Summer sailing season kicks off this weekend
Boats of all shapes and sizes will gather to salute the new Commodore, and cheer in a fabulous new sailing season.
DURBAN’s sailors are set to come out of their short winter hibernation and kick off the Summer Sailing Season with the Opening Cruise organised by Point Yacht Club on Sunday.
Boats of all shapes and sizes will gather to salute the new Commodore, and cheer in a fabulous new sailing season. Recently elected, Greg de Beyer will be stationary on a boat that is all dressed up with the remainder of the fleet drifting past de Beyer in a single file procession, led by the Honorary Life President, Mr Vernon Goss on his beautiful monohull, Bellissima. Once the formalities are l concluded, the sailors will take to the bay in a fun race organised by the returning Rear Commodore of Keelers, Jon Marshall.
The following weekend is the world’s biggest sailing event, Bart’s Bash – The Fourth, and Point Yacht Club is one of the host clubs where a smorgasbord of yachts is expected on the water. After the tallies for the Bashboard 2016, Point Yacht Club was one of 361 venues represented at 58 countries. The Durban based yacht club was third in entries received behind the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club and Bristol’s Chew Valley Yacht Club. 7,265 sailors participated in the event last year.
The participant figures are looking impressive at this early stage leading up to the fourth running of the fun race, with 577 venues from 76 countries signed up. The total number of participants is over 52,000 sailors ranging from Olympic gold medalists to absolute beginners with over 1,000 types of boat on the water globally. The inaugural Bart’s Bash was awarded a Guinness World record for staging the largest race in 24 hours. And as in previous years, everyone is invited to join.
