The Hobie Tiger National Championships

7^th – 9^th August at Mossel Bay

By Kirsten Veenstra

Mossel Bay was the venue for this year’s Hobie Tiger National Championships from 7th – 9^th August, and although it turned out that not too much sailing was done, the weekend was an eventful one, thoroughly enjoyed by all.

It all started rather stressfully for Mike Goodyear, owner of Hobie SA, and all those participants who had also taken part in the Malawi 500 and who were waiting for their Hobie Tigers to arrive in the container from Malawi. The container did not arrive in Johannesburg when it was supposed to, and after much stress from Mike’s side and many phone calls and prayers, it finally got to Gauteng late on Friday 6^th August, giving just enough time for the Vaalie competitors to unpack their Tigers, put them together and start the long drive to Mossel Bay, arriving in the morning on Saturday 7^th just in time to rig for racing.

Saturday morning was windless, and it was evident that sailing was not going to start by 10h00 and the competitors leisurely rigged their Tigers, the Vaalies drinking copious cups of coffee after their night of no sleep! Jules Kopel and Jackie Wijtenburg ran an impressively efficient registration and Rob Holden from Mossel Bay Yacht and Boat Club was monitoring the wind closely. There were only fourteen entries this year, disappointly, only nine of the many Hobie Tiger owners from Cape Town had made the short journey to Mossel Bay, and it was great to see that five Gauteng boats had made the long and stressful journey overnight. Once the Tigers were rigged, everyone settled down to lunch and chat and wait for the wind. Rob promised that it would come up in the afternoon, and true to his word, around 10 knots came up around 15h30 and the fleet went out to race.

Due to the late start, only three short races were achieved before dark, and by the end of the day Blaine Dodds and son Peter were leading, followed by Shaun Ferry and Lee Hawkins one point behind.

Mossel Bay Yacht and Boat Club put on a wonderful dinner, and when Hobie sailors are involved, this is always a very festive and family-orientated affair. It turned out to be an early night for all competitors, strange for Hobie sailors but understandable after being up for over 36 hours non-stop in the case of many of the Vaalies and also because a very early start was scheduled for Sunday.

On Sunday 8^th, the boats were out on the water by 09h30. Mossel Bay has a notorious wind that comes through called The Buster, well known by the Hobie sailors who have had some bad experiences with The Buster in the past. The wind can go from 5 knots to 45 knots in a few minutes, and wrecked Hobies have been picked up in Hartenbos and Glentana in the past, with many sailors having some very scary experiences involving multiple cartwheels out to sea and much swimming with the Mossel bay sharks!  MBYBC are extraordinarily prepared for this wind and had twelve rescue boats on standby – almost one per Tiger! The Buster was forecasted to come through on Sunday, hence the early start in the hope of getting a few races in before it did and the fleet were warned to watch the wind like hawks and get off the water as fast as they could if the wind started to clock. Two races were achieved in around 20 knots, which made for more exciting sailing than the previous day, and then Race Office Evelyn Osborne, erring on the side of caution, got the fleet off the water around 11h00 before The Buster came through, which it did.

More sailing could have been achieved much later in the afternoon around 16h00 but the sailors packed up their boats and settled down to lunch, afternoon sleeps and rums by the fire for the afternoon and so Evelyn soon realised this was not going to happen!

Parrot Products subsidised a wonderful three-course dinner for all sailors and their families at a restaurant in Mossel Bay, another wonderful evening to round off a great day of some sailing and much socialising!

Monday 9^th had been forecasted to be a great day for Tiger sailing, but disappointly, when we woke up, more than 30 knots was blowing in the bay, making it clear that we had done our racing for the weekend.

And so the Tiger sailors packed up their Hobies in a rain squall...and after much time spent by Mike Goodyear on the phone and internet tracking the container to take the Tigers to Tanzacat, this arrived as well and was packed in record time and with record efficiency.

After prizegiving, the fleet made their way back to Plett, Cape Town, Langebaan and Gauteng...

A huge thank you must go to MBYBC for being such wonderful hosts, for Hobie SA for their wonderful support of the event, as well as to sponsors Parrot and Hobie SA. Also big thanks to Mike Goodyear from Hobie for all his efforts and stress with containers, the Vaalie Tiger sailors for driving through the night to be at the event, to Rob and Elfie Holden and the team at MBYBC and to Race officer Evelyn Osborne for getting in five races in conditions that could have resulted in no racing!

Mossel bay is a great venue for a Nationals – as always though, a three-day nationals runs the risk of very few races.

Next year the Hobie Tiger Nationals will be held at Langebaan and the next Nationals in the Hobie Fleet will be the Hobie 14 and Hobie 16 Ladies’ Nationals... watch this space!