NEWSLETTER NO. 4 DATED 22 OCTOBER 2018
1. SHIPPING
Suddenly the dates by when various payments have to be made are rapidly closing in and so I thought it may be useful to tabulate the various payments and the dates by when they are to be made, namely:
1.1 RNC Ship’s Agency Services (RNC) will be invoicing all boats which have booked to be shipped back on 1 November 2018 with the full amount of the shipping costs in accordance with the Table set out below, plus a further sum of R4,560.00 to cover the Terminal Handling Charge payable at St Helena. The total amount will have to be paid before the date on which the boats’ cradles have to be delivered to the docks as to which see paragraph 1.2.3 below. No cradle will be loaded on board the MV Helena unless the full amount has been paid. We previously indicated that there would also be a charge to cover the costs of a diver supervising the placement of the slings when the boat is loaded, which would have amounted to £67.00 per boat, but since then the shipping company has agreed to absorb the cost.
1.1.1 The applicable shipping costs are:
[table id=1 /]
1.1.2 Further information regarding shipping can be obtained from Winston Sivertsen of RNC whose contact details are: 021 551-5130 or winston@rcnships.com.
1.2 Meihuizen International (Meihuizen) will be issuing an invoice on 1 November 2018 for R6,072.00, i.e. the total of the charges reflected in the Table set out in 4.1 of Newsletter No. 3 dated 27 September 2018, less the transport charge, the amount of which will have to be paid by 16 November 2018. This is to enable them to obtain the documentation required for clearing of the cradles before the loading date. Here too no cradles will be loaded unless the freight and clearing charges have been paid. The following arrangements apply to Customs Clearing and Forwarding:
1.2.1 Transportation of the cradles to the ship is causing something of a logistical problem. RNC advise that delivery of the cradles for loading onto the ship can only take place on the day that the MV Helena starts to load, and they will only know when that will be nearer the time when it is known what berth has been allocated to the ship by Transnet. We know that the ship is due to arrive on 25 November 2018, so loading is likely to take place on 26 or 27 November prior to her departure on 28 November. Boet Koopmans, our
Marina Manager, has arranged with Yacht Haulers that they will transport all cradles from RCYC to the ship free of charge. Five of the cradles are already at RCYC and do not present a problem. Difficulty arises with the remaining seven because they will have to be delivered to RCYC prior to being transported to the ship, which is where the problem comes in, because RCYC does not have space available to store the cradles at RCYC pending delivery to the ship. Owners are requested to get in touch with Boet as soon as possible to make the necessary arrangements to coordinate the delivery of their cradles to RCYC with the times by when on that same day they will be transported to the ship. Boet can be contacted via RCYC on
021 421-1354 or at marina@rcyc.co.za.
1.2.2 Boats not requiring shipping are free to attend to their own Customs Clearing in which case nothing is payable to Meihuizen. In this regard, the RCYC Marina Secretary, Dianne Bright, can be contacted for the necessary information. Owners requiring Meihuizen to attend to Customs Clearing on their behalf (i.e. out at the start and in again on arrival back in Cape Town) must inform Meihuizen by 12 December 2018 in which event the following fees will be payable:
- Agency/Special attendance: R1550.00
- Documentation fee: R1500.00
- Customs Inspection (if required) Imp/Exp: R1500.00
1.3 As previously advised, we have arranged with James Herne of St Helena Yacht Services to keep an eye on boats awaiting shipping and to assist with the loading by motoring the boats from their moorings in James Bay to Rupert’s Bay where the ship will be berthed, loosening backstays to facilitate lifting and thereafter reconnecting the backstays, for a fee of £100.00 per boat. It has been agreed that the amount can be paid in ZAR at the rate of R19.00 to the Pound in which regard, RCYC will invoice each owner the sum of R1,900.00 on or
about 15 November 2018, the amount to be paid by 15 December 2018. James is sailing his Bavaria 38’, “Carpe Diem”, to Cape Town to participate in the race, departing St Helena on 1 December 2018, and anticipates arriving in Cape Town on or about 16 December 2018 when RCYC will pay him the sum of R22,800 in respect of the 12 boats booked to be shipped back. Any boat in respect of which the owner has failed to pay as aforesaid will not be cleared for participation in the race.
