COMMODORE’S REPORT – 2010  

Flicking through the sailing magazines of the 60’s and 70’s, recalls memories of the colourful and lively characters of that era.  One was Dr Hamish Campbell who joined the club on 25 June 1959 and played an important role in our sport.  He was a lively Thirty Square Metre sailor and folklore has it that he was crazy enough to set off to East London on the 44 foot long and only a few feet wide Hjalmaren. He was key to bringing Solings into South Africa, was erudite and extremely knowledgeable about sailing and matters generally.  Sadly he died on 18 December 2009 and many of us will miss his intellect and stream of interesting stories and tales.

Thankfully there are fresh names ready to revitalise and grow our sport.  A few years ago, Craig and Taryn Millar recognised this need and, in my view, they have made the greatest contribution by establishing Sail Africa (http://www.sailafrica.org) and introducing so many kids as well as adults to sailing.  It is a long time since so many youngsters have been seen on Timm’s Turf in the PYC boat park.  The challenge for the future is for the Club to reap the benefits of their foresight and the hard work of their team and that of the Youth Committee ably headed up by Kevin Bingham.  The measure of their success has been the flotilla of beginners on the water highlighted by Nqoba Mswazi graduating to sail with Sean Jones in the Round Reunion race.

An element of our Club that is grossly under-utilised is our Beachsite.  Sean Fennessy and his Beachsite team must be commended for their endeavours to hold the Beachsite together.   But they desperately need help.  This is an appeal to those of our members who have an interest in the future of off-shore sailing in Durban or just love messing around on the beach….the Club needs you to use this wonderful facility and to help manage and market our entitlement to a piece of Vetch’s!  

If we do not use and look after our beachsite jewel, we stand to lose it.   We have secured a toe hold in that the Point Watersports Clubs has the right to purchase freehold a piece of foreshore property about the size of half a rugby field (4 535m²), the right to an option to purchase underground parking or the right to the exclusive use of such parking on a commercial pay-for-use basis as well as the right to conclude a 99 year lease of an outdoor parking of 3000m².   These rights have been secured regardless of who wins the dispute over whether there will or will not be a small craft harbour.  The PYC’s position is clear – it is against a small craft harbour.  Point Watersports Clubs’ rights to acquire its foreshore property with sufficient parking must be converted into ownership for the benefit of a new club comprising sailors, skiboat fishermen, undersea enthusiasts and simply beachsite goers.  Rob Goulden needs professional help to negotiate and secure our future. 

We must not forget that PYC, by virtue of its rights to the beachsite, holds the key to the future hosting of international sailing and possibly the Olympics in Durban.  As the biggest club in the country by numbers registered with SAS (the South African Sailing national body), the International Sailing Federation organising bodies will look to PYC to host international sailing events off our beach.  (Our Mike Dixon has recently been elected chairman of SAS.)  What a boon it would be to the club (and our City) if PYC again hosts major international sailing events.  Until the debilitating legal dispute is resolved, hosting international events from the beachsite will remain on hold.

Every effort is being made by PYC to resolve the deadlock between the developer and the Save Vetch’s Association in order to find a solution which is acceptable to all parties so that we don’t have to wait another 5 to 10 years for a court announce a winner and loser. 

The woes of the Durban Country Club which recently hit the front pages of the press are akin to where PYC was 13 years ago – substantial losses, over-staffing, theft and falling membership.  PYC’s financial problem was fixed by appointing an outsource operator 12 years ago and a loss of R1 million turned to a small surplus.  However the appointment of our former Food & Beverage outsource operator 12 years ago came at a cost to our Club with streams of complaints from our members about poor food and service to members whilst outsiders got preference and overran our facilities to the prejudice of members.  As a result of the complaints, the decision was made for our Club Manager, Richard Cox, to take back the beleaguered and run down catering facility on 1 February 2010.  After much deliberation and reviewing alternative business plans and models, the decision was taken for the club to clean up, upgrade and renovate the rundown facilities of the kitchen, the Quarterdeck, the Islander Room and more particularly the cloakrooms and staff quarters which had deteriorated into an appalling state of dirt and filth.  Over the past 12 years, the Club has had the benefit of the income stream from the F & B operation but little or no attention was paid to the maintenance and repairs of our facilities by the outsource operators despite their legal obligation to do so. 

The decision was taken to use accumulated funds to spruce up our F & B facilities so that we, as members, can again be proud of our Club and can market a respectable functions facility principally to our members.  Keith Stewart, a professional engineer, single handedly supervised his brother’s building company to undertake the refurbishment and upgrade at a modest cost of approximately R200 000-00.  The costs to the Club of the upgrade have been kept to a minimum.  

Richard Cox started the process of revitalizing the F&B operation, the stream of complaints stopped completely but unfortunately he took the decision to leave us in July. The General Committee decided to appoint, on a short term basis, the F&B Management Team until 31 December 2010, ensuring that the club would benefit financially from the usually busy pre-Christmas season and give the new committee time to assess the position and decide what will be in the long term best interests of the Club.   

