When you spend so much time pushing, caring for, cajoling and maintaining a beautiful racing machine like this, you get very close. She’s looked after me well, and I look after her. I haven’t been lonely at all.
Ellen MacArthur
“To the question, “When were your spirits at the lowest ebb?” the obvious answer seemed to be, “When the gin gave out.” – Sir Francis Chichester
“To young men contemplating a voyage I would say go.” – Joshua Slocum
We had 7 Dabbie Sailors taking part in the Sonnet Nationals
3rd Position – James Stock(Ex Dabbie Nat Champ)& Eamon Jooste (Crew)
8th Jeremy Foreman & Jacques louw (Also first Junior team)
14th Danford Jooste & Connor Jooste
15th Kevin Foreman & Luke Sher
There were 21 Sonnets taking part.
Owen
At Nationals we had 10 sailors whose first names started with a J. If we carry on like this we will have to become the J22 class.The sailors are :-
Jeremy
Jonathan Kukard
Jason Gray
Jacques
Julian
Jonathan Ham
Jayan
Justin Stoker
Jason Cooke
Joshua Raad
Owen
Supa Sails may be a new name on the South African sailing scene but at the helm of the company is the well known South African sailor and sail maker, Rob de Vlieg.
Rob started his sail making career in Durban, then moved up to Johannesburg to open the Musto and Hyde loft in 1974. This later became the well known Hyde loft, a name that Rob dropped recently to start the Supa Sails label.
During an illustrious sailing and sail making career which saw Rob winning 16 National championship titles in various classes, becoming a double Springbok and also being voted as Yachtsman of the Year in 1988, and with sails designed by Rob winning countless National titles as well as 2 World championship titles, Rob has seen many changes in the development of sails and sailing classes as well as changes in world markets. This has led to our market shifting from the traditional Dinghy Racing classes in which Rob was so very active, to the Racing Keelboat classes, and our markets shifting out of South Africa and into Europe.
Currently the company manufactures sails for various sail makers in Europe in countries such as England, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Holland. These cover Dinghy classes like as Optimists, 505, Flying Dutchman, and Keelboats up to 27 metre.
Amongst these customers are well known brand names such as B-M Sails, Elvstrom Sails, Hagoort Sails, One Sails, Ultimate Sails and W-B Sails for whom we either offer a pure Manufacturing facility or a Design and Manufacturing service.
In terms of Cloth suppliers we only deal with the best, namely Dimension Polyant in Germany and Contender Sailcloth in Holland.
Design and/or manufacturing facility for other sail makers.
Racing Dinghy Sails for all classes.
Sails for Racing Keelboats Classes with a particular emphasis on Downwind sails, both Symmetric and Asymmetric spinnakers, and Code Zero sails.
Racings Keelboat sails for one off projects.
Cruising Keelboat Sails.
Repair and maintenance service, for all kinds and makes of sails.
Supa Sails
132 MacGillivray Road, Glenferness, Midrand, Gauteng South Africa.
Tel + 27 11 465 8448
Cel + 27 72 4262854
E-mail: rob@supasails.co.za
I must say that I have enjoyed reading in SA Sailing letters of support from different people. Last month the editor also came out in support of our class. SAS has nailed their colours to the mast and its obvious that there will be no support coming from our National body for the class that has proved it can consistently produce the numbers at Nationals. In the latest copy Rob, our chairman, wrote to the editor as follows :
” Sir
Many thanks for giving the Dabchick a really good punt in the last edition, and bravely nailing your colours to the mast, as it were. Your comments were not only greatly appreciated, but most timely.
For a long while we have felt there is an unmentioned undercurrent amongst the sailing fraternity which seeks to discourage young sailors from sailing Dabchicks. At the very least it manifests itself in an indifference which is unfair. We have experienced this indifference in many ways over the years, and most recently when we noticed that the original poster for the 2011 SA Youth Nationals accidentally failed to make any reference whatsoever to the Dabchick class, and only made reference to the event being a selection event for the Laser and Optimist classes.
This shortsighted attitude is also evidenced by the repeated failure by SAS to select and invite any Dabchick sailors to attend their High Performance clinics or training sessions.” Letter shortened see the full version in the magazine.
What do we as a class do about this ? We could get aggro and refuse to pay SAS fees,after all what do we get in return ? We could break away from the SAS Youth Nationals and do our own thing.All of this I think will only aggravate the current situation.
Our class is vibrant, alive and even SAS admits has the best Gees. Lets keep building on this, get more Dabbies on the water. Each sailor should make it their business to sell the positives,the comraderie,the comradeship and the pure performance and excitement of the boat.International competition is great,but is South Africa ready for this, not many can afford it either. SAS should be concentrating on getting more sailors on the water,no matter what boat they choose.
Owen
See how the class has progressed, no mylar or glass boats in the pics.
Owen
