Cape Town - The Royal Cape Yacht Club (RCYC) has celebrated the official opening of its sailing season in grand style.
Every year boats are decorated according to a theme and prizes are up for grabs for the best dress boat and crew. This year the RCYC celebrated 1600 years of Venice and the Club had a distinct Italian flair to it.
The RCYC opening cruise on Saturday was combined with an exciting collaboration with sculptor Marco Olivier - known for his life-size human anatomy sculptures.
Olivier often works in bronze, but for the purpose of this first floating exhibition in Africa, the works were in resin – making it light-weight and easy to install on the boats. Pieces ranged from iconic face masks, to the life size “Surrender man”, “Yoga Girl” and “Diving man”. Select pieces will be exhibited at the Royal Cape Yacht Club over the next few months.
Reverend Tony Bethka blessed the fleet during the opening ceremony, and the firing of the cannon took place to mark the official opening of the sailing season. Ten staff members were recognised for long service awards starting at five years, including the General Manager Toni Mainprize, with the longest employee being Dameon Abrahams who has been with the Club for 25 years.
With the formalities over, crews sailed to the V&A Waterfront, turned within Alfred Basin and passed the Commodore’s salute on exit at Bertie's Bust, in front of the Clock Tower.
74 boats took part in the sail-through procession with eight visiting boats from Saldanha Bay Yacht Club. John Roos and his crew from Stardust won the Overall prize for outstanding boat décor and crew dressed according to the Venetian theme. The Best Dressed Boat runner up went to Sea Biscuit. Best dressed crew was a close call between the crew of Sea Oyster and Equinox.
