FLAG OFFICERS RACE
Late Friday I was contacted saying that the club needed another boat for the Flag officers race. The flag officers race is a team racing event with 6 teams of 5 boats each(Total 30) the best three results in each team get totalled. The team with the lowest score wins. Good stuff, better for class racing as it would involve some strategy. We were to sail on the Rear Commodore of Sailing's team, Greg Davis. We got some of thje regulars on the boat to join us as well as two newbies. At the last minute Greg Davis also joined us. Breeze was good. We got a good start and powered to the first mark and sailed the downwind poled out jib(as we were not sure if spinnakers were allowed) The boat excelled on the beat. After roundng the leeward mark again we carried on beating only to work out later that the course was to the finish so we had to bear away onto a fetch which cost a bit. We finished just ahead of the two Farr 40's which is a rarety indeed. We came third and our team came first.The boat performed well. Aboard were: Dale, Walter, Sarel, Newcomers: Stuart Lawson and Trevor Spilhaus and Greg Davis.

DASSEN ISLAND CRUISE

This took place on the weekend of the 24/25th November. Departed CT at 09h00. The wind was blowing a strong SEaster so it was one reef in the main and a number 4 up to be on the conservative side. On the way down to Robben Island the reef was taken out. Gybe took place off Blouberg and a course was set for the Island. Spinnaker up and off we went. About 20 minutes later a gust or something hit and the spinnaker blew out. It totally shredded. So down with the remamnants(To be thrown away) and up with a number 3 poled out. Later the winds shifted to SW so it was a two sail reach. The wind became luighter for a stage and then sterentened closer to the island. Rounded the island doing a steady 9 knots. There was no problem anchoring with good holding. Unfortunately we did not have permits to go ashore but was picked up by one of the cat guys for sundowners.

Departed Dassen at 06h00 on Sunday. Main up, not much wind so had to reort to motoring the whole way back.

Boat performed well especially the self steering in all conditions. Aboard were : Dale

DOUBLE CAPE RACE
The Double Cape has definately lived up to it's reputation this year. It is renowned for being a very tough race. It is too long to be cosnidred short and too short to be considered long with the result that one cannot get into a routine abaord and therefore tend to sail it like a round the buoy race with all hands on the weather rail etc.... and no sleep.
OUR RACE:
We got an excellent start on the line, naturally the bigger boats started to power away and we suffered a bit with our smaller headsail. We tried to look for more wind offshore but with little success. The breeze strted to fill in after Camps Bay with us strting our long hard beat to the point. Actually it was a great beat. There was enough breeze to keep the boat going fast and the sea was flat so what a pleasure. We reached Capew Point just after dark and immediately popped the kite for opur sail into False Bay. The breeze quickly freshened and we started surfing our way in. We did a bad drop on the kite with the result of us having the kite in tow in the water. We quickly recovered and decided to change the jib for a more suitable one for the hard beant out of False bay. The wind was strong on the beat with a steep chop which resulted in a lot of pounding. Very wet and hard on everyone but the boat performes well in thsi condition. We reached the point wherwe the conditions had improved slightly, down the other side the breeze started to increase, we gybed for Slangkop and started to catch all the surfs, the conditions started to become very strong with us maintaining excellent averages. We arrived in the Llandadno region and prepared ofr a strong hard sqaully final drag, we got one or two sections with wind but by Vamps Bay the wind had died away. We spent the rest of the race looking for breeze with it extending our finish time by 2 hours. We came 2nd overall on Club and IRC. Th crew did a sterling job in those conditions. Aboard were: Ian, Sarel, Walter, Greg and Dale.

