I couldn’t have wished for a better birthday yesterday, having been invited to join a media sail from the Royal Cape Yacht Club, to generate publicity for the Cape2Rio 2014 Yacht Race, which starts in Cape Town on 4 January.  The 14th 3000 mile Cape2Rio Yacht Race is the ‘PR opportunity of the Year’ for Cape Town, and links to the 2014 Soccer World Cup taking place in Brazil, each of the 36 yachts taking a soccer ball.

Despite my uncertainty as to whether my guest house duties would allow me to participate, my staff gave me off, and the day could not have been more perfect for a sail, with no wind, and the temperature around 30°C.  I had been invited by Wesgro’s Chief Marketing Officer Judy Lain, and she was waiting for me with a bunch of flowers!  I thanked her for choosing such a perfect day and date for the sail!  A number of media representatives were invited, and we gathered in the ‘galley‘ at the yacht club to hear more details about the race and its participants from the Race Marketer Toni Mainprize.  The pioneering spirit and human struggle in making a yacht crossing was saluted, and it was said that Cape Town seems to have turned its back on the sea, despite it surrounding us.  I personally had not sailed in years, having been a regular weekend sailor twenty years ago.  We were encouraged to come to the Yacht Club on a Wednesday afternoon, and volunteer to crew on the yachts going out to sea.  Teams from Angola, the UK, Australia, Italy, and Germany have entered the Race.

A number of representatives of the participating boats were  present, and the idea was that we interview them on the water, the owners of Isla having made their catamaran available for the media outing.  The response had been so great that Judy and other PR executives stayed on land, as the Hendersons, owners of Isla, were very strict about the total number of persons allowed on the yacht.

The 14,8 m catamaran Isla was built by its owner Ian Henderson, and sleeps eight.  He will be putting his business interests on hold for the next year, taking his wife Elskeand their two daughters of 4 and 7 years with them on the race, and they plan to travel along the east coast of South and North America thereafter.  Elske told me that they rarely get seasick now, regularly doing outings along the coast, and sleeping on the boat when they do trips away.  Elske said she volunteers to helm, as it makes her less likely to become sea sick.   She laughed, saying she is quick to delegate the food preparation when she feels queasy.  She has found homeopathic medication to counter the sea sickness.  We saw a neat galley, and the children’s bunk leads off it.  There is a comfortable table with seating, a desk, and technical equipment.  Impressive is the electric winching of the sails.  Elske told me that their daughters like each other, and enjoy sharing a room and bunk.  The girls wear a self-inflatable harness, and there are rules as to where they may go on the yacht.  They have a desalination machine on board to make water, and will add a gutter to catch rain water.

John Levin is a veteran of the Cape2Rio Race, and at the age of 72 years he is looking forward to his 7th crossing.  He is a mine of information, remembering every incident on his crossings and the years in which they took place.  His yacht Indaba will race with four crew, and is a 34 footer, and will be one of the smallest yachts in the race.  He told me that between 1976 – 1993 there were no races, the average time gap between races being three years, due to South Africa’s political unattractiveness.  As soon as the late Mr Mandela was released from Victor Verster, the Royal Cape Yacht Club’s Dave Abromowitz was sent to Rio de Janeiro to negotiate the reinstatement of the race.  The Race is always started in Cape Town, as they sail with the tradewinds.  It will take the fastest yachts about 14 days to sail across, but his smaller yacht will take 24 – 26 days.  There is a prize for the first yacht to cross the finish line, but more important is the main trophy, going to the yacht with an arrival time which is best relative to its handicap, measured in terms of weight, length, etc of the yacht.  His yacht is 23 years old, and ‘no longer cutting edge‘, not likely to break records, he said.    There have been few disasters in his six crossings, and they see whales each time they cross, an increasing number John said.  In the 1971 race the Pioneer yacht hit a whale, and sunk within a minute.  They spent 17 hours on a raft until they were rescued by a ship.  They see a number of containers floating on the ocean too.  They travel at about 15 – 20 knots on average, making it ‘pleasant warm weather sailing‘, according to John.   The welcome when they arrive in Rio de Janeiro is amazing, and John finds Rio even prettier than Cape Town, having a natural bay. The Late Clube de Rio de Janeiro acts as a social club, in addition to being a sailing and fishing club, and due to its excellent security, one comes to do one’s banking, have cars fixed, and the children attend ballet classes.   There are many parallels between Rio and Cape Town, and socially John said Rio seems 15 years ahead of Cape Town.  He has been mugged twice in Rio de Janeiro. The weather in Cape Town is better, being hot and dry in summer, compared to wet and humid in Rio. John has such a fantastic knowledge and memory about each of the races that I suggested that he write a book about them.

Dr Jose Caldas, who is racing for Team Angola on Mussulo, a Bavaria 54 Cruiser, has links to Brazil, Portugal, and Angola. He had a dramatic story to tell, the mast of his three year old yacht having broken on his crossing from Rio de Janeiro to Cape Town. A mast just does not break, he said, especially if it is made in Sweden, and it was found to be a manufacturing fault.  Their yacht only had fuel for 600 miles, but they were 1500 miles from Cape Town, and with his support team they were able to contact the closest ship and buy fuel from them on the ocean, to motor the rest of the distance to Cape Town!  Jose the radiologist told us that he had X-rayed the mast, and repaired the problem externally.  He has crossed the Atlantic six times, one of them a solo journey from Portugal to Brazil. This will be his first Cape2Rio.

We were motoring back into the harbour when a school of dolphins entertained us with a show, swimming alongside the yacht, so we turned around and went out to sea again.  Unfortunately my phone battery had just given up the ghost.   It was the cherry on top of a wonderful outing, and made all of us on board proud Capetonians, privileged to be living in such a beautiful city.  From the boat I could photograph Table Mountain through a frame which is part of the yacht, and it reminded me of the World Design Capital 2014 frames of Table Mountain, which have been erected in the V&A Waterfront and on Signal Hill.

The Cape2Rio Yacht Race is sponsored by Wesgro, marketing the Western Cape, and the City of Cape Town’s Tourism, Events, and Marketing Directorate (not present at the media event), which is meant to market Cape Town!  Both parties sponsor the race and its marketing, for the opportunity it gives them to put Cape Town on the world map!

Cape2Rio, Royal Cape Yacht Club, Cape Town. www.cape2rio2014.com

POSTSCRIPT 6/1:  Sadly the yachts were hit by a heavy storm yesterday, a day after leaving Cape Town, hitting the Angolan yacht Bille in particular, some crew being injured. Crew member Antonio Bartolomew died from his injuries.  They have been picked up by a SA Navy boat.  Isla has both its engines non-operative, but its generator is still working.  Some yachts have turned around, and are heading back to Cape Town, reports the Cape Argus.

POSTSCRIPT 7/1:  Times Live reports this morning that the Isla issued a Mayday on Sunday evening, but that the passengers could not be transferred onto the SA Navy ship because of the children on board, with very high seas of waves up to 5 meters high.  One can question the wisdom of having taken children on such an outing, the oceans not to be messed with.  The yacht is making its way back to Cape Town.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com  Twitter: @WhaleCottage

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