It hasn’t always been smooth sailing
|Published
Durban - The old picture this week features Durban’s Yacht Mole and comes from the Facebook group Durban Down Memory Lane.
It was probably taken in the 1950s soon after the Yacht Mole as we know it today was opened.
But the city’s yachting history goes back 100 years before that.
In 1858, the Durban Regatta Club was formed to host Durban’s first official sailing regatta – making it the oldest yacht club in Africa (and the fifth-oldest in the southern hemisphere). In 1863, this became the Natal Yacht Club and in 1891, it was officially granted a royal charter (the eighth club in the world to be so designated) and declared the Royal Natal Yacht Club.
Shortly after that a group of sailors from the Point area broke away from the club in an argument over the race uniform which included blazers. They formed the Point Yacht Club which had a number of different clubhouse sites on the Point until continued harbour development forced them out.
In July 1922, after the completion of the railway line linking the Point with Congella, a new club house was built on reclaimed land right opposite their old nemesis Royal Natal.
In February 1934, the harbour authorities gave the Durban Corporation an acre of reclaimed land to be used solely for yachting and boating under the joint control of the two clubs.
But the twin embankments were only started in 1947 forming what is officially the Silburn Mole for the new yacht harbour. It was completed in 1950 when yachtsmen could enjoy improved facilities and safer moorings.
In September 1983, a floating walk-on jetty at the bay club house was built, accommodating 66 craft.
It is not clear what the building on stilts in the old picture actually contained. At the time the Point clubhouse was behind and to the left of the photographer and Royal Natal was actually across the Embankment. They only moved to their current site after the Yacht Mole was created.
But today a new modern building hosts one of Durban’s top restaurants, 9th Avenue Waterside, with downstairs being a restaurant and upstairs a bar and viewing deck. The development in the yacht mole today is clear. The NSRI launches from a site just beyond it.
The Independent on Saturday