The long and short of the SAS problem is generally as stated in Roy's letter - MONEY

Sports other than rugby and cricket (not to mention soccer) have 'stupendous' amounts of cash through TV and gate monies to spend (waste) of paying exhorbitant salaries to average performing players.(Witness the abysmal results of late) That is NOT the yachting problem.

I appreciate that an effort has been made to get the Club's to extort money from their members to fund the national body; but until every person yacht racing in RSA subscribes an annual amount to fund the 'kitty' their resources will be limited.

How? Bowling is an example. Firstly every member of every bowling club affiliated to a District, which in turn is affiliated to the National body , is obliged to pay an annual sum (I believe about R60) to be a player; and cannot join another club without a clearance certificate.

Sounds tough, doesn't it? But in it's long history SAYRA has always had this problem. On the other hand CASA would appear not to have had this problem. Q.E.D.

As a member of both the aforementioned since their inception perhaps I have a jaundiced perception!

A few year's back I researched the legality of organisations using the IYRU rules of yacht racing and found that said rules were in fact copyright, and could only be used by national bodies, and correctly affiliated Club's etc. All the constitutions in RSA will not solve the problem, It needs a professionsl approach to assess (i) the number of active sailors and clubs (ii) a complete survey of all yachts (on the water) (iii) and to stress that using ISAF Rules (illegally) does not protect them from the wiles of the legal profession!

Gordon Neill

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