The Commodore’s message to all Members for the 2014/2015 Season: For the Love of Sailing!
Dear Members and Friends,
The forthcoming sailing season promises to be a really exceptional – and what a wonderful start we have had, with our Lipton Challenge Cup Team, skippered by ZV sailor Daniel Agulhas with a well-known ZV sailor Sieraj Jacobs on the helm earning a hard-fought second place in the country’s most prestigious and competitive regatta! A truly impressive result!
Well sailed, Team ZVYC!
Roger Hudson and Asenathi Jim are currently competing in the ISAF Olympic qualifying regatta in Santander in Spain and we wish them all the very best!
We wish both our members, Peter Hall, the new Chairman of SAS, and Philip Baum, the new President of SAS, all of our support in their endeavors to build and promote the sport of sailing! For the Love of Sailing! Well done for stepping forward and we look forward to some great initiatives from SAS under your leadership and guidance.
In preparation for the sailing season ahead I would like to extend a big thank you to the ZVYC staff Joe and Anne for sprucing the club and getting it in ship shape. Also big thanks to Ron and Anna Keytel, the backbone of the club’s administration, for attending to all that paper work and making sure that all the clubs funds are collected – as well as keeping our ship sailing so well and for all the hard work and dedication.
Our energised ZVYC committee winter programme has seen an unusually busy time and Craig Leslie has single handedly supervised and built the new trailer park, transformed the old shed into our first rental garage and locker rental space, adding new revenue streams to the clubs coffers. In addition he has project managed revamping the entertainment area in front of the change rooms, introduced the new cellphone -operated gate system and the re-organised the clubs administration offices. The re-introduction of the winter TV sport with the provision of the new big-screen TV screen upstairs and the enjoyable rugby tests has brought life back to the club in the off-season.
Kirsten Veenstra’s ZVYC relentless marketing awareness drive using all the digital media possible is adding to the connectivity of the club and an anticipated increase in participation and thanks to Alistair Keytel for all the input and thought that has gone into an exciting sailing program for the season ahead. The ZVYC Club Champs will be run as a series of regattas, adding to the two traditional Club Champs weekends.
Thanks to Joost van der Ploeg for his tireless preparation of the club rescue craft and maintenance of the marker buoys and Dick Holmes for attending to the clubs general maintenance, Marco Tobin for his contribution in bringing the Zeekoe Vlei Sailing Centre more onboard and Mike Hall for tirelessly keeping the Optimist junior programme running so efficiently.
The first regatta of the year will be the Southern Charter Spring Open. A lot of effort has gone into making sure that this will be a premium, fun-filled and competitive regatta. To have more fun at the back of the fleet, we are introducing the Southern Charter Advantage buoy available only to the last third of the fleet! The motivation for this is to bring the fleet closer together so that those yachtsmen either learning to sail or those less competitive to get a chance to be more in the mix giving them the opportunity to learn from those more competent sailors that would otherwise have been too far ahead.
It is only fitting that we honour Jean-Jacques Provoyeur this year for his lifetime contribution to and achievements in sailing both keelboats and Dinghy sailing over many years. Don’t miss his talk at our Opening Cruise on Sunday this week entitled “For the Love of Sailing” which I am sure will enthrall you with his spirit and love of the sport of sailing and motivate you to get out onto the water sailing!
Let’s make this a really exceptional sailing season. With all this energy being put into sailing at ZVYC, and For the love of Sailing, I know it will be. The ZVYC mission for the year ahead is to get as many boats as possible on the water having fun sailing competitively at ZVYC enjoying each other’s company both on and off the water!
I look forward to seeing you all on Sunday for a great Opening Cruise and for a great Sailing Season!
With best wishes,
Mark Thompson
Commodore
