A little yachting history (May 2003)
Some years back Mike decided to try and kick start the then new to South Africa Mini Transat 650 by offering a part boat kit to who ever came up with the best idea to race such a boat in SA. The prize was to be the plans and a part materials kit to a Didi Mini Transat.
Click the picture to make it larger.
Some years back Mike decided to try and kick start the then new to South Africa Mini Transat 650 by offering a part boat kit to who ever came up with the best idea to race such a boat in SA. The prize was to be the plans and a part materials kit to a Didi Mini Transat.
Click the picture to make it larger.
I was not totaly convinced that the magazine who posted the news of the competition, or the readers took the very valuable offer seriously? Mike took the email entries and made his own decision as to who were the winners, neither Dudley Dix or myself ever knew how many entries were received or why Mike chose the joint entry as he did?
The kit was based on the Didi Mini Transat , a design made to be class legal in the Mini 650 races world wide.
Ruben Donne and Shane Elliot were the winners, I knew Shane and had met Ruben once, Mike was not aware of this, so his final decision was not swayed in anyway.
Did Mike make the right decision? well we may never know who were the other entries, the prize was given at our Paaren Eiland factory in Gray Street and we then had to wait to see what they made of the fact they were the winners.
It was not to be and the team were soon to be broken up,as Ruben had to return with his parents to their home in Belgium, leaving Shane on his own to sort out the building. For some years nothing happened, he then found others who would help him and about two years back they started the build.
If what we do in life is based on things like employment, Mike took the right decision in including Shane as his choice as a winner, as Shane had joined the North Sails loft here in Cape Town. Shane was later part of the Shosholoza Americas Cup entry from South Africa, they chose Shane as part of the team, he was sent to Spain to work on Shosholoza's North Sails!
Roy
