Smooth Sailing
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News By A Sailor For Sailors!
In
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I expected my comments on
the Optimist Worlds in the last edition of Smooth Sailing to generate a
response and I wasn’t wrong. However what I didn’t expect was the source of
that response, not an aggrieved Opi parent, but rather a well-known and
respected big boat owner from KZN! You will find Don Voysey’s letter further
down in this newsletter and its well worth reading as he makes some very good
points. His comments got me thinking, kept me thinking most of the weekend in
fact! Its no secret that I think that our Opi Worlds efforts are largely a
wasted and misdirected effort. Its also no secret that I think that the
Shosholoza America’s Cup Challenge is one of the best things to happen to the
sport of sailing in South Africa for a very long time. Don argues that the
while the cost of the Opi effort is born by the parents involved, the cost of
the America’s Cup is, in some instances like this years un-sponsored Vasco Da
Gama Ocean Race, costing the sport in SA on the whole. He might well be right!
Having given it some serious thought, there is little else to do in PE on any
given weekend after all, I am fairly well convinced that Don has a point. I may
be wrong but I am pretty sure that on an exposure for Rands basis the Vasco
Race represents far better value for money than a square meter or two of
advertising space on the side of Shosholoza does! Value for money or not the
other thing to consider is whether the money that is going into the AC
Challenge would be coming into the sport otherwise. Probably not but perhaps,
when it’s all over, there is the potential to keep some of those names on the
side of Shosholoza in the sport. The problem I have with the Opi scene remains
though and no amount of thinking has resolved it in my mind. It isn’t so much
the cost involved, although that’s clearly an issue and probably the easiest
point to attack, but rather the pressure that the whole worlds and selection
series places on our sailors. In my opinion too few of the young sailors who go
through that system ultimately identify sailing with a pressure situation,
pressure to perform, make the worlds team, win the nationals, repay dads
sacrifice in buying that new sail. It just not enough fun! Seldom do I see Opi
sailors just sailing for the fun of it, its always training, racing, sailing
around with the coach not far away in a duck. That for me is where the problem
lays, its not enough fun. If it’s more fun and there’s less pressure there’s
still no reason why we wont be able to identify the real talent. There is
however the prospect that we might keep more of these sailors in the sport for
longer and that ultimately has to be better for the good of sailing! As always
if you have anything to ad mail it to me at andrew@smoothsailing.co.za.
Olympic
Games
Letter To The Editor
SAS News
Student Sailing Forum
August is the Olympic with the Olympic Regatta starting on the 15th. South
Africa has only one yachtsman taking part in the event and that’s Gareth
Blankenburg who is sailing in the Laser class. Today ISAF released their latest
world sailing rankings along with their predictions on whom to look out for at
the games. Gareth has gone up one place from 5th to 4th
in the rankings behind Paul Goodison of Great Britain, Australian Michael
Blackburn and legendary Brazilian sailor Robert Scheidt. Their preview of the
medal contenders seems to rate Gareth really highly, as a better prospect that
the third ranked Brit in fact. That’s probably because Paul Goodison had a
tremendous slump in form last year, blamed on mental fatigue, and there are
many who think that he won’t stand up to the pressure and intensity of the
games. However they also describe Gareth’s performance at this year’s Laser
Worlds as lacklustre, which may well be a fairly accurate assessment. Gareth
does have a tendency in big events to start off well and then fade in the
second half. Hopefully that’s something that won’t happen in the games. With
any luck he will be able to start off well and keep going that way.
Realistically I think that Gareth will be hard pressed to finish this regatta
in front of either Scheidt or Blackburn, both previously medallists in this
class. But in terms of the rest of the fleet he has beaten them all before and
I am pretty sure he can do it again, I really hope that he peaks at the right
time and brings home a medal. Wouldn’t that be great for the sport in SA? Boat
allocation in the Laser class was set to take place today and the first race of
the regatta takes on Sunday the 15th of August. We will keep you
updated as the Olympic regatta progresses but to follow it on the net go to www.sailing.org.
