The Royal Cape Yacht Club (RCYC) acknowledges the City of Cape Town’s support and contribution to the sport of sailing and the local yachting industry.
For the past three years, the City has partnered with RCYC to deliver the Lipton Challenge Cup (Est 1909) as southern Africa’s premier inter-club offshore sailing event.
The Lipton Challenge Cup promotes excellence and nurtures the development of young sailors locally and nationally, both on and off the water.
RCYC successfully defended the Challenge Cup with a fully integrated and representative team.
The City made a commitment at the event to bring young people from local communities, many of whom have never experienced the sea despite their proximity to it, to the RCYC to enjoy a taste of this sport that can be enjoyed throughout life.
The City has a long-term key partnership with RCYC for the Cape to Rio Ocean Race, which was first raced across the South Atlantic in 1971. It is a flagship event for Cape Town, and the start of the next race is planned for January, 2020.
The City has also supported youth-development campaigns to enter this yacht race. Notably, in 2011, the City partnered with RCYC and Projeto Grael, in what proved to be a race winning formula.
A talented group of young Capetonian sailors teamed up with the Brazilian Volvo Ocean Race winning skipper, Torben Grael’s project to uplift Brazilian sailors.
The combined team, representing the cities of Cape Town and Rio, not only won the race, but also sailed with the youngest skipper, a Capetonian aged 26, to have ever won the race. The boat was named “City of Cape Town”, and was locally designed and built.
The Volvo Ocean Race undoubtedly focuses the sailing world’s attention on Cape Town as the Tavern of the Seas.
The Royal Cape Yacht Club has a long history of supporting the event. In earlier iterations it was feasible to host the race within the club, but with the growing professionalism of the event, together with stricter security and public access control to the portion of the Port of Cape Town where the club is situated, the event has migrated to a more accessible temporary Race Village in the V&A Waterfront.
It is a public and international spectacle. As with previous editions of this triennial event, RCYC is heavily involved with the success of the current race, working closely with the V&A Waterfront and providing race management support, on-water marshalling and a showcase of the club’s Sailing Academy in the Race Village.
In addition, the event hosted the Volvo Invitational Regatta at the weekend, sailed on Cape 31s.
The exciting Cape 31 is a high-performance racing yacht built entirely in South Africa.
The RCYC enjoys a strong and positive partnership with the City in supporting the local yachting industry and the development of and access to the sport of sailing for all through the RCYC Sailing Academy.
Lindani Mchunu, Sailing Academy manager, has a passion to use the platform of sailing to transform young minds by levelling the playing field through the teamwork and seamanship required on a yacht.
The Sailing Academy is working closely with the City to source young people from the City’s community upliftment programmes to learn about the opportunities presented by sailing and the ocean economy.
Anyone interested in the supporting or learning the life skills and opportunities that the sport of sailing and the maritime industry offers, is welcome to contact the Royal Cape Yacht Club during office hours.
The Royal Cape Yacht Club enjoys a proud 112-year history in Table Bay and a positive, long-standing relationship with the City.
We will continue on our mission to develop the sport of sailing for all, for life.