Whatshot
Bart's Bash
Bart's Bash
Jethro Brophy-Tintinger stormed to victory in this year's Bart's Bash that took place ahead of the big blow on Saturday.
Sailing on his Hobie 14, this is the second time in the four year history of Bart's Bash, the Glenwood High School lad took line honours in the Durban leg of the World's Largest Sailing event hosted by Point Yacht Club. For most of the race he was hunting down the epically fast Hobie Tiger helmed by Struan Campbell and Murray May, but the lightening quick duo neglected to read the Notice of Race, and only completed half of the course, scoring a disappointing DNF.
With the lead now firmly in his grasp, the 'Jet' propelled Hobie 14 finished the two laps around the Wednesday night course in a respectable 31 minutes and 1 second, he was followed by a slew of Flying Fifteens with Patrick Harris and Jeremy Kriek taking second over the line, and third was Myles White, Rear Commodore of Dinghies for Point Yacht Club, and his crew member Estelle Buys.
First keel boat home was the magnificent Bellatrix skippered by Gregg Hurter, concluding his run around the course in 37 minutes and 11 seconds.
Another family that relished the conditions where the Fokkens from Durban North. Dad, Bart lead the way in the family competition, taking 12th place on his Paper Tiger Cat, with son, Rudi helming the L26 SLFC Spindrift to 13th place and youngest, Hannah placing 14th on her Laser Radial.
The harbour was a hive of activity with 42 boats registered for the bash in the bay. As the westerly built, the younger sailors took refuge and made an early exit, not completing the race. 15 boats escaped the winds, and sadly had a DNF next to their names for the bash board, with only 25 boats finishing in the brisk 25 + knots.
Former Olympic sailor, Alec Lanham-Love who helped organise the kite side of Bart's Bash, said, "We had planned to start mid-afternoon but made the call to start earlier as the predicted winds looked gnarly. We had awesome kiting conditions just after lunch, with the wind at 18 knots when we launched. Launching was difficult as it was high tide and not much beach to set up the kites on. But we all enjoyed ourselves, it was physically demanding but great fun."