Sport

Development sailors shine at Lipton

3 September 2008

Team Shosholoza's 2007 America's Cup sailors and development wing crews from the Izivunguvungu-MSC Foundation for Youth were among the stars of the centennial Lipton Challenge Cup regatta contested in Cape Town's Table Bay last month.

Shosholoza trimmer David Rae was on the winning team Dalys Insurance of Theewater Sports Club that came out top of the 30-boat leaderboard to take the 2008 championship title after a week-long battle in tough winter weather conditions.

Shosholoza skipper Mark Sadler took his team to second overall on Orion Challenger, representing Durban's Royal Natal Yacht Club after joining the boat on the third day of the event, having flown in from New York where he had been defending his J22 2007 World championship title.

Shosholoza pitman Guido Verhovert and sailmaker Trevor Spilhaus were third overall on Streetcar from Hottentot Holland Beach Sailing Club, while Renaldo Mohale of the Izivunguvungu-MSC Foundation for Youth was fourth on RCYC Greenlight, representing the Royal Cape Yacht Club.

Shosholoza grinder Marcello Burricks, who now heads up a new satellite division of Izivunguvungu at Saldanha Bay, where he is coaching over 100 aspirant new young sailors, skippered an Izivungu team to 14th place overall. Burricks and his crew - Jerome Williams, Carlisle Mesier, Denver Daniels, Anthony Edwards and Damien Johnston - were racing Audi JML 3 for Hermanus Yacht Club.

Future contenders

Izivunguvungu's top skipper, Asenathi Jim, was set to take fifth place overall, but a disqualification in the fourth race put the team ninth overall, despite posting an impressive set of results which included a 7th, 6th, 14th and 5th.

Nonetheless, Jim's team won the Youth Trophy for the event and were hailed as serious contenders for future Liptons. Jim and his crew - Sinetemba Ndzakayi, Cader Williams, Onke Dyai, Sibusisu Sizathu, Wandisile Xayimpi and Thobiso Jim - were campaigning MSC Defence for Boland Defence Yacht Club.

Izivunguvungu's Daphne Jacobs crewed on the only all-women entry, Pristine Bathrooms from Cape Radio Yacht Club, which finished 30th overall.

Izivunguvungu coach and manager Matthew Mentz said the 2008 Lipton Challenge Cup provided a glimpse of Jim and his team's potential.

"Their sixth, seventh and fifth places were, to me as coach, the results I expected from them," Mentz said. "The 14th and the disqualification illustrate where some of our weaknesses are, particularly if we get caught up in the pack. "But I think people are beginning to realize that we at Izivunguvungu-MSC Foundation for Youth have a raw trans-disciplinary talent that is growing from strength to strength."

Izivunguvungu

The foundation, based in the port town of Simon's Town, nearby Cape Town, is the first school in South Africa to provide opportunities for disadvantaged children. It was established in 2001 by Ian Ainslie, three times Olympian and multiple world sailing champion, together with Matthew Mentz, a highly qualified ocean skipper and instructor.

The Izivunguvungu-MSC Foundation for Youth - Izivunguvungu is Isizulu for "sudden strong wind" - is a non-profit organization affiliated to and supported by the South African Navy and funded by the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC).

The development programme was the training background for some of the younger recruits on Team Shosholoza, South Africa's 2007 America's Cup Challenger.

The Lipton Challenge

Sir Thomas Lipton famously but unsuccessfully campaigned for the America's Cup five times between 1899 and 1930 on a succession of campaign yachts named Shamrock.

Lipton donated the Lipton Cup, an ornate silver Victorian-style trophy which is bigger (and some believe more impressive) than the America's Cup to Table Bay Yacht Club in 1909 for the purpose of fostering competitive sailing in South Africa.

"The Lipton Challenge Cup has played certainly its part in raising the standards of sailing in South Africa, and Sir Lipton himself would have been proud to recognize it as a training ground for the country's first America's Cup challenger," Team Shosholoza said in a statement.

SAinfo reporter and Team Shosholoza



	Izivunguvungu-MSC Foundation for Youth - the first sailing school in South Africa to provide opportunities for disadvantaged children (Photo copyright Hugo Studio)

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