www.Sail-Search.com: The Algoa Bay Yacht Club in Port Elizabeth, South Africa has once again found it's sailing roots and hosted a successful four days of yacht racing in Algoa Bay from the 1st to the 4th of May 2008. After two years of dwindling competitors, with 27 yachts on the water in 2006 and 22 yachts in 2007, the Giza group of Companies stepped up as a late sponsor and injected much needed financial comfort into a regatta that was in serious danger of being renamed the ABYC Weak.

And the numbers show the difference that can be done by a committed sponsor and enthusiastic organising committee. In total there were 41 boats and 221 sailors on the water. The Pacer 27 class committed seven of their yachts to attending the Giza Challenge and held their East Cape Provincials, sponsored by Harveys Composites as part of the Giza Challenge Regatta as well, duking it out with the rest of the ABYC Class 1 fleet with a local PHRF handicap of 1.028.

Warrior (Simonis 60) Laps Knysna Challenger (L26)

The fleet were divided into three Classes; One, Two and Three. Seven Pacer 27 yachts sailed in Class One and contested their East Cape Provincials. Five IRC certified yachts sailed for IRC Honours in Class One. The Notice of Race also allowed for classes of four or more yachts to sail for class honours. In Class Three the Sadler 32 and Spirit 28's qualified for separate class status with four Sadlers and five Spirits taking part.

The Pacer 27's caused quite a stir and visual impact as they bobbed in the moorings closest to the club, with old cruising salts shaking their heads and looked for a stove, en-suite heads, teak finish and cruising comforts and came up empty handed, whilst young dinghy sailors looked upon the Pacer with naked lust in their eyes pleading with Dad to stump up the cash for one. Local Algoa Bay Yacht Club junior sailors, Philip Straton, Scott Stephens, Michael Collier, Thomas Ochabski and Luke Mann were the lucky sailors chosen to sail with Chris Frost from Durban on the Pacer factory boat, Pacer 3, managing a second as their highest race placing in the series and fifth overall in the Pacer Class.

Racing was scheduled to start midway through Thursday morning at 10:00 a.m. and all the yachts left the harbour just after 9:00 for the race area. A serious lack of wind resulted in the entire fleet bobbing whilst we waited for the North Easterly to settle, a wind shift to the South at 12:30 p.m. and Race Officer Brian Reynolds sent Ronnie Baer and his mark laying team haring across Algoa Bay to lay the top and bottom marks for the first race of the Giza Challenge 2008. The slightly port biased line was set, the Class One preparatory and Course One flags hoisted and the fleet set off in a 6 to 8 knot East for the top mark. Class One had to do four laps of the Windward Leeward Course, Class Two three laps and Class Three two laps. The long beats and runs were ideal for Phil Gutsche's 60 foot Simonis, Warrior as the tall 'block of flats' made it's purposeful way through the fleet and lapped every other Class One competitor to complete the course in an elapsed time of 1 hour 30 minutes and thirty six seconds. The last Class One yacht to complete the course took two hours thirty five minutes and forty two seconds.

Close racing was the order of the day as the J27's; Just in Time (Andrew WARD / Justin ONVLEE) and Jouster (Richard Rath) were out to accept the challenge to see just which yacht out of the J27 and Pacer 27 class is 'top dog', thrown down by Andrew Heathcote on Pacer 1. In Class Three, the Sadler 32's made a magnificent sight as they battled in close competition on the runs.

The wind was predicted to be light and fluky on Friday and not many sailors expected to have to sail at all and were seen to be tucking into the Old Brown and pasta, compliments of Giza with great gusto followed by large amounts of liquid refreshments disappearing rapidly down thirsty throats. Friday morning started with not even a cats paw on the surface of the bay and dire predictions of waiting around in vain for the wind to come up. Then the North East came up and seemed to be settling in. Normally the North East blows for around ninety minutes and then does a rapid swing to the West to blow really hard or back to the South for a strong steady blow. Brian Reynolds made the decision to start Race number two at 12:55 p.m. with the wind in the North East betting against the wind swinging significantly and was proven to have the right stuff as we set off on another windward leeward course with no significant wind shifts.

Warrior seemed a bit off the pace as elapsed time difference between her and the last yacht over the line was reduced to thirty five minutes on a much shorter course.

In Class Two Jessica Lenz on After Dark continued with her second first of the series completing the course in one hour twenty six minutes and twenty one seconds, followed four minutes and sixteen seconds later by Rob Smith on his 30 foot Muira, Tikalox II.

With time in hand Brian Reynolds, elected to start one more race and the third of the series at 3:57 p.m. Friday evening's results took longer than normal to be processed as the protest committee dealt with five protests from the day's racing.

Cooking (Ladd 27). Spot the Sail Search webmaster

Saturday's racing only got underway at 1:06 p.m. after the fleet motor sailed out into the bay at 11:30 a.m. With the fleet sailing for Race number four to constitute the regatta Brian Reynolds elected to sail a windward leeward course in the light easterly wind.

Simon Baer on his newly acquired Benetau First Eight, La Chevalier, had his best result of the Giza Challenge and he sailed to third place in the flat sea and 8 knots of wind. We have seen in the past that La Chevalier is almost impossible to beat in such conditions.

An early start on Sunday in a rising west which was predicted to go to 28 knots in the afternoon presented competitors with different conditions to the previous three days and the first of the triangular courses was laid with the windward mark close inshore between Happy Valley and Kings Beach, the tight reach mark off of Shark Rock Pier and the bottom mark well off to the east.