MOSSEL BAY TO CAPE TOWN
Crew aboard were Dale and Walter Page. HP departed Mossel Bay at 20h30 after a leisurely supper in the yacht club. Must say the club was busy and we could not even get a table in the restaurant so we ate Bar style. We motored for the first 12 or so hours and then decided to conserve Diesel. The winds were light which left us beating with a VMG of about 2.5 knots on a beat. Gradually the breeze freshened improving our angle for Agulas. As we got closer the breeze started to freshen and free of. We got there at about 20h30. Once we rounded the breeze started to pick up with us sailing along nicely getting the odd surf at about 12 knots boat speed, all this while taking it easy. There was a lot of shipping and sea life during the night wioth us having to keep a sharp vigil. We went quite far South with our final angle heanding alomst due north towards Cape Point at sunrise. The sea state had the usual waves etc... and the highest wind speed was about 25 knots.. but nothing overly huge as one normally gets. We were able to sail down to slangkop where the wind died and forcing us to go back to motor. We motored the balance of the trip. The boat performed brialliantly without any problems being experienced. We were able to give the new autopilot a good test which we now give it the thumbs up. The sail was an absolute pelasure with us docking at RCYC at about 2pm Saturday.

MOSSEL BAY RACE
We started the race at 4pm on the 5th September from Cape Town. We started in light fickle conditions, we hit the line bang on initially sailing with our code Zero, the fleet searched for the puffs, the wind eventually swung seing us shift to the code 1 and beating our way to the point. Ath the point we were able to crack off and fetch across False Bay. The wnd started to strenthen and slowly free off which got us skipping of to Danger Point. Soon afterthis it went right aft with us putting up our 1.5oz kite. The seas grew. Our top speed was just under 17 knots. We made very good time and our ETA's kept being brought forward. At Agulhas we gybed and sailed down the coast line on a reach. We wind started to ease, it then sifted to onshore, with us changing to a Code Zero. The winds lightened. During the night it shifted to a land breeze which we sailed with our Code 1 and then again the Code Zero. At day break we had a few boats in striking distance. We were offshore with the majority of them closely inshore. The breeze was stronger inshore so we cut our losses and sailed till we were just below the cliffs. We rounded St Blaize with the Code Zero which we later peeled to the 0.5oz kite which we carried till we were over the finish line. Aboard were: Dale Kushner, Ian Coward, Walter Page, Greg Harrowsmith. The boat performed brilliantly, no damages etc... It was a great sail with great people. We came 3rd overall on IRC which is excellent for this event.

WINTER SERIES "B" Race 1.
Winds were a nice reasonably steady SE with flat water which is always a pleasure to sail in. Got a good start. We sailed a good race. On the second downwind we were changing our foresail when we got a wind switch and wern't ready with the foresail. This cost us about 2.5 min. On the final leg the breeze started coming to increase from behind which benifitted some of those behind us. It was a good day on the water, the course was good. Aboard were: Ian, Walter Riaan and Girlfriend, Siger, Sarel and Dale.

WINTER SERIES-Final Race.
Typical winter front over Cape Town, rain, cold tempratures, big lumpy seas and lots of wind. Racing was on. I think it was a good call as far too often racing gets cancelled because of the conditions so I must appluad the race officer. It was a short course but still worth a good sail. Because there was a small entry we decided to take it conservatively and put reef in the main and used the NO:3. Our start was fairly good with us hanging in there with the bigger boats on the beat. We rounded the weather mark settled down, put in a well exeuted gybe. We then decided not to bother with the kite and we basically felt we had our class result wrapped up as the rest of the boats were struggling. We got to surf once or twice on the downwind. We came 1st on corected time in our class. Aboard were: Ian, Siger, Walter, Sarel, Greg H, Sidney Bilski, Michael Muller and Dale

RACE 3:
Race 3 took place on Saturday, 21st July. On board were: Siger, Walter, Riaan and Dale. The winds were light and fickle with lots of holes.Definately not the sort of weather for HP. At one point we were sailing with the tail enders. Fortunately towards the end of the race, with an understanding of the "local conditions" we bit the bullet in the faith that we would get better breeze(While initially sacrificing angle). We read it correcttly and managed to finish third over the line. We came 8th on handicap.
It is interesting to note that on this day there were no rumbles about our handicap. Hmmmm, makes you think..........

