THE SOUTH AFRICAN SAIL-TRAINING FOR LIFE-SKILLS ASSOCIATION (SASLA)
Founding members of SASLA are the South African Jewish Maritime League and
Cape Windjammers Education Trust.
The South African Sail-training for Life-skills Association (SASLA) is a collaboration of
independent SA youth upliftment organisations who have a focussed commitment to the sea
and sailing. The need for a central body of affiliated independent members has resulted in
the formation of a collective organisation under the banner of SASLA. SASLA is recognised
by the International Sail Training Association as their South African representatives. The
SASLA board consists of Patrick Fraser (Chairman) Dr Antje Nahnsen, Dennis Stevenson,
Alexander Allavena and Alvin Kushner (Chairman of SA JML)
ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL SAIL TRAINING AND TALL SHIPS CONFERENCE
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
I recently had the privilege of being delegated by my colleagues at SASLA to attend the
annual International Sail Training and Tall Ships Conference held in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
This event was organised by Sail Training International and the American Sail Training
Association and was attended by 370 delegates from the tall ships and sail training
fraternity worldwide.
This was a daunting task for me as all my years of experience in sailing, running yacht clubs
and chairing numerous committees did not add up to expertise when it came to tall ships.
During the long hours on my flight to Canada I wondered whether Antje, Pat, Dennis and
Alex, all with a depth of tall ship experience and knowhow, had method in their madness
when they threw me in at the deep end.
On the first day of the meeting I had the privilege of addressing the representatives from
the other 27 participating countries. This was a somber and dignified suit and tie meeting.
That applied to all but one who sat opposite me… a tall burly gentleman who, under his
open jacket, wore a black top with a silver fern over his heart. After the meeting I felt his
presence when a giant elbow dug deep between my ribs accompanied by a loud, "Heh!"
"Between you and me", he whispered at the top of his voice," You and I are the only ones
here who understand proper sport… these blokes here all know bugger- all about rugby".
"Heh! heh!" He turned out to be a really first class helpful New Zealander with a deep
passion for tall ships.
This meeting was followed by an invitation to address the owners and captains of the Class
A ships the following day which I gratefully accepted as I needed to appeal to them to assist
our efforts in SA by providing free or subsidised berths on their ships for our previously
disadvantaged youth. I had to remind them that even their gesture of a free berth was only
the beginning as we also required substantial financial input from our side as their departure
and arrival ports were long-haul flights from SA.
One such co-operation is happening now with Terry Davies and the Class Afloat Project.
Terry, who was present at the conference had very generously invited 10 young South
Africans to sail with them from Cape Town to Bermuda this year. The members of JML will
visit the Class Afloat ship "Concordia" when it visits Cape Town at the beginning of April.
Another operator from Bermuda also spontaneously offered a berth on his ship in June. A
program is being put in place to raise funds to cover return flights etc.
I met with many of the ship owners individually and got the feeling that more of the ship
owners would love to have participated in SASLA's projects had it not been for the tough
financial challenges that some of them are facing at the moment. My plea to them to bring
their ships around the Cape of Good Hope did not entirely fall on deaf ears but many had
indicated that their voyages had already been finalised until 2010. Most of them assured me
that they would love to work closely with SASLA and would remain in contact.
The current universal financial challenges seemed to permeate throughout the conference
and underlined the high cost of running a tall ship.
Traditionally the tall ships who visited foreign ports had the port charges waived in
exchange for opening their ships to the local public who would be allowed to view their ships
on deck and below, free of charge. Many felt that this reciprocity was appreciated but
expressed regret that it was no longer economically viable and felt that there had to be a
way covering running costs while in port. Some of the suggestions were; charging visitors
an entrance fee or doing day trips from the port. A representative of one of the largest Class
A ships indicated that he would eventually need to charge a City an appearance fee to make
a visit to their port feasible.
The highlight of the conference for me was the surprise announcement at the Gala dinner
award ceremony on the last evening of the conference. What a proud moment it was for me
when they announced that the award for the Sail Training Volunteer of the Year.. goes to...
Dr Antje Nahnsen of SASLA,South Africa. I humbly received this well deserved award on
behalf of Antje, my SASLA colleague, amid tumultuous applause from the 370 delegates.
Although youth sail training and providing sailing opportunities for our youth, which includes
SA's previously disadvantaged, has been the focus of SASLA with assistance from SA JML,
We are well aware of the fact that there is little to substitute for the culmination of the
childhood dream of ultimately joining the fortunate few who will have had the once in a
lifetime experience of sailing a tall ship.
SASLA will soon be celebrating the homecoming of four young South Africans who took part
in the 2008 Tall Ships Race. These youths, some, but not all, from desperately underprivileged backgrounds will have returned as the previous group has done, inspired,
motivated and glowing with confidence and hopefully will be touching the lives of many
more children from the same backgrounds in the most positive way.
I hear you say that sending youths on a tall ships race in the Northern hemisphere must be
costly. Perhaps you are thinking about the vast numbers of township youths who could have
had their lives turned around by involving them in SASLA and JML's local sailing projects
had we not spent the large amount of money on so few children. ... That's where SASLA
comes into the equation.
We are mindful of the need to spread the available funds to introduce sailing to a wider
number of youths who dwell in the shanties in our impoverished townships...We speak of
childhood dreams, but many of these children cannot see beyond basic necessities and do
not even have "the dream".
Returning youths will in future "pay-back" their sponsorship by visiting schools and youth
organisations where they will be giving talks to hopefully inspire and stimulate young
children who may have the offer of participating in sailing at some level. Their self made
documentaries prepared with assistance from SASLA volunteers as well as material provided
by Sail Training International will be used to illuminate these presentations. We believe that
just one township child who has flown overseas and crewed on a tall ship could inspire
thousands of children when he or she returns.
During this year SASLA will be continuing to interface with the various relevant
organisations such as International Sail Training, Izivunguvungu, the Sea Scouts, SA Jewish
Maritime League, Cape Windjammers Education Trust, yacht clubs and others. We will be
also offering our input to the Dept of Education.
Through the generosity of our friends who form part of International Sail Training, our
children will still continue to sail tall ships.
SASLA still has one eye on facilitating the acquisition of our own South African tall ship. We
have a program underway to eventually reach that goal. SASLA invites all non-profit sailtraining
organisations as well as like-minded people to join and to also support the initiative
towards a South African Tall Ship.
Alvin Kushner
Chairman
SA Jewish Maritime League