Happy Spring Day, although the weather currently does not look like spring.  We trust you have a had a good week.

Alfred’s Masters rower Christine Ceasar leaves tomorrow for the 2022 World Masters Rowing Champions to be held in Libourne, France.

Christine will be rowing in the H category. Masters categories start at A for 30 year olds and go up in 5 year increments to J for over 80’s.

After competing at provincial level in swimming, hockey and archery, Christine was introduced to rowing 6 years ago by Daggie Atkinson at Elgin Rowing Club. From there she joined Simonstown’s Cape Coastal Club before being introduced to Alfreds by Dane Cheery. Dane taught Christine the basics of rowing and since then Liesl Jobson has coached Christine to be the competent Masters rower she is today.

Christine will be rowing in France in various doubles and quad combinations with Wendy and Tim Hutton of Roodeplaat Rowing Club and Mark Cronin from Vikings Rowing Club.

We wish you well Christine, you have done all the hard work and will do your club and country proud. You will be a great ambassador and will encourage the Europeans to visit us next year. We look forward to following your races online and to all your stories when you get home.

A fit and strong Christine pictured yesterday in her final outing before departing to France tomorrow.

2023 World Rowing Masters in South Africa

A squad of 25 Alfreds rowers have began a 12 month training program in preparation for the 2023 Works Masters Rowing Championships  to be held at Roodeplaat Dam just north of Pretoria.

Team training consists of 2 on-the-water outings and 1 ergometer session per week.  Alfreds will have possibly the second largest squad after Johannesburg’s Victoria Lake Rowing Club at the games. All rowers are encouraged to join the squad, so for those of you who have been thinking about a return to the sport, these World Championships should be the perfect incentive to get you back in the boat.

Pictured below last weekend are three of the crews enjoying the pristine rowing conditions on the glassy and clean waters of Zeekovlei.

Ladies Quad. Sissel, Liz, Anna-Marie and Liesl

***IF YOU HAVE ANY SAILING NEWS OR RESULTS TO SHARE, PLEASE EMAIL LARA***

IODA Africans Championship 2022

Thirteen of our ZVYC optimist sailors have qualified and will be representing South Africa at the upcoming Africans Championship to be held in Langebaan 24 September – 1^st October 2022.  This is an incredible achievement and represents more than 50% of the team, boding well for the future of sailing out of ZVYC.

Our sailors in alphabetical order are:
Scarlett Celliers
Jack Cumming
Jacques Dugas
Elisa Falcon
Dylan Hall
Thomas Henshilwood
Joshua Keytel
Faith Lyons
Blake Madel
Ross Mukheiber
Joshua Nankin
James Rae
Oliver Steenkamp.

The team coaches include Arin Long and Alex Falcon.  We are very proud of young sailors and coaches. Read the team and management teams bio’s here: http://www.optimist.org.za/africans-2022/

This weekend is our Opening Cruise. While the weather forecast is for windy and rainy weather, we will be going ahead. The program is as follows:

09h00 with the opening of the new RMB rowing jetty
10h00 Tea and cake and welcome by the new Commodore
10h45 “Breaking” of the club burgee and traditional sail and row past
11h00 Bar opens
13h00 Lunch available for purchase. The menu includes: soup, beef lasagne, vegetable curry and rice, vegetable quiche, burgers and toasted cheese sandwiches.

The opening cruise is open to all ZVYC and ARC members as well as members of the Zeekoevlei community, including Friends of Zeekoevlei. This will provide a great opportunity to network with our neighbours, especially those who have been so active protecting and cleaning up our waters.

***Please bring a sweet or savoury dish to share at tea time.

Junior Programme
Coinciding with the open cruise is our first junior training weekend. If you have not registered, please do so using the following link: link: https://www.revolutionise.com.au/zeekoevleiyc/events/134179. We are offering the following programs and coaches:

Optimist A (Gold Fleet) Coach Arin Long
Optimist B and Intermediates (Silver Fleet) Coaches Shane and Amir Yagha
Novice sailors (Bronze Fleet) Coach Jemayne Wolmarans

This coming season we are also introducing Dabchick coaching, and we have managed to secure Coach Hamilton Slater as the head coach which is very exciting.

Finally, we will also be offering ILCA 4.7 and 420 coaching. A reminder is that we have opened our program to our Western Cape sister clubs. Anyone who is a paid-up member at any of our sister clubs is welcome to join the 10-week program. Please spread the word.

Please note that there will be no junior programme offered on regatta weekends including:
Cape Classic (10-11 September 2022)
Southern Charter Sponsored Series (30^th October 2022)
North Sails Sponsored Series (27^th November 2022)
TSC Cape Classic (4^th December 2022).

ZVYC Cape Classic 10-11^th September
The Cape Classic date is happening 10-11^th September, 2022. Online registration is open, please use this link: https://www.revolutionise.com.au/zeekoevleiyc/eventsregister/153070/. Single-handed entries are R350, and double-handed entries are R600. Registration closes at 11:30am on the 10^th September and the first race is scheduled for 1:00pm. The program is as follows

Saturday – 10th September 2022
10h00 Registration Opens
12h30 Registration Close
13h00 Start of Racing
17-00-19h00 – Happy hour(s)
17h00-20h00 Music by Andy Hoyle
18h00-Lucky draw – prizes include a wetsuit warehouse wetsuit, Ndlovu gin, AA Badenhorst wines and a round of golf at Devonvale.

Sunday – 11th September 2022
TBC Start of Racing
15:30 No start after this time
17:00 Prize-giving

We are still looking for lucky draw prizes, please contact Lara if you or your business are able to contribute anything (big or small).

Please spread the word to make this a successful event. A big thank you to those of you who have already volunteered. Please email Lara ASAP: laradugas@gmail.com

Events