SAMPBA NATIONALS 2016 CAPE TOWN

A two year gap saw the National contenders gathering at the terrific facility at Lafarge Quarry Dam which would again host the SAMPBA Nationals. With 51 boats and 7 Classes being raced. It was another good entry with the host club fielding 29 boats¸ while Kwazulu Natal had 15 Boats and Harrismith 12. Namibia had a lone entry from Burger Terblanche with his Mod Avenger and lots of enthusiasm, making it an international meeting. Great to see him involved and running at some good pace.

Classes saw a potential for some serious tussles with the Cape boys having talked themselves into the top 3 spots in most classes about 10 days before the Nats!

Practice maybe backed up their chirping with a few of them just running a couple of laps then putting the boats away, very comfortable!

For the visitors getting time on the water to get comfortable with the course and find decent settings was their priority with a couple of the Harrismith boys looking really quick as well. Thursday would show who had been sandbagging!

F1 7.5 Nitro

Sadly this class was depleted slightly by the withdrawal on the 2 very quick “Bester boats” and some of the expected challenge to the visitors was removed before we started. The boats in this class were much more reliable than in the past couple of Nats and hopefully this class will see at least 10 boats at Harrismith. The speed this year was also way better and very little pace difference between the leading boats. After showing some really good pace in the early heats, Andy dropped a couple of runs towards the end to leave Dave Wiseman fairly clear at the front with Mark Edmunds playing the “consistent” game to take the 3rd spot. One to the visitors!

Rigger/ Hydros

Again only 3 boats in this impressive but struggling class.Reliability was up on the previous trip to the Cape with home town boy Andy Hall and Harrismith’s Nico Leanard pretty much sharing the wins. Andy needed and secured the last heat to ensure the overall win by just 50 points. Given more horsepower young Adam Hall will be a contender next year as well.

Always tricky to keep these boats running, Nico’s boat proved their reliability when his would not cut at the end of the run or lift its nose out the water to run hard, resulting in much to and fro till he got the boat back onto dry land. 

Gas Stock V hulls

This class belonged to Deon Vosloo as he dominated, taking 6 wins from the 8 heats run. His other two results were 2nds to show how consistent his pace was over the weekend. Martin Louw managed 1 heat win and some consistent runs in the other heats to take a clear second with Henri Van Reenen third, some 500 points behind Martin.

Gas Stock Cats

With 2 groups running in this class, the points were always going to be close! Mias Steenkamp and Randle Skinner took round 1. Round 2 saw Randle taking another win while Reinhard Lerm bagged his first win. Round 3 saw Mias back in the no 1 spot while Kurt Wallisch made his presence felt (and heard) when he grabbed the other win after missing the first two rounds with work commitments. This one would go to the wire!

Round 4 saw Kurt and Reinhard again take wins but placings were going to become important for all of this group at the end. Round 5 saw Hugo van Niekerk and Lionel Olivier bang in their winning runs to leave the other title contenders fighting for the minor placings.

Round 6 and Kurt and Randle restored order with wins while Mias kept consistent with yet another 2nd spot. Round 7 saw some great close racing between Kurt and Randle but clean racing and good sportsmanship saw Kurt snatch another win with Randle taking the 2nd spot while in the other group Hugo van Niekerk put his first win on the board.

Round 8 would decide all and Kurt and Randle banking a win each with Mias and Adam Hall securing the 2nd spots.

On the final tally it was a good home town win for Hermias Steenkamp by just 2 points from Randle with Kurt Wallisch 3rd. The two missed rounds cost Kurt dearly as he secured 5 wins from his 6 runs, what may have been!

F1 Inboards

John Addinall, the winner here two years ago, continued his run by taking round 1, before teammate Clive Cohen grabbed heats 2, 3 and 4 to move himself to the front of the scoresheet.

However,rounds 5 and 6 would see John fighting back to secure another two wins. Shaun Gulliver had put in a couple of solid 2nds but the wins were eluding him. Heat 7 saw Clive fight back while John banked another 2nd to keep his points tally running

Heat 8 would be the decider but Clive went out with an early problem and a zero score leaving John to circulate carefully to secure another F1 Inboard title for the home club. Third, and keeping Newcastle in the medals was Tienie running a stock motor in a hastily put together F1 from Nic’s Fleet! Some great sprint racing in this class throughout the heats.

Gas Mods Mono

John would keep “bullying the kids” and the pensioners in this class with another 3 heat wins, backed up with 4 solid 2nd places, that kept him at the head of this class for the whole weekend. Wins for Shaun, Clive and Karl, Martin, Johan, Tienie, Henri and Nick showed the others also had good pace but the consistent runs put in by John, kept him out front to win by 400 plus points from Clive, with Martin Louw running a close 3rd, just behind Clive. Good racing!

Gas Mod Cats

The biggest class of the Nats and one traditionally dominated by the home boys in this class. Johan Leonard and Shaun Gulliver grabbed the wins in the first two rounds while Gerald de Jager and teammate Steve Hodgson took round 3. Steve took round 4 as well, as Johan Leonard sorted his radio hassle and put in his 2nd win. Round 5 saw Dave and Gerald go to the top and overnight there were about 10 points in it between the top 3.

