Final Blog -TEAM “Our Dianne” take Governors Cup hat trick

18 December 2010



Team “Our Dianne” skippered by Billy Leisegang have won the 2010 Governors Cup yacht race to secure an unprecedented third win.



The Governors Cup yacht race is a one thousand seven hundred mile ocean race from Simonstown in South Africa to St Helena Island in the Atlantic Ocean. St Helena is considered the remotest island on earth and the furthest piece of land from any other. The fact she has no airport of any sort means you can only reach her in one of two ways, you’re either born there or you travel there by water, making it the perfect destination for an ocean race.



Billy Leisegang, owner and skipper of the yacht Our Dianne, a Simonis 35 foot Monohull, won the race on handicap in 2002 and 2004 and took line honors in 2006. After a one race sabbatical in 2008 he returned this year in an attempt to secure the crystal trophy for a third time.



Joining Team “Our Dianne” in 2010 were two of the previous race winning crew, Ryan Leisegang , Billy’s son, and Retired SA Navy Admiral Martin “Spook” Trainor. Martin was also a former Navy sub-mariner and navigated a SA Navy Daphne class submarine from Europe to South Africa, he was therefore tasked with navigating Team “Our Dianne” to the island and their third Governors Cup title. Also on board were two St Helenians, Julie George & Aaron Leg, who were the island’s ambassadors in the race. The last member of the team was virgin ocean racer and filmmaker Marc Bow who was on board making a 2 hour film for Super Sport about the 2010 race.



The SA Navy started the race under canon fire at midday on December 1st and for the first time the race begun in the bay just off the historical village of Simonstown. Our Dianne powered across the start line at the front of the 17 strong fleet and led  the race round the infamous Cape Point before setting a heading for the island of St Helena. The first night at sea turned out to be one of survival and 4 boats had retired by the time sun came up on day 2, including two of Team “Our Dianne’s” closest rivals, Zeeslang and Reaction. Zeeslang had broken her boom in the night after a crash gybe, while Reaction lost her entire rudder. Fortunately both boats limped safely into Saldhana Bay the following afternoon.  But as the saying goes, “you’ve gotta finish to win” and Team “Our Dianne” battened down the hatches and hoisted the spinnaker.



A posting by Marc Bow on Team “Our Dianne’s” blog after the first night said, “this isn’t sailing, this is racing.” Marc was referring to how the team had gritted their teeth and kept the spinnaker up for most of the night, the boat maxing out at 16 knots, way above it’s intended hull speed.



For the next week Team “Our Dianne” held onto the lead keeping the ”throttle” wide open and somehow keeping the fastest boat in the fleet, the state of the art Trimaran Banjo, behind them.



Dawn on day 7 seven however brought disaster as the crew discovered they had lost all power in the night and were unable to charge the batteries on board. This meant the team had lost all but one means of staying in touch with the outside world and they also lost all their lights.  The boat was now dangerously unlit at night on a huge open ocean. Fortunately the team had a slightly charged mobile satellite phone from Sat-4-Rent on board and was still able to report each day, although no one was able to make contact with the boat. Despite this technical set back spirits remained high on board and Team “Our Dianne” continued to push hard despite the boat being pitch black at night.

Skipper Billy Leisegang said of the crew “What really impressed me was how the guys kept smiling and operational”



The morning report on day 7 compounded the situation on board when they learnt that the faster Trimaran Banjo had eventually overtaken them in the night. However, with the handicap system used in yacht racing Banjo needed to beat Our Dianne by almost 2 days to secure a win and in the end only managed to cross the finish line 5 hours ahead of Team “Our Dianne” on the 10th of December. Team “Our Dianne” crossed the finish line off Jamestown St Helena at 11:37am local time, after an elapsed time of 10 days, 1 hour and 37 minutes. The next boat Rotary Scout only arrived at the island 72 hours later.



Team “Our Dianne” had won the 2010 Governors Cup by 22 hours and 35 minutes, securing the hat trick in the process.



Final Results



Over all Governors Cup title            - Our Dianne

Line honours                                    - Banjo

All classes over all on handicap            - Our Dianne

Monuhull Cruising                                    - Rotary Scout

Multihull Cruising                                    - Banjo



Team “Our Dianne” would like to thank all its partners who helped make this win possible.



- Sat 4 Rent for all the invaluable satellite communications, both voice and data.

- Cape Storm for our fantastic team kit, the guys are huge fans and still wear it every day.

- Volvo for the support in the making of documentary, you made everything possible for everyone else.

