DURBAN - Durban’s Then and Now feature also has an element of tomorrow to it. It was the end of an era for the water sport clubs on the beachfront this week and a historic moment for the city which will continue to change the face of the beachfront with the extension of the promenade and further development of the Point Waterfront Precinct.
The four clubs, the Durban Undersea Club, Durban Ski Boat Club, Point Yacht Club and Durban Paddle-Ski Club, spent the week moving from their premises, which have been landmarks on Vetch’s beach for decades.
This comes at the end of a lengthy and costly court battle between the clubs and the Durban Point Development Company, which reached a settlement at the end of October and saw the clubs agreeing to vacate their current premises by November 14.
The developers can now move ahead with the multimillion-rand upgrade of the Point Waterfront. The clubs have moved to a temporary facility which has been constructed at the entrance to the port channel.
The new agreement makes provision for all the clubs to relocate to the new premises and for members of all the clubs to be given access to the new shared permanent clubhouse.
On Friday Point Yacht Club’s commodore, Greg de Beyer, confirmed the beach site facility had been vacated.
“PYC is currently discussing the terms of the use of the PWC facility for their beach members. It was a sad day when we finally left our clubhouse on the beach, but we cannot stand in the way of progress,” said De Beyer.
“We look forward to embracing our new clubhouse once it is built.”
He added that the yacht clubs would maintain a presence at Vetch’s beach until the new clubhouse was built. Point Water Sport Club and Durban Undersea Club chairperson Cuane Hall said the official opening of the temporary premises would take place on
Thursday.
“We have left our premises and moved over and we have spent a lot of money on the new temporary premises to make our members as comfortable as possible,” said Hall.