Sailing Magazine
By Richard Crockett
Having shared some history of the Lipton Cup founding era in which ‘Erica’ played a key role, I received a call from David Abromowitz asking if I had any photos of her. Sadly photos of ‘Erica’ are something very rare indeed as I have just one original image, and a few from newspaper cuttings in that era.
Abromowitz then went on to regale me, in his inimitable manner, that as a 14-year-old he walked from his family home in Oranjazicht to the Royal Cape Yacht Club, quite a considerable distance, and the first yacht he stumbled across was ‘Erica’ whose skipper was preparing to go out for sail.
Abromowitz asked if he could join for the sail, and as he had walked so far his wish was granted. This was his very first sail on a yacht, which is why he wanted to see the photograph to check if it was the same boat.
RCYC Archives
He also recalled that many years later ‘Erica’ sank, but could not remember the details.
It’s fortuitous that I have a newspaper cutting from that incident as it describes in detail what happened that fateful day in late August 1958. As they got to Robben Island, with the old jetty on their left, something happened, and they realised that they had run aground and could not get into deeper water in spite of throwing out an anchor and also trying to row.
It’s always sad when a yacht succumbs to the depths, especially one which had so gallantly attempted to win the coveted Lipton Cup on five different occasions, and never succeeded.
READ MORE HERE: 1958 09 01 – cape times – RCYC Archives – stitched – 011705 – OCR_Redacted