Round 6 saw Steve boost his chances with a win along with Tienie while Gerald fought back in round 7 , along with Dieter taking his first win.

Round 8 and Gerald again went big but a safe second saw Steve snatch the overall win from Gerald with a 36 point lead. Johan Leonard had great pace all weekend but luck wasn’t with him and he settled for the 3rd spot. Again some super racing in this class!

Highlights of the weekend.

A big improvement in the performance of many of the pilots as racing is getting more and more competitive in all classes.

General reliability of all the boats and classes were also much improved.

Some very clean close racing in a number of the groups and some exciting finishes pretty much across the board with all classes becoming more and more competitive. Far more patience shown by the pilots as they looked for gaps rather than forced a gap. Many light “touches” on the water , mostly slight bumps only.

Many thanks to John for the superb smoked Snoek –( bring some to Harrismith in 2017) and the CMBC boys and girls for the food at lunch time and to the team at race control, who braved it out, sometimes in very cold weather.

Remember Just 9 months to get your boats sorted and competitive. The Gauteng boys are already running at Harrismith so you’ve been warned, Bring your A games!!

2016 Nationals AGM

MINUTES FOR S.A.M.P.B.A. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Held on the 27th of April 2016 at Maestros on the strand Cape Town WELCOME ADDRESS

Lionel Olivier opened the meeting at 8.30 pm. All members were welcomed and wished a successful national championship to start on the 28th of April. A special welcome was made to our first Namibian member to attend a national championship.

ATTENDANCE

There were 27 active members present at the A.G.M.

There were apologies from Godfrey Walsh, Kurt Walsh, Trevor Malalue,Hugo Britz and Tienie Roos

ACCEPTANCE OF THE MINUTES FROM LAST A.G.M.

Minutes from the last meeting held in Ladysmith in 2015, had been sent out to all members from the last meeting with nominations forms attached.

The minutes were accepted as correct by Henry and 2nd by Adrian Le Roux

REPORTS

Chairman’s report

Lionel Olivier reported that he would no longer be available to be elected to the role of chairman again as he had to many other commitments. He thanked all present for 10 years of successful boating. *(Attach Lionel’s Report)

Carefully explained to all members how S.A.M.P.B.A worked and how carefully a new committee would have to be chosen and voted in.

Financial Report

To be attached

National events coordinator report

No club reports had been submitted for approval.

A growth of 2 members had occurred in the club

Harrismith nationals where well organised and considered a success.

ORDER OF BUSINESS

A proposal was made to either increase the S.A.M.P.B.A. fees or to leave them the same for this year. It was decide by a vote of all members that the fees would not change this year

National calendar for 2017 would be made available. The next national would be held at the Harrismith dam with date to follow. It was brought to the attention of the committee that new dates needed to be chosen incorporating a long weekend so more member could attend without losing business time. We also have 2 members who are still at school, so school holidays should also be considered.

It was also brought to the committee that we should have the national after winter when the dams have a little more water in them. The new committee will address this.

F1 INBOARD RULES FOR THIS MEET

Keep the stock class F1 basic. Everyone happy with this and all members are happy with all the boats for this race meeting.

ELECTION OF NEW COMMITTEE

Nominations for chairman: Dave Wiseman and Nic Mitchell. Nic declined the nomination and the vote was unanimous in favour of Dave.

Vice Chairman: John Adinale and Hugo Britz and Gerard De Jager were nominated. Gerard declined the nomination. The vote was put forward and John Adinale won the vote.

Scribe/Secretary: Dieter Shutter and Andre Bester where both nominated. The vote was in favour of Dieter Shutter.

National events co-ordinator: Kobus and Nico where elected. Kobus declined as he has been in this position for many years. Nico accepted the nomination and all voted him in.

Regional representatives:

Cape Town: John Addinale nominated and elected

Harrismith: Nico nominated and elected.

Kwa Zulu Natal: Tiene Roos nominated and elected

Port Elizabeth; Gerrard Beech Nominated

Responsibilities of each position are available from chairman.

GENERAL

Race format was discussed for this meet. Members were asked if they wanted to follow the point system of SAMPBA or club rules. It was decided that SAMPBA rules would be followed

Race will start after the buzzer.

A pit buoy would be put up and all members entering the race need to go around this buoy before they can join other boats already in the course. All agreed that his would be the safest thing to do.

No one may collect their boat during a race, if you stop. Collection of your boat will be after completion of current race.

You may not join the race again even if your boat is on land.

Transponders are to be used on all boats. And a random 10 second delay will be enforced.

All the rules would be recapped before the start of the race in the mooring and a test run will be carried out to ensure all the transponders work

Please race fair. Discipline and respect and fair play will be expected at all times.

CLOSE OF MEETING

Next A.G.M. will be held in Harrismith at the next National

Meeting closed at 22h35.