2. IMMIGRATION
We are trying to arrange for an Immigration Officer to come to the Club to clear all crews on the morning of 26 December 2018 but should this not be possible, everyone will have to go and clear themselves out at the Immigration Offices at Customs House at the bottom of the Heerengracht. The Immigration Office is open 365 days of the year, 24 hours a day.
3. CHARGES AT ST HELENA
3.1. The good news is that there is likely to be a mooring available for all boats on arrival, on a ‘first come, first serve’ basis, the charge for which will be:
- Yellow buoys, of which there are 16: yachts up to 20 tonnes and 50’ – £2.00 per night, and yachts up to 50 tonnes and 60’: £3.00 per night;
- Red buoys, of which there are 5 – £3.00 per night.
3.2. In addition, there is a landing fee of £20.00 per person payable in respect of each crew member, unless staying in St Helena for less than 72 hours. (This amount was recently increased from £17.00 as previously advised). Each person must also produce proof of medical insurance cover of £250,000 (and not £500,000
as previously advised).
3.3. I am informed that, in the unlikely event of a mooring not being available, there is good holding ground in 14 meters of water with a sandy bottom for boats needing to anchor.
3.4. There is a ferry service at a charge of £2.00 per return trip. St Helena Yacht Services offer a late night service for those wanting to enjoy the evening ashore at £3.00 per person one-way for which bookings are required.
3.5. A number of people have commented on the charges at St Helena which in the past were subsidised by the St Helena authorities. This event has not been subsidised owing to budget constraints on the Island, mainly due to cost overruns with the construction of the aircraft landing site, and we only managed to get the go ahead to proceed with the organisation of the race after we confirmed that we were happy to organise the event without looking to the St Helena authorities for any financial contribution. Hopefully, in respect of future events, there will be more lead time enabling us to raise a sponsor with which to subsidise some of these costs.
4. STARTING DATE
Although it was originally envisaged that we would have more than one start in order to try and bunch boats together at the finish and the Notice of Race accordingly makes provision for this, this will not be possible and all boats will thus start on 26 December 2018.
Originally when setting the prize-giving for 11 January 2019, it was envisaged that crews could fly back on the flight of 12 January. However, it was subsequently discovered that that particular flight was fully booked with passengers from Ascension flying back to the UK, so a number of crew members off the fast boats have booked to fly back on the flight of 8 January 2019, which means we cannot give them a later start as they may in that event miss their flight. One of the first points to be made at the wash-up briefing after the race will be that when arranging the next event, the organisers should first check with Airlink as to flight availability and then set the start date/s accordingly.
5. SAILING INSTRUCTIONS
Sailing instructions will be issued before the end of November. In the meantime, competitors are reminded of the various cut-off dates stipulated in the Notice of Race,
namely:
- Rating Certificates are to be lodged by 17:00 on 10 December 2018.
- Safety Declarations duly signed by David Elcock confirming that the boat has passed scrutiny must be lodged by 12:00 on 17 December 2018.
- Crew Lists must be lodged by 17:00 on 21 December 2018.
Please note that these dates will be strictly enforced.
6. COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT
Attention is drawn to paragraph 13.9.1 of the Special Regulations contained in Schedule 1 to the Notice of Race which requires each boat to carry either a SSB Marine Radio Transmitter or a Satellite Telephone with sufficient airtime for the voyage.
7. SAMSA REGISTRATION
7.1 Attention is drawn to the following note which appeared in Newsletter No. 2 dated 16 August 2018 in connection with SAMSA registration, namely:
“Ms Edwina Howard, the Registrar of Ships, has requested that boats requiring registration should apply as soon as possible to avoid bottlenecks at the end of the year and has advised that applications received after 15 November 2018 will not be processed in time for the race.”
7.2 If registration is not already in hand, please attend to this as a matter of urgency. It would such a pity if boats have to fall by the wayside for lack of SAMSA registration.
8. RACE WEBSITE
Competitors are referred to the Race page on the RCYC website at www.rcyc.co.za where more information relating to the race can be obtained.
This newsletter will be updated as and when more information becomes available.
John Levin
Race Chairman