Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett
The annual race from RCYC to Saldanha starts tomorrow and is one of those “must do” races on the calendar.
But that’s not what today’s Blog is about as I have decided o share some info on the “Paraffin Trophy” which is awarded for this race.
Sadly I cannot find any reference to the significance of this trophy, and how it was conceived. Maybe there’s an old salt out there who can share this info.
The first reference I can find to this trophy is from 1936 when it was awarded for the first time – and to the yacht which was first to drop anchor in Saldanha Bay. It was won by ‘Sally’ which was sailed by C S Johnston, Rear Commodore at the time.
‘Sally’ won it again in 1947 with the best time of 10 hours. Her skipper was T A Meek.
In 1948 ‘Sea Swallow’ ( R G Whitley) and ‘Astra’ (George Meek) dead-heated in a time of 23 hours and 7 minutes. Rain, mist and light winds made for a difficult voyage with some boats going 20nm out to sea in search of breeze.
In 1956 R I Jamison won it in ‘Parergon III’.
In 1959 it was won again by R I Jamison and ‘Parergon III’, and again in 1960.
SEE THE REPORT HERE: 1959 05-06 – SA Yachting – OCR
In 1968 Fred Smithers won it aboard ‘Westwind’.
In 1973 Bill O’Reilly won it aboard ‘Outburst’.
In 1975 David Abromowitz and ‘Jakaranda’ won.
There are obviously huge gaps in the history of this interesting trophy, and which requires further research.
