How one man established a new local one-design fleet – with a little help from his friends
There were a few arched eyebrows five years ago at the Hout Bay Yacht Club when Paul Tomes announced his intention to establish a new one design racing fleet of at least 20 Hunter Class yachts within a few years.
The initial disbelief has turned into huge support and the club has thrived as a result of what is now one of the biggest success stories in SA sailing since the Cape 31. As of today, there are just under 40 Hunters. During summer there are Hunter class races every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
“When I did the original presentation to the then HBYC committee they then only had about four or five larger keelboats boats racing regularly at the Club,” said Tomes, who has since won SA Sailor of the Year Award in recognition of his efforts. “It was a nice award to receive and very nice to be recognized for that work behind the scenes. Off the water is as crucial as participating and succeeding in competitive sailing events.”
Tomes says the Hunter 19 success story is really all about common sense. There was a gaping hole in the local sailing scene for a solid, inexpensive racing class, and the Hunter 19 sailed into it.
“We saw a need to start a very inexpensive easy-to-sail one design class,” explains Tomes, who has done much the same thing in the leisure sailing market with his new compact catamaran design – the Hop yacht 30.
To kick-start his Hunter 19 dream Tomes first had to track down all the old Hunters, and get word out that they would be welcome in Hout Bay. He knew the Hunter19 was akin to the Squib, a yacht he’d sailed in his youth in Northern Ireland. He also knew the design would was just the ticket to fulfill his vision, given the vessel’s popularity in the UK where about 1000 were built. His research suggested about 300 were built in SA alone (although only about 60 were still being sailed). “We went looking for them, wherever we could find them. Most were older than 45 years and in various states of deterioration when we got them. The big challenge was transport. Most Hunters have 45 year old trailers too! We brought many down to Hout Bay on the back of car trailers or low bed trucks and began the painstaking job of refurbishing them.”
“As the fleet grew everybody chipped in and it became a collective effort. Word got out. Over Covid the fleet almost doubled, within a year. We first started finding boats on Gumtree and buying them from there. And once word got out that we were looking for Hunters they started turning up everywhere. One person phoned up and said he had one in his garden in Bloem with plants growing in the cockpit, Boats came from Saldanha, Witbank, Mossel Bay, Durban, Midmar, and we even had a guy contact us from Dubai. It was just incredible.”
Once the initial boats had been bought Tomes focused on connecting willing buyers and sellers – “a yacht dating service” is how he describes it. He did the introductions and facilitated the process, allowing the community to grow organically and create its own synergies, such as a spare parts ‘pool’ for the benefit of all those refurbishing their yachts.
There was also a deliberate effort to attract a broad range of sailors with user-friendly class rules, such as a simplified rig to ‘level the playing fields’.
He says the influx of participating sailors has been spectacular, involving both novices and seasoned sailors. That’s largely thanks to the yacht’s prowess: what it lacks in speed it makes up for in fun and gutzpha, and seemingly everybody wants to be come aboard. There’s now a whatsapp group, special Hunter 19 moorings, and a new format for club championships The ‘ Leopard Challenge’ consisting of four one-day regattas on the year adding up to the overall championship.
Says Tomes: “This format again took into account the needs of the Hunter 19 sailors at HBYC
Many are in their 60s and 70s and multiple day regattas are too much of a stretch … regattas are exhausting sailing with 4-5 races back to back. One day events mean everyone can manage.”
And the future? Despite the boats being over 45 years old already Tomes reckons with this new lease on life they are good for another 45 years.