April 2024 Newsletter

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Message from our Commodore…

Sadly, this will be my last newsletter “message” as your Commodore, as I will be hanging up my “Commodore Cap” at the AGM on the 25^th May, and as much as I am looking forward to having less responsibility, giving up such a big part of my daily life has its emotions! As Commodore, or Vice Commodore, when you leave the premises, you don’t leave the club behind and “go on with life”, the club goes with you, it is a full time job that you deal with seven days a week!

If I reflect back on my six years as Commodore, it has been a huge learning curve, I have learnt so much more about the club and sailing in South Africa, especially, “South African Sailing” and the huge amount of good work that they do for our sport, but most of all I have learnt a huge amount about people, I have learnt that you “cannot make everyone happy all of the time”, and that you get three types of members, firstly you get the supporters, they are the members who appreciate that the committee of volunteers are giving up their private time to run their club, they enjoy the facilities and generally enjoy their sailing and social time at the club. The second type of member is the “nice guys”, they give the appearance of being a supporter, but when you are not around, they will get together with other “nice guys” and discuss the downfalls and faults of the committee, they will discuss amongst themselves that the committee needs to change and things should be done differently, but they will never put themselves forward to do anything, these members usually stay the same, even when the committee changes. The third type of member is the “Haters”, they are the persons who do not accept the individuals “in charge”, they usually have a conspiracy theory regarding any leadership, and no matter how you try to “please” them or prove that you have no “agenda”, they continue to “hate”, fortunately, one usually knows who these members are as they are quite vocal while trying to recruit new “haters”.

Thank you to all the Supporters, Nice Guys and “Haters” for everything I have learnt during the past six years, even though there is things that could have been done better, I did my best to try maintain the good principles of our club and to keep it a family orientated club with “well-maintained” facilities for all members to enjoy!

Nominations received for the 2024/5 Committee are as follows:

President: Steve Mc Comb and Craig Middleton

Commodore: Peter Theunissen and Andrew Bews
Vice Commodore: Calum Wedge
Entertainment: Claire Wedge
General: Wilhelm Herbst
General: Elize Herbst
General: Diekie Schoeman
General: Audrey Redmond
Racing: Diana Steyn
General: Andrew Bews

I wish all the very best to the new Flag Officers and Committee!

We are proud to have been successful in bidding for the host club for the 2025 Western Cape Dinghy Championships over 26-28 April 2025.

See you at the Club!

NEW MEMBERS

We welcome Ivan Smith back and Brett Nortier.

We hope you enjoy your time at the Club!

JUNIOR SAILING

Juniors – Academy – Dinghies

Overview

After completing our initial research to test the appetite, five months ago, SBYC embarked on their plan to encourage more participation in the sport of sailing from our younger generation – Juniors. Due to demand and circumstances the project has progressed far quicker than originally anticipated.

The original motivation to embark on this project, with sailing as our focus, was based on three primary objectives:

To create a safe and exciting environment for all our youngsters, both local and from further afield, to learn about and take part in sailing,
To make a positive investment in the future sustainability of SBYC
To grow membership, with all the spinoffs, and therefore additional revenue for the club ensuring financial stability.

The feeling was that the best way to achieve our objectives was to introduce competitive dinghy sailing as a regular activity at SBYC.

Progress so far

Upon implementation of the programme we soon discovered that the demand outstripped, our available capacity at the time, by far. This covered every aspect such as: Instructors, boats, parking space, junior clubhouse/meeting room, and hands on assistance to name but a few. To help cope with the situation and ensure implementation was not hampered, a “Junior sub-committee” was formed.

Some of the most important mile stones over the past four months have been:

Negotiating with the Navy and in particular SAS Saldanha for the use of an additional 620sqm of their land. Our thanks go to Retd. Admiral Koos Louw and OC SAS Saldanha Captain Madonsela for making this possible. In keeping with our agreement with the Navy, a perimeter fence has been erected around this area.
The sailing component of the navy cadet programme and the SBYC academy have been merged under one umbrella. Therefore all funding will be allocated to one combined body.
SBYC have grown their fleet of dinghies to 12 Mirrors, 11 Oppis and 3 Saldanha dInghies. These vessels will be used for both training purposes as well as to be rented out to members for their use. A restoration and maintenance programme is currently in place to get all these boats up to top racing condition.
The club has agreed to allocate the upstairs meeting room as a dedicated junior space. It is important that our juniors have their own space which is separate from the bar and smoking areas of the club. This room is currently being redecorated and fitted out to suit the requirements of the juniors.
A very successful training programme has been implemented. Due to our current capacity we have had to limit numbers. Notwithstanding this we have still managed to involve about 40 newbies who have never been on a boat before. Some of our juniors who two months ago could not sail at all are now going solo already.
A regular racing programme for dinghies is in place.

Funding

Whereas the club is of course responsible for building additional physical infrastructure where required, expenditure will be recovered by growth in membership, boat rental and parking fees, training courses, etc.
Funding for instructor training programmes, boat maintenance, regattas, etc. will come from outside sponsors. These companies have already committed to a substantial amount in funding.

What does the future hold

Demand for dinghy sailing has moved from being just for Juniors to include adults as well
As many as possible of the responsibilities of the current Junior sub-committee will be integrated into the responsibilities of the main committee
Regular racing for dinghies will form part of our calendar
We will have at least one SBYC regatta which welcomes all dinghy sailors on a national basis
SBYC has been nominated and awarded the host club for the 2025 WC dinghy championships
The activities of the academy will continually be expanded.
There is a lot of work that needs to be done, however given the enthusiasm with which this venture has been tackled to date and the committed volunteers, I have no hesitation in knowing that this project will soon become part and parcel of what already is a great club.

Peter Theunissen

RACING

We hosted the Holiday 23 association on the Saturday evening, with just over 40 sailors and around 8 H23’s and “Reflexions”, their Bridge boat and crew!

Autumn series Races 1 & 2 weekend 27/28 April: Saturday was 17 starters in very variable winds with 8 finishers followed by a bring-and-braai at the Club. Sunday racing was cancelled due to weather conditions