Historical

By Richard Crockett Way back in 1989 ‘Judron, sailing for the Hout Bay Yacht Club, was on the cusp of having the Lipton Cup by the throat, winning a 3-way battle in the third race. READ IT HERE:  1989 08 23 – 000026 A year later in 1990, a Cape Times headline shouted: “Hudson’s Fightback”. Dave Hudson, sailing Port Owen Challenger, redeemed his poor 24th place on Tuesday by convincingly stamping his authority on the fourth round of the Joko …

By Richard Crockett I was surprised to find two profiles on two highly prominent yachties published on the same day – being Marion Cole and JJ Provoyeur. “Master Mariner Marion” was the headline which caught my attention as she is an incredibly good yachtswoman who thoroughly deserves a place in the “who’s who of sailing in South Africa”. READ ABOUT HER HERE:  1988 08 22 Lipton news media – S&A – 001747 – OCR The next was JJ Provoyeur, another …

by Richard Crockett I am delighted to be able to share a delightful photo spread of two images which show a busy scene at the Zeekoe Vlei Yacht Club, the other with some youngsters, full of smiles, helping rig a yacht. “Ladies First? Cape to Rio Sailors Hope Not!” This is a delightful piece about ‘Sprinter’ entering the Rio Race and even being tipped as a possible overall winner. Now, wouldn’t it be good for our sport if a team …

by Richard Crockett The Lipton Cup has always piqued the interest of many different sailing types who have put campaigns together in an attempt to win that coveted trophy. Most have failed as only a handful can truly say they are winners. One starkly clear fact is that a team of women have never won the cup – and that’s not for a lack of trying either. Way back in 1988 an all-women team skippered by Judy Provoyeur, competed aboard …

by Richard Crockett It’s back to news from yesteryear today with a fine selection of interesting news to share. One often hears about yachties who talk about their boats as things of beauty. Gordon Neill did just when he flew over to Germany to see how ‘Mercury’, being built for the 1971 Rio Race, was getting on. READ IT HERE:  1970 08 17 – Rio 1971 – Don Pfotenhauer Collection – S&A – 560 Nine years later a team of …

by Richard Crockett As the drama and sorrow of that fateful Fastnet storm in 1979 unfolded and played out in the media for many days as the death toll, triumph and tragedy was related first-hand, one man penned, in what I believe was a very courageous editorial entitled “This Special Breed”. He paid tribute to the courage and daring that drives men to sail on through killer gales… . “If they don’t come back, he will mourn along with the …

by Richard Crockett Yesterday I shared a newspaper cutting entitle “Fastnet Fury” which gave a brief account of the 1979 Fastnet storm. Today, it all hangs out as the fury of that storm is revealed in graphic images and well chosen words to give landlubbers some idea of just how terrifying it was out there. And in amongst those intrepid yachties fighting that storm were a crew from Port Elizabeth who had chartered a yacht for the race – and …

by Richard Crockett Just four short pieces today starting in 1969 with Voortrekker in Cowes and a fairly rare photo of her rigged as a ketch. READ IT HERE:  1969 08 14 – Voortrekker 1 – 301 – S&A OCR Then comes a heading entitled “She’s A Beauty” which referes to ‘Wayfarer’ which he was building for the 1971 Cape to Rio Race. READ IT HERE:  1970 08 14 – Rio 1971 – Don Pfotenhauer Collection – 566 – S&A …

by Richard Crockett There are no newspaper cuttings in my archives today that continue the South African Admiral’s Cup story, so instead there is a selection of random news features. Kicking off we have a feature about Rozana Sharp who as the report says “took the chauvenism out of sailing” by qualifying to be a CASA (Cruising Association of South Africa) sail training examiner in Port Elizabeth. READ IT HERE:  1986 08 11 – 066 2 – OCR Britain finally …

by Richard Crockett Last week I shared news on the South African Admiral’s Cup team, and today news on the Fastnet Race popped up in my search through newspaper cuttings on this day in 1971. The big news of the day was that ‘Jakaranda’ rounded the Fastnet Rock in 2nd place of the Admiral’s Cup competitors, with the Australian yacht ‘Ragamuffin’ an hour ahead of the South African’s. On handicap ‘Jakaranda’ ended up 6th overall, a result Bruce Dalling was …

by Richard Crockett I was fascinated by a chance find in my archives recently as it shed light on the South Africans who competed in those Rome Games, one being Robin Standing my sailing mentor when I was introduced to the sport way back in 1968. Standing was a great mate of John Sully, and was his crew on an FD for many years. However he competed in these Games with Hellmut Stauch aboard ‘Hakahana’ with sail number SA 73. …

By Richard Crockett There was no single theme of news from 7 August to share today, so here are four pieces of news spanning a 17 year period. First up is the effervescent first-ever Cape to Rio Race when on this day in 1970 the headline said “A Race Against Time” with the sub-head saying “for some the Cape Town to Rio yacht race has begun already – a race against time to get their ships ready for the big …

by Richard Crockett The info is scarce on this day way back in 1971 when the South African Team was doing battle at the Admiral’s Cup. However there is a good story about them entitled “Like Ducks to Water” and went on to say: ‘South Africa’s three-yacht team’s performance over yesterday’s 33½·mile course around The Solent buoys near here has boosted the team’s morale. “On points, only Britain, Australia and the United States beat the Republic. Seventeen teams competed.” So …

by Richard Crockett Thanks to Richard “Thirsty” Bertie who gave me all his sailing scrap books to scan & digitise some years ago, I am able to share news of the South African Admiral’s Cup effort in 1971. “Jakaranda Leads Boks In” blurted the headline which went on to say that “South Africa’s Admiral Cup team moved up to sixth place overall following yesterday’s second race of the four-race series sailed at Cowes”. An even bigger headline said “Jakaranda 2nd …

by Richard Crockett I agree fully with the comments Frans Loots made yesterday regarding just how big the Voortrekker OSTAR project was due to the total support of South African business and especially Dr. Anton Rupert, plus of course the SA Navy. I do believe that a project of this magnitude also requires complete impartiality from those managing it, and in this case those people selected Bruce Dalling as skipper by voting with their heads and not their hearts. He …