1971 Cape to Rio, Agulhas & Cowes Week
Rio ’71: The race from Cape to Rio is in many respects unique. It links two continents and is the longest regular ocean race in the world. The direct route is 3300 miles, the next longest race is the California - Honolulu run; with a distance of 2225 miles. The Cape to Rio route is, more than any other, down the wind from Cape Town to Rio de Jnaiero. During the race, record runs under spinnaker were constantly being set up.
42ft Mercury (SA3) from Durban was the third registered vessel under SA Sailing, behind the famous 50ft Voortrekker (SA1) from Cape Town, and 40ft Golden City (SA3) from Johannesburg; and ahead of 39ft Outburst (SA4) from Zeekoevlei, 39ft Port Rex (SA5) from East London, 37ft Quest (SA6) from Cape Town and 56ft Jackaranda (SA7)from Pretoria.
16 January 1971, 14h30 GMT marked the beginning of a great adventure, followed by thousands of South Africans. That moment separated years of dreaming and planning, months of furious organisation from forty days of strenuous, taxing sailing, filled with the excitement, joy and heartbreak of the great Cape to Rio transatlantic yacht race. The heart of this spirit of adventure fortifies the commitment to classic yacht restoration and relive the moments of truth that sailing adventures make real. We create our own story as we retell and relive the stories of those who have adventured on these glorious vessels before us.
There were 69 entries to Rio '71 from many parts of the world and at an entry fee R30 each. 10 yachts withdrew and 59 yachts crossed the start line. 55 yachts arrived safely in Rio within the time limit, with the exception of Stormkaap, Pionier and Sandefjord. 33 competitors were South African yachts; 14 sailed under The Royal Cape Yacht Club burgee and the next largest number was 6 from Durban’s Point Yacht Club. The yachts were divided into three classes according to rated length with prizes allocated to each class. The crew members of the 59 yachts numbered 421, of which 21 were women.
42ft Mercury (SA3) from Durban was the third registered vessel under SA Sailing, behind the famous 50ft Voortrekker (SA1) from Cape Town, and 40ft Golden City (SA3) from Johannesburg; and ahead of 39ft Outburst (SA4) from Zeekoevlei, 39ft Port Rex (SA5) from East London, 37ft Quest (SA6) from Cape Town and 56ft Jackaranda (SA7)from Pretoria.
16 January 1971, 14h30 GMT marked the beginning of a great adventure, followed by thousands of South Africans. That moment separated years of dreaming and planning, months of furious organisation from forty days of strenuous, taxing sailing, filled with the excitement, joy and heartbreak of the great Cape to Rio transatlantic yacht race. The heart of this spirit of adventure fortifies the commitment to classic yacht restoration and relive the moments of truth that sailing adventures make real. We create our own story as we retell and relive the stories of those who have adventured on these glorious vessels before us.
There were 69 entries to Rio '71 from many parts of the world and at an entry fee R30 each. 10 yachts withdrew and 59 yachts crossed the start line. 55 yachts arrived safely in Rio within the time limit, with the exception of Stormkaap, Pionier and Sandefjord. 33 competitors were South African yachts; 14 sailed under The Royal Cape Yacht Club burgee and the next largest number was 6 from Durban’s Point Yacht Club. The yachts were divided into three classes according to rated length with prizes allocated to each class. The crew members of the 59 yachts numbered 421, of which 21 were women.
18 Jan 1971, Natal Mercury - Voortrekker, the sloop that put South Africa’s name on the world yachting map, is leading on both actual and handicap positions, according to the first position report of the Cape-to-Rio race, issued last night. Last night, the position of Natal’s entry, Mercury, was given as 27th (actual) and 29th (Handicap), giving a time lapse of 52 min behind Voortrekker.
20 Jan 1971, Daily News - The Cape Town Yacht Corsair II hit a whale square on leaving the sea stained with blood. The yacht shuddered but suffered no damage.
