Ballito’s flying fifteens meet their match

Dinghies were flying through the water with two particular boats hot on each others heels at the Flying Fifteen Match Racing hosted by Point Yacht Club in the Durban harbour last weekend.

Seven flights of racing commenced with two races in each flight.

The final flight was sailed on Sunday morning as the breeze built to a decent 12 knots for the first race.

The top four teams then went into the semi-finals with the winners meeting in the final.

Patrick Harris and Jeremy Kriek met Ballito’s Thomas Funke and CJ Milln in the duel for the gold and silver, and from the get-go the two teams showed off their knowledge on the water, with a determined cat-and-mouse scenario playing out in the bay.

Harris and Kriek, who have been sailing together on Flying Fifteens for 15 years, kept their nose in-front of all their competitors in every single race as they crossed the line.

“Going up against Thomas in the final, who has so much international experience was exciting and he was completely on the ball,” said Harris, who took home gold with his team, with Funke claiming a close silver.

“The racing was tough and very close. For CJ and myself, this was the first time sailing together and the third time for CJ in a Flying 15.

We were happy with our performance, seeing that we had no practice at all,” said Funke, who is an experienced world 505 sailor.

“The light wind on Saturday made the racing even trickier and then on Sunday we had the complete opposite with lots of wind, which meant it was fast action all the time.

We were very happy to win the knockout stage and to go into the final, where the challenge from the unbeaten team of Jeremy and Patrick was always going to be tough.

They really chased us hard and kept us at bay and in so doing won the starts, which set us back. Well done to them, they are very experienced and a really good team.”

Funke said all round this match racing tournament was a great experience.

“Match racing makes sailing very exciting and gives supporters lots to cheer about, so hopefully we will see a lot more of this in the coming season.

“Thanks to Myles White and PYC for putting this great event together.”

Rear Commodore for Dinghies, Myles White invited the sailors to the first official dinghy match racing in well over a decade.

“Overall the feeling is that the event was a huge success, and more of the classes are asking when they will get a turn to run something similar. Great team effort to the sailors and the people behind the scenes. Viva match racing, viva,” said the excited White.

The next big event for the dinghies is the Bar Anniversary Mug at the end of the month, with the yachts taking part in a feisty pursuit race.