Staunch Veranda Vikings might occasionally ponder and ask themselves, "what do country members do, 'cause lets face it, what is life without sailing or a beer in the hand talking to your mates at the club".

Well, we build boats.

After 4 and a half years of me being a backyard boatyard part time boatbuilder, Tanya had the dubious pleasure of cracking a bottle of genuine Moet, the real thing, on the bows of "Banjo" our Ian Farrier designed 9,5 meter trimaran.

The launch took place on the 21st of June in the canals in front of our home in St Francis Bay. Homeport will be Port St Francis, but we hope to come round to good old ABYC for a few races in the new season.

This was a "from scratch" project, ie I walked into an empty shed with a dream, a set of plans, sheets of high density foam, rolls of high tech fibreglass and drums of resin. And no previous experience in working with fibreglass. I learned fast. The biggest thing I learned was that boatbuilding is 95% sanding, 95% dreaming, 95% sweat.

Will I do it again, NO, NEVER AGAIN.
Can I recommend it, YES. Building a boat is the male equivalent of falling pregnant and giving birth to a child. It has been said by some famous person..I don't know who, that every man must build at least one boat in his life. So please give it a go.

Regards

Frans Loots
St Francis Bay

www.abyc.org.za: We are celebrating our Atlantic crossing Jacqui's second and my 5th one. Arrived on Monday 28 April 2008 at 21 Zulu time the last 31 hrs lots of very strong rain, visibility like zero quite exciting at night when it is pitch black and the boat is going at 6 to 7 knots, in the strong gust's, up to 9 kn. In all the crossing was a very easy one with blue sky and constant SE trade winds 8 to 16kn, used all the sails we had. All went well except once when we had the spy up and the wind increased to 20kn then the shackle of the sheet turning block broke and I needed 6 hands but Jax managed to ease the sheet which was now holding by one of the rigging shrouds and I managed to pull down the sock and we packed the bag away for the day!!! Had a few scotches to cool me down, I must say the asymmetrical is easier to fly but not as much fun.

St. Helena was the best stop. We anchored in 20m of water off the town of Jamestown. The anchorage is protected from the SE trade winds but a heavy anchor chain is needed as it can be a bit rolly at times. The top of the island is very green with cows like in Switzerland, people are very friendly every car greets you and you must say hallo. The Jacobs ladder is good for a work out (699 steps) I really enjoyed it and went up a few times and the beer was taken afterwards across the road at Ann's place. A real good person Madame Ann she even gave me a kiss but she smelt like a brewery and she told me a secret 'you know I like my hourly Windhoek draft 'nothing wrong with that I told her.

The fees in March 2008 were as follows: the yacht was 25.00 pounds for 3 months and it cost 12.00 pounds per person for immigration. Water is for free and available at the pier. The water taxi, our driver's name was Reg, highly recommended as he knew exactly how to handle the waves and swell when landing at the island and getting you back on board your yacht including all your jerry cans. The price for this was 1.20 pound return trip and payable the day you leave. We definitely recommend hiring a car and driving all over the island. The booking of the car can be done through the Tourist office in the Main street, they will make the call for you and we paid 11.00 pounds per day. The scenery is awe-inspiring!! It took us 2 days of traveling and wandering down every little road to see everything. Napoleon's 2 homes are also well worth the visit and this must be booked at the tourist office as well, it is for free. At Anne's place she does the yachties washing, it cost us 12.00 pounds for about 10 kilos. Up in the Main street you will find Marlene's Tea Room. She hails from Cape Town and makes the best bread, rolls, scones, doughnuts! You can place your order with her for bread etc for the remainder of the crossing, she double bakes this and lasts the whole way!! All in all a stop at St Helena is well worth the visit!! Do yourself a favour and stop.

From St. Helena to Ascension island it was a 6 day sail with no problems. We didn't enjoy the island so much as there is nothing going on. The landing with the dingy was only for acrobats as the big Atlantic rollers were coming in, I think Hawaii would be jealous. We anchored in 12m of water but it was rough at times. There are millions of small black fish in the area they are a relative of the Piranha and these fish clean the bottom of the yacht of weed and barnacles within minutes.