21 Jan 1971, Natal Mercury - 270 miles from CT, Bruce Dalling’s Pretoria yacht Jackarandahad the shaft of her rudder stock sheered off, at the point where it emerges from the hull, due `purely to a structural failure’. She lost six days in replacing the stainless steel rudder stock and repaired rudder and skeg.
21 Jan 1971, Natal Mercury - Cape Town sloop Stormkaap had her skeg and rudder badly damaged and sought refuge in Port Nolloth. David Abromowitz had to make emergency repairs where they lost two days of the race.
21 Jan 1971, Natal Mercury - 3 days of sailing under full canvass came to an abrupt end for Cariad I shortly before dawn when a squall roared out of the darkness and hit her completely by surprise, leaving as quickly as it appeared.
24 Jan 1971, Natal Mercury - Due to their supply of dry ice being exhausted, the 14-man and 1-woman crew lived like kings at sea eating all their meat and frozen vegetables before it could go off. Five of the crew were reported to be complaining of stomach pains overnight, but were recovering the next day. It was cans ahoy for the rest of the trip.
25 Jan 1971, Natal Mercury - Around 20h50 on Saturday night, about 550 miles north-west of Table Bay crewmen felt a sharp `jar’ only to find one-third of the yachts new rudder was broken away. These fresh rudder problems left Jackaranda little chance in the race.
25 Jan 1971, Natal Mercury - Further trouble arose and more emergency repairs to Stormkaap skeg and rudder were made mid-ocean. Supported by engineers of SA Navy Guardship, SAS Tafelberg for about 5hrs, a cement box was positioned over the skeg bolts and filled with cement to prevent the yacht from holing and taking water. Sunday 25th at 08h00, Stormkaap was forced to withdraw from the race due to further rudder trouble.
5 Feb 1971, Natal Mercury - The crew of the ill-fated yacht Pionier were picked up by the American freighter Potomac and returned to Cape Town, after Pionier hit a whale and sunk in the mid-Atlantic Ocean.
Twenty days from Cape Town, Mercury encountered a huge Norwegian tanker, the Taurus, on her way to the Persian Gulf round the Cape route. Mercury had not had a weather report in days, and decided to request an update from the Taurus. Up went her signal flags with the appropriate code. But to Mercury’s surprise the tanker slammed her engines into reverse as she came abeam the yacht, slowing right down. Mercury came about hoping for first-hand information. As she came alongside the tankers crew lined the rails while on the bridge stood her captain with a loud haler in hand. “Would you like some fresh fruit & vegetables?” he roared down.
“Can you tell us what the weather’s like ahead?” shouted back Bobby Nuttall at the same time. Meanwhile a steward had come out on deck above them with a bulky case, and crewmen were preparing to lower it into the water on a rope. “And would you like some beer too?” asked the captain.
The deckhands lowered the fruit, and two of Mercury’s crew jumped overboard with their lifelines on to pick up the crate and steer it over towards Mercury. The steward
returned with a case of the best Norwegian beer, and this was lowered to the water. The two Mercury crewmen retrieved it just in time to save the cardboard crate from disintegrating altogether and plummeting two dozen cans to the ocean floor fathoms down. Mercury’s crew lost no time in gulping down some of the still cold beers. But they never did find out about the weather.
Wayfarer started the race 24hrs after the rest of the field as a late entry.
Albatros II had initial difficulties with her mast, stopping briefly at Robben Island after the start. The repairs stood up well for the rest of the race.
Molly Warr’s all-women crew on Sprinter went missing for days experiencing power problems and batteries not charging; reducing radio contact.
With Mercury sailing neck-on-neck with her sister ship most of the way, the final leg dealt Mercury a bad hand of no wind for x days, with Albatross II taking race honours on handicap.
20 Jan 1971, Daily News - The Cape Town Yacht Corsair II hit a whale square on leaving the sea stained with blood. The yacht shuddered but suffered no damage.
21 Jan 1971, Natal Mercury - 270 miles from CT, Bruce Dalling’s Pretoria yacht Jackarandahad the shaft of her rudder stock sheered off, at the point where it emerges from the hull, due `purely to a structural failure’. She lost six days in replacing the stainless steel rudder stock and repaired rudder and skeg.
