Newsletter – April 2010

Commodore’s Corner
Chick Ramsay
Closing Cruise – Saturday 1st May at 14h00:
I hope to see the Lagoon alive with dinghies, canoes, keelers and motorboats at the Closing Cruise and to see the clubhouse overflowing with members for the Tea & Cakes being served afterwards.  Facilities will also be available for a Bring & Braai in the evening.
Asche’s Cabin Progress:  I am sure that many of you have been watching the progress of the Asche’s Cabin renovation with interest and I am delighted to report that, at present, the builders are on track to meet the projected completion date. As an indication of our confidence, we have scheduled an opening ceremony on 24th July.
Asche’s Cabin Donations:  It is heartening to see the generosity of our members as the donations continue to come in but the target is still a long way off. If you have not already done so, please donate whatever amount you can. Every rand takes us closer to our goal just as every goal takes a team closer to winning. Very shortly a barometer will be put up at the clubhouse to show the status of the donations against the required target. The due date for Membership fees is now and you can really help by paying up as soon as possible.
Commemorative Bar tables and stools for Asche’s:  Jim Parkes has generously donated quality yellow wood timber for the manufacture of bar table and stools similar to those in the clubhouse bar. Members who wish participate should contact Bossi Monsen on 0824908451.
Coming events for Your Diary
Note: Full details of all events are on the KYC Website calendar http://www.knysnayachtclub.com/events
Closing Cruise & Bring Braai – Sat 1st May   Prize Giving Dinner – Thurs 6th May Tickets R50 each from the Bar   2010 World Cup starts – Fri 11th June – watch on Club TV   2010 World Cup Finals – Sun 11th July   Keeler Winter/Oyster Festival Race – Sat 10th July   Opening of Asche’s Cabin Cocktail Party – Sat 24th July   KYC Centenary Informal Bash “Early 1900’s Costume” – Sat 21st Aug   KYC Centenary Opening Cruise/ 100 Boats on the Water* – Sat 28th Aug   KYC Centenary Formal Black Tie Dinner/Dance – Sat 28th Aug   KYC Cake Cutting Ceremony/KYC’s Birthday – Tues 31st Aug
*Centenary Celebration - 100 Boats on the Water! As part of the Centenary Opening Cruise celebration on Saturday 28th August, the aim is to get 100 boats on the water, including canoes, dinghies, keelers and motor boats.  In order to ensure that we get that number of boats, we are asking people to register and to demonstrate their commitment by paying a nominal entrance fee of R20 per person.  Registration Forms are available at the clubhouse or on email request to Roger Newby rsnxxx@iafrica.com
Administration Matters
Non-members using Club Facilities:  In recent weeks, it has been noticed with concern that there are a number of non-members who are using the club facilities frequently.  This is in contravention of the club’s liquor license besides the fact that they are benefitting from the facilities that bona fide members are paying for.  Members are requested to ensure that they abide by the rules in regard to bringing members to the club and to report any flouting of these rules to one of the Flag Officers or to Gaby. Electronic Payment of Membership Fees:  Another reminder to Members – when making payment of Membership and other fees electronically or by direct deposit, please quote your own KYC account number AND your surname as a reference so that the correct account can be credited.  For those of you making donations and paying for SAS and/or boat parking, etc, it would be very helpful if you would please fax through a breakdown of your payment to 044 382 5724 to assist correct allocation.  We sincerely value your cooperation.
Social News
KYC Tales & Memories for 100 years (1910 – 2010) Thank you to Adelai Hodgson, Doreen Williams, Mary van Eeden and Wayne Ribbink for their contributions.
We are still hoping to hear from more members about their stories, memories and photos that relate to KYC.  We are also specifically looking for photos of founder members so if you can help please let us know by emailing Gayle at extraheads@iafrica.com or by contacting Gaby on 044 382 5724.
From the Galley - Open on Public Holiday 1st May!
