Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett
I spent a very pleasant day yesterday scanning some very old regatta brochures into my archives. Len Davies gave me these months ago when he was downsizing, so it gave me an opportunity to think about the old sailing days and how very active they were.
The oldest brochure was from the 1956 SAYRA National Regatta sailed at Zeekoe Vlei from 30 January to 10 February.
These were exceptionally well put together publications as they included details on all the hierarchy in sailing at the time, including the name of the Trophy Secretary, SAYRA member clubs and the “Sailing Letters”assigned to each club. Included too is a very well written history of the Zeekoe Vlei Yacht Club, and photos of all the main sailing trophies at the time, with enough space alongside for individuals to list the competitors and results. And most importantly, from an historic perspective is a complete set of results for each of those trophies, the oldest dating back to 1913 for the SA Inter-Club 20-footer trophy.
It also got me thinking about all those magnificent trophies and where they reside today, and in fact whether they are all still accounted for. I do know that the Dewar Congella Shield hangs in the Point Yacht Club. But what of the others?
Trophies are something I agonise about regularly as they do tend to go missing, or are simply never returned. I do believe that a concerted effort needs to be made to find as many of the trophies presented to our sport as possible. Thoughts or proposals would be appreciated as maybe a campaign to turn them up is required?
But that was just one of the SAYRA National Regatta brochures, as I have others in my archive which still need to see the light of day, be scanned and graduate to my digital archives.
Others included Wester Province Sailing Association brochures for their combined championships, the earliest being 1962 and the latest 1984.
Saldanha Bay/Langebaan featured for some of these regattas with the first being in 1972. It was only in 1981 that a photo of the sailing area was included, and this is reproduced here as it shows a very different place to the one we know today. The history of Saldanha, as written by Geoff and Helen Myburgh, makes for interesting reading, as does the editorial written anonymously on the Sishen-Saldanha railway.
As said previously, I had a wonderful day sifting though these old brochures, and will, no doubt in due course, share additional info.
