Harbour: 26 – 29 June
Kicking off the incredibly busy patch of sailing here in Durban, the third Inter-Varsity Match Racing hosted by Point Yacht Club gets underway in the harbour from 26 – 29 June.
Back to defend their title, Stellenbosch University will be keen to maintain their 100% record in this event. Lead by Iliana Boura, the unit have claimed victory in the two years since the inception of this regatta.
Flying the flag for the top local team, Nhlanhla Phakathi will be skippering the first team for Durban University of Technology. Having finished a disappointing second, Phakathi is hoping to get one up on Boura, having hit a sandbank in the final last year, when he was looking good in the lead. Phakathi and his team will be using this sprint event as a training session ahead of the esteemed Lipton Challenge taking place mid-July.
Another team that have been putting in the hours with Lipton training are the UKZN Yacht Club, helmed by Hannah Fokkens. This is her first year at Inter-Varsity event, but will settle in easily under the guidance of her older brother, Rudi.
Other teams that will be heading down to compete are Wits University, University of Cape Town, Rhodes, TUKS and Nelson Mandela University. Teams are still being finalised with all the participants hard at work with exams.
Wits University is lead by Ryan Robinson. The youngest in the Robinson family, South Africa’s famous sailing family, Ryan has salt water running in his veins. The Robinson family have done several Cape2Rio races, Vasco da Gama races and competed individually at several international sailing regattas world-wide, to mention a few. Robinson will be honing his leadership skills with some newcomers to competitive sailing.
No stranger to Inter-Varsity racing, Race Officer, Edrich de Lange plans on running a tight ship for the varisty clan, this will be his fifth event he will be officiating.
Only two boats will be used in each race, with each team going up against the other team in almost a round-robin format, with the two top placed boats going head to head in the final. The boats being used are SLFC Spindrift and PYC Challenger.
Hot on the heels of the Inter-Varsity Match Racing, the much anticipated highlight for Point Yacht Club, the MSC Week will start offshore on 2 July, followed by the most prestigious sailing event in South Africa, the Lipton Challenge Cup where 12 yacht clubs will be taking on each other for this historic cup.
For more info visit www.pyc.co.za or like the club’s Facebook page.
