“Talking Sailing” From My Archives. Missing Trophies

by Richard Crockett

I have had several requests in the past for info on sailing trophies, both know, missing and lost, as well as having come across trophies I knew nothing about for specific events, let alone even knew existed.

So often people have won trophies and simply never returned them in time for the next event, and from there it is downhill. It’s not only individuals who are to blame, but Class Associations too as they often don’t keep records of trophy winners. It’s a runaway train effect from there on.

As a result the issue of missing trophies has been on my mind for a long time now as there are several parts to this conundrum.

1. Is it worth the effort to find them?
2. Once found, and hopefully extracted from their resting place, what would one do with them?
3. If one found trophies from Classes no longer active – or even alive – what could be done with them?
4. The biggest question, and possibly the most important one, is where would one securely display the trophies recovered?
5. If a concerted national effort was made to locate and retrieve them, would it be possible to find a benefactor willing to fund a safe and secure display of these?

The only answers to all the above should be positive – so thoughts please everyone who reads this.

Sadly one negative aspect is that SAS (South African Sailing) no longer has premises from which it operates, and where trophies may have been stored and displayed! So a final roosting place for sailing trophies no longer used, needs to be found.

I am prompted to write this as in the last week I have positively identified where the Glinane Sprog Trophy is, and when it was last won, plus discussions with some Sprog “class doyens” have revealed where several others are. The Sprog Class is to all intents and purposes defunct, and has not had a national regatta for many years now.

This is anything but a Sprog Class rant as the same goes for many different classes.

In searching Sprog records in my archives, I came across reference in the November 1977 issue of SA Yachting Magazine, of the Dulux Trophy for Sprogs which was to be awarded to the first boat home in the Sprog Nationals with a woman on board.

My records reveal nothing more than this reference and a photo of the trophy as well as its donor, Derek Scorer.

Can anyone shed any light on this specific trophy, its current whereabouts and who the winners are?

The same goes for other trophies, no matter what Class or event.

I could throw several trophies into this melting pot, but will first await responses to the above before continuing this thread.

 

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