New Daily Specials for May Including Free Glass of Wine Monday             - Fish or Chicken Schnitzel Tuesday           - Liver & Onions with Mash and Veg Wednesday     - Kassler Chops Thursday          - Curry and Rice Friday                - Fish & Chips Saturday           - Roast Carvery — Watch Weekend Rugby on the Big Screen — Remember we also cater for Functions in the most magnificent venue in town
Inshore Sailing – Dinghy News Joop Weddepohl The official KYC Racing season has now come to an end. Judging from the results for the Aggregate Trophy, which with it’s one point for starting and one point for every boat beaten, always is a good indicator of the Club’s racing activity, this year’s season was slightly more active that last year’s. In 2008/09 we had 29 members racing with the winner (Jacek) accumulating 108 points.  The 2009/10 season there were 28 entrants with the winner (Joop) on 113 points. Also the cats were more active with 9 versus 6 entrants and the winner (Chick) accumulating 49 points versus the previous season’s winner (Duncan) getting 33 points. The real gain, of course, came from the kids.  Where as we had hardly any racers at all in the previous year, this year there were 17.  The winner (Kyran) had a total of 39 points.  The big Thank-You for this must go to Mike Pogodin and Rob Clark who really made a difference and got many kids keen on sailing and racing.  We even got an official coach from the Western Cape out twice this year to hone the skills of our juniors.  They still have a long way to go to reach the experience and determination of, for instance, our Rosey Finn, who now is campaigning in the 420 class, and is bussing to the Western Cape almost every weekend to improve her skills.  Recently she was 6th overall and best girl in the 420 Nationals. Hot off the Press: Rosey Finn and her crew, Heidi Burger, have been chosen to represent South Africa at the ISAF Junior Girls 420 Championships, to be held in Turkey during July 2010. The cost of participating in the event is pretty high so the girls are looking for sponsorship. If you can help please contact Andrew on 0825564604. Don’t’ miss the Closing Cruise is on Saturday 1st May.  The Sail-Past will be at 14h00, followed by the traditional tea & cakes at about 16h00. The Prize-Giving dinner will be on Thursday 6th May, starting with the formalities at 18h00, followed by a light dinner at R40/pp, which you can top-off with an a-la-carte desert.  There are many prize-winners, some somewhat unexpected even, and it is for the dinghies & cats, and the juniors and the canoeists and the keelboat racers, so do come and attend this bumper function! The Racing Programme for the 2010/11 season has been completed and an advance copy will be on the glass-fronted notice board at the Club entrance shortly.  The Racing Notes have been shortened substantially.  The function of the OOD has been done away with and will be replaced by the Race Officer on the bridge.  A Club Class Championship has been re-instated, subject to some minimum entry requirements. The Mid-Summer Splash has been made fortnightly and will be sailed for the Mathiesen Cup over eight races on a Wednesday.  The smaller keelboats will race fortnightly on a Friday with nine races for the Active Sail Cup.  There will be four Ashmead races for the Founders Trophy and four Heads races for the Fastnet Trophy. The principle of spreading the silver with a personal handicap system has been maintained, but there are a few more races on boat handicap only.  The personal handicap system has been modified to show the personal handicap as a percentage (of the boat) handicap and no longer as a fixed number to be deducted from the boat handicap.  This will benefit those that sail different classes of boats. The Knysna Interclub has been brought forward (with the cooperation of GLYC) to 13th – 14th November, instead of the usual February (2011) date.  This means that we can have a proper Knysna Centenary Interclub in our centenary year. The weekly KYC News Sheet, published only during the racing season, has come to an end with issue No.  32.  It will be resumed at the end of August.  If you’d like to receive this News Sheet by e-mail then please tell Stephanie Finn at steph@123.co.za so that she can put you on her mailing list.  The News Sheet also is on the Notice Board in the smoking section.
