The Hollard Jacana team continues to break records. (Image: Hollard Jacana)
“It’s going to be tough to repeat this outstanding feat, but that is certainly our aim for the season ahead,” said skipper Patrick Holloway on 2 June.
This is the fourth year Hollard Insurance has sponsored Hollard Jacana. “We’re thrilled,” said, Hollard Marine managing director Frank Ponnen. “A win for Hollard Jacana is a win for Hollard.”
The team has been awarded Royal Cape Yacht Club colours. It recorded its best overall results – four first places and a second place, said Holloway. “This immediate season past we raised our game and were exceptionally consistent.”
“[There was] hardly a race in which we were not on the podium, and there were some exceptional individual race performances, such as the Round Robben Island Race. We attribute this to getting a better mix of the crew, having brought in five young sailors to complement the older core crew members, most of whom have been racing together for some 15 years.”
Holloway said Team Hollard Jacana had also reduced, from 14 to 12 members, cutting its collective weight by about 170kg and making the yacht’s performances nippier.
The team is working on improving the diversity of its crew, with the addition of a young black member whose club membership and travel expenses will be sponsored.
“Year on year, the standard of the crew work has improved through small incremental improvements over time, race by race. With the substantial amount of time spent by the crew on the water racing, we’ve also gained a better understanding of how to sail the yacht as close to its theoretical target speeds in different wind speeds, sea conditions and points of sail to the wind,” Holloway said.
Hollard Jacana missed two races of the 2016/17 season, and next season hopes to return to its previous achievement of competing in every race, he said.
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