22 October 2003

The project continues to grow in numbers and activities. New groups from St. James and Ocean View High have started with us this term. The great group of highly motivated kids that we have on the program, make this work highly rewarding for the instructors.

While we have to be flexible if we want to meet the needs of the kids, we also need to maintain the balance of being a very tightly focussed and cost effective organisation. At the moment, we have a steady stream of kids coming through the center on 6 days a week. On weekdays, there is time to first do homework under supervision and/or chores before starting the various activities for the day.

Carder Williams – the latest strange bru
Carder was part of one of the first groups that came through the program a few years ago. He is now working with us on a full-time basis. He is mostly responsible for maintenance of our boats as well as the boat building program. But, like the rest of us, he is part instructor, rescuer, sandwich-maker, etc. Carder is quiet and relaxed, yet commands respect from all the kids. Also, having shared a similar background to many of the youths, he is a very powerful role model and is often in a much better position to offer advice and share life skills with the kids than I could be.

School Holiday Program
Between 30 and 40 kids attended the school holiday program. At times it was a bit hectic, as it seemed there was always a scuffle threatening to break out somewhere, or at least 20 kids calling me simultaneously. Activities varied from novelty races, navigational exercises, cruising to Kalk Bay harbour, seamanship exercises, hiking, designing and building a model, environmental education etc. All through we try to emphasise learning new skills and teaching the core values of awareness, integrity and responsibility. It becomes obvious to us that people love to learn, work and challenge themselves if the environment is right and they are having fun. With no syllabus to "get through", we try to provide the conditions for the kid’s to teach themselves. This is a luxury that not many schoolteachers have! On one of the days, we had a group of Timberland employees come down on a company volunteer day. They helped with the various activities and cooked up a huge meal for everyone. Good times!

Central Boating Development Regatta
The latest edition of development regattas was held over 10-12 October. Central Boating sponsored the event. As well as kids from our program, there were teams representing Grassy Park High and the Hout Bay YC development program. It started on the same Friday afternoon that the Double Cape Race was cancelled. Plenty of cocky sailors were demanding to race, so we rigged up one bosun and let them have turns to blast and cartwheel around the bay in 30-40knots. They were all humbled, coming in, tail between the legs, with much more respect for the elements! On Saturday, the wind had died, so we sent them out into the bay for some wave riding. The race committee (Matt and I) had a great view from our bumpy, 10 ft committee boat. There was some great racing accompanied by much whooping and yelling as the bosun tubs surfed downwind. We sent them back into the bay for the afternoon after Carder "baywatch" Williams, buzzing around in the rescue boat, had to pluck a few sailors who had been "dispossessed" of their boat, from the water. In all, we got in 6 races during the day. Even though most of the sailors were pretty exhausted, we had their rapt attention for a rules and tactics briefing afterwards. On Sunday, there was no wind in the morning, so we paddled the fleet over to Long Beach for a 5-a-side beach soccer tournament. I think the Simon’s Town School hostel team won. After lunch, the wind came up and we could run a further 3 races in very variable, pre-thunderstorm conditions. The team of Wandisile, Thembalani and Dane had definitely visited a sangoma the night before because in the one race, they lapped the fleet. However, for the overall title the team of Marcello Burricks, Enrico Geldenhuys and Brent Laguma were never threatened. They were far ahead on points. Marcello is sailing really well, now. It is time for him to start sailing lasers seriously. In second place overall was Musa and Sikelela and third Wandisile (the hobbit) Xayimpi’s team. Central boating handed out some really nice prizes. These regattas are really fun and the kids learn a lot. Maybe some "mainstream" sailors will be surprised at the level of the sailing when they come to compete.

Sailor of the Month
This award is given to the sailor who shows the most improvement, commitment and willingness to help others. The award comes with a voucher from Cafe Pescado for a big scoff as well as the prized ‘gray shirt"

Winners were:

