Many individuals, builders and groups had looked long and hard at trying to get the International 420 class going in SA but had been defeated by the huge start up cost of over R100 000.
As you probably know, we have a relatively small sailing fraternity with a small buyers market for the vast number of classes out there. We were determined to find a way to do it as at our club we have 80 children in our Optimist training program, many of who go to the African, European and/or World Championships but have no exciting international boat available to them after that.
In 2005 Zeekoe Vlei Yacht Club (see attachment) sold off a piece of its land with the intention of using half of the money to improve the Club facilities and the balance to promote sailing. In the latter category, it was decided to use part of that money to cover the start-up costs for the International 420 and our amazing Commodore, Jimmy Baigrie, December’s issue of Sailing SA magazine’s ‘Sailor of the Month’ for his efforts in this, went out and found sponsorship for the Club to buy the first 5 boats, thus creating a fleet for others to join. One of the principal sponsors was the Naussbaum Foundation, to who we are extremely grateful.
After trying for a number of months to negotiate to buy mould, Rondar eventually agreed to sell us one. Then the class rules changed. This caused a hold up until the new specs were issued by ISAF and the mould adjusted etc. It at least gave us time to persuade MACS shipping to give us a great deal on getting it here. We are also very grateful to Pronto Clearing for making all of the arrangements for everything that we had to import. But we had not been able apply to ISAF for a license until a selection process to choose a builder was held. That had taken time as well and it was only awarded to Stephen Du Toit of Performance Craft cc was just before the mould arrived on December 20th.
Whilst in the process of getting a license, he had permission from the International 420 Class Association to start building his own boats. We then awaited the turn of the International 420 class and ISAF wheels! Meanwhile, through Central Boating we got a great discount on Ronstan fittings for 15 boats and North Sails SA agreed to make the sails for the first 10 boats at a very good price. Spars were imported from Super Spars in England and the rudder stocks came in from Rondar.
The work behind the scenes was enormous for the few of us directly involved but the fantastic support we had enabled us to achieved our aim of building the first 10 boats for under R35 000!!! (excluding VAT) Unfortunately due to the unfavourable exchange rate the cost has had to go up a bit since then.
The first two boats were launched on October 1st 2006. It was quite a fantastic and very emotional occasion. The first boat was donated to the club by John Green whose father, Elkan Green had been the founder Secretary of the Club at age 21 in 1932. Elkan won the SA Goodricke trophy for the Club in his boat Faith in 1935 and John launched the first two boats and thus named our first 420 Faith. He named the 2nd boat Thubelisha which means ‘new beginnings’. (See attached)
We very proudly displayed RSA very first International 420 at the Cape Town Boat Show in October where we also showed a 420 DVD that was filmed in Portugal. It created a lot of excitement and another boat was ordered on the Monday morning!! We really appreciate the support of the organisers of the show who have allowed us the use of a stand at no charge for the past couple of years. Richard Crockett, editor of Sailing SA magazine has also given us exceptional support and coverage for many, many months. To Trevor Wilkins, a Club Member and professional photographer who primarily takes the most stunning pictures of keel boats, and gave very generously of his time when called out by us to photograph the progress International 420’s at short notice, our sincere thanks too.
Of those originally select to Team Shosholoza, eight were existing Members of our Club, another was the Build Manager for RSA 83, one was on that build team and the Media relations manager too is a member of ZVYC – so we have always had very close links with them all, as well as being passionate about the project, and granted all of the Shosholoza sailing team honorary Membership of the Club, now we will have to include the Arch Tutu as well!
On November 27th we repeated the ZVYC/‘Team Sosolazy’ challenge that had been held the previous year. ‘Team Sosolazy’ were great both times: autographed things for the kids and entered into the spirit of the event with gusto – their huge grinders sailing Optimists against our Optimist World’s team, relay Laser races where their ‘baton’ was a raw egg and ours was a hard boiled one, etc. – there was no way they could win!!
Iain Ainslie, helmsman of Shosholoza, had some years ago, started a sailing school in Simon’s Town, called Isivunguvungu, with the help of the SA Navy where he taught disadvantaged children to sail. Soon Captain Sarno and MSC got onboard and gave them sponsorship and today, two of their graduates race on Shosholoza. Recently Captain Sarno extended the MSC sponsorship to the Navy Youth Band which comprises of disadvantaged children from the area.
How does this fit in with our 420’s? Well on the day of our ZVYC versus Sosolazy challenge the Navy Youth Band entertained us with great music and broke into ‘Shosholoza’ when Captain Salvatore and Barbara Sarno arrived. (What a pity we don’t have a sound track with this!!) Barbara Sarno then graciously launched the Clubs next three International 420’s with lots of champagne.