Ascension is a 'working island' only 800 population mostly St. Helenians but with 150 United Kingdom and 50 US citizens visitors are most welcome. The island has moved a long way away from being a closed island. This island is a desert of mostly volcanic rock it is very barren, only up the green mountain it is green like Switzerland. We hired a car and visited every corner of this very small volcanic island. The car hire we booked through Fowlers at One Boat Village. It cost 15.00 pounds. We spent some time at the American base and the RAF and visited the British weather station where a friend of mine used to work, they were very happy that we came to talk to them. The water was very clear, I did some diving and the black fish were all over me, lucky they left me alone. The fees for this year 2008 were 11.00 pounds per person and legally you may stay for 4 days only. If you require to stay longer a permit is obtainable. A permanent webcam is on at the pier head so family and friends can see you 'trying to land and jump off you dingy before it plummets back down again'. Food stuffs are expensive and there is only 1 store. More info on www.ascension-island.gov.ac

After 5 day's we pulled up anchor and set course towards Brasil both wind and current on this downwind leg are in your favour. So we relaxed played cards every afternoon cooked good food with a desert every night and a scotch or two. Got Jax right on this leg she was asking for some boerewors and lamb chops and joined in with the sundowner's!!! Fishing was a must - always two lines out at the back but catches didn't come easy. I landed one Dorado which is a very good eating fish then I had a +- 1.8m sailfish on the line the plan was to let him go as he is to big and beautiful to be killed. I was amazed he managed to bite the hook in half and dived away to his freedom.

Our night watches were very relaxing. I trusted our navigation system completely and I would recommend that every boat has a A.I.S. (Automatic Identification System) fitted. AIS will pick up any ship over 300 T with the Name of ship, speed, it's heading and it's ID number. One can set the alarm at 16nm 8nm 4 nautical miles or less as soon as a ship enters this circle the alarm will go off, having the name of the ship you can call him up on channel 16 and I guarantee he will answer. (without a name he will not answer). Next to that we run the radar set on a 10 minute watch with a guard of 7.5 nm around you and every 10 minutes it will scan for for 1 minute looking for objects around you and if so a alarm will throw you out of the deepest sleep.

As we are sailing short handed I think this is the way to go I don't believe in a 20 minute sleep then get up and watch for a minute or two and go back for 20 minutes. Plus lots of sailors don't see so well anymore at our age and are half asleep when watching. If you have 4 on board a 3 hr shift watch is mostly used but in my experience I asked a few of my old crew did you ever watch behind you at night???

Sailing was good again when we left the island, with more wind we were doing 120 nm a day and Brasil was coming closer very quickly. After 11 days we arrived at the Rio Paraiba river mouth which is at Cabedelo (about 120nm south of Natal) we motored in idle speed up the river and after 18 km we tied up in the new marina which has pontoons for 40 boats, fresh water, power and free WIFI. The name of the marina is Jacare Yachting village. It is like paradise, the river is about 800m wide and along the river are about 10 small restaurants and good music till late at night. We will stay here for a while and Jacqui is busy planning a trip up the Amazon - a must if you are in Brasil. We may also fly to Belem or take a bus.

Our sailmail provider was blocked by to many messages that was the reason why we did not send any mail it is a very slow process as it is going via a SSB radio and having only 10 min transmitting and receiving time available it can only do 3 messages in 10 min, we had 31 in the inbox, I am looking at better options and busy at the moment with subscribing to Skype so soon hopefully we can phone from the boat via our lap top, anyway while we are here you must use our old email address jeanmarie117 [at] hotmail.com

It's 35C and I will go to look for a ice cold beer.

We are well, happy and looking forward to hear from you.

Regards

Walter & Jacqui

PS: in future if anyone uses sailmail please keep it to only 5-6 text lines nothing else, we get warned otherwise and lose our email till we have a new one. Thanks for understanding.

Andrew Stevens, NSRI Durban Deputy Station Commander said: At around midday today NSRI Shelley Beach were alerted to track the progress of the yacht Eggnog sailing from Port Edward to Durban and reportedly battling in heavy weather but the skipper had not called an emergency and they were trying to sail through the weather.

NSRI Shelley Beach were placed on full alert.