RE: Opi Worlds & The America’s Cup
It amazes me how critical many people, including you guys,
are of the yearly SA Opi campaign to the worlds and the Africa champs and how
it costs the parents a lot of money to send the young sailors to these events
and that the money could be better used to train a lot more of our youth
on a wider scale.
What about the Americas Cup campaign and what that costs to
sail ONE boat by so few of our
country's sailors. Maybe we should be using that money (Millions not thousands
as in the Opi case) for developing sailing in our country for the masses and
not the few sailors that will really benefit from the challenge.
As a result of the launch of the campaign one of the
longest serving events in South Africa, the Vasco Da Gama race failed to
find a sponsor for this years race as potential sponsors seem to have lost
interest in local races and seem only to be looking to the SA Americas Cup
campaign to sponsor. The Vasco race has been sailed for the last three years
with 20 to 25 South African boats and +- 150 South African yachtsmen on
the start line.
One also forgets that a majority of our top yachtsman have
been developed through learning and sailing oppies and then going on to sail a
variety of different boats and some have even been drafted to the SA
Americas cup team.
As you both are an important voice in Sailing in SA rather
look at the positive side of the oppie campaign and do not always run them
down, as a lot of these younger sailors become our future star sailors,
look at the young Justin in the laser 4.7 youth worlds
Makes you think doesn’t it?
Kind Regards,
Don Voysey
Entries have
closed for the 2004 Lipton
Challenge Cup, which
takes place in Cape Town from the 20th to the 27th of
August. With all that’s going on in the sailing world at the moment I had
expected that entries for this regatta would be down a bit this year but am
pleased to say that I was wrong. Twenty-six clubs have put forward challenges
for the trophy so it looks like it will be a big regatta once again. This
weekend sees the L26 Western Province Champs taking place in Table Bay and with
most of the major Lipton contenders taking part this regatta should give us an
idea of who the form teams are. We will bring you the results and a regatta
report from this event next week. In the meantime the entry list for the Lipton
Cup is as follows:
|
Club |
Yacht Name |
Skipper/s |
|
Algoa Bay Yacht Club |
Blick/Stanley Challenger |
Rob Archibald |
|
Lake Deneys Yacht Club |
Tatoosh |
Tielman Burger |
|
Durban Radio Boat Club |
Parental Guidance |
Thomas Thornton |
|
Point Yacht Club |
Tyco |
Jonathan Heathcote |
|
Royal Natal Yacht Club |
Orion Challenger |
Mike Joubert |
|
University of KwaZulu Natal Yacht Club |
Galactica |
Neil Tocknell |
|
Zululand Yacht Club |
Dock Leveller Supplies Windsong |
Nigel Miln |
|
Defence Yacht Club Kwazulu Natal |
Kaap St Lucia |
|
|
Witbank Yacht and Aquatic Club |
Commodore Waterfront Hotel |
Dave Garrard |
|
Transvaal Yacht Club |
Rote Hexe |
Ron Gurnell/Ewald Sternhagel |
|
Wits Yacht Club |
North Sails Wits |
Graeme Wilcox |
|
Cannons Creek Sailing Club |
Cannons Creek |
David Arnott |
|
False Bay Yacht Club |
|
|
|
Gordon's Bay Yacht Club |
|
|
|
Hout Bay Yacht Club |
Bandito |
Rian Turner |
|
Milnerton Aquatic Club |
Ariel |
Eric Marshall |
|
Mossel Bay Yacht and Boat Club |
Eikos Insurance |
Ernest Chicken |
|
Port Own Yacht Club |
JML 1/Tommy Hilfiger |
Ashwin Simon |
|
Settlers Yacht Club |
JML 3 Aries |
Theo Yon |
|
Theewater Sports Club |
Dalys Insurance |
Rick Nankin |
|
University of Cape Town Yacht Club |
FastComm |
Richard Tanner |
|
Zeekoevlei Yacht Club |
MSC Foundation for Youth |
Ian Ainslie/Mathew Mentz |
|
Traditional Boat Association |
Quiver Outdoor Gear |
Andrea Giovannini |
|
Royal Cape Yacht Club |
RCYC Greenlight |
Dave Hudson |
|
Hottentots Holland Beach Sailing Club |
ID Systems |
Paul Lagesse |
|
Defence Yacht Club Western Province |
Cape Agulhas |
Ewald Groenewald |
The latest SAS Bulletin, Number 7 of 2004 is out and definitely need to be read. It
follows on directly from Bulletin Number 6, which was published recently in
Smooth Sailing, and pertains to the means by which SAS is financed. While it
may not be the most exciting topic its pretty important stuff with the current
means of SAS deriving its revenue being probably the single biggest point that
the members complain about. Viable solutions are being sought but SAS needs the
members and the clubs buy in to do this. Do your bit! The Bulletin is below:
South African Sailing - Alternative Financing Proposal
Further to Bulletin 6 / 2004
regarding the investigation into alternative means of financing SA Sailing the
FINCOM team has been questioned as to whether an alternative is actually
necessary. The only way to resolve this is to request a mandate for change from
the member Clubs.