CLUB RACING RACE:2
This race took place on SAturday the 14th July. Unfortunately we were "light" on crew making up a crew of only Siger, Walter and Dale. Nevertheless we entered and did our best using the spinnaker, gybing and doing what others were doing, albeit a little slower and avoiding unneccessary manouvers. We ended with a 6th in our class which is not to bad. We are now standing at 2nd overall in our class.

CLUB RACING
Winter series:
FIrst racing of the winter series. A good course was laid. We sailed a good race making only one or two minor errors. We came 4th. Crew abaord were: Sarel, Siger, Riaan, Riaan's girlfiend who's name elludes me, Ian and Dale. The boat performed well. The engine repair seems to have been done very well.

DOUBLE HANDED RACE
2 June 2007
The start took place at 12hoo. Aboard were Ian Coward and Dale Kushner. There was light winds etc... We rounded the sweather mark in second(which is good for the boat in light conditions) We hoisted the Code Zero and sailed on into a dying breeze. There was confusion on the part of the bridge in terms of shortening the course. Ian lodged a protest after the race. The race was therefore abandoned. There was a good turnout for this event which goes to show that Short Handed Sailing is on the up.

WED NIGHT RACING:
16 May 2007
Nice sailing conditions, flat water, a bit of a chill in the air. The conditions would have been brilliant for bouy racing. In essense we sailed a bit of a soldiers course. Nothing terribly exciting. We can 3rd on corrected time which was probably not to bad for the course. Aboard were: Ian, Walter, Sarel, Siger and Dale. The boat perforned well, no problems.

NEXT EVENTS:
It has been decided not to sail Table Bay Classic. The first race starts on a Friday 3pm and frankly to ask everyone to take that time off work en mass would not be fair. To enter the rest with the discard used would also be a waste of good energy.

The following events we are keen on HP doing:

• The Winter Wed nite series, subject to fair weather etc...
• The Portugal day race
• Teh Robben island pursuit race
• Club Bay racing.
• Mossel Bay Race(Sept)
• Double Cape Race.

It is not our intention to do much round the bouys racing. The boat was set up and intended for Offshore sailing. We want to stick to that plan as much as possible.

NEXT EVENTS:
It has been decided not to sail Table Bay Classic. The first race starts on a Friday 3pm and frankly to ask everyone to take that time off work en mass would not be fair. To enter the rest with the discard used would also be a waste of good energy.

The following events we are keen on HP doing:

• The Winter Wed nite series, subject to fair weather etc...
• The Portugal day race
• Teh Robben island pursuit race
• Club Bay racing.
• Mossel Bay Race(Sept)
• Double Cape Race.

It is not our intention to do much round the bouys racing. The boat was set up and intended for Offshore sailing. We want to stick to that plan as much as possible.

WED NITE RACING:
9 May 2007
Winter racing is still happening with the start being at 5pm, all classes, one start and the cut off for racing is 6:30pm.
We got sorted out late, with us getting the jib up just beofre the start, hence we were not in the best position on the line, however we recivered quickly, largely though to the fact that most of the fleet did not get onto a full beat quick enough. We managed to round the first bouy first and never had to look back. On the downwind the 7.5 caught up as they were using their kite(only boat sailing kite class) but they never passed us. On the beat we pulled away from the rest of the fleet, when we tacked for the mark we had a cluster on the foredeck resulting in us sailing for about 2 minutes with the main only and us tacking back to solve the problem. We still managed a first over the line and a first on PHRF and IRC.

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Admiral Cup

CENTRAL BOATING
Central Boating has come aboard as one of HocusPocus's main sponsors.

Central Boating is one of South Africa's main yacht chandelery businesses. They specialize it a total one stop shop envirioment. They can supply almost anything for your yacht or motor boat and if they don't have it they will get it for you. In addition they are also the Musto agents as well as other reputable brands such as Lewmar, tactic, Ronstan etc... I am sure that wevery yachtie in the country has bought a part directly otr indirectly from them.

