Building the Future of Sailing in South Africa: SailPro and Quantum Sails

Most of South Africa’s passionate sailors talk often about how wonderful it would be if we could build sailing as a sport in South Africa to the same level it is in the big sailing countries all over the world like the UK, Australia and France…This is certainly a dream at the moment in South Africa, but if it were realised, it would change things completely for South Africa sailing in terms of sponsorship, the professionalism of the sport and most importantly, in terms of making South Africa one of the top competitive sailing countries internationally.

While most passionate sailors only dream of this, there are two young men in Cape Town who have put their money where their mouths are, so to speak, and are working towards making this dream a reality.
Last year, Andrea Giovannini and Markus Progli started a non-profit organisation called SailPro, based at Zeekoe Vlei Yacht Club in Cape Town. Zeekoe Vlei yacht club has been the training grounds of many of South Africa’s top sailors, and it is here that these two young men with big vision and dreams are bringing sailing to school students through team racing on 420 sailing dinghies.

Andrea Giovannini is now 26 years old and started sailing at twelve years of age, at Zeekoe Vlei, initially on mirrors, and worked his way through most of the dinghy classes. It was soon obvious that Andrea had a natural talent for sailing and had the potential to be one of South Africa’s best sailors. At nineteen years old, Andrea entered Lipton Cup, skippering a young crew, and took and unbelievable 5th place. Greg Davis had assisted Andrea and his crew with their Lipton Cup campaign and so, in return, Andrea assisted Greg by coaching Optimist Dinghies (Oppies) at Zeekoe Vlei, and there Andrea found his passion. From his school years, Andrea wanted to be a teacher, and on finishing school, studied teaching at university. In sailing coaching he found the perfect balance of his passion for teaching and passion for sailing. From Oppie coaching in South Africa, Andrea travelled overseas for a few years, where he coached Oppies in Ireland for a year and then moved onto coaching in Australia and eventually back to South Africa, still often doing dinghy coaching clinics overseas. Andrea’s experience was therefore perfect to start an organisation like SailPro, especially as he has vast experience of how dinghy coaching is done in many of the world’s top sailing countries

Markus Progli is 24 years old and also started sailing as a teenager, at age fifteen. He spent his teenage years sailing at Imperial Yacht Club in Cape Town and it soon became clear that Markus was one of those super-talented, natural sailors. He has a list of sailing achievements too long to mention, but an example of his talent is winning the Laser Radial Nationals at eighteen years old, only 3 years after he started sailing.
Markus studied Sports Management at University, and to help in putting himself through varsity, also coached sailing.

And so it was that these two young men, with incredible vision, passion and dedication to growing sailing as a sport in South Africa, started SailPro. Markus’ sports marketing qualification and experience, combined with Andrea’s passion for teaching and sailing and international coaching experience, makes these two young men a formidable combination. Throw Dave Rae and Dave Hudson into the mix as consultants, and one certainly has a formula for success.

Markus and Andrea’s dream is for sailing to be as big and mainstream a sport as rugby is in South Africa. Their approach is simple: to start building that passion at school level, and make sailing fun and accessible to people of all ages. Andrea had helped set up a sailing organisation in Australia that puts 15, 000 people through sail training a year, in comparison to the 60 or so people that go through training in a year in the Western Cape, and knows that it is this grounding which makes a sport like sailing so big in countries like Australia.

So what is the best way to build this passion at excitement for sailing at a young age? Andrea and Markus believe by making sailing adventurous and an exciting adrenalin rush, and this they achieve through coaching their students in team racing. Team racing, as opposed to fleet racing, where boats are scored on an individual basis, works in teams consisting of 2, 3 or 4 boats, which compete together. The low point scoring system is used, as in fleet racing, which means that boats are awarded points based on the place they finish in the race and the winning team is decided by adding together the places of all the boats in each team, the team with the fewest points being the winner.
This makes team racing not only action-packed, fast-paced and challenging, but also very tactical and needing good teamwork and communication. And as Markus and Andrea will tell you, their students love it.

Because team racing is done in boats of one-class, SailPro make use of six 420’s owned by Zeekoe Vlei Yacht Club. 420’s are very durable sailing dinghies, and they need to be for team racing, which is very hard in terms of wear and tear on the boats used. They also have two rubber ducks and all the lifejackets and safety equipment their students need. The students just have to arrive. The students race two afternoons per week, with two or three schools competing every afternoon, and on Saturdays SailPro holds interschool racing.  SailPro caters for students of all levels, from beginner to junior world champion level. Today, SailPro has top Cape Town schools such as Bishops, SACS, Rondebosch Boys, Fish Hoek, Plumstead and Wynberg, as well as all-girls’ schools such as Springfield and St Cyprians, offering sailing as an extra mural activity and the students are down at Zeekoe Vlei every afternoon, not only sailing and having fun, but also developing life skills such as teamwork and communication. SailPro boasts a 100% retention rate and has already had some great successes, and example being a young girl who has only being sailing for two years getting into a semi-final.

So where to from here? Andrea and Markus think and dream BIG – there is no limit to the incredible vision these two young men have for sailing in South Africa, and in September this year they intend to go national with SailPro. The thought of the logistics of such an operation is mind-blowing, but Markus and Andrea are not daunted. Their goal for 2011 is to run a learn-to-sail project which will put 10, 000 people through sailing in South Africa that year. Much of this will, of course, depend on sponsorship and support.

In choosing a partner as passionate about their dream as they are, Markus and Andrea went no further than Quantum Sails in Cape Town, who are as committed to building sailing in South Africa as SailPro is. Quantum generously assisted with six mainsails and six jibs, and together with Andrea and Markus, designed a special reefing system, which means that the students can still sail when that very strong Cape Town South Easter is blowing….

If Markus and Andrea can achieve their dream… well, it would give sailing in South Africa a whole new meaning and open up a new world for South African sailors. If all those people as passionate about sailing in South Africa as these two young men are, worked as hard as they do in achieving their dreams… well now there is mind-boggling thought!

For more information on SailPro or for support for the cause, go to www.sailpro.org.za or phone Markus Progli on
Tel: 082 957 2841
Email: mprogli@gmail.com

For more information on Quantum’s dinghy sails, please contact Tony Strutt at Quantum Sails in Cape Town on:
Tel: + 27 21 593 1620
Email: tony@quantumsails.co.za