Most of the yachts in Class One opted for smaller jibs and no reef in the main and we set off in 14 knot rising westerly. The first reach was very tight with even the asymmetric Pacers struggling to hold their course. At the reach mark, Chris Frost and his young crew took the prize for the most successive broaches in the least time. Teak reef talk after racing put it at six broaches in a row. On the last of the triangle reaches Graham Wentworth on another Pacer, Unmatched, had a lesson in broaching as well, and then proceeded to entertain the passing sailors with many hand signals and a final clout to the tiller extension as his struggling crew forced his Pacer in circles over a submerged spinnaker. Not too many comments were passed, though, as most crews realised that they were also sailing on the edge and liable to the same form of treatment from a fast freshening westerly.

Harry Brehm, on Pacer Two, fresh from the experience of a dismasting and taming of the 28 knot Cape winds, revelled in the harder conditions and sailed to his first win on elapsed time in the Class One fleet, breaking Andrew Ward on Just In Time's row of bullets by finishing nine minutes ahead on elapsed time and seven minutes ahead over the line. Prize of the race had to go to Cooking who broached right after finishing.

The westerly increased to over 25 knots and Brian Reynolds kept the fleet out eventually choosing the sausage windward leeward course for the last race of the Giza Challenge and sent the first of the fleet off at 12:51 p.m. More fun and games with 20 of the 41 competitors deciding that discretion was the better part of valour and opting for a Did Not Compete (DNC) result rather than breaking more equipment.

Reported Breakages were; Cooking (Gavin Stephens) a main sheet block that went flying on the third lap, torn Number Two jib and lost batten, Warrior (Phil Gutsche) - a broken Spinnaker Pole, Chinook (Bill Lee) - a broken Spinnaker Pole. Chinook Bowman, Bevan Galloway said; "I was getting ready to get the spinnaker down and gather through the fore hatch when I heard an 'explosion' and, looking up saw the jagged end of the spinnaker pole pointing down at my head."

Race number Six proved to be the quickest race of the series with Phil Gutsche from Warrior remarking, "We were covering the downwind runs in around six minutes which certainly didn't give the six crewman in charge of bagging and wooling our spinnaker time to complete the job."

Warrior

Weary crews made their way back to the Algoa Bay Yacht Club for prizegiving. At the prizegiving the Supersport Crew, who had been filming the entire regatta warmed the sailors up with a short first edit DVD of the last four days sailing, the normal thank yous were given to the race committee, Mark layers, organising committee and generous sponsors, Giza and the serious prizes handed out.

GIZA Challenge 2008 Final Results:

Class One:
1st - Just In Time (Andrew WARD / Justin ONVLEE, J27)
2nd - Jouster (Richard RATH, J27)
3rd - Chinook (Bill LEE, Farr 38)

Class Two:
1st - After Dark (Jessica LENZ, J22)
2nd - Tikalox II (Rob SMITH, Muira)
3rd - Adamo (Steve ARNOLD, Van Der Stadt 34)

Class Three:
1st - Sea Mole (Anton HAUTMANN, Sadler 32)
2nd - Skybird (Josef SCHABLE, Cape 28)
3rd - Lady (Eugene LOMBARD, Harry LAMPRECHT, Astove 30)

Harvey Composites Pacer 27 East Cape Provincials:
1st - Pacer Two (Harry BREHM)
2nd - Pacer One (Andrew HEATHCOTE)
3rd - Wild Thing (Russel MORGAN)

GIZA Challenge IRC Results: (Five yachts in total):
1st - Just In Time (Andrew WARD / Justin ONVLEE, J27)
2nd - Chinook (Bill LEE, Farr 38)
3rd - Pacer Two (Harry BREHM, Pacer 27)
4th - Warrior (Phil GUTSCHE, Simonis 60)
5th - Felix the Cat (Andrew WENTWORTH, Pacer 27)

Sadler Class:
1st - Sea Mole (Anton HAUTMANN)
2nd - Talisker (Iain BANCROFT)
3rd - Bee Haven (Kevin EVANS)

Spirit Class:
1st - Whisper (Tim LIPPSTREU)
2nd - Free Spirit (Mike ROBINSON)
3rd - High Spirit (Greg OCHABSKI)

Danny Tenner, CEO of the Giza group of companies showed what a committed sponsor can do to help raise the profile of sailing as well as gaining good exposure for his own business, promised to be back bigger and better next year with a target of 80 yachts on the start line.

The GIZA Challenge attracted some big names in sailing which included America's Cup Shosholoza team member David Rae, sailing on Warrior and Gary Sindler whose crewed with Mark Sadler in the J22 that won the 2008 J22 World Championships in Durban this year. Sailing with Simon Baer on La Chevalier was the Commodore of the Hoo Ness Yacht Club in England, Richard Cassem, who remarked; "I have sailed in many prestigious regattas, and the Giza Challenge and ABYC beat them all hands down for the friendliness of the sailors and sailing conditions." Also sailing on La Chevalier was the South African Sailing (SAS) president, Rob Mc Crystal who had a great time adding to the meat on the rail.

Dave Claxton, the builder of the Pacer 27 Yacht, said the following about Port Elizabeth and ABYC; "Their sailing waters have to be the best of all coastal venues, bar NONE."