At 14h34 NSRI Durban were placed on full alert to be on stand-by as the yachts skipper, Yaron Padagio, and crew, Annelie Norris from East London and Neil van der Walt, from Pretoria, reported that they were battling to keep control of the yacht and were deciding whether or not to declare an emergency.

NSRI Durban’s rescue craft Eikos Rescuer II was prepared for a launch to go to their aid and at approximately 16h45 the crew aboard Eggnog declared an emergency and requested to be rescued off the yacht and stated that they were preparing to abandon ship.

Eikos Rescuer II launched and a National Ports Authority Augusta helicopter was activated from the Port of Durban with NSRI rescue swimmer Andre Fletcher, Pilot Rhys Mason, Co-Pilot Douglas Nichols and Flight Engineer Gerhard Coetzee on-board.

An NSRI Shelley Beach crew were activated to stand-by at the Mhlungwa River Mouth to assist if it was necessary to bring the casualty crew ashore immediately.

On arrival on-scene, approximately 1.6 nautical miles off-shore of the Mhlungwa River Mouth, South of Ifafa in the area of Hibberdene, in zero visibility conditions, a rain squall, 30 to 35 knot South Westerly winds and a confused sea state with 3 to 4 metre choppy, wind swept rough sea swells and breaking surf, NSRI rescue swimmer Andre Fletcher was winch-hoisted from the helicopter into the sea and Andre beckoned and shouted instructions to the first crew member to abandon ship by jumping into the water to be secured and hoisted into the helicopter but in the driving rain and against the noise of the helicopter the 3 casualty crew failed to understand the instructions so Andre was hoisted back into the helicopter which then hovered above the yacht while the flight engineer used hand signals to explain to the casualty crew what was expected of them.

On the second attempt Andre was again hoisted into the water and Neil jumped off the yacht into the sea and Andre secured him and they were hoisted into the helicopter. 2 more similar runs were made – on the second run Annelie was hoisted while being secured by Andre and then on the third run the skipper was hoisted while being secured by Andre.

Andre said that during the hoisting operation and each time he was lowered into the surf to receive the next victim breaking waves and extremely rough sea conditions were driving him back and forth putting his swimming skills to an extreme test.

None of the crew were injured and they were brought safely, aboard the Augusta helicopter, directly to the Port Heli-pad at the Port of Durban.

The unmanned yacht is reportedly at the back surf line off-shore of the Mhlungwa River Mouth and according to eye-witnesses she appears to be close to running aground.

Source: Craig Lambinon, NSRI
Related: Paddle to Shore for Fuel?
NSRI Stories

Mick Banks, NSRI Port Edward Station Commander said: “At approximately 11h30 our NSRI volunteer crew, standing-by on the Port Edward Beach, Natal, were alerted to a paddle-ski capsizing near the backline surf in 1½ to 2 metre surf.

We launched a Lifeguard rescue rubber-duck and rescued Neil van der Walt from the surf and recovered his paddle-ski.

Once safely on the beach and not injured Neil said he had been trying to come ashore aboard his paddle-ski to get fuel for the yacht Eggnog that he and Annelie Norris, both from East London, and Israeli skipper, Yaron Padagio, were sailing from East London to Durban and then on to the Seychelles but which had run out of fuel off Port Edward.

After jumping over-board and paddling his paddle-ski into the surf-line trying to get to shore Neil capsized before being rescued by NSRI.

Our NSRI crew assisted by taking Neil to a service station to get fuel.

Neil and his paddle-ski were then taken out to the yacht Eggnog, aboard our NSRI rescue craft Rescue 32 Alpha, and after assisting to get Neil and the fuel on-board the yacht we wished the crew well on their way.”

By: Craig Lambinon

Cape Point, 15 June, 2008. All 4 crew safely rescued from life-raft after yacht capsizes.

Darren Zimmerman, NSRI Simonstown Station Commander said: At 21h55 NSRI Simonstown and NSRI Gordon’s Bay were activated by the National Ports Authority following a request for urgent assistance from a female reporting that her husband, and daughter and 2 men, on a 37 foot Catamaran yacht, Genii II, had called her reporting to be taking water fast, sinking and drifting about 5 nautical miles off Cape Point and urgently needing rescue.

