Sailing
Vetch’s Reef provides a safe protected beach on which water sports activities have thrived for many years. Activities include sailing, surfing, paddle ski launching, and ski boat launching and diving.
Vetch’s beach offers the safest beach launch site for small sailing dinghies on the entire East Coat with no accidents occurring to date. As a comparison, 10 Hobie cats sailed from Zinkwazi Beach on the 7th March 2010 in an inaugural Richards Bay to Durban Race. Zinkwazi exhibits typical East Coast surf conditions. All boats had very experienced crew. Of the 10 boats three were seriously damaged during launching and beaching.
Due to the safety and capacity of the beach and the manner in which water sports organisations have worked in partnership, major events have occurred over the years in all disciplines. These events have included world championship sailing regattas. Due to uncertainty over the future and lack of investment in the area, in recent years major sailing events have bye-passed Durban.
The proposed Small Craft Harbour not only destroys the beach but associated development is dense and crowds the high water mark. This destroys the water front access needed for a major sailing regatta as well as removing the necessary space for backup facilities such as boat storage, repair and racing administration.
By way of compensation a small hard and soft launch facility is proposed within the Small Craft Harbour. This will mean that small numbers of experienced sailors may be able to sail from the Small Craft Harbour. However, the destruction of water front access, removal of the nursery area, potentially dangerous conditions that will be created by the mouth of the facility, difficult wind conditions created by the new sea wall and the hotel on Vetch’s Pier will mean that water sports and particularly small boat sailing will decline and the ability to host a major offshore regatta such as might be envisaged for an Olympic Games will be removed forever.