"We have continued to run our Youth Training Program out of the navy base in Simon's Town right through the winter, only breaking for the worst of the storms. (I left Mathew for a few weeks and escaped to Italy for some races)

Currently we are working with the following groups: a youth group from Strandfontein, the streetchildren from Cape Town and Claremont and some younger children from Red Hill informal settlement. We usually have about 6 kids a day (the maximum that can fit into a cars and into 2 bosun dinghies. If a few extra pitch up, then we can rely on Marcello or Carder, graduates of previous programs, to help out.

The Street kids sail every Thursday morning. Although we feel satisfied with what we are achieving, it is difficult to train the same guys consistently as there is a high turnover of kids. This is mostly due to kids being in jail, or moving away, but sometimes it is because they have gone back to their families or communities or that they have chosen to enter rehabilitation centres. We hope we have contributed a little to the desire of the latter group of kids to seek more stability in their lives.

The Strandfontein youth have developed good sailing skills. There is still the problem of negative influences and drugs. Most do not have jobs or go to school, so there is a great temptation to lapse. A few of the guys are now very competent keelboat crew and dinghy helmsmen.

The Red Hill kids sail on most afternoons, except when the weather makes it impossible (and they are tough little guys). We pick them up at Kleinberg Primary School in Ocean View and bring them down to Simon's Town. We sail on the bosuns, swim, paddle on a windsurfer etc. The kids are now completely comfortable with being on or in the water. On one of the days, an early-arriving whale came up next to the boat and one little kid started crying so they had to go ashore. The next day he was back, looking around nervously for the "beeg feesh". We have got to the stage, where, in light winds, can sail the bosun by themselves. It is very exciting for me to see them sailing. They are aged between 7 and 13. After sailing, we have a chip sandwich and take them home, usually with underpants hanging out of the windows to dry. We are not able to heed their pleas to ride over a guinea fowl to take home to their mothers.

Two of our graduates, Mujaheed Mathews and Claire Bouah, were sponsored by Admiral Louw and Capt. Salvatore Sarno to go on a trip to Germany. The trip is organised by the German war graves commission. Kids come from 15 different countries to the city of Bremen. For a few mornings, they work in a war cemetery. The message that is learnt by the kids is that war should never be an option for anyone. The rest of the time, the stay with families and are taken on cultural excursions in the city. They left on Sunday the 4th of August and will be away for three weeks. A large group of about 40 very excited family and friends came to the airport to see them off. We look forward to hearing about the trip.

We raced in Durban at the beginning of July at the NCS Regatta. Mathew helmed our L26 with a crew of trainees. They did very well, finishing in the top half of the fleet. The trip was a great success. MSC, paid for the bus trip up for about 50 development sailors from various yacht clubs and the guys camped around the swimming pool at the Point Yacht Club.

In the next few weeks, our projects consist of:

To compete in the Lipton cup it the end of August. Mathew will hope to continue the development of his team so that they will challenge for honours in the future. MSC will sponsor the team as well as my (hopefully) "developed" team.

The Good Hope Seminary will continue training with us in September.

Together with Ant Steward and Manuel Mendes, we are starting to train a few guys to build and maintain boats with the aim of increasing their chances of finding jobs.

We will do the next 2-day sail/mountain hike to Gordon's Bay with the Red Hill kids at the beginning of September run another development regatta towards the end of September

Although we (us and the kids) have a lot of fun, we've had few setbacks such as when something is stolen or kids don't turn up for training because they've lost the plot and gone a "bender". Although these incidents are isolated, we've developed a "code of honour of future sailing champions" which the kids can voluntarily sign. Amongst other things, they promise that the only thing that they will steal is the other boat's wind, that they will always keep trying their best, even if they are behind in a race and that they will take care of their boats.

Expect some poor looking kids to pitch up regattas soon, sailing very fast and they will definitely be stealing your wind (honourably)!

Thanks to Mediterranean Shipping Company, the Jewish Maritime League and Monarch Assurance who sponsor various courses. Also to Admiral Koos Louw, who is always prepared to "maak a plan" if we need anything."