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The Iona suffered some bad publicity in 1973 when she ran out of fuel near Seal Island and
had to be towed back to harbour. (Fig. 3.41). In 1977 she caught fire at her moorings and

after some lapse of time sank to the bottom for the second time. After she was raised she
was placed straight onto the large slipway and broken up. (Fig. 3.42). One of the early

crashboats (R1-8), which had once been the Alabama at RCYC, after several changes of

ownership became IONA 2. For a short while she was used to carry trippers to Seal Island
before being sailed to Port Nolloth for use in the diamond industry, at which place she was

not long afterwards lost on the beach.

The other early crashboat which engaged in this same business was the Rainbow. She
arrived at Kalk Bay one sunny afternoon in the late 50s, moored directly in front of the

Iona, and her owner placed a large canvas screen across the jetty thus succesfully diverting

all of the Iona’s passengers to themselves. The Rainbow belonged to Mr. Mike Klisser, a
Durban impresario, who became well known for bringing Connie Francis to South Africa.

Not long after just about ruining Iona’s trade, Rainbow suffered severe fuel problems which

resulted in several embarrassing failures with passengers aboard.

The story, never admitted, was that shredded motor tubes had been put into her fuel tanks
by unknown persons, which half dissolved and played havoc with filters and injectors.

After sorting these problems out the owner decided that Kalk Bay with its bad fuel was not
the place for his boat and sailed it to Durban, where it plied the same business for several

years, until it caught fire and was destroyed in 1964.

Perhaps the grandest boat to grace Kalk Bay was the large and luxurious Bebe Grande,

named after a famous race horse of the owner, Jack Gerber. She was built by Halmatic of
Portsmouth, England in 1956 and fitted out by Thorneycroft, who, it seems, not only made

engines, for the boat had two Rolls Royce diesel engines of 250 hp. each. She had a
maximum speed of 19 knots and at the time was the largest GRP (glass-reinforced plastic)

hull in the world. She was cast in a mould which produced fully planing hulls with a “hard