Where salt of the earth meets the sea
Many Durbanites don’t know the charms of the Bluff Yacht Club…
IT HAS offered round-theworld yachtsmen safe haven for decades and has served as a centre for the sailing fraternity and their families in southern Durban for 60 years.
Today the Bluff Yacht Club will celebrate this milestone with a dinner party after the annual general meeting at their Seafarer Road premises. The Independent on Saturday decided to pop into this icon of the salty sea dogs from the south that not that many Durbanites even know exists.
We were met by the present Commodore, Larry Rowland, 62, and Roy Cook, 74, who is the Rear Commodore Keelers and they filled us in on the history of the club and showed us around their extensive facilities.
The club’s administrator, Sandra Roos, brought us welcome cups of tea and threw in helpful snippets of information as we chatted.
The club started life on Salisbury Beach, which is now a tanker “farm”, but moved to their present location 60 years ago when the Commodore was Captain “Hub” Rowntree and the area was virgin bush and mangroves. His name is still mentioned with respect by the club’s older members.
His wife, Jane, who is in her 90s, will probably not be able to attend the festivities tonight as she is now quite frail.
The club has evolved to the extent that there are secure mooring stations for the extensive fleet belonging to the 200 members, a huge boat-building and repair yard, lock-up garages, large hall, restaurant (The Galley) and pub (The Wheelhouse) with typically cheap club prices.
Sunday lunch, which is open to the general public, is outstanding value for a slap-up two course meal at R45, with an la carte menu the rest of the week.
There is also an immaculate swimming pool with large braai areas outside and the venue can be hired for functions.
Rowland said that the membership is now split almost evenly between power and sail with more than 100 ski boats on their trailers which can easily be launched from the sturdy slipway.
While on a tour of the club we bumped into master craftsman Densel Wortmann at the slipway where he and his helper George Sinzana were awaiting the arrival of a large catamaran which they would then float onto a giant trailer, which can handle up to a 100 tons.
The cat would then be hauled by tractor to the yard where repairs and refits would begin.
Rowland himself owns Bella, a 30 foot teak boat, which used to be owned by the governor of Mauritius. It is about 40 years old and requires a “bit more maintenance” than its more modern fibreglass counterparts, says Rowland, but is more than up to the rigours of the open ocean.
Rowland said it was unfortunate that our visit coincided with low tide as the pollution from the harbour and the two canals that feed into the area was disturbingly visible, despite the club’s regular clean-ups.
In spite of this, the area is still a valuable breeding ground for fish and has had generations of resident Egyptian geese as well as Goliath Herons and numerous other aquatic species of birds.
Rowland and Cook are very proud of their sailing training centre for both adults and children and have started a special programme for children from disadvantaged backgrounds and have 24 youngsters on the course at present.
He emphasised that the training courses, both sail and power, are only for pleasure as once commercial licences are involved it’s a whole different ballgame.
They are obviously working hard to encourage youngsters to become interested in life on the ocean as, similar to other clubs, they have seen membership dwindle from a peak of 700 to 200.
It was interesting to note that over the years the club has had quite a few women commodores and in one corner of the main hall, occupying pride of place along with trophies won by sailors over the years, is the head and tail of a giant black marlin caught by Audrey Evans who was commodore from 1976 to 1979 and again from 1981 to 1982.
The club is well worth a visit for a quiet drink or Sunday lunch, but be careful of the potholes on the access roads which have become massive due to the heavy truck traffic.
For further information go to www.bluffyachtclub.co.za or give them a ring at 031 466 1386.