Perspective

 The second quarter of 2010 has been a successful one, seeing many brand new young newcomers to sailing graduate from Sail Africa’s programmes. Each month sees a new group of dinghy sailors graduate from the Water Rat programme added to those produced by the C-Dog keelboat programme. An ever increasing number of youths are flooding into sailing in Durban and it is critical that they are welcomed and become integrated into the sailing community. It is incumbent upon each of us to do what we can to ensure that these new additions to our community are made to feel welcome and offered an easy pathway into what should be a lifetime sport for them. Sail Africa was founded specifically to provide youths with an empowering experience through the medium of sail training. This not only applies to the course participants, but to the young staff who we provide employment for as well. This remains extremely important for me and an objective which, if not realised, renders our efforts in vain. I would like to share an open letter by Wayne Goldsmith (and Tom Coleman) which is very relevant:  

AN OPEN LETTER TO EVERY "SAILING" PARENT IN THE WORLD

Dear Sailing Parent, Firstly let me thank you for being a sailing parent. Without you - we have no sport. There is no sailing without you. Programs and coaches could not exist without your support. I appreciate everything you do - the early mornings, the late afternoons, the rush to get dinner ready at night for hungry, tired kids, the long weekends of regatta travel. For everything you do, I thank you.

I wanted to write and show my appreciation by giving you something in return; to thank you for all you give the sport. I am going to give you some ideas and advice to help you be the best sailing parent you can be and to help you help your kids enjoy their sailing to the extent of their talent and to the limits of their dreams.

Your child.
Your child is not a sailor. They are a person who sails. And as a person, who they are impacts on every aspect of their sailing. Real progress in sailing comes not from heredity, strength, skill and hard training – it comes from the development of the whole person: the character, their values, their personality AND of course their genetics, strength, skill etc etc. The training alone is not enough - the development of the person is far more important and far more enduring.

Speed, strength, endurance, power, flexibility and technique are all important. But not as important as integrity. Or honesty. Or sincerity. Or humility. Or courage. Or a strong work ethic. Or the ability to accept responsibility for their own actions. Or the ability to work cohesively with others to achieve a common goal. Or self discipline. Or the ability to
maintain a sense of humour under pressure and stress. These things not only impact positively on your child's sailing but on every aspect of their life. And not just now, but for the rest of their life and in everything they do.

I love sailing. And I would love your child to be a world record holder and Olympic champion. But I would prefer that your kids become better people through the experience of being involved in this great sport. If they happen to also sail fast …. that is a bonus. Read on: http://tinyurl.com/2e2go5t By Wayne Goldsmith (and Tom Coleman)

Water Rat Programme

This month saw our third Level 3B group graduate. At this level, the youngsters have learned to sail on a single hander and have experienced working together sailing a double hander. They are now ready to spread their wings a bit and do as much sailing as possible to gain experience before taking on any more structured learning for a while. It is critical that they continue sailing and that is why there is a need for yacht clubs to provide safe sailing for them within the clubs “family”. Whilst the clubs are preparing themselves for this, Sail Africa is running Supervised Sunday Sailing on the 1^st and 3^rd Sunday of each month so that graduates and others new to sailing can get out on the water outside of structured training. The event is a family day so come down and sail and have a swim in the pool and braai under the huts and take advantage of Durban’s fantastic weather. Call Ruby to book your place and a boat. 

Staff

Due to the increasing size of Sail Africa and the addition to my family of young Erin, we have opened a new office in our clubhouse down at the marina. We are delighted to have employed Ruby Bernard as administrator of the new office. Ruby now manages all the bookings so please contact her on 031-8115325 for any course queries or information. Taryn still manages the accounts and can be contacted on her same numbers. Former manager, Luke Wagner, has resigned to pursue a career in sailing. We thank him for his past work for Sail Africa and wish him well in his career. 

Adult Keelboat Course

We continue to get positive feedback from participants in our Yacht Hand course, run once a month. With a strong emphasis on teaching the basics of sailing, students are achieving a firm grounding from which to pursue their sailing journey. For course details, contact Ruby on 031-8115326 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

Super Swimmer

During this term, Anna Wardley and her ‘Turning the Tide” venture have once again done us proud!

On Friday 04 June, Anna successfully swam solo across the Gibraltar Straits from Spain to Morocco. This means that Anna has now successfully completed all five of the swims she has attempted over the past 17 months, including a Double Windermere, a solo cross Channel swim, a swim from Europe to Asia in the Hellespont and now from Europe to Africa. The Gibraltar Straits are known for their strong currents, unpredictable weather, high winds and high traffic of vessels. Pilots have logged current running at up to 8km per hour in the Straits. Anna’s support crew regularly broadcast her position to passing traffic to ensure that ships altered their course for her, but occasionally there were problems making contact and ships passed close enough for Anna to see the whites of the captain’s eyes on the bridge.

