Dear DUC and DSBC Members

Despite the relatively wet February we experienced so far, for once it seems that the weather gods have confined the rain to the weekdays, allowing members full use over weekends of the beaches that they were so cruelly denied access to during the past holiday period.

This has resulted in exceptionally busy weekends for the club over the last three weeks as members shook off the cabin fever by visiting the beach in large numbers. We would like to thank the members not only for their support but also for their patience especially when great weather, good fishing, clean diving conditions, surf ski, open water swimming and other water and beach related activities combine to create a perfect storm of demand for the limited available club facilities such as club parking.

PARKING

This is the number one query / complaint received by members. It must be noted that we actually have more parking available now than when we were at the temporary site. However, this comes at a cost as the club must rent the open parking area at a significant rental.

The same applies to any other open area that you see around the Point area and you will notice that these open, undeveloped areas are now being leased out to parking operators. At present, the club is not in a financial position to take on more rental commitment to alleviate the shortage of parking.

In the original business plan for the club, it was envisaged that the undercover parking would be a pay parking for members to help contribute towards the increased rental that the clubs had to pay. Due to the tremendous support from the members, the pay parking plan has not been implemented and all club parking is currently included in your membership fee.

However, as you know, the available club parking is limited and until a suitable and affordable solution is found, the late arrivals on a busy weekend are encouraged to make sure that they have R25 in cash handy to make use of the pay parking areas.

Safety at the club

To date the club has managed to ensure that there has been no watercraft / bather incident at the Vetchs beach. This is due to members adhering to requests from the beach safety controllers to ensure that they stay out of the designated launch area and that both members and boat skippers are constantly on the lookout for watercraft and bathers in the Vetchs basin.

You will see that there are NO BATHING signs in the vicinity of the launch site as bathing is by regulation not permitted in a launch site. If you are in the water next to the launch site you are at risk and should rather make use of the designated bathing area
You are encouraged to make use of the designated bathing area to the northern side of the beach especially if you would like to swim deeper than standing depth. We would also like to request that members educate their children on the specific dangers of bathing in a launch site and that small children and dogs are constantly monitored while on the beach. SAFETY EQUIPMENT CHECKLIST

Cars on the beach

This suggestion is often put forward by members as a solution to the parking problem. By regulation, only vehicles launching a watercraft by means of a trailer are allowed access to the beach.

With all the beach activity taking place at Vetchs including unaware kids, dogs and members of the public; from a safety point of view and to allow the efficient launching and recovery of boats, it is impractical to allow vehicles onto the beach that are not directly involved in the launching and recovery of watercraft by means of a trailer. Sorry guys, not matter how much you plead with the staff, we cannot allow you to “just go on to the beach for 5 minutes” to drop off the ski, dog, granny, your beach camp stuff, etc, etc.

Saturday Beach Clean Up

There will be a Reef and Beach clean-up on the 27th of February from the club at 8am. Please register on info@zebrasharkadventures.co.za or contact Billie-Jean Parker on 082 759 7596 if you have any queries.

Fishing Ski Update

Please could all club members that use their fishing skis at Vetchs or in the harbour, please take note of the contents of the attachments.

Farewell to Donut and Agrippa

Two past staff members well known to members of both DSBC and DUC have passed away recently. Agrippa was for many years the chef for the DSBC and popular with many members and Donut was one of the original tractor drivers who had a cheeky sense of humour.  Attached is a farewell to Donut by Hilton Kidger.

We look forward to seeing you at the club

The PWC Team