Lion of Africa’s crew hail ‘great sailing, great fun’
Lion of Africa Vulcan is the first South African yacht to complete the Cape2Rio race, crossing the finish line in third place behind Black Pearl and Runaway, winner of the contest.
The Cape Town-based yacht, co-owned and co-skippered by Hylton Hale, finished seven hours after Black Pearl.
“We are elated to see our local friends and heroes finishing third at the Cape2Rio,” said Vitor Medina, commodore of the Royal Cape Yacht Club, hosts of the Cape2Rio and home base to the Lion of Africa.
“Hylton and his crew have sailed impressively and we can’t wait to share in their triumph once they are back in Cape Town,” he said.
Lion of Africa Vulcan’s result is particularly impressive as it was not designed for ocean races. The yacht had to be fitted with numerous components to ensure its safety on the open ocean. These changes included new safety equipment and enhanced waterproofing.
“It was a great race,” said coskipper Francois Kuttel. “It was an epic sail from start to finish; better than some of the other Cape2Rios I have participated in. This year was 15 days of great sailing and great fun.”
Lion of Africa’s meteorologist, Shaun Pammenter, a former team member on SA’s America’s Cup yacht Shosholoza, said the key to their Cape2Rio success was working to the strengths of the yacht.
“We have a very quick downwind yacht, so right from the start, we wanted to get into downwind conditions as quickly as possible,” said Pammenter.
To achieve that, they set out on a northerly course from Cape Town. “Doing that got us into the best conditions; as a strategy, it worked out really well. We did well to finish seven hours behind a very good boat in Black Pearl, one that is also sailed by a highly experienced crew.”
A make-or-break moment for the South African yacht came about 10 days into the race, when they hit a patch of light wind. “We slowed down quite a bit,” said Hale. “We didn’t really expect it. At one stage, we were hitting 12 knots, maximum. This was where we fell off the back of the leading bunch.”
Because of the yacht’s design, the crew had to deal with a lot of water on board.
Earlier, the yacht’s progress was slowed when Pammenter spotted a yellow object falling into the sea on January 5.
After reporting the incident to Falmouth Search and Rescue, Lion of Africa was requested to search the area.
They found nothing and lost more than an hour, but filed a report and request for redress, which has been granted.