On This Day – 6 December. A Newspaper History of Sailing

by Richard Crockett

To read the full reports, click on the LINK following the headline.

1985. “Wits Team Sails to Yachting Victory”. The University of the Witwatersrand won the South African Universities yachting competition at Midmar Dam, Natal this week, followed by Durban University and then Pietermaritzburg University.
To read the full report, Click on the following LINK:  1985 12 06 666

1985. “Peter is Rothmans Yacht’s ‘Weapons’”. The yacht PG Wood, one of Durban’s top entries in this year’s Rothmans Week regatta which begins in Cape Town next week, has a secret weapon in the person of Peter Davidson.
To read the full report, Click on the following LINK:  1985 12 06 870

1986. “Yachtsmen Battered in High Seas Drama”. Battered, bruised and weary from sleeplessness and from the ferocity of the Roaring Forties, 19 solo sailors in the BOC round-the-world race are fighting their way to Sydney in yachts that have taken some of the worst punishment meted out in the history of ocean racing.
To read the full report, Click on the following LINK:  1986 12 06 656

1992. “Sharks Once Almost Made A Meal of Ant – Now They’ve Got His Lunch”.  The sharks got their own back on Durban adventurer Ant Steward yesterday when they attacked his lunch.
To read the full report, Click on the following LINK:  1992 12 06 437 9

1994. “BOC Sailors Face Another Battering”.   As the BOC Challenge sailors braced themselves yesterday for another ferocious Southern Ocean battering with 50-knot winds racing their way, they were still licking their wounds and recovering from the last series of nasty fronts.
To read the full report, Click on the following LINK:  1994 12 06 089

1995. “Sixty Yachts Seek Glory in Cape-to-Rio Race”. A fleet of 60 yachts – 11 of them from overseas, including a separate group of three Whitbread-60s in their own private race – will contest the fifth Rothman’s Cape-to-Rio race in four weeks’ time as hundreds of South Africans yachties set sail on their triennial pilgrimage to the Carnival City.
To read the full report, Click on the following LINK:  1995 12 06 649

1996. “David Sails Solo Into Record Books … Now for His Next Adventure”. David Dicks went surfing in a glare of television cameras. He’s not saying what his head felt like after the party of the night before.
To read the full report, Click on the following LINK:  1996 12 06 879

1997. “Chance to Drop Anchor At the PYC”.  Point Yacht Club will be opening its doors to the public during the next week when the Expo ’98 Round the World fleet calls in Durban.
To read the full report, Click on the following LINK:  1997 12 06 270

2010. “’Heavy Seas’ Did Not Make Rob Furl His Sails”. Mossel Bay’s Rob Holden has grabbed the attention of the international Sailing Federation (ISAF) with his rags-to-riches tale about pursuing his dream of sailing.
To read the full report, Click on the following LINK:  2010 12 06 634

Comments and contributions are welcome. Email: editor@sailing.co.za

What is “On this Day” About?
I am busy archiving many boxes of press cuttings I have accumulated and which I guestimate run into tens of thousands! A daunting task which I believe to be necessary before ditching them as I have been concerned for many years about the lack of interest Clubs, Classes and other sailing related organisations give to preserving their history.

This is my personal crusade, and instead of simply archiving and keeping the contents away from prying eyes, I will share my spoils in the hope that you will enjoy reminiscing as much as I have, and continue to do as I wade through the labourious process of scanning each and every cutting in my archives.

As each scanned cutting will be searchable, I will be able to create presentation packs personally tailored to a persons exact requirements – ie. Rathmines Week, the NCS Regatta, the Rio Race, Mauritius Race, Vasco da Gama Race and more – or simply by the name of an individual (like Ant Steward and his open boat exploits) who want a record of his/her sailing career for the family archives.

I have already done this by scanning in excess of 4000 pages of material I have on ‘Voortrekker’ – from idle chatter, to concept, to the formation of what ultimately became the South African Ocean Racing Trust (SAORT), to the fruition of the 1968 OSTAR Race in which Bruce Dalling and ‘Voortrekker’ excelled – and even beyond that.

The possibilities are endless – so watch this space.

Comments and contributions are welcome. Email: editor@sailing.co.za