Robberg Fine Foods’ General Manager Blaine Dodds and his crew Andrew Ward have won the SA Hobie Tiger Nationals at Langebaan on the West Coast.

Having won the regatta a number of times before, and twice with Andrew Ward as his crew, the fact that the regatta could not take place in 2020 due to Covid-19 meant that this year’s win made it three in a row for Blaine and his teammate.

Blaine Dodds and Andrew Ward at the Hobie Tiger Nationals

This year’s regatta took place from 18th to 21st March with a total of 12 races in conditions that varied from a light breeze to gale force conditions.

Plett featured strongly with 2nd place overall going to fellow locals William Edwards (current Hobie 16 Nationals champion) and his son Doug.

Blaine Dodds and Andrew Ward in their Hobie Tiger

Being a lightweight team, Blaine and Andrew dominated on day one with three wins in the light wind conditions, but with the forecast showing strong gale force winds, they knew they would have their work cut out for them over the next few days.

On day two, in heavier conditions, the first couple of races went to Team Edwards with Blaine and Andrew managing to seal a win in the third race of the day after changing out a blown spinnaker in race number two.

Blaine Dodds and Andrew Ward in light wind conditions

Day three’s forecast was over 25 knots, so Blaine and Andrew did well to seal a win in the one and only race of the day.

The fourth and final day saw a total of four races taking place in a good southerly breeze of up to 18 knots. Blaine and Andrew won the first two races but were unfortunately disqualified in the third race due to an OCS (On Course Start/premature start) which meant they had to run a conservative final race to win overall.

The Dodds/Ward duo was ably backed by Blaine’s wife, June, who took on the background (but particularly important) role of catering, with sandwiches and drinks at the ready each time the team came off the water.

Final Overall Results

• Blaine Dodds/Andrew Ward 20 pts
• William and Doug Edwards 23 pts
• Duncan Ross/Hein De Jamaer 35 pts
• Shaun Ferry/Murray Willcocks 35 pts
• Garth Loudon/Johnny Van der Vyver 42 pts
• Paul Lagesse/Dylan Albert 44 pts

Blaine Dodds and Andrew Ward