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Point Yacht Club - MSC Week
Point Yacht Club - MSC Week
Eager sailors will be following this year's MSC Week's slogan of Live, Love, Sail to the letter as they take to the water offshore of Durban from 1 - 5 July, hosted by Point Yacht Club.
The week long regatta will have the aquatic athletes competing in a variety of competitive classes, namely the L26 Nationals, J22 and ORC Regionals and an Open Class for Keelers and Multihulls. Each day, Race Officer Dave Rushton will set a variety of courses allowing boats to either stretch their legs on a few long hauls or test their skills on a few short bursts around the cans. Rushton will fire the first signal daily at 10.55 and get racing underway at 11am.
The early bird entry list is looking impressively competitive with 24 boats registered all ready and another 20 showing keen interest. In the L26s, feisty boater Rob Wilcox is back on Philanderer, having competed successfully in the 2018 J22 Nationals. Sharing the race course with Philanderer is a number of youngsters who all had the opportunity to compete in the prestigious Lipton Challenge that took place offshore last year.
Leading the names in the big boats is local lad and offshore stalwart Nigel Milln who is attaining magnificent results on his beauty, Phezulu. Pushing him around the course racing on his new lightning quick and zippy Ngwenya is calm-and-collected Leo Kroone. MSC regular Gregg Hurter will be hunting for another great results as he returns on his trusty steed Bellatrix and round the world Clipper skipper, Craig Millar will be charging on his slippery yacht, Argo FY. Theodore Nagel will be driving Hot Ice, Nagel has sailed under Milln in big blue water events. Deon Viljoen will be hoping for a podium finish for Phatass after a phenomenal performance last year. Jennabee's Brian Dales wraps up the entries in the Open Class for Keelers and ORC Regionals.
In the multihull class, five entries have been recorded. Back on warmer waters, The Bog Monster will be making the annual trip down from Lake Deneys Yacht Club and is helmed by Marc Hammick. Two of Durban's finest multihull sailors Wayne Smith and Sean Jones will by vying to keep the title at home. Smith is skipper of Crazy Diamond and will be using this time on the water ahead of the Wind Surfing World Championship in Italy mid July. Windekind's Anthony Engelbrecht is the new kid on the block in this year's line-up. And finally, the colourful character, Bill Ellens will be puffing on his Magic Dragon.
Ahead of the action and as a warm up, sailors will have a gentle amble around the bay on Sunday 30 June in the afternoon in the Commodore's Cup Race.
For more info visit https://www.pyc.co.za or like the club's Facebook page.