Quadriplegic Crosses the Atlantic
42-year-old Geoff Holt has a high profile in England. He became a quadriplegic in Tortola (Caribbean) when he dived into shallow water in 1984. However, he managed to keep sailing in specially adapted boats and recently sailed round Britain in one-day hops in a catamaran. Of course it involved a lot of organisation and a dedicated back-up team. Geoff’s latest feat is the Atlantic crossing in a specially designed catamaran. Impossible Dream. She is 18 metres long so is a fairly big boat. On board he had a personal assistant and a cameraman. Impossible Dream is wheelchair accessible and is a complex boat. The crossing from Lanzarok, took 28 days. The two others on board took no part in handling the boat. Geoff’s destination was Tortola, the scene of his accident all those years ago. He says his reception was incredible. He was surrounded by a flotilla of yachts which sailed out to welcome him. He said it was very emotional. In these days of teenagers going for records this seems to have been a worthwhile voyage.

Safely Round the Horn
Talking of teenagers and their records, Australian schoolgirl, 16-year-old Jessica Watson successfully rounded the Horn in her 10.3 metre Sparkman and Stephens designed sloop, Ella’s Pink Lady. She seems to have been treated fairly lightly at this stage and the weather, when she rounded, was 40-knot winds with swells up to six metres. She incurred the worst storm of her voyage some days after rounding the Horn, when she had winds of 65 knots and waves of up to 10 metres. She was strapped in a seat during the eight-hour storm and left the steering to the autopilot. During this gale she experienced her first knockdown, with the masthead going into the sea. This gale occurred when she was 11,000nm from home, very nearly halfway on her 23, 000nm journey. The boat only suffered minor damage in this gale, but Jessica said she felt like she had aged 10 years! Whatever one thinks about these teenage record seekers, a nonstop 11,000mile voyage of some three months alone certainly deserves recognition. Let’s hope she doesn’t meet conditions which force her to abandon the attempt.

Vixen and Expenses
In a recent column, I mentioned the visit of Vixen, which I had last seen during her visit in 1958. After spending six weeks in Knysna, Vixen is now safely in Simon’s Town (late January). The reason for mentioning her again is that her owners, Bruce and Tiffany Halabisky, have just added up their expenses and earnings for 2009. They spent just under $9000 U.S. (R67 500) which includes about $2000 (R15 000) of boat expenses. Then they earned $9500 (R71 000), Tiffany teaching yoga and Bruce working on boats. He is a boat builder by trade.
This just goes to show that you don’t need a big expensive boat with everything that opens and shuts to do a long trip, particularly if you have some skills to sell along the way.

Names
One of the things I have a firm opinion on, is the name of the boat and its home port being painted, in an easily recognisable typeface, on the side and stern of the boat. Most South African boats comply with this as Government regulations stipulate where you must put the name and registration number. The number of round-the-worlders who don’t is remarkable. Visiting Durban in these last few months have been many large and expensive boats. A number have been totally unmarked for some reason or another. This makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to identify them at sea if they are in difficulty. It seems simple enough to place the name on your boat when you buy it, or when it is slipped for painting etc.

America’s Cup
The legal wrangles surrounding the America’s Cup at the moment make it very difficult to comment at all, and I don’t pretend to know what’s going on. I do know that the American courts ruled out Rar al Khaimah as the venue and Valencia has been nominated as the new venue for the Cup. The date of the first race was 8 February 2010, so if all went according to plan the America’s Cup will be over by the time this column appears.
The last stumbling block seems to be on Alinghi’s sails. They have been made by North Sails in America and according to BMW Oracle this is not allowed by the Cup Rules. If this was not resolved by 8 February, then the Cup would be delayed. Meanwhile, the BMW Oracle team have produced a wingmast, very big and complex, in record time, after being dismasted twice. BMW Oracle, being a trimaran, is probably much heavier than Alinghi, which is a catamaran. While no one knows at this stage which is faster, it is believed in some quarters that BMW Oracle will be fastest in straight line speed, while Alinghi will be more manoeuvrable. This means the change of venue to Valencia should favour BMW Oracle. Anyway, it is a short while before we should know the answer!

Sail Africa
Sail Africa has been going in Durban for two years now, and is really starting to make an impact. It is a community project and it is with the support of many organisations and individuals that it is making the progress it is. Sail Africa owns three or four L26s and most of their training up until recently, has been in these boats. However, they have now entered the dinghy field in a big way. Thanks to the generosity of the Hurter family, a fleet of six RS Terra single-handed dinghies has been acquired. Also they have had access to two of SAS’s 420s, which enabled them to prepare youngsters for the RSA Youth National Championships. Sail Africa provided coaching to the selected teams by hiring the expert services of Andrew Tarboton, while Warrick Despy, Ngoba Mswazi, Jessica Boyd and Nhlanhla Phakathi, with Trent and Kelton Bingham were given coaching in the weeks leading up to the event. Siye Vato also entered the Youth Nationals in the Laser Class. All acquitted themselves well and hopefully will do very well in the future. Point Yacht Club and Royal Natal Yacht Club have provided ten and three membership scholarships respectively to Sail Africa graduates. This is a good way for these graduates to become integrated into the sailing community.Having introduced many youngsters to sailing, Sail Africa found that many parents want to be involved in sailing so they can understand their kids’ new interest. Therefore Sail Africa has introduced an Adult Keelboat Programme. The first course was scheduled for early February. It will be based on a yachthand course with emphasis on safely, and will provide parents with knowledge that will make them competent to deal with and understand their children’s needs on the water. I mentioned the Round Creolia Race in a previous column. Of course that has now been sailed and Sean Jones (skipper) and Mqoba Mswazi are now back. Unfortunately, cancelled flights made them late for the start and boat breakages prevented them from finishing in the placings. None the less they did well and Mqoba featured regularly in the local press. We can only hope that Sail Africa goes from success to success and must congratulate Craig and Taryn Millar for getting Sail Africa going and keeping up the momentum.

Big Bangs
Force 6 conditions at the annual Small Ships Race off Cowes, saw three traditional craft in collision with modern yachts. The most serious was the collision between the pilot cutter Jolie Brise and the 20 metre ketch Roma II. Jolie Brise, three times winner of the Fastnet Race before World War II, was on starboard tack. The damage to Jolie Brise was extensive, with some of her bulwark being torn off. The matter is now in the hands of the insurers.