By Peter Davis
In my extreme youth I was the half owner of a yacht. A steel-hulled ugly duckling that a friend and I shared, having swopped his sports car for the darn thing in the mistaken belief that it would be easier to get into the knickers of chicks on board than in the back of a sports car.
Chicks there were – or at least a few who had courage enough to take to the high seas with a pair of young men full of bravado, but with little skill or talent for sailing.
Well I remember homing in for the first tantalising kiss while the yacht rocked on the rough swells off the coast of East London when the mal de mer kicked in and I was left heaving helplessly over the side, having left a little smear of lunch on the poor girl’s back.
Thus ended a possible romance, and any ideas I had of heading out on to the vast oceans in search of fame and fortune – more opportunities lost, goddamit! Anyhow, I have dredged this story from my memory banks to illustrate that I am no yachtsman and even standing on the deck of any such vessel in the placidity of the bay makes me green with nausea.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t envy those with stronger stomachs, hands clasping the tiller as the winds smack the sails and the spray washes away the cares of the world. It is an enduring image of man and his puny little boat against the massive forces of nature – it’s just not for me.
All this sea stuff has come bubbling out because the Durban municipality is trying to cancel the lease of the Royal Natal Yacht Club in the harbour and put the club on a month-to-month basis “because this is important for development and planning”.
For some odd reason. the municipality appears to have a thing against all watersports and is already in conflict with other water sport clubs, doing its best to mess them all around. Just in case the powers have forgotten, this is a port, for heavens sake!
Snootiness
People live in Durban because they want to be near the sea and use all the possibilities the ocean provides, even if it is only to sit on a rock and ponder the power of the waves. The Royal Yacht Club has been around the city for at least 150 years and while there is undoubtedly a certain elite snootiness among some of the yachties, most are simply people who love the sea.
I don’t have the figures, but I would guess less than half the club members actually own yachts.
Most hang around in the hope of offering their skills as crew members while listening to the endless yarns of the sea. The club provides facilities for yachtsmen and the many overseas visitors who sail in to have a solid base to indulge in their particular interest.
To keep these facilities up to standard, such clubs need security of tenure or else why should they waste money keeping the premises maintained if they can be booted out the next month?
Simply ridiculous! It’s interesting to note that the city itself leases the land from the ports authority. Perhaps the ports authority should be approached to put the city’s leases in the port on a month-to-month basis and see how they like it.
The municipality, the water sport clubs and the ports authority all need to talk. Long term plans need to be laid on the table and a proper water sport precinct needs to be planned and financed so that the city and its citizens all benefit, instead of the confrontational attitude the council seems to be adopting.
If this fails, may the whole damn lot get seasick!
Peter Davis is a former newspaper editor and city councillor
** This blog first appeared as a column in the Durban North Fever newspaper.
2 Comments
I was…fortunate…to attend the prize giving for the Vasco da Gama Ocean Race that took place at the end of August. The prize giving was held at the other yacht club, PYC, and was attended by a representative of the city, who had sponsored the race. His words seemed to be very encouraging and talking about getting more people involved in sailing…Durban has the perfect weather for it…blah blah…so this article comes as a bit of a shock?! Going to a “month-to-month” agreement doesn’t sound like the city is trying to be very encouraging at all?
This man at the prizegiving also tried to sell the idea of the proposed Vetches development, which the sailors are, for the most part, not in agreement with.
It isn’t a surprise that the municipality is doing this.