By Matthew Mentz
Asenathi and Marlin achieve a Hatrick victory in 2009 Open 420 Nationals held in Pea soup. Picture by Julie Kilpin
A crazy start
For the Nationals we bought new sails kindly sponsored by Royal Cape Yacht Club (RCYC) this allowed us to be on par with our competitors. We trained for a week prior the event. For the first race, we were the first boats at the start line on a rainy windy Cape Storm. Much to my dismay, the start gun for the first race went, but our teams just ignored it and didn’t sail the race citing they hadn’t seen/heard the signals. I watched as our competitors, late for the start, sailed across the line 3 minutes late and ended up winning the race. This was a critical error by Izivunguvungu which would later prove to cost Ashwin and Jerome qualification for the Youth Worlds in Brazil. This bizarre start to the event put us on the back foot and generated a stressful internal dynamic which could only partly relieved by winning. Asenathi and Marlin held together well as the event progressed but Ashwin and Jerome were making many obvious and sustained strategic errors, their results not doing justice to their skill. A further contribution to the disharmony of the team was a request by Jimmy Baigry for Asenathi to retire from a early race for allegedly touching the start mark. Asenathi however did not bow under the persuasive pressure and stuck to his story that the pinmark was bouncing back from another boat that had dragged it and that he only touched the ground tackle not the buoy.
Taariq/Asenathi duel
Asenathi and Marlon then went on to win 4 races in a row, this clinched the regatta. In the process they beat one of SA’s most successful sailors, Taariq Jacobs (Crew Michael Ovenstone). Steven Du Toit and many other Zeekoi Vlei Yacht Club (ZVYC) expressed doubt that Izivunguvungu would again win the event, this was a good bet since Taariq has represented SA in 4 World Championships, he is highly respected by us at Izivunguvungu. There was also a battle of the sailmakers along with the RCYC/ZVYC dual between Asenathi and Taariq. Taariq sponsored by Quantum and Asenathi using North sails acquired by RCYC. In recent history Taariq has been on a winning spree, dominating SA events – except for the first 420 Nationals which Asenathi and Marlon also won. Please note - Yacht Clubs, industry sponsors and government sport initiatives - this gives the Izivungu development sailing its hatrick victory, I hope this will dispel any further doubts about Izivunguvungu MSC Foundation's true champion status. Our teams wins were often big margins, A common Izivungu phrase borrowed from the Champion Hakkinan after he once won the British Grand prix, ‘time for a cup of tea before the second place finished.’
Youth Worlds qualifiers
For Izivungu’s second boat, Ashwin and Jerome, after 26 races in the two event selection process, and despite beating Breven and Callum from ZVYC in 16 out of 26 of them, the boats were bizarrely tied on the accrual points system used by the selectors. The selection rules say that in the event of a tie the results of the final regatta take precedence. For Ashwin and Jerome, all those missed opportunities, all those strategic errors. For Izivunguvungu, all that domination of the class, all those convincing victories. It is a bitter irony that ZVYC, with the advantage of two out of the three 420 nationals held on their home waters, finally win the race to send the first SA team to the Youth Worlds. To Ashwin and Jerome bad luck guys. Well done ZVYC well done Breven and Callum for raising your game. Thank you to the SA Navy, MSC and particularly John Martin and RCYC for recognizing and supporting the Champions who without your assistance, would not have achieved this result.