The enthusiastic F & B Management Team of Liezel Roberts, Philip Chitsamba, Elise Oliver and Kathryn Stewart working hand in hand with our Entertainment team of Elize Dixon, Linda Prinsloo and Debbie Cox certainly did the Club proud at the Commodore’s Dinner which was an entertaining and happy event where the ties with RNYC were re-affirmed by Chris Sutton bestowing the Fellowship Award on Gregg Dobson of RNYC and Andrew Tarboton being awarded Yachtsman of the Year. 

A special mention must be made of the work done by Chris Sutton, Colin Schwegman and so many others in harmonizing the relationship with RNYC and also Island Sailing Club.  The successful NSRI Barrel fundraising day – well done Hugh Turpin for raising over R120 000, the joint PYC/RNYC prize-giving with the Club filled to capacity and the Laser Masters at Island could not have been achieved without the Clubs working together both on the water and in the kitchen (PYC and RNYC F&B operators now regularly work hand-in-hand to the mutual benefit of the members of both clubs). PYC, RNYC and the Rowing Club have led the process of re-establishing the Yacht Basin Precinct Association with Denny Moffatt and Chris Frost as the chairman and vice-chairman respectively and the backroom secretarial work being done by Debbie Cox.  A constitution was prepared by Mike Jackson of the Rowing Club so that YBPA is now a legal entity representing the Yachtbasin stakeholders. The technical team, led by Billy Ellens and Keith Stewart with input from each of the stakeholders, has produced a broad brush proposal which has been submitted to the City.  We await the City’s response. 

Nigel Milln and Keith Stewart, as our Marina Directors, have been instrumental in submitting a Marina vision to the City.  They have also had the task of looking after the interests of the PYC lessees by resolving disputes between them and the Marina and thus far they have managed to do so in favour of the PYC lessees.

Another year has passed and a replacement has not been found for Husky.  Nonetheless much work has been done in restoring and re-establishing the bridge and rescue facilities.  John Burn was appointed bosun and under his care and control the bosun’s garage and lock up facilities for our bridge and rescue equipment are now ship-shape.  A bridge boat was identified in Cape Town and negotiations between the seller and a joint RNYC & PYC team reached an advanced stage before being confronted by a stumbling block that the seller could not sell the boat separately from its mooring. 

The Club’s Sailing and Social Calendar has over the past 2 years become a joint initiative between PYC and RNYC in close liaison with Island Sailing Club, Henley Midmar Yacht Club and Zululand Yacht Club - a difficult yet extremely important task that our Rear Commodores and Entertainment committee have had to wrestle with. The Club has been fortunate in attracting sponsorship on several fronts with sponsorship from MSC, Seaport Supplies, Eikos Insurance Brokers, Riverside Manor, Mango Airlines, City of Durban, FFS Refineries, Professional Yachtmaster Training, Offshore Sailing Academy and Minuteman Press.

I have no doubt that the success and future of the Club lies in the hands of the volunteers who give freely and generously of their time and effort.  It is the contribution by each of these sub-committees and individuals that make the Club tick.  They deserve our greatest thanks and appreciation.  I would like to say a special thank for the work done by the Flag Officers - Denny Moffatt our Vice-Commodore who took on the responsibility of leading YBPA, Chris Sutton and his Keeler committee, Colin Schwegman and his Dinghy committee, Kevin Bingham and the Youth committee, Sean Fennessy and the Beachsite committee.   In this regard I refer to each of their reports which cover the sailing activities of the Club. In particular, I would like to single out Keith Stewart who has committed so much time and energy to serve his Club on so many fronts – finance, the Marina, YBPA, supervision of the upgrade of our facilities, implementation of our own F&B operation and much more.  In this regard I refer to his finance report and the annual financial statements.

Elize Dixon and the Entertainment committee certainly excelled this year with the highlights of the Founders Day Dinner and the Dinner saluting Dave Hudson and Dave Cox.   

Dave Cox has for decades led the Offshore Yachting Committee which liaises with the Port.  Chris Sutton has taken over the mantle of chairman of this committee, now called the Durban Pleasurecraft Committee, which keeps the relationship between the Port and our Club on an even keel. 

PYC has been and remains well represented on SAS KZN with Paul Fay (Finance), Ron Pet (Chairman Inland and Offshore), Kevin Bingham (ExCo), Craig Millar (Development) and Rudy McNeill (Youth).  Congratulations also go to   Mike Dixon who was recently elected chairman of SAS.  Keith Stewart serves on the Technical Committee.  

Anthony Bingham has ably managed the administration of Membership and the website. 

There many other volunteers who have also contributed in some way or another to our club and I thank them all. 

I would also like to thank our administrative team – Richard Cox, who so ably took on the role of F&B Manager at short notice - Joann Dimmock and Louise Geldenhuys (Finance), Pat Potgieter (Membership), Charlotte Marshall (Sailing Coordinator and Club Scribe) and  Soula Laporte who has stepped in to assist with some of the secretarial duties of the Club Manager.  

A special mention must go to my long suffering office especially my partner, Julian Cox, and my PA, Michelle Ramsay, who have borne the brunt of my contribution towards running the Club. 

Finally, I wish the incoming Flag Officers and Committees all the best for the next season. 

Campbell Alexander

COMMODORE 27 August 2010