Izivungu students focus this week was on the second weekend of the Spring regatta, hosted by False Bay Yacht Club. We had done well on the first weekend of racing on our L26 Donna Mia and we were looking forward to doing even better on the weekend ahead. Building up to the weekend students did a lot of preparation and training.
Tuesday 19.09.22
After the first weekend of the False Bay Spring Regatta, we were looking forward to the last 2 days of the event. Team Donna Mia was in 2nd place on points behind the leading boat skippered by Sibusiso Sizutu. He is an Izivungu Oldie, he learnt to sail at Izivungu in 2010 and has competed in many sailing events around the country. Izivungu introduced him to the sailing program with Race Ahead where he started high performance sailing with Dave and Roger Hudson. He is currently running the sail training program at Royal Cape Yacht Club. Ronaldo Muhale, Thando Mntambo and Sipelele Guyeka are other skippers sailing in the Spring Regatta who all started sailing at Izivungu. They are also sailing instructors for the Royal Cape Yacht Club. These guys are top contenders and we proud to see them progress from young boys to skippers of yachts.
Wednesday 21.09.22
The students started writing their school exams thus is why we could only accommodate a handful for the training on the L26 Donna Mia. The hard work was done last week, we now only had a few sailing systems, settings and setup of the mast to do as the forecast was going to be the same light winds as the previous weekend. Some of our students got the opportunity to sail the False Bay Wednesday night race with the Durban team on the boat called Hot Ice.
Thursday 22.09.22
Asanathi Jim called on the morning and was keen on giving the guys training on Donna Mia, this was big opportunity. We starter with some ropework with the students and then went sailing. They practiced race manoeuvres, hoisting and dropping of sails when rounding a mark and many others. We are grateful to have a guy with his experience to come and help our students for free. He also added that he impressed with the team as they had only been sailing the yacht a few times now.
Friday 23.09.22
This is the day before the event so we started unpacking sails, drying out the boat and making sure she was ready for the next day. Students that were not on the team were part of the preparation and willing to help as they know they could be part of the next racing event. Eldred did a inventory on paint work that needs touch up after the event.
Saturday 24.09.22
The day started with an early morning pick up, our plan was to have an early breakfast at Izivungu as it's a 5 minute walk from the yacht club. We try always do this as it's a good time for us to prepare the students mentally and motivate them to do better. The forecast was very light wind, so racing was postponed t0 12h30. This gave our students the opportunity to mingle with other sailors at the club. The Royal Cape skippers had to do a interview with a radio station as they will take part in the Cape to Rio yacht race at the end of this year. They came to the school to show where they started sailing, a very proud moment for us. The postponement flag was dropped and teams went racing. Donna Mia didn't get the best start of the day but managed a 4th at the finish with the leading boat from last weekend coming 7th.This put Donna Mia in first place on points.
Sunday 24.09.22
The forecast still very light wind. Team Donna Mia started the race sailing exceptionally well, taking the lead and going for it, winning the first race. The last race of the regatta started with one boat almost crashing into the committee boat, but Team Donna Mia was leading the race when on the last leg to the finish, the wind dropped and the race was abandoned. This was bad times for us as after the discarded races, we ended up 2nd, 1 point behind the 1st place boat. Skipper Marlon Jones said he enjoyed sailing with the students and keen to do the next event with the youngsters.
We plan on doing the Italian Ambassadors Cup, False Bay Wednesday evening races and many more events with Donna Mia.
Now it's back to training at the school on the bosuns and mirror boats. Our next dinghy regatta will take place at Theewaterskloof dam on the first weekend of December.