SAS requests that member
clubs provide a YES or NO answer to the following question.
Does your
Club membership wish to consider an alternative means to the levy system for
raising SAS finances?
Please
note that any change if voted for will not take place until an alternative
scheme is properly structured and accepted by the membership. Until that time, the existing system will
remain in place and Clubs will still be responsible for the collection of
levies payable to SAS.
Should
your club vote NO for change, you will be voting to continue the existing levy
system with Clubs being responsible for the collection of the levies in
accordance with Byelaw 5 of the Constitution.
Should
your club vote YES for change you will be voting to change the levy system and
FINCOM will investigate a system that could include Individual membership and
an annual Club affiliation fee.
FINCOM
will continue with the investigation pending the decision. If the decision is YES for change then Club
assistance in providing information will be required.
Club Action
Your SAS
office needs a YES or a NO answer sent by Email or letter to reach the SAS
offices by 1700 on the 23rd AUGUST 2004. Votes will be in terms of
Bylaw 4 of the constitution which is quoted below:
1
PROCEDURE
1.1
Voting by Affiliated Clubs shall be counted on a
proportional basis.
1.2
Each Affiliated Club shall be entitled to a number
of votes based on the total amount of Annual National Subscription (ANS) paid
by that Affiliated Club in the previous financial year divided by 100 times an
Individuals Member's SAS subscription (including VAT), with any fraction after
this division rounded up to the nearest whole number.
Your
co-operation is appreciated.
SAS
FINCOM
28th
July 2004”
An innovative Wits Yacht Club member, or should that be a Wits Yacht
Club member with too much spare time on his hands, has put some effort into
getting a Student Sailing
Forum up and running. Created under the SASSU banner it’s hoped
that this forum will stimulate some SA sailing debate on the Internet. I think
it’s a good thing and hope that it goes some way to improving communication
among yachties from around the country. The guy who put it all together, Paco
Mendes, tells me that he thinks there is a need for a South African sailing
forum. I think he is right but also think that South Africans, and sailors in
particular, don’t seem to use the net as much as they should or could.
Certainly the forum on the Smooth Sailing site wasn’t used as well as it might
have been which is why we removed it recently. Hopefully this one will see
better use, certainly targeting the students, who lets face it spend plenty of
time each week surfing the net in varsity computer labs, might make better use
of it than the rest of us who have proper jobs! Check it out at http://www.bbfree.net/SASSU-Yacht.
The South African Hobie Class Association have launched a new web site. With the 2005 Hobie 16
Worlds scheduled to take place in Port Elizabeth this will be a web site worth
keeping an eye on. Check it out at www.sahobie.hobieclass.com/.
