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LDYC Single Handed RTIR

3 Mistrals fought it out in the LDYC Single Handed Round the Island Race that was held on the 1st of January 2026.

Racing started at 09:00 with the wind blowing between 12 and 16 knots and gusting from 20 to 24 knots.

All 3 Mistrals had a good start with Randolph on Liza leading at the start. Liza and a Stadt 23 (Chanti Claire) had a very close tussle all the way to the Island.

Passat and Noumea was only meters apart till next to the Island when Noumea tacked towards the island, Passat kept her course next to the land on starboard and later tacked towards the 2nd buoy at the top of the island.

Liza and the Stadt was still meters apart at the 1st turn buoy and Liza managed to hug the island

Passat and Noumea gained good distance on Liza and the Stadt 23 but could not point as close to the wind as Liza and the Stadt 23 and thus started losing a lot of ground sailing up north to the island.

Passat had to make a quick tack to starboard to cover off Noumea and then again to port in order to round the buoy north of the island.

A Hunter 19 that was also in the fight for position started gaining meters on both Passat and Noumea towards the buoy

Passat managed to put some distance on the Hunter and Noumea after rounding the island but Liza has stretched her legs and was now far in the distance still battling with the Stadt 23.

We had a beat towards the finish line at LDYC and Noumea started catching Passat with the Hunter and a Holiday 23 catching and passing both Mistrals on starboard.

Noumeah managed to pass Passat 200 meters before the finish and beat Passat with 20 seconds.

Liza beat Noumea and Passat by 13 minutes and finished as the 1st keelboat on corrected time.

Mistrals on the podium in the University Challenge

LDYC hosted the first ever Vaal Keelboat and University Challenge regatta on the 28th and 29th of June 2025.

Grant Leader organised this event in order to get University students that are members of their University Sailing Clubs on keel boats.

Each keelboat had to have a Student onboard to enter and race. Wits University was the only University that pitched up and did we have some good racing.

All keelboats took to the water on Saturday for the medium distance race and Passat managed to lead the fleet all the way to Muster. The wind picked up and the larger boats started to gain on Passat.

Noumea who had to turn around after the start and fetch their student crew from Rosa Viento managed to gain on most of the fleet.

Passat made a navigational error and lost the lead, trying to catch up to the fleet again was difficult as the wind was over powering the Mistrals but they kept making gains on the boats ahead.

Noumea held her own and finished 2nd with Passat finishing 3rd on the Saturday

Round the cans racing was scheduled for Sunday and the Mistrals stayed very competitive.

Passat hit a mark during the 2nd race and needed to do a penalty jibe (360) which cost them a lot of places.

Noumea has some difficulty in the one race getting stuck with no wind at the weather mark.

We had some great and close racing and Noumea ended up with a 2nd place over all and Passat a few points up in 3rd over all.

NKS Prize giving.

The NKS prize giving will be held after the Frank Lenz race on the 31st of May 2025 at VCA (Vaal Cruising Association).

There will be a bring and braai afterwards. Join us for a night of chat and banter around the fire to reminesince about the prevous GP's sailing.

Ancient Mariners report.

LDYC hosted the 2025 Ancient Mariners race on the 5th of April.

Ian Harvey sailed Dreamtwo and Mark Tee, Stephan van Biljon and Tiens van Zyl sailed on Noumea. We had great wind and sailed on a reach to the SPYC mark, one or two tacks to the DAC mark and then on a reach again back to the finish line. Both boats had everage speeds of over 5 knots and maximum speeds reached over 6 knots.

Noumea came in 7th on handicap and Dreamtwo 10th on handicap only 1:54 behind Noumea. It was a day of close racing within the whole fleet.

A video with some highlights have been uploaded to the Youtube channel.

Mistral sailors to compete in the Stadt 23 Nationals.

Mark Tee, Stephan van Biljon and Tiens van Zyl has managed to secure a Stadt 23 for the Nationals held on the 26th of April 2025.

A big thanks to Stewart Giles for borrow Enola Gay to them for the Nationals. We will post an update on how the Mistral sailors found sailing a Stadt 23 after the regatta.

Margo McKay Night Race

Thre Mistrals entered and finished the Margo McKay night race hosted by VCA.

Dreamtwo, skippered by Ian Harvey, had a great start with Noumea, skippered by Mark Tee and Stephan van Biljon as crew, not too far behind.

Passat, skippered by Tiens van Zyl with Dennis Davias and Andries Cornelius as crew, got squeezed by two bigger boats and die not have a great start. Passat sailed closer to land with most of the fleet staying in the middle of the course between the big island and the land on port side. Passat managed to gain speed and managed to pass both Dreamtwo and Noumea on the way to the North Bay mark.