Offshore Sailing – Keeler News Roger Newby
Keeler Summer Series
The first summer season of this exciting event ended on Saturday April 24th.. The final race was won on handicap by Dominic de Villiers sailing his Stadt 22, “Aquaplay”.  He finished just 2.4 seconds ahead of Martin Young’s Kelkiewijn “Bounty”.  Third place went to Jacek Orzechowski sailing the club’s L26 “Knysna Challenger”. At the start of the final race the overall log was very tight with only a few points separating the leaders.  The final log was:
Skipper 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Tot Ord Dominic de Villiers     4 6 8 6 6 30 1 Martin Young 2 1 6   7 4 5 25 2 Geoff Goddard 5 4 5   6 3 1 24 3 Teddy Hunter 4 3 3 2 5 2 2 21 4 Mike Lavery       7 9     16 5 Isabel Baleta   5 2 3 1     11 6 Willy Putter       4 4     8 7 Rob Clark       8       8 7 Patrick Wilson 3   1   2 1   7 9 Anton Heymann       5       5 10 Roger Clancy           5   5 10 Emil Moeller         3     3 13 Ciaran Sharrocks             3 3 13 Glen Hansen       1       1 16
We would like to thank Beverley Fletcher for her demonstration of the use of an automatically inflating life jacket during this event. Prize giving will be held on Thursday 6th May together with all the other sections of the club. During the winter months the keelboat racing will take place on alternate Saturdays at 15:00. We are calling this the Keelboat Winter Series. The event is open to any keelboat, large or small and any skipper young or old. The Mcel Vasco da Gama Yacht Race, Maputo to Durban organised by Clube Naval and Point Yacht Club KYC is represented in this famous event by “Doughty” skippered by club member Ryan Lotter and crewed by several Knysna sailors. Sailing up from Durban to Maputo where the race started, Doughty took only 26 hours. This has not yet been confirmed but we think this has set a new record, beating the old one by 2 hours. More information about the actual race will be featured in the next newsletter.
Canoeing Jennifer Harding
The Little Fish Canoe Race took place in Middleton in the Karoo on the 20th March 2010 and one would wonder –‘why a canoe race in the semi-desert?’ Thanks to a water release for the farmers, these races have become annual events.  An advance party of paddlers set out from Knysna, early on Friday, to trip the river the day before the race.  The 28 km race itself took place on the Saturday and yet again the Knysna paddlers proved they were top notch.  The race was won by local Cradock boy, Ryan Louw, with Michele Eray from Plett winning the ladies race and beating a field of men to finish overall in 3rd place.  Other Knysna paddlers were Stuart Hyde in fourth place, Pierre Giraud in 7th and Trevor and Jennifer Niksch in 10th and winning the doubles and mixed doubles race.  Greg and James Chauncey completed the Knysna compliment. Sunday heralded an 18km trip down the river with the two rising stars of Knysna Canoe Club – Gabriel van Wyk and Stephen Harker.  These youngsters are set to take on the race next year at a competitive level.
Picture – from left to right: Linda Suteg, Stuart Hyde, Jennifer Niksch, Gabriel van Wyk, Trevor Niksch, Greg Chauncey and Stephen Harker
Sedgefield Slow Town Festival
Pedal, Paddle and Pant! That was the name of the game on Easter Monday at the Sedgefield Slow Town Festival. The paddle was well-supported by the development paddlers of the Knysna Canoe Club, with prizes being won in all categories.  The guppy event culminated in an Easter egg hunt and was won by Damin Sinclair in a time of 14mins and 5 secs.  Second was Denver Sinclair and third, Leandro Taylor.  The 6km paddler was won by the promising youngster duo of Amy Williams and Ben Gillmore in their K2 in 25min and 40 secs.  Second and 1st K1 was another promising youngster and graduate of the 2009 development paddling team, Nouredine Filander, with second place K1 being taken by Jumay Taylor, also a development paddler.  The 10 km race was ably won by another junior and development paddler, Stephen Harker in 51 mins and 35 seconds.
Young development paddlers from left to right – Leandro Taylor, Dever Sinclair, Damian Sinclair
Amy Williams and Ben Gillmore - Photo’s courtesy Mike Williams
PennyPinchers Surfski Easter Series (Article extracts courtesy www.surfskiinfo.co.za) The Easter weekend saw Plettenberg Bay hosting the third edition of the Easter Surf Ski Challenge proudly sponsored by building merchant Penny Pinchers who runs arguably the best race on the South African Surf Ski Calendar, it’s that good! What makes it so special is the awesome vibe surrounding the event which is built upon the amazing community spirit of the locals, they are really proud of their hometown and the race which in 3 short years has seen some awesome ‘battles’ take place against some of South Africa’s best paddlers. 2010 would be no different as the circus rolled into town from the previous days racing in Port Elizabeth.  (Plett is 240 km’s West of Port Elizabeth - a 2 1/2 hour drive.)