Anna needed to cross as quickly as possible to avoid getting swept past Morocco and managed it in just less than six hours. All of this was achieved in aid of three charities of which Sail Africa is one. The first funds received from ‘Turning the Tide’ have made it possible for Sail Africa to expand and set up office premises in the Durban Marina. Anna’s selfless extreme swimming efforts will result in Sail Africa reaching more kids and being more effective. If you’d like to make a donation to “Turning the Tide” – log onto www.annawardley.com and click on the “Donate” page.

Term Events

MSC Week was again a wonderful event for Sail Africa with four of our L26’s entered into the event as well as some of Sail Africa’s instructors representing PYC on PYC Challenger. MSC week has become a fantastic youth event with a very high percentage of the fleet made up of youth sailors. Sail Africa was pleased to be able to help our friends from Izivunguvungu Foundation for Youth from the Cape (Seen left) by providing them with the use of the big Red Bournemouth North Rotary for the event. The UKZN Yacht Club also sailed one of our L26’s and was skippered very well by young Victoria Marshall.

 The Lipton Challenge Cup 2010 Both PYC and RNYC have youth teams representing them at the Lipton Cup this year. Sail Africa instructors Luke Wagner, Byron Watt, Jean-Marc George and Anthony Mc Millan are all aboard PYC Challenger and gaining loads of experience. This is very healthy for sailing in the province and is an indication that we are making headway towards filling the youth ranks. We wish both teams the very best for the regatta.

 Durban International Boat and Lifestyle Show 2010 This event was once again a huge success and one that Durban can be proud of. Sail Africa was very well represented this year with our young helpers manning the SAS KZN stand, running headsail competitions on one of our L26’s, as well as taking newcomers to sailing out for sailing trips at ½ hour intervals. We ran regular competitions giving away sailing courses and creating lots of exposure for our activities. Two of our L26’s with youth crews on board were also entered in the concurrent Simply Sailing Regatta. We are extremely grateful once again to Barry Meehan and Devra Smith of Creative Events for sponsoring us the stand. 

Marketing

Sophie has been working hard at creating exposure for our work and has had much success. Sail Africa featured prominently in the “Durban International Boat Show 2010” broadcast on Supersport as well as in many articles in local newspapers. Sail Africa competitions have been run in nearly all local newspapers and have featured on the East Coast Radio Blog amongst other outlets. The “MSC Sailing Week & Durban Beach Festival 2010” film, in which Sail Africa also featured prominently, was broadcast 19 times on Supersport, providing huge awareness for our activities.

  Yamaha to the Rescue!

Our two rigid inflatable rescue craft used for our Water Rat programme are the life source of that programme. Recently the white duck’s 50hp engine died and required a complete new rebuild. Kelvin Thomas of YAMAHA Distributors South Africa came to the rescue and provided all the parts and the labour to completely rebuild the engine for us.               

Warren Laas is the marine technical advisor and was the person responsible for doing all the work and we are extremely grateful to YAMAHA for their kindness. Sail Africa is truly a community project and I am overwhelmed by the support that we enjoy from all sectors of the community.

Upcoming Events

Sail Africa Courses

• Water Rats – 8 to 15 years old
• Adult Dinghy and Keelboat Courses - 15 to 100 and plenty years old
• School Adventure Days – any age group
• SSSS-Supervised Sunday Sailing Sessions (Generally the 1^st and 3^rd Sunday of each month.)

Sponsors Wall 

A HUGE THANK YOU to Chris Talbot of PS Port Stevedoring for their donation of transport costs for kids on the C-Dog School Keelboat programme. This is the second year in a row that we have received this donation.

PORT STEVEDORINGA DIVISION OF PORT SERVICES (PTY) LTD                                                                                                         

Sponsors:

The Phillip Green Memorial Trust

Eikos

Creative Events

Clipper Round The World

Yacht Mast and Rigging

Seaport Supply

Durban Marina

Quantum Sails

Rotary International

Bournemouth North Rotary

The Hurter Family

Royal Cape Catamarans

PYC

RNYC

Bowman Yacht Sales

G Wind Spars

Yamaha                                                                                                            

See our website www.sailafrica.org for all of our latest activities    

Yours in sailing,Craig & Taryn              

Postal Address: PO Box 52553, Moore Road, 4093

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Website: www.sailafrica.org 063-968-NPO