anchorage, complicating the finish for a few later arrivals. Lynn Waltenberg and Daniel the tyc club manager did a great job organizing the Happy Hour sponsored by TBL and the great pilau dinner sponsored by KK Security.

Sunday was a much-needed layover day- many thanks to Tim Manchester for taking a group of us on a walking tour of major sites of the WW1 Battle of Tanga. Sunday evening saw presentation of the Chris Hoffman Cup to Sagittarius by the vice-commodore of the Tanga Yacht Club and George Calder of DYC. Second place for the leg up was won by Sans Pareil and third by Kusi.

We set off Monday morning at 10 am to fly south. Highlights of the race down included flying fish and a dozen dolphins that swam with us for half an hour as the sun was setting; the phosphorescence in our wake, made more visible by the lack of moon, just a million billion stars; and the all-night spinnaker run. Seven of the eight racing yachts were within a four-mile radius of each other all night on the way home, so we could pick out each other's masthead lights, at times amongst a constellation of bobbing light-fishing canoes. The eighth yacht, Sagittarius, got caught in a fishing net so had to anchor off of Mbudya and cut themselves free. Most of us crossed the finish line within a short time of each other on Tuesday, flying our spinnakers right after dawn.

Unfortunately Pandora's skipper broke his arm around 8pm Monday night so had to captain while snugged up in the cockpit till around 7am Tuesday when they got in to the club moorings. They were met by medics with painkillers and Ype was there to help bring him onto the dinghy suitably drugged and immobilized. George recovered enough to come down for the prize-giving in his new cast.

Top racing honors for the leg down, the Tigger Cup, went to Oronsay- 1st, Sunflier 2nd, and Sans Pareil 3rd. Overall winners were Sans Pareil 1st, Kusi 2nd and Oronsay 3rd in the racing division, with Oscar Charlie sweeping the cruising field on both legs. The Cruising trophy, a beautiful old sextant, was presented by Paul Smithson to Oscar Charlie. The Blakeway Cup for meritorious achievement was presented by Mark Stanley to Sven on Oscar Charlie for his remarkable ability to build relationships with the local population.

Other racing activity:

On Dec. 22 the yachting section took part in a pursuit race organized by the Cat Section- there were tons of cats, Lasers, Wayfarers and yachts, and lots of fun having that many boats on the water.

We have had a very slow racing season from Christmas up till now since some of us have been out of town, or doing things other than racing (why?!), although many of us have enjoyed overnights and day sails to Mbudya and Bongoyo for snorkeling and barbeques.

Yesterday January 26 was the first proper race since the holidays, with 4 yachts and a Wayfarer participating. First place was taken by Don Stanley on Kusi, with a series of lovely spinnaker jibes by Richard Palmer; second was Jamala, helmed by Josephine Smit, and third place went to Andrew Stanley on Sans Pareil.

WHAT'S COMING UP :

Now that the holidays are over, and the Kaskazi is settling in, it's time to start looking at the rest of the racing season. We are working on re-scheduling some of the races that were originally planned for January but had to be postponed due to lack of availability of the yachties.

Lazy Lagoon: The Lazy Lagoon race is confirmed for March 1-2. Sign up sheets and race instructions will be coming out later this week. For those of us that haven't done much offshore racing, Lazy Lagoon is an ideal race to get started with, since it's just a long day sail each way. Can we identify some experienced off-shore skippers and crew that would be willing to assist/sail with newbies who are still figuring out their newly acquired boats (such as your scribe)?

Stay tuned for notice of when we will do the Tumbatu overnight race and some of the day race cups.

A final reminder: please do check your moorings- this afternoon a boat came off its moorings and did real damage to itself and another boat.

See you on the water- Waverly