Historical

As we see out the madness of 2021 here is a selection of pics “From My Archives” which have been published during the year. Here’s trusting and hoping that 2022 will be a great year for everyone, and that there will be less of the madness and more of the normal! Happy, Happy everyone.

by Richard Crockett Arthur Holgate was one of those local sailors who was always placed on a pedestal as he such a fine seaman and overall good guy. And from what I have read about him he was very much a loner too. In 1975 he completed an epic 40 day passage from Cape Town to the British Virgin Islands, singlehanded, and aboard ‘Antares’ an 80-ton yacht he built himself. READ IT ALL HERE:  Pages from 1975 12 – Yachtsman …

by Richard Crockett I was fascinated to read the above title in the index of the March 1970 issue of SA Yachting, and even more excited when I saw that it had been written by Jerry Whitehead. The actual headline in the mag reads “105 Years of Ocean Racing Prowess”, and is sub-titled: The adventurous story of the world’s most demanding sport, since 1866, is told by Jerry Whitehead who has sailed in more than 50 RORC races and is …

by Richard Crockett Back in the day multi-class national championships were something all sailors looked forward to as the camaraderie was special and the racing generally good. Back in ‘68 the regatta was described as “a national Regatta that South Africa will never have again. That was Saldanha 1968 – scene of six historic clashes between the two greatest exponents of Finn sailing the world has ever seen, Willi Kuhweide, the current world champion, and Paul Elvstrom, the acknowledged master …

by Richard Crockett I am using this issue of Yachtsman RSA newspaper which was published in the mid-‘70s as an appeal to anyone who may have copies of these publications to please share them with me so that I can complete the set for my archives. Yachtsman RSA started life as a newspaper and later became an A4 publication. Despite missing two pages, the April 1975 issue I scanned is crammed full of great info. Geoff Meek “walked” the Fireball …

by Richard Crockett I always enjoy interaction with followers of this Blog, with Frans Loots being one of those guys with a long memory of “things sailing” going so far back that I wonder how he stores all this knowledge. He reminded me of the saga of the Mistral that sneaked out of Durban harbour in 1978 and sailed to the Seychelles and then later to the Maldives. The skipper was Lazlo Groh. Lazlo’s way is really not the way …

by Richard Crockett Interest in the Mistral keelboat was pretty impressive in her day as sales were high and she was performing well on inland waters. One can sometimes gauge if a Class has “come of age” if it featured on the cover of the magazine which the Mistral did in March 1974. However, some intrepid soul entered her in a coastal race from Port Elizabeth to East London in 1974, although I have not been able to turn up …

by Richard Crockett Thanks to all who responded to my request for info on local active sailing classes. I had missed the Laser (how could I!), and was specially delighted to hear from Graham Roberts who wrote as follows: “I’m amazed to hear the Mistral has reached its half century. I sailed the very first boat (‘Ponjaard’) on its launch day in the Round the Island race all those years ago. “I was at school with Lex Raas (his dad …

By Richard Crockett While doing research into the Mistral Class which celebrates its 50th anniversary as a Class very soon, it struck me that there may well be several other classes, both dinghy and keelboat, may have achieved this status too. So I am going to ask those who follow this Blog, to help me get the info required. I am really only interested in those classes that are sailed in this country, and that still attain “reasonable” numbers at …

by Richard Crockett 2008 was the 50th anniversary Round the Island Race which started in 1958 with just 40 or so boats! That’s a massive milestone as very few events in this country have achieved that 50th status. The Lipton Cup has of course done just that with the 67th challenge having been sailed in Saldanha Bay in August this year. In May, the Vasco da Gama Race was sailed for the 50th time. Other than these three events, I …

by Richard Crockett Yip, that’s right, Danie Colyn aboard his 30-foot Sea Cart smashed the race record bringing it under the one hour mark to set the record at 55 minutes and 37 seconds – also earning him a R10 000 prize. The line honours race was always amongst the multihulls this year, with the lone 49er of Alec Lanham-Love being the only “misfit” finishing in third spot. There was tons of interest in the race and new boats too. …

by Richard Crockett My old mate Roy Dunster always had a very different take on sailing events and the sport in general, and more often than not he was spot on with his comments, as I feel he was when he wrote this intro to the 2006 race report: “ Many stories about regattas in South Africa start off something like this: “…… but what the fleet lacked in quantity, it made up for in quality, etc., etc”. I’ve written …

by Richard Crockett “Take a large portion of patience, a measure of luck, a touch of inspiration and a dash of local knowledge, place it all in a J27, and you have the recipe for light wind sailing success on the flat waters of the Vaal Dam. “Or so it seemed on Sunday January 17, when Rob Wilcox and Brian Sutherland took ‘On the Rampage’ to line and handicap honours in the 41st Round the Island Race.” That’s how SAILING …

by Richard Crockett The headline on the SA Yachting magazine report shouted :Tornado Rips Through Fleet”. And so it did, but not a Tornado that damaged the fleet or surrounds as it was a Tornado catamaran sailed by Garth Boshoff and Ralf Spargel which took the overall honours. And, they broke the record too, registering a quick 72 minutes for the course. Interestingly the time SA Yachting reported is very different to the time which SAILING Mag reported. It may …

by Richard Crockett So here’s a bumper issue of reports on the Round the Island Races – 6 reports of the 1982, ‘83 & ‘84 races. What is clear is that Sponsorship of the event was becoming possible due to its increased stature in the sailing world, but to keep sponsors did not appear to be that easy. As always, this event has “wind and water” issues – the 1982 event a complete drifter, the 1983 being blessed with good …