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.
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