Jimmy, Pete and I, for the effort that we had put into the project, got to chose the names for the boats. Jimmy named number three 4Sholoza, Pete wanted something that would remind everyone that sailing is fun and called number four 4Play and I called number five Houdini after the young hippo that had escaped from the adjoining nature reserve into our Vlei and evaded capture for six months. Photo courtesy of Andrew Ingram Cape Times (See attached.)
A few months before all of this excitement we had approached the Jewish Maritime League who support sailing in SA in a big way. They were unable to raise sufficient funds to sponsor a boat on their own but JML were able to join with the SA Navy and together provided the funds to buy a boat for Isivunguvungu in Simon’s Town. This week boats 11 and 12 will be delivered and orders for numbers 13 and 14 are confirmed. It looks as though we will achieve another of our goals, to have 20 International 420’s on the water by Easter!!
What are we doing with these beautiful boats? Davey James and Nicki Berry (author of a beautiful children’s book on Houdini) supervise the use of the boats along with the Club’s Sailing Secretary, Millicent Kellett. We have our members, young and old sailing them anywhere and everywhere they can as much and for as long and often as possible – they are all having a blast!! Nick Leggatt of Playstation fame has really been enjoying some basic dinghy sailing on them during his European winter break. He has been quite fantastic about taking many of our Juniors out for their first experience on the trapeze. Dale Rae is a Club Member and has always been passionate about getting the International 420 to SA, we are very proud of her and of Tiffany Baring Gould for their achievement it their 470 Olympic campaign and they have both been out on the 420’s too. Three Junior crews have chartered boats and are committed to sailing them in all of the upcoming regattas as well as in the Western Province Championships in Saldanah Bay at Easter and in the first International 420 South African Championships and ZVYC, 20 – 22 April.
At this point I would like to introduce the Jacobs family. Fuad and Juwayda with children Sieraj, Karima and Taariq have been members of our Club since 1975. Fuad and his brother build top quality aluminium keel boats just down the road from the Club. He has sailed Mirrors for many years with each of the children in turn. Sieraj won the Optimist Nationals a number of times and as a result was invited to sail in the Rio race on Parker Pen which took line honours. He raced in a number of Mirror worlds and then moved on to race on Shosholoza. He now works for Isivunguvungu and as part of their team, finished third in the recent Mirror worlds held in Port Elizabeth. His crew, Ashwyn Daniels of Isivunguvungu had just returned from winning the Optimist Nationals and had previously finished 3rd in the Optimist African Games. Karima has crewed for her father and brothers in Mirrors for many years at Club, National and International level. She now works at the adjoining Rondevlei nature Reserve. Taariq has the distinction of being the only person to win the SA Optimist National Championships three times in a row!! He has represented his country at a number of Optimist and Mirror Worlds and most recently finished 13th at the 29’r worlds with Neil Malan. Mother Juwayda has kept it all together over many years providing endless hot meals and a cool head! Where do they fit into the 420 scene? See the picture of Fuad on the trapeze winning the Hermanus Yacht Club Sponsored event! I am sure that we will see Taariq at the helm of one of the top placed 420’s in the Western Province and National International 402 regattas.
On the technical side, with a slight glitch, Stephen Du Toit got his Builders Licence in January 2007. Our sincere thanks to Dimitris Dimou – International 420 Class Association Technical Committee, and Henry Thorpe – ISAF for their assistance. All of the boats built have been accepted and have had their boat plaques and sail numbers allocated. Drew Jarvis has been appointed as the local measurer and In February, SA Sailing has recognised the International 420 Class in SA and has sanctioned the first SA International 420 Class National Championships to be held at Zeekoe Vlei in April!!!
We offer our sincere thanks to each and every one who have assisted us in whatever way to get this amazing project underway. Our motto remains: think huge or go home! Look out for our website in the near future www.sa420sailing.co.za
Where are we going with the project? The two main aims have always been to use the boats to teach disadvantaged children to sail and to provide an exciting international class for those ageing out of Optimists. We believe that we have achieved the second target and are now trying to re-focus on the first one. This is harder in that it requires additional funding to provide coaches, transport, coach boats etc. Most of all it requires manpower to get out there and identify potential participants. We have been working with Metropolitan Health Group on this objective and whilst they are very keen, it is taking far longer for the wheels to go round than we had anticipated. Our own members are so keen to use the boat that right now we are out looking for sponsorship to enable the Club to buy more boats!!
ALL CONTRIBUTIONS WILL BE GRATEFULLY RECEIVED!!