Cape Town crew set for yacht race to Rio

Young, determined and from parts of Cape Town known for gangs rather than yacht clubs, seven sailors will leave their hometown tomorrow on an epic ocean race to Brazil.

The crew of the 13-metre Gryphon boat are competing in the Cape2Rio race — a 5,600km adventure across the South Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro. A total of 28 yachts will take part in the race, which mixes professional sailors with enthusiastic amateurs on a testing continent-to-continent passage.

The Gryphon team was put together by the Hout Bay Youth Sailing Development Trust — located just outside Cape Town — as part of its work with disadvantaged youngsters.

“The sailing training is to keep some of the kids off the street,” Theo Yon, Gryphon’s skipper, said.

“We have kids from the disadvantage[d] communities and then some kids who have money, so it’s a mix.

“We plan to train the guys up and get them on the high level of sailing [so they can] compare themselves with everyone else.”