Plett PennyPinchers Race Course
The course followed the traditional local club time trial route and consisted of 5 X 4.5 km laps, the river mouth would come into play as a turning buoy was situated within the calm water of the inner lagoon. Conditions:  Sunny Weather, Blue Sky’s, Moderate South Westerly at 15 knots.  Course would include a short upwind leg of around a km, downwind leg; side on leg towards the river mouth and wave zone, the home stretch was sheltered by the hill above Central Beach. The question before the race was could the young defending champ in the form of Grant van der Walt repeat his record breaking performance from last year? He did and then some, it was a fantastic show of paddling prowess and fitness to paddle away from some of the biggest names in the sport!
Although the surf was much smaller than last year, the river mouth still gave the paddlers opportunities to catch runs - Grant van der Walt dropped the rest of the bunch
The course was tough, but also fair, the surf in the mouth although not as big as the previous two races provided enough of a challenge to all the competitors.  Another top performance came in the form of Sean Rice whom paddled his way from fourth place to a ‘stunning’ second.  He ruthlessly hunted down Dawid Mocke and Matt Bouman in a show of brute force and guts... The two back to back races definitely took their toll with Dawid Mocke commenting on how, “flat”, he felt after Friday’s performance, a testimony to how hard the battle was against Bouman in Port Elizabeth! Once again Plett provided and Penny Pinchers put on a ‘World Class’ show to rival any race, the prize giving on the deck above the Lifesaving Club was a lot of fun and many a beer went down after the dust had settled on the 2010 edition of the Surf Ski Challenge.
Left to right - Grant vd Walt (1st), Sean Rice (2nd), Matt Bouman (3rd)
Junior Sprints
A junior sprints regatta was held at Goukamma over the weekend of the 17th March.  In all there were 15 kids racing over approximately 200m and 500m.  Denver Sinclair raced well to take all the U10 races while Daneel van Wyk and Daniel Hyde (who both have a few years still as U10's) were competitive.  The standout paddler in U14 was Coenraad de Beer who easily won both the short and long sprint.  In the U14's there was a titanic struggle between Jumay Tailor and Amy Williams.  Jumay managed to just hold off Amy over the 200m while the result was reversed over the 500m. Well done to all the kids.  It was great to see some competitive racing.  Not to be outdone, the ‘ou manne’ did a training session afterwards.
Left to right - Chris Janse, Coenraad de Beer, Thomas Theron, Ruwaan Baadjies
Left to right - Curt Fourie, Jumay Taylor, Michaela Beer, Amy Williams
Celebrate the KYC Centenary!  Wear your Club colours!
Centenary shirts – Ladies/Mens Lanyards Anorak/Fleece (2 in 1) Jackets Centenary Jerseys – Ladies/Mens
Knowledge Tip for the Month
"Sun over the yardarm" (Wikipedia) This phrase is widely used, both afloat and ashore, to indicate that the time of day has been reached at which it is acceptable, variously, to have lunch or (more commonly) to have an alcoholic beverage.  In modern parlance, the latter usage typically refers to early evening, but the phrase is thought originally to have referred to late morning and to the sun's ascent past a particular yard. The actual time that the sun would pass a particular yard would depend greatly on the ship's latitude and heading, as well as the height of her masts, but the phrase seems to have originated in the north Atlantic, where, in summer, this would have typically been at about 11 a.m...  This was the time at which, by custom and rule, the first rum "tot" of the day was issued to officers and men (the officers had their tots neat, while the men had theirs diluted with water), hence its connection with taking one's first alcoholic drink of the day. The earliest mention of this phrase collected by the Oxford English Dictionary is in Rudyard Kipling's From Sea to Sea in 1899, where it is used as a metaphor referring to drinking habits.  However, the phrase was in use earlier, in the same context.  One example is from the first volume of Life from the issue of May 31, 1883 Once again, thank you to our Newsletter contributors for their time and effort. Gayle Newby – Liaison Officer Cell:  082 491 1343 Email:  extraheads@iafrica.com