14 August 2003

Rob,

TheSAS ofice forwarded your EM to me and I read your attachment with interest. First, I commend you both for putting a lot of time into this very important issue. It is a question that a lot of people have been talking about for a long time and I think that we need to put this to bed. What is paramount is that it is people like you, the top competitive sailors, that need to be involved in the decision making process while the likes of myself in administration create the framework for the decisions to be made and then help to turn those decisions into reality. I have invited Dale to a "development sailing gathering" in Cape Town next Monday ( I realise that you can't make it Rob) to discuss the possible future course of sail training and how one should go about it and one of the outcomes should be to set up a committee to resolve the post Oppie boat question.

Now to the problem. We need to look at this in the wider context of the overall objective to "put bums on water". You are probably aware of increasing pressure on SAS by the government to include "new South Africans" in the process and DSR is making funds available to those organistions that measure up to certain exacting requirements; this is the reality and we must meet those requirements. Regrettably, DSR funding falls short of their aspirations and so we need to look to other sources of finance as well as looking at the most cost effective ways of achieving our objectives.

You clearly appreciate the above but I wish to put forward an alternative means of achieving what you want and this is to develop our own boats. The Oz's and Kiwis as well as the Indians decided that the cost of imported boats was too high and that the way ahead was to develop sailing around locally built classes. This more affordable approach to sailing put the Australian boat building and particularly their equipment industry on the world map and not only did this create the all essential employment, it had a marked effect on increasing interest in the sport. This in turn gave sailing more exposure, advertising spooks got involved, sponsorship became more readily available and ultimately there was sufficient interest for yachties to demand that the sport appear on TV - the ultimate promotion objective. New Zealanders had a similar experience; one in 30 owned a boat in 1985 while the ratio in 2002 was 1 in 5. Nelson on the north end of South Island has a population of 220 000 people and they own 8000 yachts.

The reality is somewhat different in South Africa but there are 300 000 motor boats (including rubber ducks and small fishing boats) in this country and most of these with motors cost the price of a second hand sailing dinghy, and as time progresses more South Africans will have the means to get on to the water. If we get our act together we could persuade a lot of these folk to sail and if we can emulate the antipodeans we will have the financial resources to provide opportunities for every aspiring South African sailor to race internationally in dinghies, and for those who have the inclination, the talent and the time, the chance to make the Olympics. Right now, excepting for some crumbs from NOCSA (if they pay) we are not even able to assist towards any campaign.

Before discussing the specific boats to use in this scenario let's look briefly at another issue. South African sailors have demonstrated their abilities on the world stage but I believe that we are lacking time on the water and insufficient competition. Top sailors need to spend 3 to 4 years on the International circuit and sailing every day if they wish to get to the top - I used to sail 5 days per week in Europe and that was not enough!!!. If we could even double the number of racing sailors here the competition would be world class locally and we could afford for local sponsorship to allow these people to sail every day. More important though is, does it really matter what boats we sail when selecting our best talent to represent us internationally? Once we have selected our top sailors on this less costly basis we send them overseas for the 3 to 4 years to sail the international classes.

If you accept this approach which is what the Oz's have done then we could locally produce a modern two man dinghy with all the bells and whistles that we find in the Olympic classes. There is such a boat that is due to take to the water in a few weeks - it is called the Foundation 15 - initiated here and based on the International 14 but refined by an overseas designer - either home built or factory produced for around R35K. It has more than the 420 and will be a lot more exciting. Ask Ian Ainslie or Rick Nankin about it. This boat will be available in progressive steps from a basic trainer through single hander to the two man competitor. But there are other local boats that we could use more widely in competition such as the Extra and while we probably have sufficient Oppies, Dabchicks and Lasers for the single handed aspirant at present, for how long if we wish to grow the sport? So we need to think right acroass the board.

So back to your ideas. You could get the backing for your project but while it would meet a short term scenario I think it would fall short of the overall South African objective. Having said that, don't put your project in a drawer but use it to justify getting a team of enthusiastic, competitive and like minded sailors together to evaluate your plans against a locally produced option with the spin offs discussed above.

Thanks again for the inspiration.

Peter Vowles