Sailing Magazine
By Richard Crockett
Today I will share some newspaper reports from the 1984 Vasco da Gama Race, as they offer additional insights into the drama and conditions experienced by crew.
It also includes a response from the Sunday Tribune newspaper after both David Cox and Chris Bonnet objected to their reporting.
Here are the 10 headlines from the selected newspaper cuttings. (CLICK on the link following the headline to open the report):
2 Children on Missing Yacht: 1984 04 27 – Daily News – 1984 Vasco – 002160 – REDUCED – OCR_Redacted
Copter Pilot Tells of Daring Sea Rescue: 1984 04 27 – Daily News – 1984 Vasco 84 Stafford 16 – OCR_Redacted
Yacht Race Turns Into A Nightmare: 1984 04 27 – Mercury – 1984 Vasco – 002165 – OCR_Redacted
Crew Tells of Nightmare Storm: 1984 04 28 – Daily News – 1984 Vasco – stitched – – OCR_Redacted
Storm Nightmare for Race Yachts: 1984 04 28 – East London – 1984 Vasco – Rubicon_04 copy – OCR_Redacted
Yacht Crew Tell of the Cruel Sea: 1984 04 29 – Sunday Times – 1984 Vasco – extracted – S&A – OCR
Yacht Rescue Terror: 1984 04 29 – Sunday Tribune – 1984 Vasco – combined final – S&A – OCR
Winning Yacht’s Battle to Survive Raging Gale: 1984 04 30 – Daily Dispatch – 1984 Vasco – GEOFF LIDDLE – stitched final – daily dispatch – stitched final – S&A – OCR
Watching Our Yacht Sink Was Terrible, Says Sailor Brad (15): 1984 05 00 – Daily News – 1984 Vasco – watching our yacht sink – stafford 25 – OCR_Redacted
Tribune Not in Conflict with Yachtsmen: 1984 05 13 – Sunday Tribune – 1984 Vasco – stitched – S&A – OCR
A Passionate Plea
Over the years I have been given a lot of material about the 1984 race, and in fact many other Vasco races, to have accumulated a burgeoning archive of material from newspaper cuttings, original photos, reports, magazine features and even personal accounts.
I cherish each and every one of these, and have sufficient to write a book about the 50-plus years of the Vasco da Gama Race – something I will ultimately do.
I already have in excess of 15 000 individual Vasco Race files.
But as always, there are gaps that need filling in terms of full results, photos, reports, personal accounts, scrap books, newspaper cuttings and basically “anything Vasco” that individuals, Clubs and organising authorities have on the race.
So I am making a plea to anyone, and everyone, who has any material on this tough ocean race to consider lending me their personal records of the race for digitising. My promise is that they will be returned in good order – and with digitised files of their material too.
From the files I have so far, I have been able to compile a results database, starting with the earliest races when the race was from Maputo to Durban.
I have a complete database of all the trophy winners in the Vasco da Gama Race.
Every single written word, every single photo, and every single memory of the Vasco race is important to me.
Should you have any material you would lend me, please contact me via email at: editor@sailing.co.za
