Yacht Clubs Round the World

Yacht clubs, depending upon where they are and their membership numbers, vary greatly worldwide. They usually have a few things in common … a love of sailing and the sea … and a bar. We've visited little, tiny clubs that have only a few members, a few boats and a bar. We visited the friendly, little Niue Yacht Club which had no boats, nor, for that matter, any members who'd ever owned a boat or sailed, but they did have a bar. The bar is always obligatory! Commodore Keith readily admits he has no sailing experience, but the island certainly does love yachties.

The Suwarrow Island Yacht Club in the Cook Islands was a cruiser's haven. The “yacht club” was nothing more formal than a meeting (and drinking) place on Direction Island for yachties who stopped for a respite at this tiny uninhabited atoll at the Cook Island's only national park.

Several yacht clubs offer amenities to visiting sailors. Sometimes we've been offered a free mooring or berthing for a couple of days or in the case of the most generous Yacht Club Peruano near Lima, Peru, we stayed for a month on their largesse. The members stopped by daily to invite us to coffee, lunch, dinners, excursions. Friends made there, especially Gonzalo and Magdala, have remained good friends through the years.

Sometimes, we're offered free membership in the club for some period of time allowing us to use the facilities or eat at the restaurant/bar at member prices. Sometimes it's a most welcome, hot shower like in Mossel Bay, South Africa or a mooring in Esperance, Western Australia or perhaps, a cold beer at the Buffalo River YC in East London, South Africa. The smaller or off-the-beaten track clubs are usually more friendly and welcoming. At the larger clubs, we're lost in the noise of yacht club activities, as well as the frequency and volume of visiting yachts.

Some yacht clubs are famous. The Panama Canal Yacht Club, for instance, was an icon. We were lucky to have had a chance to visit before it was torn down to make way for containers and other important shipping stuff.

The Club de Yates Micalvi in Puerto Williams, the southernmost town on the planet, was perhaps the most unusual yacht club we've visited. It was nothing more than an intentionally grounded munitions carrier that yachts tied to … sometimes rafting four boats out. The ship was a rusting hulk, but still offered showers and backpackers slept on the decks. It had, of course, a requisite bar.

The Royal Natal Yacht Club in Durban is the oldest yacht club in Africa, but sadly, it's losing its members, perhaps because of its downtown location or lack of activities or other business reasons. The adjacent Point Yacht Club seems to be facing similar problems.

I'd say Royal Cape is probably the most prestigious, as well as largest and most active yacht club (not to be confused with a marina) we've ever visited. Begun in 1905, it really didn't get its legs under it until the Cape to Rio Race in 1971. With 400+ berths and 2,000 members, there's always something going on. They have a very competitive racing group, a sailing school and youth sailing, as well as lots of fun sails and activities like monthly Jazz on the Deck. There's rarely a time when the restaurant and bar are empty. Lying in the shadow of Table Mountain close to the city center, there's not a better place to be in Cape Town.

The friendliest yacht club? That's probably a toss-up between the Yacht Club Peruano in Peru and the Mandurah Offshore Fishing and Sailing Club in Mandurah, Western Australia. Both clubs were particularly generous and the members went out of their way to be welcoming and include us in their activities. These are folks we're still in touch with and who will remain friends forever.

I'm sure some yacht clubs are pretty snooty and exclusive, but we haven't found them yet. We travel in different circles, I guess. Without exception, our experiences at local yacht clubs have demonstrated the generosity and camaraderie of the sailing network around the world.

A note … in the USA we call sailboats, unless they're ginormous, sailboats and tend to think the “yacht” terminology is pretentious. The really huge, luxury boats, motor or sail, are called superyachts. In many parts of the world, however, and by definition, a yacht is a vessel designated for personal, recreational use and/or competitive racing versus commercial use.

Boat Launching at the Royal Cape

South Africa has a robust boat-building industry. There's Admiral, Matrix, Two Oceans, Pacer, Maverick, Celtic, Afri-Cat … to name just a few.  Many of the newly manufactured boats are launched and commissioned right here at Royal Cape Yacht Club.  One of the most fascinating activities here in the early morning is watching a new boat being launched. Leopard catamarans are built by Robertson and Caine in nearby Woodstock. One of the largest catamaran manufacturers in the world,  about three new cats roll off their production line each week. Huge flat bed trucks with custom cat cradles pull up to the yacht club gates in the early morning and take turns backing into the yard. It doesn't matter that it's cold, dark and foggy.

