At the March meeting of the Keeler Interest Group we discussed the formalisation of the meeting, i.e. taking minutes etc. By the end of the meeting the general mood was to try and keep it an interest group rather than a “sailing meeting”. Thus these are not minutes, only a report back.

Report Back

Keeler Evening Series (America’s Cup) is continuing and being well supported. In future the event will be organised by Anton Heymann and Geoff Goddard. Dudley Isaacs (DI) suggested the course be shortened and kept closer to the club to provide greater spectator interest. This probably means going for a multi-lap event. Over to the new organisers! Gayle Newby (GN) suggested we find a trophy to present at the end of the season. DI felt that rather than use an existing unused trophy we should consider making our own.

The involvement of the Keelers at the 2010 Oyster Festival was discussed. It was suggested that the public be invited to partake in a raffle whose winners would be taken for sailing trips on the lagoon. GN to continue further with this project. Five skippers volunteered to provide boats.

Feedback was given on the March meeting of SASEC Southern Cape. The idea of resuscitating CASA was greeted with enthusiasm; Roger Newby to continue with this. The awarding of R5 000 by the Sports Council to hold Bridge & Safety Officers training at Knysna was outlined and welcomed. The fact that SASEC intended to escalate their concern of SAS’s inability to provide audited financial statements was welcomed as SASEC, KYC and individual members’ money appears to have got “lost” in the system at SAS.

It was recommended that those members whose funds had been mislaid by SAS should contact the Public Protector of South Africa. It was their job to investigate such complaints - www.pprotect.org.

Major discussions took place over SAMSA’s decision to take-over the role of issuing of CoF’s from SAS. This move was welcomed and begged the question that once this was in place SAS would be offering nothing to the cruising community. It was also welcomed that the fee would be paid to SAMSA thus overcoming the current situation where SAS failed to issue certificates.

The main topic of the evening was the Government Gazetting of the use of the Knysna Lagoon (Gov Gaz. No 32797 of 11 Dec 2009). Now that the matter had been gazetted it was unlikely that we could change any of the clauses in the document. Alex Wustrow (AW) outlined the legal position and explained that the gazette did not detail any remuneration that SAN Parks could receive from this act. In view of this it was felt that SAN Parks could be working without the required authority and that we should take the matter further. Roger Clancy (RC) recommended the defunct “Lagoon User Group” should be restarted and this body make representations to Parks. This would be more effective than each organisation making individual representation. RC to work on this.

The format of future meetings was discussed and generally it was felt that the meeting should be more about keelboat sailing and less about the sort of matters discussed this evening. Therefore, unless there is something important to discuss, such as progress on SAS or Parks Board, we should try and spend the time on keelboat sailing.

Under Other Matters, AW recommended that the KYC General Committee check to ensure that all club leases where in place and fully understood. As this is a General Committee matter Bossie Monsen agreed to follow-up.

The next meeting would take place on the 2nd Thursday in April – 8th April.