WILDERNESS NEWS - George Lakes Yacht Club (GLYC) has been busy as it hosted the Finn National Championships over the three-day long weekend, followed by the GLYC junior regatta last weekend.
The Finn National Championships attracted a big fleet of 24 boats, with entrants coming from Gauteng, Cape Town, Gqeberha as well as Knysna and George.
David Shilton from Knysna started to dominate the leaderboard by winning all of these. Georgou Divaris was first over the finish line in race three, but had been called over early at the start.
On Sunday morning rain and no wind prevented any sailing, even by lunchtime when some wind was expected.
These races were also won by David Shilton.
On Monday, a brisk south-easter prevailed as forecasted.
The fleet of Optimists starting a race on Sunday, with, from left Tyin Williams, Ayden Gething, Luca Lutolf and Jean Paul Buys (right).
In the relatively lighter wind of race eight, the winner was Georgou Divaris, thus blotting the copybook of Shilton, preventing him from achieving a clean sheet of first places.
Shilton made no mistakes in the final two races, finishing both well ahead of the rest of the fleet.
With Shilton the obvious winner, there was close competition for the minor placings but it was the better consistency of Morgan Evans (Cape Town) who earned him the silver medal ahead of Divaris (Sedgefield) in third place.
At last weekend's junior regatta the older competitors sailed in a mixed fleet of Dabchick, Laser and Gypsy, while the younger ones sailed in Optimists. Kyle Koeries, on a Laser Radial, was the winner of the first two races, ahead of Ashley Layland on a Laser 4.7. Ashley then went on to win races three and four ahead of Koeries and Markos Divaris.
In the light conditions the Dabchicks did not feature. In the Optimists, there was close competition between Knysna's Ayden Gething and Luca Lutolf. Luca won the first two races ahead of Ayden, but in the next two races, Gething was the winner with Luca second in race three and Tyrin Williams second in race four.
This regatta was proudly sponsored by Lew Geffen Sotheby's International Realty and Raubenheimers Attorneys.
Ayden Gething was in full control in the strong wind.
On Sunday three races were completed in increasing wind. This was more to the advantage of the Dabchicks and Luke de Villiers was the winner of all three of these races with Divaris in second place in races five and six.
In the Optimists Luca Lutolf won the first race, but then the stronger wind was to the advantage of Jean Paul Buys, who won the next two races, ahead of Gething.
Ashley Layland was the overall winner of the junior regatta, one point ahead of Luke de Villiers, with Markos Divaris in third place. Ayden Gething was the winner in the Optimist fleet, ahead of Luca Lutolf and Jean Paul Buys.
For more information about George Lakes Yacht Club, see its website, or like its Facebook page, GLYC.
The Finn fleet, all in all 24 boats, spread out down the run for the start of the Finn National Championships. Photos: Jeremy Dee and Malcolm Osborne 'We bring you the latest Wilderness, Garden Route news'
