Open letter to the public from Lawrence Haw, commodore.
The East London Yacht Club story: 3pm on October 31 will mark the end of 78 years of tenure on the site just inside the short pier of the port of East London.
The view from the lawn is spectacular, and I believe there is nowhere else in the country one get as good a view of the coming and going of ships, yachts, power boats, and so on.
ELYC was established in 1947, and for many years was the only yacht club in East London. Buffalo River Cruising Club now known as Buffalo River Yacht Club was born out of ELYC in the 1970s. In its hey-day the club was the who’s who of business people in town. It was well known and respected among port officials, and was generally the go-to place for anything sailing related.
The club has hosted many prestigious events in its time, making tangible contributions to the economy of East London and surrounding areas. It hosted the finish of Vasco da Gama Ocean Race (Durban to East London) for many years during the 1970s, 1980s and early 90s, in 2006 it hosted the Dart 18 World Championships attracting more than 100 boats many of them international competitors, and it hosted countless national championships including the Laser (ILCA) national champs over the Easter Weekend this year, as well as Youth Nationals arguably the biggest youth regatta in SA in 2015 and 2024.
The club’s strong focus on development and training has resulted in producing some fine sailors in its time: Blaine Dodds, a Springbok Hobie sailor, and Keith Rohland to mention but a few. All had their roots in ELYC.
As the relentless march of time has moved on, the club evolved into many difference disciplines aiming to become the hub of ocean-loving water sport enthusiasts in the region — it includes the EL open water swimmers, surf-ski paddlers, power boaters, and Orient Pier fishermen.
The objective is to be an inclusive and dynamic space where all water sport enthusiasts are able to access the water safely and with all the facilities needed. In support of these objectives the club has performed water safety duty for countless paddling events including the Pete Marlin, World Surfing Tour, many triathlons including Iron Man many of whom have relied on our expertise and local knowledge to ensure their event’s success.
As with many clubs along the SA coastline, the struggle for affordable tenure and access to water is very real. Many will recall the closure of Algoa Bay Yacht Club in 2017, Mosselbay Yacht Club a few years later, and very sadly, the ELYC is the next casualty.
The landlord is Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA). Their unfair and completely uncompromising policies make it increasingly difficult to remain in good standing with the landlord.
ELYC’s story is unique: In the early days, the access to the club was via the Fleet Street port entrance. In around 2012 the port decided that such access was no longer an option, and a deal was struck to allow access via the gate at the Orient Pools. This makes the setup challenging in that BCM control the gate, with a mandate to collect revenue and provide security for the Orient complex, the result however is that the club is regularly locked out when events such as the switching on of the lights, fun runs and triathlons happen. Without warning we’re simply not able to access the club. Access over the festive period is near impossible.
Keeping this in mind, in 2017 the port insisted that the ELYC negotiate a new lease, the previous one having expired some years before. Despite mammoth efforts on the club’s behalf, calling in professional property evaluators and explaining the difficulty regarding access — all of which were outright rejected, the rental was increased by more than 1,000%. Any business person will know that this must border on illegal, and not only that — the lease comes with 9% escalation per year. In the initial year of the lease, 2018/ 2019 the club was able to hold its head above water. Enter the Covid pandemic — and we simply were not.
The simplest thing for BCM to do when the pandemic hit was to close the gate to the public — we were not able to access the club for many months, unable to attend to runaway water leaks, members struggled themselves financially, there was no value proposition to the members, the club was vandalised, equipment stolen and the landlord? Unwilling to compromise.
As we emerged from the lockdowns and the club began to grow again, we found ourselves significantly in debt to TNPA. We made all efforts once again to negotiate with parent parastatal Transnet, who responded mostly by putting our lease out to tender a number of times — and they received no bids. In the three years since Covid we have more than trebled our membership, have at long last begun to achieve some of our objectives with water sport enthusiasts out on the water every weekend, have been paying the rental but unfortunately not able to service the debt.
In August of 2025 we received notification that our lease was cancelled, but left a door open to consult with TNPA. We did so, and the initial impressions we got were that we would get to a negotiation table and there would be a resolution. This was not to be. Following on from those engagements we were given notice to vacate and at 3pm on October 31 2025 this icon will come to an end.
This open letter was sent to TNPA and Transnet for comment but no reply has yet been received.