Dreamtwo and Noumea started gaining ground on Passat closer to the mark and Dreamtwo managed to pass Passat at the mark rounding.

Noumea caught both Mistrals a few hundred meter after the North Bay mark rounding and Passat managed to pass Dreamtwo. We were blessed with moderate winds and could sail on a reach to the Muster mark. Passat struggled to keep up with Noumea on the Muster leg.

With a beautiful sunset we rounded the Muster mark towards the DAC mark and it was time to fly the spinnaker. Dreamtwo managed to gain a bit on Noumea and Passat closer to Muster Mark but it was difficult to estimate how far ahead or behind a boat was with it being over cast and very dark after night fall.

Passat was caught and passed by Dreamtwo close to the finish line and they had a bit of a sprint to finish the race. By that time it was anyone's guess on board as to where Noumea was but in the end we had guessed the lights crossing way before us was Noumea.

Noumea just missed out on a podium coming in 4th place over all, just 2 minutes and 52 seconds behind Phat Ass (Far East 28) on corrected time. Dreamtwo finished 8th, 24 seconds ahead of Passat in 9th place.

100 Miler (2025)

Dreamtwo and Noumea competed in the LDYC 100 miler.

Dreamtwo had a good start and Noumea, because of some miscommunication, turned around to restart after the crossing the start line.

There were some tight racing between the Mistrals and the 3 Stadt 23's. Noumea managed to catch and pass Dreamtwo on the first run after rounding the LDYC mark. Noumea then proceded to chase the two Stadt 23's ahead of them.

On the second lap Noumea passed one of the Stadt 23's and was still in the hunt for the 1st Stadt 23 ahead of them. Dreamtwo also sailed very well staying in touch of the Stadt 23 and Noumea.

It was a long 24 hours of sailing but Noumea, skippered by Mark Tee and Stephan van Biljon (crew), managed to take 1st place on handicap and 3rd on line honours. Dreamtwo, skippered by Ian Harvey managed to secure 2nd over all on handicap.

Stilbaai Long Haul

Stilbaai Yacht Club hosted the Longhaul event.

It was a day with very low water levels on the Vaal Dam and not much wind.

Some of the bigger boats managed to get away from the fleet but were caught in a lull after rounding the Northbay Mark, close to the VCA mark. The whole fleet was drifting around between the VCA mark and big island for close to an hour.

The wind picked up a little bit but the race was shortened and we still had to sail towards the south of the island and round a mark there before sailing towards the finish.

Mark Tee and Stephan van Biljon incorrectly sailed towards the finish after rounding the VCA mark and realised their mistake soon after seeing the rest of the fleet heading towards the south of the island. Passat, with Tiens van Zyl skippering and Andries Cornelius as crew, managed to put in a few good tacks to gain valuable meters on the few boats ahead of them.

It was time to fly the spinnaker after rounding the last mark and Passat managed to catch and pass a few of the bigger boats in the light winds. Noumea was now sailing towards the last mark also catching a few boats. It was race on between Passat and a Holiday 23 towards the finish line.

Passat managed to secure 2nd place on handicap, behind the Holiday 23 missing 1st place with 22 seconds.

Keelboat Week

Two Mistrals raced at this past weekend's DAC Keelboat Week.

Passat and Noumea both entered the regatta with Tiens van Zyl (helm), Andries Cornelius (crew) on Passat (66) and Mark Tee (helm) and Stephan van Biljon (crew) on Noumea (109).

Saturday's racing was cancelled due to high winds but we got racing on Sunday with a medium distance race which had us dressed up warm but still enjoying nice constant winds. The Mistrals were a bit over powered but they managed to hang in there with both Mistrals finishing Sunday's race.

Another medium distance race on Monday, taking us on the same course as Sunday's medium distance race. (DAC mark, SPYC mark, Muster Mark, SPYC mark, Rose Bay mark, SPYC mark, DAC mark and then to the finish). This time round the winds were all over, gusty and typical for the Vaal Dam.

Noumea managed to catch and overtake most of the fleet at the Rose Bay mark with only the Dragonfly, Pacer 27 and Far East 28 in front of her bow. Passat managed to gain on the fleet towards the Rosebay mark and managed to overtake a few boats after rounding the Rosebay mark heading towards the SPYC mark.

Noumea then continued to finish 3rd over the line. Passat managed to overtake a few more boats at the SPYC mark but struggled at the DAC mark to round the mark and a few of the boats managed to overtake her again. All in all a great race was had.

It was time to race around the cans on Tuesday and the Mistrals battled strong wind, but had a great time racing each other. 3 races were sailed.

This year's DAC Keelboat Week was a lot of fun and we will work towards having more Mistrals compete in next year's event.