Phillipe Pringiers – Umoya
Phillipe Pringiers recently bought a Holiday 23. The boat was previously owned by Roger Burrows and was called “Jolly Roger”. Phillippe renamed it to Umoya. In the recent Spring regatta hosted by FBYC Phillipe crewed for Gordon Fitzimons on his H23, Smidgen. Gordon and Phillipe ended 7th in this tough regatta. Go to http://www.fbyc.co.za/Results/08_RTC_DivIIIos.html for the detailed results. This is what Phillipe has to say about sailing with Gordon in the Spring Regatta. Enjoy!!
Hi Coenie,
For me this was a great experience as I bought my boat only in January and still have a lot to learn. Gordon is a great teacher and the conditions for the different races were perfect. The winds were quite strong and erratic, which required the most form skipper and crew. What also came clear is that racing is totally different to normal cruising because every mistake is immediately paid in a few places behind the others ! We did do average because in every race we made at least 1 mistake. That was a bit disappointing as Gordon is a great skipper and on without the mistakes (mainly when using the f… spinaker) we would have done much better.
The whole event of the Spring regatta at FBYC is stretched over 5 days of racing (of which 1 was cancelled due to lack of wind) and that makes it a great event, because you can make up for lots places in the first few days and it also exposes you to different wind and sea conditions. On the first day, they made the course rather long and the beats against the wind were awfully long ! Luckily they corrected that on the last days, where we could put in up to 3 races per day, which made it much more exiting. On Wednesday, we had a pursuit race to halfway Cape Point, while the bigger boats went whole the way. Again another way of racing and actually very nice to do, although discussion on the different handicaps come up at such a moment.
I loved it and will try to get my own boat in next year. To anyone who hesitates, I can only say: do it because it is great fun to be out there with all the other boats, regardless of your result.
Philippe
