Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett (editor@sailing.co.za)
The festive season has crept up on me rather rapidly and taken me by surprise, leaving me with little breathing room with less than a week to go until Christmas.
As a result I have decided to take a break until the new year.
Having said this, I will however post ‘Talking Sailing” occasionally during this time as I know there are many out there who need their morning fix – as well as their coffee!
I would like to take the opportunity of thanking everyone who has contributed to the success of this Blog, whether simply by “liking”, “sharing’ or “commenting” on posts.
More importantly my archive of sailing material relevant to this country continues to grow thanks also to the people who have shared material with me, given me their old archives, or simply sent catalogues, brochures, old magazines, photos and more. Thank you – I am very grateful and truly enjoy receiving them and sharing them on this Blog.
I decided to concentrate on the historical aspects of our sport when I realised what a treasure-trove of material I had in my own archives, collected over many, many years, and which had simply not ever seen the light of day. This has now snowballed to the extent that I am scanning new material almost every day to add to my digital archives. My trusty scanners, an A4 photo scanner and an A3 document scanner are racking up huge mileage, and are the backbone to creating these archives.
My job is far from done though, so I request followers to continue letting me have (either permanently or on loan) their archives of newspaper and magazine cuttings, sailing related brochures and regatta notices, plus of course original photos, whether prints or slides (transparencies) to digitise.
I specifically request clubs and classes to consider sharing their material with me. Sadly, in many clubs when space becomes a problem someone with all the good intentions in the world does a “maak skoon” and jettisons valuable old historical records. Please rather let me digitise this material BEFORE it is jettisoned and lost forever.
I have every single issue of SA Yachting Magazine and SAILING Magazine digitised and word-searchable – that’s 60 years worth of sailing history in this country.
I am missing issues of YACHTSMAN RSA magazine which started its life as a sailing newspaper in the mid-‘70s, and ended up as an A4 publication which ceased publication in the mid-‘80s. If anyone has any of these magazines lying around, please let me have them as I would like to complete that set.
Finally, there are many families sitting on old scrap books and photos of loved ones who sailed. But as time passes these become cumbersome and more difficult to keep, and ultimately get tossed in trash and become lost to the rich history of our sport. Please let me digitise these before they get jettisoned.
Have a wonderful festive season.
