We had our Solo champs (Mosquito class)in Cape Town, South Africa, over the weekend of 26, 27 & 28th April. 5 spinnaker boats entered, making a class of "baby F16`s". We had 18 Mosquito`s, quite a large number by our standards. As usual, Sarel van der Merwe & Kevin Webb made things difficult for the rest of us by winning most races, leaving Roley, Peter & myself to fight it out for third place in the F16 class. The format was one of a pursuit race, with the F16 class starting last, 3 min behind the standard Mosquito`s, and 8min behind the older, heavier boats. Races were quite short, some only just over 30min, making it difficult to catch the non-spinnaker boats. On the last day the PRO made Looong courses, so those who complained about short races had something else to moan about - the wind also dropped off making races last over an hour. I managed to take my spinnaker swimming in 2 races, Kevin also baptised his once. Peter had a MASSIVE pitch-pole on a reach without his kite up, and Roley sat out the heavy weather races, sensibly so in some opinions. The regatta was won by Dennis Hofmeyr, sailing an older boat with an 8min head start, he managed to sail rather well to fend off the attack of the spinnaker boats when all the points had been gathered. In the "F16 class" as we have come to be known amongst our non-spinnaker rivals, Sarel beat Kevin in a tie-break on points, I was 3rd (no idea how - I spent a lot of the regatta looking at the underside of my trampoline), Peter was 4th & Roley 5th. Momentum is gathering in this part of the world, and Hobie sailors are looking at our boat quite enviously as we go whizzing past them downwind, so watch this space for growth in the future.