Our Notices of Race page on the Smooth Sailing has all the NOR’s available to us. If you
have a regatta coming up and would like to make the NOR available online then
e-mail it to hethcot@iafrica.com and it will be posted and
listed in this newsletter. To get your copy simply click on the name of the
regatta you are interested in below:
|
Regatta |
Venue |
Dates |
|
Point, Royal Natal & Zululand
Yacht Clubs and Club Naval, Maputo |
December 2003 to July 2004 |
|
|
Newcastle Aquatic Sports Club |
7 to 9 August |
|
|
Transvaal Yacht Club |
7 to 9 August |
|
|
Pretoria Sailing Club |
7 to 9 August |
|
|
Pretoria Sailing Club |
7 to 9 August |
|
|
Durban Radio Boat Club |
7 to 9 August |
|
|
V & A Waterfront, Table Bay |
20 to 27 August |
|
|
Maritzburg Radio Boat Club |
21 August |
|
|
Seal Point Yacht Club |
11 & 12 September |
|
|
Denysville Aquatic Club |
22 to 26 September |
|
|
Denysville Aquatic Club |
22 to 26 September |
|
|
Theewaters Sports Club |
23 to 26 September |
|
|
Zululand Yacht Club |
1 to 3 October |
|
|
Henley Midmar Yacht Club |
2 & 3 October |
|
|
Henley Midmar Yacht Club |
16 & 17 October |
|
|
Redhouse Yacht Club |
22 to 24 October |
|
|
Hermanus Yacht Club |
11 to 18 December |
|
|
Royal Cape Yacht Club |
4 January 2006 |
The Smooth Sailing Classifieds are a free service for private advertisers only. This service is not available to any commercial enterprise or service provider. To place an ad, e-mail the details to andrew@smoothsailing.co.za.
FOR SALE
Excellent
Condition
Contact: Mike
Hawse
Cell: 083 648 0163
Posted:
30/07/04
80 litres/hour, 220v or mechanical drive
In kit form and extremely easy to install
R20 000-00 neg
&
Aries type complete unit
Brand new never installed
Brackets adaptable to any transom
R12 000-00
&
Diesel Generator
2,6 Kva, Yanmar engine
Brand new, incorrectly ordered
R9 000-00
&
2,5 Kva, petrol
Brand new, incorrectly ordered
R5 000--00
Contact: Peter Dearling
Cell: 083 653 8468
Posted: 30/07/04
Prout 26
(Sirroco)
Almost ready
to launch
Includes
Mast, Rigging, Mainsail & Genoa
Everything
Brand New
Chain Mooring
Included
R325 000-00
ONCO
Contact:
Alistair Easton
Cell: 083
7499166
Posted: 30/07/04
In good
condition.
Dry sailed.
Nicely fitted
out.
Sleeps four.
Four hp
Yamaha motor.
Good road
trailer.
New battery.
R42 000-00
neg
Contact:
Lloyd Ashwin
Cell: 082 459 7221
White
with blue gunnels
Has
2 good sails and a dolly
R5
000-00 onco
Contact:
Lee Buckle
Cell:
082 650 0129
Tel:
031-763 2439
Posted:
21/07/04
Ready to race
or cruise.
Lying Caribbean.
Contact Alex
Schon
Cell: 082 806
0918
Posted:
12/07/04
Thompson 7
Trailer
sailer - Super fast with carbon mast and kevlar sails.
Ready to
race.
Contact: Alex
Schon
Cell: 082 806
0918.
Posted: 12/07/04
5 In Various
conditions.
All 5 for R17
500-00
Contact: Mark
Stockhausen
Cell: 084 574
6749
Posted:
06/07/04
WANTED
On trailer
Will collect
in KZN
Contact:
Clynton
Cell: 084 515
4252
E-Mail: clynton@easyhold.co.za
Posted: 03/08/04
2.5 - 3.0 hp
Yamaha or similar
With twist
grip throttle
Contact Rob
Stenner
Cell: 082 323
6485
E-Mail: robstenner@mweb.co.za
Or
Des Fairbank
Cell: 083 289
0962
E-Mail: des@carpet.co.za
Posted: 30/07/04
In Cape Town
Contact: Craig
Butcher
E-mail: butcherc@xsinet.co.za / bplus@xsinet.co.za
Work: 021-449
2212
Cell: 082 878
5394
Posted:
12/07/04
Contact: Kevin Powell
Cell: 082 573 5638
Posted: 06/07/04
Andrew Heathcote
Mobile: +27 (0) 83 783 8805
This newsletter is
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that which may be of interest to yachtsmen.
Please note that the views
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