Their web address is: www.centralboating.co.za

ADMIRALS CUP

With Central Boating as our principal sponsor

This event was held over Friday(27th) to Sunday (29th) We delivered the boat the previous Saturday to Hout Bay. There was no wind so we motored the whole way. The trip was unaventful. We completed it in 2.5 hours.

Friday:. We left on time for the sailing grounds. The wind was fickle with the ocational gust and lots of switches with big lumpy seas. It was diceded to postpone racing for the day.

Saturday: The courses were brought inshore with a much shorter course which favoured the smaller boats. The winds gave for nice sailing with the occational lull which for HocusPocus's sail inventory is not good. The crew performed well.

Sunday: The racing was in higer winds, most boats reefing down with small jibs. We ran with a NO:3 and full main. We were one of the few boats who were able to manage our kite downwind without blowing it or broaching or dropping it in the sqaulls. We maintained full control on all the downwind legs. There were twon short racing and then they called it for the day as they felty the winds were to strong.

All in all it was a good regatta. We sailed well and came 4th overall. The crew were: Dale, Ian(Fri/Sun), Mark Devitt, Terone, Duncan MAtthews(Fri/Sun) Trish Donnahue(Sat), Sarel (Sat), Greg Harrowsmith, Riaan Brits, Dennis Cochrane, Walter Page.

SOUTH STAR
The South Star Race has been announced with it being raced in the Single Handed and Double Handed classes. It races from Hout Bay to Saint Helena Island in the South Atlantic which is approx 1700NM. A release on HP's intention will follow shortly. More on www.thesouthstar.co.za

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Please see enclosed some pics of a previous HP adventure as well as a pic of our arch rival team.

WED NITE AUTUMN SERIES:
The e mails went out. At the end only Ian and Dale could make it, so they sailed two up.(Something that they are specialized at). The mooring lines were thrown off 25 minutes to the start, with the boat being rigged while going through the harbour. They were a bit light as we had no one on the rail. A good start was had with HP being first at the 1st mark. On the way down to Milnerton the Melges passes with their kite up. HP maintained her position for the rest of the race winning overall on corrected time. The Autumn format is good. Alothough it means getting down early , we still got a good turnout. I think it is a wonderful initiative in sailing. HP performed well with everything working well.

IRC Remeasuring:
On Wed 4th April we did some IRC remeasuring. This was an opportunity to have the boat reweighed as we have been shifting weight and have changed a few things, we also used this opportunity to "tweak" our sail inventory. The boat's bottom was still in god shape, anodes all good etc... In all likelyhood we will enter Admirals and the Table Bay Regatta in May under IRC etc... Harry Brehm was the measurer. He was very efficinet in the processes. We will shortly be getting our new rating certificate from Sandy in Durban.
The coupling on the propellor shaft has now been repaired albeit it a lot of $$$$ and it now seems fine. The boat is now ship shape again.

WORK IN PROGRESS:
During the delivery the crew experience strange noises from the shaft. On return we handed this problem over to the experts. To date they have diagnosed that coupling was most probable of this noise. They are engineering it at time of this posting. Once fitted we will be able to be sure. While the boat has been out of commission we have taken the time to reduce some weight in strategic areas, namely below the cockpit floor there has been a well(as like all other Farr 38's) The well servied as storage foer the liferaft. No one uses if for that as sometimes it has water in it which long term is detremental for a liferaft. Most people just use it for fender storage etc.... It serves as no structural importance. In this well our boat has had a 200 litre stainless steel fuel tank. Really nice for the long hauls but striclty speaking in the wrong part of the boat. We have therefore fitted a modern small tank in the same position as all other Farr 38's and have removed the reather heavy tank. While we were at it, it was decided to remove the well as well. We then scratched around and removed or changed a couple of other little things as well as to fully service the steering system. Once the boat ias operational again we will have to have the boat rewieghed and checked by the IRC measurer and well while he is at it, we might as well optimise our rating with one or two more measurements.