August Thembelani Sidlayi
September Wandisile Xayimpi

Sailing League
The league runs for a school term, accumulating the scores of the 4-6 races we run every Friday afternoon. The stakes are high as the winners, providing they fulfill their other obligations with the program, get to sail the mirrors in the Western Cape points series regattas. The racing is fierce and often very entertaining to watch. We normally film these races so that we can go over their errors. The footage is sometime hilarious. It is very funny to see a guy go for a huge roll tack, miss his toestrap and catapult himself out of the boat backwards with a dramatic somersault. Entertainment value is enhanced if he continues to shout his rights to nearby boats as he is being towed by the mainsheet 5m behind the boat, while the crew steers. Another example: crew gets their mainsheet caught on a moored motorboat. They frantically try to free it as the fleet roar by. In desperation, the helm jumps into the water, swims over the motorboat and disentangles it. The boat, of course, goes flying off with the helmsman still hanging onto the moored boat. From the video evidence, the thought of turning around to rescue his helm does not enter the crew’s head for a second. He grabs the helm, mainsheet, jibsheet etc and hikes hard (single-handedly) all the way around the course. He even covers the group behind him up the last beat, ignoring the plaintive wails from his helmsman. Meanwhile, other boats are roaring by the helmsman, also unconcerned by his pleas for rescue. (what happened to safety first??)Finally, he grabs desperately onto the last-placed boat, who allow him on board with very ill-grace. For the rest of the race I hear vociferous muttering from the glorious rescue team about the extra weight in the boat and demands that the passenger hikes harder! By this stage, the camera is shaking violently as I hoot with laughter.

There are some serious moments, though! The winners of the term league were: Wandisile Xayimpi and Andile Zenzile with Musa Mbakaza and Sikelela Sotyato second.

Farming
Matt has finally got his way, and now we are farmers as well. He has grown his beard and started wearing a floppy hat so that he looks the part. (strange, bru). Carla Jackson comes in and teaches the kids and us how to grow and look after the vegetables. The farmers each have their patch, the vegetables from which they will be able to take home once they are ripe. We hope to encourage them to start growing vegetables in their communities, using the skills that Carla has taught them.

Recycling
Matt is teaching the kids about recycling. He is aiming for our project to have zero emissions and, to this end, we are trying to cut down on waste and to recycle as much as possible. We find that the poorer kids take to it very easily. For economic reasons, their communities do not waste much and it has been insightful for us to be aware of all the waste that we normally produce unthinkingly.

Boat Building
A group of students are building a mirror dinghy from a kit. The emphasis is on learning handwork skills. I often have to rein in my natural impatience to see the final product in order to emphasise the learning process. Together with Salvatore Sarno, We will develop this side of the project much more in the next few months.

Mirror Sailing
A group of sailors are competing in the Western Cape points series in Mirror dinghies. Matt was distinctly unenthused when we got our first mirror. "Lemon" and "tub" were the most frequent adjectives. Fast they are not, but the amount this program is teaching the kids has won him over. As the regattas are "away," planning and boat maintenance skills are very important. Anyone reading this who sailed against me a few years back, could be forgiven for thinking it is a case of the blind leading the blind in this respect. However, the squad is now quite good at getting their boats fixed and we are sometimes on time for the races. As we build new boats, the older one’s get shuffled down the pecking order. Squad members all have long term goals and a training plan to get there. The problem is, quite a few have "2005 mirror world champion" on top of the goal list!

Keelboat Sailing
Matt and his team Donna Mia, continue to develop their seamanship, boat maintenance and teamwork skills on the L26. They have been really successful and have recently won the GBYC Spar Regatta, the JML Development regatta and they topped their class in the FBYC Spring Regatta. Many more of the kids crewed on other boats in the spring regatta. I noticed that post-race discussion seemed to center more around comparing the dimensions of their respective boat’s cooler box and it’s contents than the actual racing!

Donors
Matt and I are really bad at fundraising. In fact we don’t even try. So we are constantly amazed when someone phones up saying: "I saw all these kids sailing so well and I’d like to help, donate something etc.." or they’ll pop in with some old clothes or sailing magazines. We get the feeling that people want to contribute to society. In the last few months, we’ve had generous donations from the following people, who I would like to acknowledge:

Theo Waardenburg who donated a mirror dinghy which is in constant use Walter Impey gave us a bookshelf full of wonderful sailing books, covering every topic.

Pia Cornelius went and bought us trolley-load of groceries and donated some cash to buy more.

Ian Weinberg of the NSRI gave us a small rubber duck for rescue

After a few months of getting absolutely no funding, a cheque appeared for R3000 from children of the Loreto Convent in Mulligar, Ireland. These kids organised a fundraiser for the program on the basis of seeing some video footage of the kids – incredible!

Dr. Adnaan Mia dropped off a whole stack of t-shirts, which he had made up for us. (a stock of prizes for a long time)

Admiral Koos Louw continues to pop around with goodies for the kids.

The SA Mirror Class Association donated a mirror kit to us. We also have one boat on loan from fleet 6 of the class association.

Sanlam contributed to the costs of a new bosun mast.