Richards Bay to Durban: Friday 10 – Sunday 12February
Two extreme sailors from Point Yacht Club head off to Richards Bay early in February to participate in the seventh Hobie Epic that sees a small fleet chasing down to Durban on their catamarans.
Struan Campbell and Murray May will be pushing the limits in the annual long distance sail on their Hobie Tiger.
“There have only been four teams entered, including us. We are the only Durban entry though and are hoping for more teams to join us. The guys around the country are keeping an eye on the weather, before the potential thrill-seekers commit.” May said after the announcement was made that the race would commence if the weather window was promising.
This hard-core downwind race, starts with the catamarans launching from the banks of the Zululand Yacht Club and hightailing it all the way along the coast down to the Point Yacht Club’s Beach site, for the small, hardy catamarans, this means 200km of open water.
For both sailors, this is not their first rodeo in the Hobie Epic. May has raced on a Hobie 16 previously. Campbell participated in last year’s epic crewing on an ultra-modern, super-fast Narca F20 Carbon belonging to Mark Nicholls from East London. They were first over the line at 17:24 in a time of 9hours 24minutes, having started at 08:00am. In his first Hobie Epic two years ago, he finished fifth overall on a Hobie 16 but in a remarkably quicker time of 6hours59minutes, “Racing in these type of events is a true test of skill, endurance and mostly guts. Being so far offshore on a small catamaran hitting high speeds, hanging just above the water is exhilarating.” Campbell shared.
The Durban duo went for a burn offshore recently, blasting their way to uMhlanga and then flying home. Continuing, Campbell said, “It was a great practice, conditions were near-perfect and hopefully quite similar to what we will be experiencing this weekend. Murray and I have been sailing a fair amount together, and we have both been working hard on our fitness so I think we are completely ready for this race.”
The next major Hobie event for the two will be the Hobie Nationals that takes place offshore of Durban this Easter, Hobie sailors from around South Africa will be sharing the race course with 505 sailors.
Epic sailors, Struan Campbell and Murray May are off to compete in the annual gruelling Hobie Epic in early February as they race from Richards Bay to Durban.
For more info please visit www.pyc.co.za.