MYKONOS RACE

Race 1: Cape Town to Mykonos.

Wwe started in fickle southerlies. We got away to a good start and promptly powered away. Round the first buoy and the kite went up. We then worked down to Robben Island with the smaller boats holding on. The winds then swung to a SW. We peeled to Code Zero and carried to Dassen Island, After Dassen the winds went forward and died so we sailed at about 3 knots, we went outside Jutten to pck up some currents. As we got closer to Mykonos the winds picked up nicely and we were sailng in on a full beat nicely powered up. Unfortunately with the finish line a few hundred metres away and in sight midnight had come. Midnight being the cut off time. We calcualted that we would have finished within another 8 minutes. But that is how racing is. We missed the cutoff. Lots of sailors are outspoken about this however, it was in the rules and therefore it is fair as that is what we aggreed to sail to.

Race 2: Pursuit race in Saldhana Bay.

This race was held in lightish conditions, in our opinion we sailed a flawless race, getting every shift right. Crew work was supurb. The only mistake was a short a sheet on the "codey" which hampered the last gybe. We came second, just behind "No Promises".

Delivery back:

Ian Coward, Sarel van der Merwe, Siger Smink and Asaaf Yechiel delivered the boat back. They left at around 7:30pm. According to them they motored most of the way back as there was very little wind and lots of fog. Just after Robben Island they picked up strange noises from the "iron sails" so they sailed the rest of the way and only used the engine to get into moorings. They arrived at 4am. We have had the engine checked and it would seem to be the coupling on the shaft that was making that noise. It is currently in repair.

LADIES RACE:

For this race Judy Proveyeur was the skipper, she brought her team of female sailors with. Ian Coward stayed aboard as the rules alow a owner or representative. He reports that the "girls" sailed very well and got nicely away from the fleet. They cam ... overall.

WED Nite, RACE 3 and 4.
For these two races there was good winds with a fair course. Ian Coward was the helmsman as Dale could not be there. The results were a 1st and a second which means that Ian is a mighty fine helmsman. Overall after discards we are 1 or two point behind first place.

Wednesday Night:
3rd Race:
The start was in a no wind zone with a few light puffs, fortunately we hit the line with speed in the right place, unfortunately after about 30 seconds the bridge decided we were over the line(questionable) nevertheless we went back, which is very difficult in a no wind zone. By the time we restarted we were way back. The rest of the sail was great except that there were no beats etc.. in the race, just two beam reaches. It was a great evenings sailing though with a nice turn our of boats. We came .... on corrected time.

Single Handed Race;
Dale sailied the boat with Ian as the observer(as club rules dictate) We were first out the blocks and first around the first mark, since we did not have self steering and due to the breeze it was decided not to put a kite up. The bennetau 7.5 passed on the downwind. On the beat, African Renneisance and ourselves beat on port parrelel to Table View(going for Landfall). The 7.5 and No Promises tacked onto starboard. When we crossed tacks with them while almost at the weather mark they had taken some good distance out of us. We managed to pass them and the 7.5 just a few boat lenths from the mark. On the down wind we managed to hold onto our lead with AR just a few seconds behind(about 9) and the 7.5 hot on our heels. The 7.5 was very well sailed and won convncingly. We got a third on corrected time.

Wednesday night race:
2nd Race:
t was a strong SW breeze. We were first out the blocks, first around the first mark, the Catamaran passed us on the downwind but we managed to pass them and grow our distance on the upwind, giving us line honours and 1st on handicap. Boat performed well.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT RACING:
1st Race:
The first wed night of the season we got an excellent start which put us immediately in the lead. We slowly grew this lead. After rounding the last mark, the wind died and swng allowing those behind to catch and some to pass us. We got a 6th on corrected time in this race. The boat performed well.

TABLE BAY PICS:
See article on the 20th December 2006