Its all down to the last race.

Once again, the intrepid teams took to the waters of Table Bay to do battle, and a mighty battle it was. With the leading boat, "Team Colorpress" (Knysna YC), not far enough ahead to be comfortable, and the 2nd placed "Team Intasure Marine Insurance" very much in the hunt, today's racing lived up to all expectations. Held in a 10 knot Northerly wind and sailing a sausage course of approximately 12 miles it was a duel to the end. Needing to insure that "Team Colorpress" didn't win, Andrea Giovannini and Markus Progli applied the pressure ruthlessly, right from the start and forced the leaders to fight for their position all around today's course.

While this was going on, it was young sailors Kader Williams and Asenathi Jim who were the stars today. These two youngsters have come up through the ranks and are part of the success story that Izivunguvungu Sailing is. Izivunguvungu is a sailing school, based at the SA Naval Dockyard in Simonstown and is backed by the SA Navy, Royal Cape Yacht Club and numerous others in the sailing community. Catering specifically to disadvantaged youngsters, this program teaches them sailing skills as well as boat building and maintenance skills and is the feeder program for the highly successful Race Ahead Program that is regularly competing in the European Sailing Circuit and doing very well. These two sailors showed their mettle today by winning today's race convincingly, after taking the lead halfway in the race.

Today's results were as follows: 1st - Kader Williams and Asenathi Jim sailing "Race Ahead Green Light" (Defence Boland YC); 2nd - "Team Intasure Marine Insurance (False Bay YC); 3rd - "Dynamic ID Systems" (Royal Cape YC); 4th - "Team Colorpress" (Knysna YC) and 5th - "Orion Challenger (Royal Natal YC).

After 5 days of intense racing and thrills and spills, it will all be decided on the water tomorrow. With only 4 points separating the top two, this competition is wide open and it's going to be up to "Team Intasure Marine Insurance" to try to force a mistake from "Team Colorpress" that results in them finishing at least 4 places behind "Team Intasure Marine Insurance".

Either way, it looks certain that the Lipton Cup is going to be moving away from Royal Cape and being sailed on Table Bay. - Matthew L. Thomas

Race 5 Results Click to Download

Overall Results and additional days results