Eleven boats took part in the Benoni Mirror Regatta with seven boats from BSC, two from the 9th Benoni Scout Group and two from ESC although the second boat was sailed by sailors from Benoni. The wind was variable from 4 to 8 knots providing close racing between two fleets. The three boats rigged with spinnakers and the two sail fleet. Although the spinnaker boats did not always have it there own way with Brendon & Daniel and Dudley & Naledi getting to the weather mark first on occasion. Some of the mark rounding’s were rather busy resulting in discussions for the beginners around the lunch table to learn the rule intricacies of overlaps and mark room.
After three races on the Saturday the first three boats were separated by two points led by Mark & Mika. On the Sunday the wind was very variable in both direction and strength and Yestin & Bryce (Eleanor crewed on Saturday) should have bought a lottery ticket as they pipped Mark on the finish line for a first by less than a foot. In what would be the last race Mark sailed to the wrong buoy as the rest of the fleet followed Dudley & Naledi to the new weather mark in front of the clubhouse. Duncan & Bernard got to the front early on in the race and held the lead to win the last race. Yestin & Bryce once again got lucky as they passed three boats on the final leg to take second.
5 races over two days
11 boats 23 competitors
8 entries from Benoni Sailing Club (BSC)
2 entries from 9th Benoni Scout Group
1 entry from Emmarentia Sailing Club (ESC)
2 youth boats (scouts)
3 family boats
0 development boats
11 youth competitors
Registration Dave Cuthbert
Race officer, Rodney Beresford with assistance from Andrew Arnold, and Lisa Hawksworth
Protest committee, Peter Clayton
Comments
After striking out three times on finding an accredited race officer from Gauteng, it was agreed between the class and the club to not host a controlled event.
There was an unfortunate overlap in the calendar with the George Lakes Eden District regatta that were planning to host several Mirrors from the Eastern and Western Cape. Although the Izhivungu Sailing School were not able to attend as they had a naval function to attend.
5-6 October was the only weekend available between the BSC club sailing calendar and North Vaal regatta calendar between October and December 2024.
NOR and SI distributed on Mirror Class WhatsApp Group (56 members) on the 18thSeptember.
Other WhatsApp groups were North Vaal Mirror Group (7), BSC Mirror Group (15) and ESC Sailing Group (41).
2 potential BSC entries missing
5 potential ESC entries missing
Unaware of any Mirrors sailing at any of the other sailing clubs in; Gauteng, Free State, North West, and Mpumalanga.