21 Jan 1971, Natal Mercury - Cape Town sloop Stormkaap had her skeg and rudder badly damaged and sought refuge in Port Nolloth. David Abromowitz had to make emergency repairs where they lost two days of the race.
21 Jan 1971, Natal Mercury - 3 days of sailing under full canvass came to an abrupt end for Cariad I shortly before dawn when a squall roared out of the darkness and hit her completely by surprise, leaving as quickly as it appeared.
24 Jan 1971, Natal Mercury - Due to their supply of dry ice being exhausted, the 14-man and 1-woman crew lived like kings at sea eating all their meat and frozen vegetables before it could go off. Five of the crew were reported to be complaining of stomach pains overnight, but were recovering the next day. It was cans ahoy for the rest of the trip.
25 Jan 1971, Natal Mercury - Around 20h50 on Saturday night, about 550 miles north-west of Table Bay crewmen felt a sharp `jar’ only to find one-third of the yachts new rudder was broken away. These fresh rudder problems left Jackaranda little chance in the race.
25 Jan 1971, Natal Mercury - Further trouble arose and more emergency repairs to Stormkaap skeg and rudder were made mid-ocean. Supported by engineers of SA Navy Guardship, SAS Tafelberg for about 5hrs, a cement box was positioned over the skeg bolts and filled with cement to prevent the yacht from holing and taking water. Sunday 25th at 08h00, Stormkaap was forced to withdraw from the race due to further rudder trouble.
5 Feb 1971, Natal Mercury - The crew of the ill-fated yacht Pionier were picked up by the American freighter Potomac and returned to Cape Town, after Pionier hit a whale and sunk in the mid-Atlantic Ocean.
Twenty days from Cape Town, Mercury encountered a huge Norwegian tanker, the Taurus, on her way to the Persian Gulf round the Cape route. Mercury had not had a weather report in days, and decided to request an update from the Taurus. Up went her signal flags with the appropriate code. But to Mercury’s surprise the tanker slammed her engines into reverse as she came abeam the yacht, slowing right down. Mercury came about hoping for first-hand information. As she came alongside the tankers crew lined the rails while on the bridge stood her captain with a loud haler in hand. “Would you like some fresh fruit & vegetables?” he roared down.
“Can you tell us what the weather’s like ahead?” shouted back Bobby Nuttall at the same time. Meanwhile a steward had come out on deck above them with a bulky case, and crewmen were preparing to lower it into the water on a rope. “And would you like some beer too?” asked the captain.
The deckhands lowered the fruit, and two of Mercury’s crew jumped overboard with their lifelines on to pick up the crate and steer it over towards Mercury. The steward
returned with a case of the best Norwegian beer, and this was lowered to the water. The two Mercury crewmen retrieved it just in time to save the cardboard crate from disintegrating altogether and plummeting two dozen cans to the ocean floor fathoms down. Mercury’s crew lost no time in gulping down some of the still cold beers. But they never did find out about the weather.
Wayfarer started the race 24hrs after the rest of the field as a late entry.
Albatros II had initial difficulties with her mast, stopping briefly at Robben Island after the start. The repairs stood up well for the rest of the race.
Molly Warr’s all-women crew on Sprinter went missing for days experiencing power problems and batteries not charging; reducing radio contact.
With Mercury sailing neck-on-neck with her sister ship most of the way, the final leg dealt Mercury a bad hand of no wind for x days, with Albatross II taking race honours on handicap.
Agulhas '71: Cape to Rio '71 left a legacy of a fine fleet in Cape waters, amplified for the occasion by Mercury from Natal and Golden City from the Reef, and given an international touch buy the presence of six young German sailors from Hamburg crewing on four of the entries. Mercury led from the start, but after a nail biting 99hrs 33min and 39.5sec, Stormkaap crossed the line, only 43 seconds ahead of Mercury, who also took a silver on handicap in that race.