Watching a 48' catamaran being raised and then lowered into the water 20' below causes me angst even though it's not my boat and these guys do it all the time. There's a moment of anticipation when the yacht is hoisted and the straps tighten and begin to creak. The boat is suspended from the crane and slowly swinging out over the water and my heart starts to race.

As soon as the hulls touch the water, the waiting crew jumps aboard before the boat is even fully lowered. They scurry around and finally crank on the engines and the cat comes to life in the water for the first time.

Then the mast is lowered and stepped and the rigging is attached.

It's an efficient process and within a couple hours, the new cat is moored waiting for the rest of its commissioning and subsequent sea trials to begin. Many are headed to Sunsail or Mooring charter centers throughout the world and a high percentage of the rest are destined for export to foreign shores … like the USA.

Once they're commissioned, they move into berths next to us and wait for crew to either sail them to their destinations or load them onto ships for transport.

It's not just catamarans though. Recently, there have been several ambulance boats delivered and destined for Ghana.

They're sitting down the dock from us while they're being commissioned and we invited ourselves aboard for a quick look since we'd never seen ambulance boats before. Built right here in Cape Town, they'll be transported by ship to Ghana. These boats are used primarily on rivers and lakes and equipped with two 250HP engines to insure fast emergency runs.

Obviously, I have too much time on my hands if I'm watching boats being launched, but quite honestly, it beats polishing stainless.

A Lofty Invitation

Having had a new staysail made by Ullman Sails in Durban last January and thus far really liking it, we felt very confident that ordering a replacement yankee from Ullman in Cape Town was a good move. The existing yankee had caused us lots of problems over the last few years and repairing it again seemed like money down the drain. David reminded me that the old headsail was over five years old and had seen over 20,000 hard miles … southern New Zealand, the Chathams, Tasmania, the Great Australian Bight, an Indian Ocean crossing. I had hoped, of course, it would last forever, but then I still believe in the Easter Bunny.

We didn't know much about Ullman Sails. We're familiar with North Sails, the largest sailmaker in the world and then there's Quantum and Doyle and Hood Sails and Rolly Tasker Sails and a host of others. Ullman is actually the #5 sailmaker in the world, thanks to renowned American competitive sailor David Ullman. He started Ullman Sails in 1967 in Newport Beach, California and has been intimately involved in the business ever since. In 2013, Ullman combined forces with previous competitor, Jannie Reuvers Sails in South Africa. Ullman Sails is represented in 32 countries of the world, including 42 full service sail lofts. This means that if we have problems with the yankee, as we did with our previous sail, we have some recourse for service.

A good number of  Ullman's sails are made right here in Cape Town. We'd become friendly with our sales rep, Winston, over the past couple of weeks and when he offered to give us a tour of the loft, we jumped at the chance.

We've visited many sail lofts over the years … usually small ones. They consist of wide open floor spaces with canvas spread out in varied stages of  in-process sails. A couple of long arm, heavy-duty zig-zag sewing machines are recessed into the floor to allow easy stitching of the sails. Rolls of Dacron and colored Sunbrella UV-material are lined up along the walls. Scraps of fabric are here and there and the place is usually dusty, the hum of sewing machines and the tap of hammers providing background noise. We weren't quite prepared for the size of Ullman's facilities nor the number of people working nor the number of sails in process. It doesn't look like much from the outside as we pulled up over the curb and squeezed ourselves into a tiny parking space. Looks can be deceiving.

Ullman Sails' facility is huge and spread out over a city block in several buildings. We visited four multi-storied buildings and each area was a beehive of activity. After a digital design is set, the measurements are entered into a laser-cutter which works constantly, precision-cutting and numbering panel pieces for  each sail.

The cut pieces are removed in order and moved to an assembly area where they are spread out on the floor, taped and ready to be sewn. UV is added later, then hardware in a different area and finally quality control is performed. I've oversimplified the process significantly, but that's the gist of it. A smooth, efficient work flow producing thousands of sails each year.

We were intrigued with their FiberPath sail construction: thousands of carbon fibers woven into a sail shape and then bonded and double-laminated. There's minimal sewing involved. There is little stretch and the primary and secondary loads on the sail are dispersed more effectively. These sails are known for speed and performance … not traits for which Nine of Cups has ever been known. The cost? Though we felt we were getting a good price for our sail, it was still quite painful to the budget. Our yankee in a FiberPath material would have effectively been a little over double the price. We'll stick with Dacron this time around.

Winston has assured us the sail will be completed in the specified timeframe. As much as we like Cape Town, we're looking forward to the day when we can sail away … with our new sail.