Hobie 16 Nationals 2011
Mossel Bay
23 to 26 April

The Hobie 16 National championships 2011 were held at Mossel Bay over the Easter weekend.

The event attracted 49 entries from all over the country, a testament the continued and growing strength of the Hobie class. Among the entrants were previous world’s sailors, Shaun Ferry, William Edwards, Blaine Dodds and Mike Goodyer, making for a very competitive fleet.

Saturday 23 April 2011 dawned windless and with the registration process and skippers briefing out of the way, the sailors settled for a long wait for the wind. As it turned out, the wind did not materialise at all and racing for the day was abandoned. All regatta entrants and their families were treated to a fantastic fish braai at the Mossel Bay yacht Club with the fish sponsored by Robberg Seafood.

Sunday, the 2^nd day of racing, started with a light northerly wind blowing, which luckily set in for the morning.
The bridge got the 1^st race under way just after 10am in an 8 to 10 knot breeze. The wind later swung west making for some extremely tricky sailing as the favoured side of the course was never quite clear. The bridge also had their hands full with moving marks as the wind clocked. All in all 4 races were sailed during the day. The day was won by Allen Lawrence, with Blaine Dodds and William Edwards following close behind. Later that evening, the Hobie class AGM was held and a great braai and party for everyone sponsored by Parrot Products, Stargate and Fabtec Skylights.

Monday, the 3^rd day of racing started out with a moderate 10 to 12 knt northerly wind blowing. Once again the wind clocked west during the morning, making the racing very tactical. A mixture of triangular and windward leeward courses were set, which made for screaming reaches to get the adrenaline going.
The last race of the day was started quite late at 4.30pm, and had the wind shutting down completely as the majority of the fleet approached the downwind mark on the final lap. The last half lap was completed extremely slowly with the fleet arriving back on shore just as the sun was setting.
The day was once again dominated by Allen Lawrence, Blaine Dodds and William Edwards, with the positions remaining unchanged at the top.

Tuesday, the final day of racing dawned with a front coming through delivering westerly winds of 30 Knots plus and some rain showers to boot. At around 12.00pm it was decided to can the racing for the day.

The regatta was closed off with a fantastic buffet dinner at the Admirals Buffet at the Point Casino Mossel Bay. Due to the generous sponsorships received, there were some great prizes which were won on a draw basis. The final results were 1st Allen Lawrence, 2^nd Blaine Dodds and 3^rd William Edwards.

MIP software provided a fantastic sponsorship which allowed the event to be filmed and will be shown on Supersport during May 2011.

Another encouraging feature of this event was the large number of youth entries, as well as the good placings achieved by the under 18’s. Leading the youth brigade were;
Matt Whitehead and Calene Laubser in 7^th place.

Simon Bonarius and Charlotte Hammick in 8^th Place
Ewald Erasmus and Peter Blaine Dodds in 9^th Place

Apart from this, there where an additional 9 teams with dads sailing with their children aged 10 to 12 years old.

All of these augers well for the future of Hobie sailing in South Africa.