History

The inaugural Diamond Coast Race from Port Owen to Lüderitz was a success among all boat types. Good sailing conditions, dramatic scenery and a warm welcome made for a wonderful offshore adventure that will now be on the sailing calendar every 2 years. Kevin Webb tells us all about it.

How it all began

Dale Kushner and I were chatting after the Cape to St Helena race in January 2023, and Dale asked what I thought about a race to Lüderitz. After I left St. Helena island I looked at the feasibility of such a race and noticed that the distance from St Helena Bay, Port Owen to Lüderitz was approximately 400nm – a very manageable mileage.

We approached Port Owen Yacht Club in St. Helena Bay who agreed to organise and host the event, which we named “Diamond Coast Race”.

The race would be downwind given the predominant SE to SW winds along the coast, and the date was set for the end of March as the wind conditions are milder (particularly at Lüderitz) and offer better weather windows for returning. The race offers an exciting downwind race to an historically interesting town along a desolate coast, a chance to “go foreign” to another country, and a challenging delivery back to SA.

The inaugural race attracted ten entries – four multihulls and six monohulls of which two had to withdraw for various reasons. It was decided to make the race inclusive of all classes and categories, where each boat would race against the other using a fair and accurate handicap system to win the new and beautiful trophy, kindly donated by the South African Offshore Racing Trust. Each boat was equipped with a YB tracker so that race organisers, loved ones and friends could follow the race in real time – including the handicap positions as the race progressed.

From coast to coast 

The day of the start arrived with perfect conditions for a mild start on flat water, which suited my 31-foot trimaran Banjo (Farrier F9RX). We soon pulled ahead of the fleet, but always in sight of Rocket (Simonis 55) until a bit of mist and darkness fell. The first night saw patches of nice wind as well as patches of no wind, but we managed to keep moving with a few sail changes. In fact, we managed to use every single sail in our wardrobe until the second night, when we started to take down spinnakers, then one reef in the main, then two a bit later, then three an hour later and eventually no main in the early hours. We used various sized furling headsails, sometimes goose-winged to keep our speed up but still be safe in the worsening sea conditions.

The final day I was awoken to Brad shouting “we’re going down another mineshaft” followed by a cheer as we hit 21knts. We held this configuration the rest of the way to Lüderitz – not our optimum speed but safe in the sea conditions we were experiencing. We thought we had everything under control until we rounded the corner at Diaz Point and found ourselves beam on to a 48knt wind as we crossed the lagoon. At this stage we were only sailing on the jib, which we furled away and continued bare pole to the finish line – our elapsed time for the race was 2 days and 24 minutes.

Finishers

The next boat in was FOMO (Sunfast 3300) skippered by Dale Kushner. While we were slowing down in the conditions, Dale was giving it everything and pushed hard with one reef in the main and a A3 spinnaker and crossed the line in an impressive time of 2 days 5 hours and 58 minutes. Some 3 hours later Herbie Karolius on Rocket arrived (2 days 8 hours and 52 minutes) and Rob Newman on Compromise (45 foot Du Toit cat) after 2 days 11 hours and 29 minutes.

By this time the wind had died down to a very light breeze and saw Michaela Robinson on Ciao Bella (Simonis 35) finish after 2 days 17 hours and 43 minutes followed by Jed Hewson on Wallbanger (Simonis 35) in 2 days 22 hours and 56 minutes. Francois Verster on Andante (Leopard 38 cat) finished in 3 days 9 hours and 9 minutes. The last boat to finish was Derek Robinson on Footloose (L34) who experienced pretty much all conditions that were not in the brochure, including head winds and no breeze, but finished after 3 days 23 hours and 30 minutes.

Kevin Webb’s Banjo arrives in strong conditions

Banjo arriving in port

Winners on handicap

We chose to use the ORC Weather Routing Scoring, and it was administered by ORC head office in the UK. Handicaps are calculated by ORC based on each boats predicted elapsed time for the race using Predict Wind weather routing. (ORC has each boats weather polars). The handicaps are sent to us 5 hours before the start. I believe this is the first time the system was used in the Southern Hemisphere, and it proved to be the most fair and accurate system as it bases the handicap on wind strength and direction you should experience for the duration of the race.

Dale Kushner on FOMO was the deserved winner on handicap and he and his team were awarded the impressive Diamond Coast Race trophy. Rob Newman on Compromise was second, also well-deserved as they pushed hard even blowing a brand-new spinnaker to shreds. Third place was myself on Banjo. I admit to throttling back in the sea conditions. It was an interesting finish – monohull first, catamaran second and trimaran third.

Yacht FOMO – overall winner and first on handicap. Pictured is Dale Kushner, Cathleen Hughes and Antonio Matthews. Absent is crew member Ian Coward.

Sunset on FOMO.

Icy conditions.

Speeding into Lüderitz.

A warm welcome

Race Chairman Derek Robertson had gone out of his way to set up proper accommodation at Lüderitz. He also found space for the boats to go alongside the quay in a busy harbour and at a very fair rate. Lüderitz Yacht Club made their clubhouse, bathrooms and WIFI available to the sailors and organised a welcome party generously sponsored by Macs Shipping. Sailors made full use of these amenities and the many restaurants found around the town.

The port and immigration personnel were very friendly and helpful so clearing in and out was not a problem. We had to wait a few days for a weather window to return with our boats. We entertained ourselves by visiting tourist attractions like Kolmanskop (ghost town), historic church and houses, the trench where the Lüderitz Speed Challenge windsurfer trials are held, and a few interesting pubs and restaurants.

Sailing home

The majority of the fleet had decided to leave on the Friday, except Andante who left on Thursday for Possession Island some 30 miles south of Lüderitz. We found them sheltering as we sailed down on Friday evening. Initially the going was rough and straight into the wind, but the wind and sea conditions were calming through the night and by Saturday morning we were motor sailing along the coast with a light beam wind. This turned into a very pleasant trip which saw us arrive back at Port Owen at 8am on Monday morning.

Pictures: Di Webb