P.O. Box 52055 V&A Waterfront 8002 Cape Town wcdba@dragonboat.org.za

PADDLES UP The WCDBA Newsletter

January - Welcome to the first edition of Paddles Up for 2006. 2005-2006 Committee Greg, Craig, Zandra, Fouche, Pam and Igshaan You all know the faces, but are you aware who does what? Chair Pam Newby 082 5646257 pam@dragonboat.org.za Vice-chair Igshaan Raciet 072 02888616 Secretary Fouché Conradie 083 4599712 wcdba@dragonboat.org.za Treasurer Greg Pearce 083 2640935 greg.pearce@safbulk.co.za PR & Newsletters Zandra Dixon 082 9765719 zdixon@7-11.co.za Youth & Development Craig Seymour 083 2853771 craigs@cradle.co.za without portfolio Stephan Hilpert 082 5515541 stephanhilpert@yahoo.de We are proud to use this first edition to report on the many achievements accomplished in the last few months. The first and most vital to the sport was the introduction of a racing schedule for the year. While putting the schedule together it was decided to give each club a turn at hosting the races. This gives all of you a chance to contribute to the sport. As a further incentive, all 'league' results are published in the Cape Argus during the week following the races. This gives the clubs something to train for and re-introduces healthy competition to the sport. WCDBA events for 2006 Date Organisers 21 January Dragons Pursuit 11 February Mujaji 22 April Paddlesnappers 15 July Dragons Pursuit 12 August Mujaji 14 October Paddlesnappers November WCDBA - African Nations Cup? watch this space Where there are events planned by GDBA, ADBA or even by local canoeists that we can participate in, these have been included in our calendar. Click here to view the full calendar of events in South Africa in 2006. Inter-club racing in the Waterfront will be in flag-catching boats when we can race in the Marina Basin. When North Wharf is unavailable to us, we will race fibreglass boats in the V&A Canal. The floating trophy will be raced for each time. To avoid any confusion with the various Waterfront authorities, all communication between the V&A and dragonboaters will be done by the WCDBA committee. The colour of Money ..... Marina Basin club racing is now R15 adults and R10 juniors. There have been queries as to why the price has increased and besides inflation, budget cuts and various other reasons to blame Trevor Manuel, we have to create a self-sustaining sport. With this in mind, our treasurer advised us that after spending money on new equipment we needed to generate some more. The membership fees payable by the clubs to the WCDBA have remained the same with the clubs paying R200 per annum + R20 per senior per year. Juniors are also unchanged at R10 per year. The following equipment has been acquired since October 2005 40 life jackets 60 strong plastic paddles 4 two-way radios 2 stop watches A comprehensive first aid kit Remember, only R5 of your racing fee goes to WCDBA and this is being used for maintenance of the wooden boats. Negotiations are under way for the building of fibreglass boats, tenders have been put out to 3 boat builders as well as the boat-building association. This will mean more boats of an equal class for racing. Covers were made for the wooden boats - but these were shredded in the gales of December. We are investigating alternative methods of storing these boats to protect them from the sun and rain - and the litter! Congratulations to Paddlesnappers for your first place on Saturday. This is two in a row for the summer league and we hope this will encourage the other clubs to train (and recruit) harder. Chairman's comment: There is an air of positivity in paddling these days, with friendly rivalry on the water and co-operation off the water. We are fortunate to have the enthusiastic support of Wayne Gelderbloem, the new Marina manager. As well as supporting us, Wayne is also getting together a V&A squad and this, together with an influx of new paddlers into the existing clubs, makes the aquisition of new racing boats a priority. Two new flag catching boats have arrived in Cape Town and will be launched in February. Here's to a year of good hard paddling - and fun! Pam

WCDBA Clubs Paddlesnappers (formed in 1995) Mujaji (was Safdragons, formed in 1998 from the Safmarine Corporate team) Dragons Pursuit (formed in 1999 from the I&J Corporate team) Paddlesnapper Juniors (formed in 2002 - Sea Point High School pupils) DSK Tsunami Dragons (formed in 2003 from the Deutsche Schule Kapstadt Corporate team) Montevideo (formed in 2005 - Montevideo Primary School pupils)

Paddlers in - politics out Our goal is to grow the sport - with a minimum of politics. We aim to encourage co-operation between all people interested in the sport of Dragon Boat Racing.