Cowes ‘71: For more than 100 years the little seaside resort Cowes, situated on the northern coast of the Isle of Wight had been a yachtsman’s mecca, host not only to sailing enthusiasts from all over the world but to Europe’s high society. They crossed to Cowes for the seven days of high living which marked the close of London’s season, before the capital’s social galaxy dispersed for the late months of summer. The week included a succession of regattas, organized by the different yacht clubs of the locality in the early days and later by one committee representing Cowes Combined Clubs.
In 1957, Britain’s Royal Ocean Racing Club presented the Admiral’s Cup, an international yachting competition where three competing yachts per participating country would return glamour to the Solent, and continue the interest in Cowes week. Eventually in 1969, South Africa entered the Admirals Cup for the first time with Voortrekker
laying the foundation for a larger contingent to enter the next event. Shortly after Rio the selectors met in Bloemfontein and announced the 1971 Admiral’s Cup entries from South Africa: Jackaranda, Mercury and Outburst, with Omuramba as reserve. Gordon Neill would skipper Mercury’s for the event with a group of his old sailmates as crew, notably each of them paying their own way. Gordon’s right hand man was Bruce McCurragh, well known for his overseas dinghy sailing campaigning. One of the famous events was the Fastnet Classic. Around two o’clock in the morning, just northwest of the Bishop Rock Lighthouse, Mercury saw a red distress flare fired.
Gordon and his crew made the call to drop the spinnaker, reset the headsail and beat windward nearly 5 miles, back on the way they had come. The flare had been fired from the Australian yacht Koomooloo who had lost her rudder and was in danger of drifting onto one of the myriad of islets that make up the Scilly Isles. Mercury stood by the crippled yacht until the lifeboat from St Mary’s, the largest island in the archipelago. This exercise cost Mercury and her crew four hours before she was then caught by a drop in wind which accounted for another three hours.
According to columnist Jack Knights, Cowes week was the stiffest competition ever assembled in the history of yachting and the South Africans learnt much about sailing.
Cowes ‘71: For more than 100 years the little seaside resort Cowes, situated on the northern coast of the Isle of Wight had been a yachtsman’s mecca, host not only to sailing enthusiasts from all over the world but to Europe’s high society. They crossed to Cowes for the seven days of high living which marked the close of London’s season, before the capital’s social galaxy dispersed for the late months of summer. The week included a succession of regattas, organized by the different yacht clubs of the locality in the early days and later by one committee representing Cowes Combined Clubs.
In 1957, Britain’s Royal Ocean Racing Club presented the Admiral’s Cup, an international yachting competition where three competing yachts per participating country would return glamour to the Solent, and continue the interest in Cowes week. Eventually in 1969, South Africa entered the Admirals Cup for the first time with Voortrekker
laying the foundation for a larger contingent to enter the next event. Shortly after Rio the selectors met in Bloemfontein and announced the 1971 Admiral’s Cup entries from South Africa: Jackaranda, Mercury and Outburst, with Omuramba as reserve. Gordon Neill would skipper Mercury’s for the event with a group of his old sailmates as crew, notably each of them paying their own way. Gordon’s right hand man was Bruce McCurragh, well known for his overseas dinghy sailing campaigning. One of the famous events was the Fastnet Classic. Around two o’clock in the morning, just northwest of the Bishop Rock Lighthouse, Mercury saw a red distress flare fired.
Gordon and his crew made the call to drop the spinnaker, reset the headsail and beat windward nearly 5 miles, back on the way they had come. The flare had been fired from the Australian yacht Koomooloo who had lost her rudder and was in danger of drifting onto one of the myriad of islets that make up the Scilly Isles. Mercury stood by the crippled yacht until the lifeboat from St Mary’s, the largest island in the archipelago. This exercise cost Mercury and her crew four hours before she was then caught by a drop in wind which accounted for another three hours.
According to columnist Jack Knights, Cowes week was the stiffest competition ever assembled in the history of yachting and the South Africans learnt much about sailing.