Cape Town pulled out all the stops to provide international and local sailors the perfect conditions for the Cape 31 V&A Invitational. Local team Nitro Racing fought hard to hold onto their win ahead of international teams, Stella and Early Bird.
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- Winners: Nitro Racing
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- Second place: Stella
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- Third place: Early Bird
Cape Town on show
February in Cape Town offers the very best of sailing. One can expect medium to light westerlies and south westerlies, and the weekend didn’t disappoint. Added to the ideal wind speeds and flat sailing waters, the backdrop of iconic Table Mountain, Lions Head and the Atlantic Seaboard offers some of the best sailing waters in the world. But that may seem a bit biased coming from a Capetonian.
Race Officer, Doug Allison set the courses off Granger Bay on day one, and on day two after two races on that side of the coast he moved the course down to Milnerton, which was a good call as a light southerly set in for the afternoon.
Day three saw the course set off the Atlantic Seaboard again. Although there were light airs to start with, after two good races the wind clocked to the SE and became too strong to reset the course for a final race. The day ended with two hard fought races, which sealed the deal for Nitro Racing. Stella and Early Bird finished off the podium, with TNT Racing the next locally-based team.
A winning formula
This is the 4th Cape 31 V&A Invitational to be held in Cape Town – the idea came about to offer northern hemisphere sailing teams an opportunity to escape their winter and join the southern hemisphere Cape 31 racing circuit while enjoying a beautiful Cape summer. Hosted and sponsored by the V&A Waterfront, the Cape 31 Invitational is also sponsored by TNT Racing. Tony Norris and Tina Plattner are both huge supporters of the local sailing scene and very competitive on the 52 Super Series circuit with their TP52, Phoenix. A race village was created on the dock at the Cape Grace bridge, which added to the Capetonian vibe that we are famous for.
The regatta seems to be coming more and more popular, with 4 teams from abroad racing this year. Two teams shipped their boats out late last year to race the full Cape Town sailing calendar, and two teams chartered local boats to compete in the Cape 31 Invitational.
The Cape 31 success story
The Cape 31 was developed and founded by Irvine Laidlaw. Designed by renowned yacht designer Mark Mills, this sports boat is fully produced in Cape Town by Cape Performance Sailing with the license held by Hylton Hale of Cape Sailboats. The Cape 31 is a true South African success story, and can now boast 82 boats competing all over the world. A healthy Cape 31 class can be found in Europe and the UK, and Cape 31’s have now also hit the shores of the US and Australia.
PICTURES: Matthew du Toit @MATTDTZA
Coipyright: Cape31 Class Association