The Skipper’s wife, Roda Jelberts, said that her husband, Hans, had told her that electrical and VHF radio failure prevented him from calling a Mayday Distress and he asked her to urgently alert a rescue.

After giving his estimated position and a brief description of the emergency and the urgency of the situation the Skippers cell-phone went dead and no further communications with the skippers cell-phone could be reached.

NSRI Simonstown launched rescue craft Spirit of Safmarine III and Eddie Beaumont II, NSRI Gordon’s Bay launched Sanlam Rescuer, NSRI Hout Bay were activated and the Metro Ambulance and Rescue Services, a South African Air Force (SAAF) 35 Squadron Dakota fixed wing aircraft and the SAAF 22 Squadron NSRI Air Sea Rescue helicopters were placed on alert.

NSRI rescue vehicles were dispatched to Cape Point and Maritime Radio Services and Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) were informed.

Roda confirmed to us that the yacht has a life-raft and red distress flares on-board.

Attempts by NSRI to contact the crew aboard the yacht via VHF radio or on any 3 cell-phones belonging to the 3 men on-board were unsuccessful.

Shortly after launching the 3 NSRI rescue craft a 1000 foot parachute red distress flare was sighted 2 nautical miles East of Cape Point Lighthouse by coast watchers.

On arrival in the vicinity of the red distress flare sightings a search commenced and a second 1000 foot parachute red distress flare was sighted by NSRI rescue crew.

Further red distress hand-held flares were then sighted in the same direction and all 4 survivors were found safe and not injured aboard their life-raft and all 4 survivors, Hans Jelberts, 45, and his daughter Roda, 23, from Strand, Charles Hunting, 46, from Stellenbosch and Adrian van Reenen, 45, from Brackenfell, were rescued by Spirit of Safmarine III and brought to NSRI Simonstown’s rescue base where they were met by Roda.

The life-raft was recovered and brought to NSRI Gordon’s Bay aboard Sanlam Rescuer.

The casualty yacht is adrift semi-submerged in the capsize position and Maritime Radio Services are broadcasting a Navigational Warning to vessels in the area.

The cause of the yacht taking water is as yet unconfirmed.

The skipper estimates that they capsized about 4 nautical miles off-shore of Cape Point Lighthouse after taking water on the port side from as yet unconfirmed causes. According to the skipper they abandoned ship and drifted about 2 nautical miles in their life-raft while setting off 1000 foot parachute red distress flares at intermittent intervals. Once they spotted the rescue craft in the area they ignited hand held red distress flares to guide the rescue craft to their position.

They had departed Hout Bay at 18h00 headed in the direction of Gordon’s Bay.

Hans said that after releasing their life raft from the yacht it initially failed to deploy and only deployed later after numerous attempts at pulling on the deployment chord.

By: Craig Lambinon

On Saturday the 7th June a television crew from the M-Net Channel's Studio 53 spent the day at the Algoa Bay Yacht Club filming our new Sailing Coach, Kabelo as he trained a group of schoolchildren from Motherwell.

After interviewing yours truly and getting background shots the crew accompanied me on the Rubber Duck as we filmed Kabelo training with the ABYC Lipton Cup Squad.

The day before they filmed sites in and around Port Elizabeth for another program to be aired on Studio 53 on Mnet Series Channel on Saturday 21 June 2008 at 18:00, and 00:00 as well as on Sunday 22 June 2008 at 06:00 and 12:00

CLICK HERE for more info.

To all SAS affiliated clubs

In terms of Clause 17.2 of the Constitution we wish to give preliminary Notice of the SAS AGM which will be held in the Northvaal region, at a venue to be announced, on Saturday, 2nd August 2008 at 14h00.

Clubs are invited to submit items for the inclusion on the Agenda, which must be received in writing/email to sandy[at]sailing.org.za or faxed to 031 3073902 by 16h00, on 27th June 2008.

Not signed as sent electronically.

Rob M’Crystal
President/Chairman
South African Sailing

Dave Jackson writes:

Our resident Otter has been hurt quite badly and has taken up residence on the hard standing. The guys got him a fresh fish to eat this morning. This is a picture of him having a drink of water from below the tap next to the gear shed.