Sailing It is with regret thatI have to reporta decline of interest in sailing at Kearsney this year. This is not limited to our school, but shrinking dinghy fleets are being experienced throughoutthe country.This is as a result ofthe economic climate coupled with escalating sailing costs. Our return to international sport and the high profile this has engen dered in the media of the more conventional sports also had a part to play in the decline of sailing. Dinghy sailing is not a spectator sport and enjoys no media support and receives very little in the way ofsponsorship. The school is a microcosm ofthe outside world and much of the above has impacted on our sailing. This has been exacerbated by our new extended weekend system. Boys who have played sport all Saturday would rather spend their Sundays at home than go sailing, which is quite a changefrom the past when many ofour sailors started sail ing as a means of getting out ofschool on a Sunday before becoming so hooked on it thatthey were happy to sail even on the free weekends and during the holidays. There are, however,afew boys who still spend as much time sailing as they can, which is a consolation for the effort one puts into it. Times are changing and 1 and sailing will have to change along with them.Ifit is to survive sailing will have to change from a Sunday activity to a Saturday sport.The tragedy of this is that the boy who would like to swim or play cricket and sail will no longer be able to pursue both activities on a regular basis. 1 will, however, continue to take sailing on a Thursday and will take part in the odd Sunday regatta. The first major regatta of the 1993 season our boys took part in was the Mirror Nationals which were sailed at the Albert Falls Dam early in January. None of our sailors gained medal positions in this regatta. Patrick Goldie, Warwick Tindall and Richard Pearson were the best placed of our sailors.A number of our Old Boys,however,fared better with Mark Gunning becoming the new South Afri can Mirror Champion-a very pleasing resultfor Kearsney. He has just repeated this accomplishment in the recently sailed 1994 Mirror nationals which were sailed at Saldanha Bay in the first part of January of this year, making him the S.A. Mirror champion for 1994 as well. A number of our boys travelled down to Saldanha Bay to take part in the championships.Five ofour boys did very well,Patrick Goldie, crewing for Kearsney Old Boy Jamie BromleyGans, came sixth. Lee Moseley and Stuart Crooks took 7th place and Warwick Tindall and Richard Pearson took 9th position, putting all five of these boys in the top ten boats in the fleet. This is important as it will put them in line for selection as part of the S.A. team to sail in the 1995 Mirror World Championships to be held in Wales. Warwick Tindall and Richard Pearson have in fact had a very successful year as they won the Inter-Schools Regatta in the Mirror class.Their win was,however,not sufficient to win us the class as the schools system works on a team system consisting oftwo boats rather than on an individual basis. We came second in the Mirror Class. We did,how ever, do better in the optimist fleet in this regatta There was good, consistent sailing of Craig Alison and David Hooper's individual placing was second. This gave us a win in the Optimist class for a second year in succession. David Hooper has been,without doubt,our top sailor. Not only has he established himself as the top Natal optimist sailor, but he has also represented the country on two oc casions this year-once at the Optimist Worlds sailed at Mar de Plate in the Argentina in the December/January period of 1992/93, and later during 1993 he was chosen once again to represent the country in the European Opti mist Championships in Minorca.There the enormous en try resulted in the fleet being divided into two. David Hooper sailed very well to come 19th in his fleet of 80 boats. The mirrors held their provincial in May which unfortu nately clashed with the J22 nationals,and 1 had committed Richard Pearson to crew on one of the J22's which broke the Tindall-Pearson team.This was a pity as they were our most promising team at the time.They were also unable to sail the N.P.C. Natal Junior Provincial Regatta in October as Tindall went overseas during this holiday, and neither boy was able to pull offthe sort of performance alone that was accomplished as a team.Two ofour sailors, however, did very well in the N.P.C. Natal Junior Provincial Re gatta. Lee Moseley found his form in this regatta, taking a second place and the silver medalin the mirror class.David Hooper took the gold medal in the optimist class by win ning this class. As he will be too old to sail this class again next year it was a super way to end his career in this class. We wish to congratulate Warwick Tindallon being awarded his Natal School Colours and David Hooper on being reawarded his Natal School Colours, on being awarded his Kearsney Coloursfor sailing,as well as being awarded his Junior South African Sailing Colours. A.M.BROMLEY-GANS Shooting The shooting team during 1993 was reduced tojust a sen ior team for competition, because of a lack of working rifles. Later in the year we took over the rifles of Port Shepstone High School.It is still very difficult to arrange practice times because ofthe commitmentofboys to other sport. Seven competitions were held and the results were as fol lows: v.DHS Kearsney 1488 DHS 1512 Lost by 24points V. Glenwood Kearsney 1509 Glenwood 1505 Won by4points V. Glenwood Kearsney 1492 ; ' - Glenwood 1494 Lost by2points V.Alexandra Kearsney 1519 Alexandra 1543 Lost by 24points 89
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