PYC come out tops in Bart's Bash

A massive effort from Point Yacht Club saw the Durban club emerging on top of the pile of global participants in this year’s Bart’s Bash.

The eventis a global sailing race takingplace at 100s of venues, with 1000s of sailors in 100s of different classes of boat around the world. Founded in 2014, the event was verified by Guinness World Records as ‘The Largest Sailing Race in the World’.South Africa was incredibly well represented in the results of this year’s event, with the second highest number of sailors taking part (after the UK) and PYCtop in terms ofnumbersof sailors by club with 160, compared with second-placed Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy in England’s 127.

PYC Commodore Myles White explained: “Point Yacht Club is very proud of its association with Bart’s Bash, having participated in this worldwide event every year since its inception in 2014. PYC has been active in Durban for over 125 years, and caters to both dinghy and keelboat sailing, while more recently it has also become involved with ski-boat fishing as well as paddle-sports.

“There is a lot in common between what we as a club aspire to achieve, as well as what the Andrew Simpson Foundation isall about. But the cherry on the cake is that the date for the Bart’s Bash event has always coincided with our annual opening cruise, so it makes such obvious sense to combine the two events.

“As has happened many times in the past, we shared the 2019 opening cruise with our close neighbours, Royal Natal Yacht Club –as dictated by tradition, the respective Commodores and invited dignitaries took the salute from each and every participating keelboat and dinghy, who sailed past in a prescribed order, following which the traditional water-fight took place while the course was laid for the Bart’s Bash race.

“Our race format is two laps of a triangular course set within Durban harbour –the same course as used on our very popular Wednesday Evening race course,which is sailed during the months of October to March, inclusive.

“The single start saw 42-foot keelers mixing it up with Lasers, Flying Fifteens and Hobie Cats in pursuit of a handicap victory, while the less serious Wharram Tiki 26 and other small cruising keelers kept their focus on the dwindling supplies in their cooler boxes.

“Certainly in 2019 we had fewer dinghies taking part than in previous years, but we had one of our better turnouts of keelboats, and as has happened every year, the Bart’s Bashboard shows PYC as the leading club in South Africa in terms of the number of sailors on the water.

“As much as we enjoy our time at the top of the leaderboard, we would be delighted to be overtaken by not one, but several other South African yacht clubs, as that would be a sign of more and more sailors on the water, and that is what our sport needs right now.

“Sail on Bart!”

Bart’s Bash is the flagship annual event of the Andrew Simpson Foundation, inspired by the memory of Olympic gold and silver medallist Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson MBE, who passionately believed that everyone should have the chance to try sailing and enjoy the many benefits that it brings.

This year Bart’s Bash took place on14-15 September and was open to all sailing clubs, yacht clubs, schools, universities, scout groups, sea cadets, windsurfing clubs, individuals and any venue globally that could host a race and was inspired to take part.

Bart’s Bash can be used to fundraise for the Andrew Simpson Foundation (ASF) or your own club, venue or project. Since its inception, the event has successfully raised funds for the ASF which in turn has helped a huge number of sailing projects across the world.

Follow the link to see the full results for this fantastic initiative: https://www.bartsbash.com