SSL Gold Cup African and Oceanian Qualifiers Day 1

The tension was palpable during the briefing as the teams from Morocco, Mozambique, the Seychelles and Tahiti prepared to launch. It was time to put all they’d learned during training into practice.

Startline drama, seaweed, and settling nerves

The Mozambique Gala-Gala team lined up too early, and were unable to lose enough speed, crossing the line an agonising two seconds early, while the Tahitian Black Pearls judged their time on distance perfectly to cross just to leeward of the trapped Mozambique team.

Both the Seychelles Vann Swet team (named after their south easterly trade wind) and Morocco’s Altas Lions found the groove early to overhaul the experienced Tahiti team, forcing them to tack away early on the upwind leg, with Mozambique also going right after their OCS. Remarkably Tahiti had to duck Mozambique, suggesting better pressure on the right, while the Seychelles covered Morocco as they tacked on to port, looking nervously over their shoulders at the two yachts on the right.

Tahiti investigated their lack of boat speed, clearing a big clump of weed on the keel, while Seychelles rounded the top mark, closely followed by Morocco. With the wind dropping, the race committee shortened the course length, also adjusting for a shift in direction.

On the downwind leg the Seychelles team kept calm and completed the manoeuvres beautifully to extend their lead to over 500 metres at the leeward gate after timing their gybe impeccably, locking into a new band of pressure. Tahiti steadily ground down Morocco, with tactician Teiki Hacheche keeping his eyes out of the boat to spot the new pressure, rounding the leeward gate in second. Morocco rounded third, and Mozambique showed they weren’t out of the fight, executing a perfect spinnaker drop at the leeward gate.

With the light winds, the upwind leg was shortened significantly, with Seychelles rounding the final windward mark 1 minute 48 seconds ahead of Tahiti, who took a deeper line downwind to close the gap with the leader. Tahiti closed the gap significantly, causing concern for the Seychelles, but in the end they held on to win by 42 seconds with Morocco third and Mozambique fourth.

Storm sends the fleet to shelter

What started as a simple postponement, waiting for the wind to settle, was soon replaced by AP over A as the storm clouds built, the rain fell and the wind was up into the high 20s. The Race Committee had been keeping a close eye on the lightning strikes nearby and knew conditions were set to get wild, so had no hesitation in correctly sending the fleet ashore.

The Seychelles team were elated with their win, as Captain Allan Julie described, “Yes, we were very pleased. We had a very good start, we went well on the first upwind leg, our spinnaker work was ok and fast - I feel very happy with my team.”

Teiki Hacheche, the charismatic tactician of the Tahiti Black Pearls explained what happened at the start and how they came back into the race: “We had a very good start, and then we figured out that we were stuck and couldn’t get our speed. We checked the sails, and finally we decided to check the keel, and we had a big patch of seaweed stuck. We had to go backwards to get rid of it, and then it was good, but it was too late. One more lap and maybe we could have won, but they did the right thing and it’s part of the game, so it was a fair and a good race for the Seychelles.”

For the Mozambique Gala-Gala team it’s a case of reset and focus on the positives, as crewmember Myriam Beck explained, “Honestly, mistakes happen, and I trust fully that we’re going to be able to recover from a start like that. We kept our mind on the race and we are going to perform to the best of our abilities every day. This is not going to happen again, tomorrow’s a new day, we’re looking forward to it, and we’re super excited to get back into it and show all Mozambiquans that they can be very proud of their team.”

Conditions for Wednesday are looking much improved where, after a wet start, the sun will break through with a 10 knot South Westerly breeze for the whole afternoon, hopefully enabling the teams to get three races in, bringing the schedule back on track. It’s early days, and all the teams have proved they can win if they put it all together.