Page 143 - Bulletin 8 2004

140

Eric Wale’s boat. The latter, however, had a very standard fishing boat type hull. Since it
was already an old boat in 1956 with some rot problems - my late father was at one time

thinking of purchasing it from Eric Wale - it is likely that it is the same boat mentioned by
Stibbe and Moss as being the one on which “Bebbies” Cosyn started his fishing career.

On 19 May 1936 the Hare family launched the sailing boat, Elegance. This boat, like their
Speranza decades later, was built at their Mowbray brickfield and launched in Table Bay

docks by the old floating crane, which was scrapped in about 1985. The mast was made
from a spruce tree from Tokai Forest. The boat was duly based in Kalk Bay, where she

spent many years. (Figs. 3.31 - 3.33). She was of traditional yacht design and typical of the
yachts built for many decades until about 1950, when more radical designs started to

emerge. She was sold out of the Hare family after the war but is still on the water: she was

recently thoroughly rebuilt and is presently moored in Saldanha Bay. Another yacht in Kalk
Bay during the early 1930s was Caprice, belonging to the builder Bakker. This boat was

damaged and sank in the great storm of 1930.

The Halcyon Years: 1940 - 1960

With the construction of the North Mole and the old wooden jetty in 1939 the

accommodation of more boats became possible. A number of yachts were accommodated
in Kalk Bay and the Royal Cape Yacht Club constructed a “gear store” at the inner corner

at the base of the North Mole, close to the steps leading down from the station platform.

(Figs. 3.34 & 3.35). This store was still intact in the mid fifties, but apparently out of use,
although containing odd boat bits visible through the unbroken glass windows. At some

later stage it was demolished, but for many years the wooden floor support beams
remained.

Photographs taken around 1950 show a tranquil scene with numerous leisure boats, both

power and sail. (Figs. 3.36 & 3.37). Fred Smithers, a Wynberg attorney, kept his teak yacht