Local duckers shine
2007-04-12
Jacques Rossouw
STRONG winds and heavy seas favoured the local racers at the Rat Race Media National Rubberducking event whick took place at Port Elizabeth’s Kings Beach over the weekend.
This was the third of four national events on the SA rubberducking calendar and consisted of two surf and one longhaul events over a three-day period which started on Friday.
The event kicked off with Easter-celebrations followed by a surf circuit (two heats and a final) on day one with many boats capsizing in the standard class due to the rough conditions.
The weather eased up slightly on day two, but water conditions seemed to deteriorate with the teams from the coast having the upperhand over their inland counterparts.
Steyn Basson and Jan Kriel (Team Champs) from Wellington raced in the P750 blueprint class and did extremely well to finish in third and second place during the first two events.
Jacques Matthee and Andras Molner (Ceasar Racing/Ranger Outback Promotions) from Boland Agricultural High School competed in the P750 standard class and came in fifth and fourth for the respective races.
The prevailing bad weather forced the 160km longhaul event, scheduled for day three, to be reduced to two 30km area-bound longhaul races.
Basson/Kriel flourished in these conditions and took second place in their class while Matthee/Molner also finished second in theirs.
The combination of Basson and Kriel are currently placed second on the national log in the blueprint class.
“We are well pleased with our results and would like to continue with this form,” Basson commented after the longhaul.
“Ice Block (next event in Gauteng) will be the decider for us.
"The organising of the event was outstanding with George van Balen from ABIBC in the thick of things. We really enjoyed the intense racing this weekend.”
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