- Red Bull for the elixir of energy that REALLY kept us pumping at three am.

- SAB for the Peroni that the crew are now addicted to.




Team Our dianne receives the Governors Cup

Months of planning and preparation, and ten days of fast and determined sailing were finally rewarded today as Team Our Dianne collected the coveted crystal trophy, The Governors Cup. Billy Leisegang proudly accepted the trophy for the third time, bagging the hat trick in the process. Line honours went to the trimaran of Frans Loots on Banjo, while a handicap adjusted 22 hour lead saw Team Our Dianne also bag the overall handicap win across the entire fleet. In addition to their two pieces of silverware Billy was also awarded the Peroni beer for a year prize for the overall result.
Rotary Scout skippered by Mark Jennings and Peter Bosch with 6 scouts on board took the PHRF Cruising division title.

Team Our Dianne have won the 2010 Governors cup

It's official, Team Our Dianne have won the 2010 Governors Cup Yacht Race, and in doing so have secured Billy Leisegang the coveted crystal trophy for an unprecidented third time. Lionel Dyk, former chairman of the race committee and commodore of False Bay Yacht club confirmed the result at the Governor's function Friday evening and expressed how pleased he was the trophy was returning to False Bay Yacht Club.
The official prize giving will be on Sunday afternoon in Jamestown where the overall handicap results will also be announced.

Governors Function at plantation House

Team Our Dianne, along with the rest of the fleet were hosted by the governor of St Helena island, His Excellency Andrew Gurr, at the official Governors Cup welcome function at Plantation house Friday evening. Also in attendance were a host of prominent island and governmental VIP's as well as a host of both local and international media representatives from TV, radio and print media. Each member of crew was presented with a Commemrative first day stamp collection to commemerate the 2010 Governors Cup Yacht Race.

Team Our Dianne Finishes after 10 days and 1 hour.

At last, after almiost 5 days of darkness we have finally found a computer where we can post. On Saturday at about 11am St helena time Our Dianne crossed the finish line in perferct tropical weather. Banjo, after some incredible sailing managed to secure line honours by about 6 hours, crossing the line at dawn Saturday. Communication was brought to a standstill after a battery problem prevented us from starting the engine and charging batteries, resulting in a dangerously dark boat for the last few days at sea. Despite that spirits were high all the way to the finish and we now wait at Annes Restautrant for the rest of the fleet to arrive. It's now monday afternoon and the next boats are only expected early Tuesday, almost 72 hours after Banjo and ourselves. As far as the Governors Cup trophy race is concerned the only boat still out there with a chance of taking it is Reaction, who are still more than two days out. So without jumping the gun we confidently wait for the rest of the fleet to arrive. Life on the Island is exactly that, island life. We're sitting in Annes Restauarant now, a perfect island spot by the water surrounded by lush green palms and other island flora, the weather is hot and the beer is lined with condensation, perfect! The team is in great spirits and is looking forward to welcoming the rest of the fleet in the style we were welcomed.

Almost there! (If not there already...)

Waldo van der Waal posting again, still from dry land...

With the continued communication blackout from Our Dianne (imposed by alleged power problems), we still don't know exactly what is going on.

But the word through the *official* channels is that Banjo took line honours yesterday, with Swimlion and Our Dianne now very close to St. Helena. This information is rather fourth-hand, however, so we can't be 100% certain of the accuracy.

The bottom line is that Our Dianne should be arriving very very soon now, if she hasn't already. Now all we can do is wait to hear from them...

Power problems, but otherwise fine (apparently!)

Waldo van der Waal posting, from dry land...

People following the progress of the race via the race tracker at http://www.thegovernorscup.co.za/ will have noticed that Our Dianne has come to a complete stop, and has been losing ground to Banjo and Swimlion. There also haven't been many updates to this blog - which all looks a bit suspicious.

But fear not, Our Dianne is actually in good shape, and making great progress at the head of the field. This is according to Andrew McKenzie at FBYC, who explained that Our Dianne reported problems with their power - be it solar or batteries. As such, they have elected to turn off all non-essential equipment, including the satellite tracking equipment. Sadly, their data terminal has clearly also been shut down, which means no updates until they arrive in St. Helena - we think!

The static image at the top of the tracker page shows the position as updated according to the daily satphone conversation with FBYC, and shows Our Dianne slightly behind Banjo, who seems to have taken a clear lead in the dash for line honours. But commenting on the situation from land is unfair at best, as only the crew on the water really knows what the conditions are like.

In the mean time, here's a pretty picture of Our Dianne rounding the Cape last week, right at the start of the race: