Historical

by Richard Crockett With Kirsten Neuschafer inching her way ever closer to rounding Cape Horn in the lead of the Golden Globe Race 2022, it is an appropriate time to go back into the history of the Golden Globe Race and share the report, written by Barry Pickthall, which was sub-titled “30 years on, this story of an adventure at sea remains stranger than fiction”. But before that, it is also highly appropriate to mention South African Kirsten Neuschafer who …

By Richard Crockett 42 countries and almost 300 competitors were attracted to the Volvo Youth Worlds off Simonstown in 1998. Best of all was the Gold Medal won by Gareth Blanckenberg in the Lasers. Rick Nankin was the team leader for this event and in a pre-regatta interview he said this: “We are, however, very confident that Gareth Blanckenberg can bring home a medal for South Africa. Based on his performance overseas on the senior Laser circuit, we believe that …

by Richard Crockett Once the mould was broken in 1979 and ‘80 with the 505 and Fireball worlds being held off Durban, international competition on South African waters became something attainable. In the year 2000 the GP 14 Worlds were held off Durban with a 58 boat fleet from five different countries. The top South African overall was Mark Sadler and his crew Neil McKeller who finished 5th with the next South Africans, Pat Mitchell and Andrew Marsh in 17th …

by Richard Crockett In a country where service delivery is generally non-existent, where theft, corruption, extortion and a host of other horrors are simply part of everyday life, every little glimmer of hope and positivity is a fillip that there is some good in our lives. And today we have the State of the Nation Address (SONA) by our President who is unlikely to say anything that is really positive, possible or which has the smallest chance of becoming a …

by Richard Crockett Those who competed in major events organised by the Royal Cape Yacht Club in days of yore will remember The A-Team – a band of old salts who liked nothing better than to be at the yacht club as the backroom boys doing whatever needed to be done to make the event memorable and smooth-running. They did anything and everything from shipping to sourcing supplies, long-life bread, tools, artisans and much more. Fun-loving, efficient, organised and always …

by Richard Crockett The first ever world championship to be hosted in South Africa were the 505 Worlds off Durban in 1979 – and what a great event it was too. The South African contingent was large in comparison to the internationals, yet they never really showed their true mettle in their own local conditions, and were trounced. Rob Willcox was the top south African in the pre-worlds in 7th place, while Brian Downham topped the South African effort in …

by Richard Crockett Again today I share the 505 thread, but sadly no new pics as I have not completed the scanning and editing process yet. Today it’s time to recall the 1969 505 Nationals sailed in Lourenco Marques, and which was again won by Dave and Alan Hudson who won again. This is how the opening few paragraphs read: Competitors in the 505 National Class Week run jointly with the F.D. Winter championships at Lourenco Marques hoped for the …

This selection of 505 pics is the last of the ones I have in my archives that are captioned – so please enjoy. There are many uncaptioned and unidentified pics too, so these still have to be scanned and will be shared at some stage too. Enjoy today’s pic the selection.

By Richard Crockett The “Olympics Nationals” report yesterday carried very little detail of the 505 Nationals, something the 505 Class News in the June issue of SA Yachting corrected with a short report on each race. Today though is a day for pictures – a Selection of 10 old black & white pics from days of yore. READ THE REPORT AND SEE THE PICS HERE:  1968 06 – SA Yachting – OCR

  While numbers in the 505 class were growing pretty smartly, there seemed to be negative undertones towards the class, especially when reading between the lines in the report on the 1968 Nationals on Saldanha Bay which was a multi-class event dubbed the “Olympics National”. While very little was written on the 505s in this report, I share the full feature article as published in SA Yachting, and have highlighted all references to the 505 in yellow. Dave Hudson won …

by Richard Crockett I am able to trace back reference to the 505 tow-man spinnaker trapeze dinghy to records of mine in the late 1950s, and was surprised to learn that there were active boats racing in Rhodesia, Nyasaland and even Kenya before here in good old RSA. When I dug a little deeper and broader than my archives, I found that it came to life in 1953 with the class achieving international status in 1955 – some 67 years …

by Richard Crockett Staying with the RCOD thread today, well almost anyway as today’s feature covers ‘Zeeslang’ which was the forerunner to the RCOD and considered by most to be an RCOD until she proved to be faster. This feature article was written by in 1998 Colin Farlam who stated the following in the opening blurb and first paragraph: The annals of yachting in South African include boats which have become household names. The 30-foot sloop ‘Zeeslang’ is one and …

by Richard Crockett The humble RCOD, a mainstay of the sport at coastal clubs around our coast for many years, and a small, inexpensive and seaworthy vessel, came to life thanks to an enthusiastic bunch at the Royal Cape Yacht Club. The One Design idea has a long history at Royal Cape. As long ago as 1912 the famous Advocate Beauclerk Upington KC of the then Table Bay Yacht Club – dissatisfied with the Metre Boat rule that had produced …

by Richard Crockett Now that the front-runners have reached Rio it’s back to some good old history and choice editorials from my archives. “Kiting” is a term I remember when, as a schoolboy, I first started sailing on a Dabchick. People talked about “kiting” in a good blow, yet not one of the many nautical dictionaries I have makes reference to that word – nor does a Google search! So no wonder my interest was piqued when I saw an …

by Richard Crockett The monohull race for the finish line went down to the wire with just 61 minutes separating first and second. It must have been heartbreaking for Adrian Kuttel and ‘Atalanta’ not to have taken line honours as this singlehanded sailor virtually led the monohull fleet from the start, so to be pipped at the post by Michael Kavenagh’s fully crewed and bigger ‘Ray of Light’, was undoubtedly tough. Some solace for Kuttel is that he has won …