Kathy Munro, Patrick Ache, Region 2 Rotary Paul Harris Fellowship Dinner and Rotary Scout

Last Week

We really had an exceptional talk by Professor Kathy Munro on the Sinking of the Mendi in February 1917.  It was much more than that because not only did she debunk the legend of the Mendi sinking but she expanded her talk to include a lot of information on the SA Native Labour Corps which I am sure was new to many of us.
It was a great start to the year and many thanks to Lyn Collocott for organising this interesting talk.


We also had a number of visitors from overseas.  David & Wendy Lloyd from the Rotary Club of Dorking in Surrey, England and Ralf Meyer from the Rotary Club of Frankfurt, Germany.
As you can see they are busy concentrating on the talk.



I was able to present them with a club banner at the end of the meeting.







 I am beginning to get a complex about these presentations as I never really thought I was that small!









This Week

Patrick Ache will be telling us about himself.

These talks are technically called 'My Job' talks and everyone is supposed to give one when they join.  I have always wondered what that meant if the person was either retired or too rich to have to work.  Anyway Patrick will no doubt talk about what he does.





Rotary Region 2 Paul Harris Fellowship Dinner
This will be on Saturday 4th February at Bryanston Country Club and is for Paul Harris Fellows and partners.  It is the region's Rotary Foundation Centenary Celebration and is not a fund raising event. The dinner is R240 per head and as I am organising the food I will definitely include the Moroccan Lamb that we had at the Induction Dinner.  The region will be sending an invitation to all Clubs.

The Rotary Scout
The Rotary Scout is currently taking part in the Cape to Rio Race and you may be interested in following her progress and reading the rather entertaining blog that gets written up every day.http://www.rotaryscout.co.za/blog/  There is also a Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/JMLRotaryScout/  I am in the Rotary Africa photo below ......ha ha!  Neville Coxon who sadly died a couple of years ago was the Assistant Area Commissioner Water Activities for Cape Western at the time and practically fitted it out single-handedly over the 7 years and raised the money as well.

JML Rotary Scout is a 39’ modified Tosca cruising yacht (a “sugar scoop” was later added to her stern to increase her length from 36’ to 39’), owned by the South African Scout Association. The yacht was donated by the Rotary Club of Bellville as a bare hull to the Sea Scout Base at Sandvlei, Lakeside in 1987 and fitted out over a number of years, finally being launched in 1994.

She was designed by built by Angelo Lavranos who has a huge portfolio of designs to his credit, covering many different concepts. It is always interesting to look at his designs, because they conform to no particular dogma and are all based on very good thinking and experience. Including mini-racers, super-maxis, medium cruisers, cats, houseboats and powerboats – he has done them all. In addition to the Tosca 36, Lavranos also designed the highly successful L36 and Atlantis 36 of the same length – all three quite different but equally good forms of a medium-sized performance cruiser.

To Quote Lavranos himself: “Seeing the success of the L36, Fred Scholtz asked me to design the Tosca 36, (design 0103) as a production boat, to be cheaper to put together than the L36. Center cockpit rather than aft cockpit. She has a higher volume than the L36, with her beamier, firm bilged, full sterned hull, less ballest, smaller rig, less displacement. Less of an “all rounder” in performance than the L36. More wetted surface and slower in light airs, but faster reaching in a breeze. The original boats were simple & light. Two circumnavigated. Unfortunately as time went on the boats got more elaborate, aft cabin walkthrough, bigger engine, more tankage, bigger rig, stern platform etc.”

Dynamically – Toscas sail well. They held some good passage times on the Governors cup – Cape Town to St Helena – a nice long downwind reach – and are clearly able to survive fierce weather. One did get laid over in a sudden squall under full rig in Hout Bay’s “Thunder Alley” one day – spreaders in the water – she popped right back up without changing direction and kept going . . .

Being light and beamy, and roundish, they are good trade-wind cruisers, and very comfortable. They also manage upwind quite well except in gale-force conditions. Reaching would be the preferred point of sail and they actually do quite well round the cans in moderate conditions.

JML Rotary Scout is managed by a group of dedicated volunteers, mainly Scout Moms and Dads. Nobody is paid. The yacht falls under the control of Sea Scout Base Parent’s Advisory Committee.