Point Yacht Club
Interview with Benji Daniel
Durban has a budding new talent in the sailing
fraternity, that of 14 year old Benji Daniel who hails from Hillcrest.
The youngster has just returned from the coastal town of
Pwllheli in the north of Wales where he and his team mate Euan Hurter, competed
in the Zhik 29er World Championships Regatta, finishing in an impressive and
highly respectable fourth in the silver fleet.
Daniel was the youngest skipper competing out of 193
boats, “I enjoyed the challenge of being one of the younger skippers, a lot of
the more experienced guys that were double or triple my age thought we were a
joke and we managed to prove them wrong. But saying that, I learnt a tremendous
amount being there, giving a gutsy performance and competing against the older
guys!”
Asked how he would describe himself, the energetic water
enthusiast claims it would be determined. Currently finishing Grade 9 at Thomas More
College, Daniel’s impressive international sailing CV continues to grow with each
event he participates in.
“I think that Euan and I have both sailed enough in
big fleets to get to grips a bit more on what to focus on. In a big fleet it is
vital that you sail the fleet not a particular person, you also have to really
focus the whole time because every mistake you make is punished which is good
for gaining places but you lose out very quickly if you don't focus.”
Originally from Guildford in the south-east of London,
the budding sailor compares, “Sailing in the UK is very structured, you learn
to sail on an optimists, then you move up to RS Fevas and then on to 29ers
where as in South Africa you do a bit of everything which in my opinion is just
as good because you become a more rounded sailor capable of sailing anything.”
Having resided in South Africa for just over two years,
he talks about the conditions when returning back to compete in his birth
country, “Worlds was hard because of the venue, there were many land features
that you had to know about but this was only for certain wind directions.
Generally it was a pumping South-Wester which brought huge chop; that was the
biggest challenge keeping the boat upright in those conditions.”
Chatting about a moment that stands out for him, he
enthuses, “The moment that stands out for me most is when we got a second in the
8th race. We had a good start but had lost out on the first upwind
then came the downwind. We gybed off early and just sent it. We gained a lot of
places, and on the next upwind we worked hard and sailed over the fleet
followed by a consistent downwind led us to that result. Another moment would
be the first day of the UK nationals coming off the water to find out we were
eleventh overall. We didn't expect that!” reports the smiling lad.
At the recent Point Yacht Club’s Prize-Giving, Daniel
cleaned up in both the youth and dinghy awards, raking in certificates,
plaques, clocks and a trophy for PYC Youth Sailor of the Year that will take
pride-and-place in his trophy cabinet at home.
His next challenge is that of training up his new team
mate, Chad Stevenson. “I think in a year’s time Chad and I will be ready to
take on the big names at the next worlds. It is in Long Beach, California in
2017; I would really like to go but for now the hard work starts so we can
achieve this dream.”
But for now, the hard-working scholar returns to his
books and concentrates on the final term of Grade 9, while getting as much
sailing in on the weekends with his new sailing buddy. The next big event for
him will be the start of the Point Yacht Club’s Dinghy Series at the end of
October.
For more info visit www.pyc.co.za
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