1870: Flower of the Arun, this wooden sailing brigantine wrecked in a south-easterly gale off the East London coastline in the Eastern Cape.
1986: Chanson de la Mer, this fibreglass sailing yacht wrecked on the west side of Robben Island in Table Bay in the Western Cape. As reported the reason for the grounding was a navigational error.
CHANSON DE LA MER was a South African fiber glass hulled sailing yacht – Baltic 42 type. The owner and his son, Richard. Johan van Rooyen, Charlie Copping, Lynn and Dave van der Merwe, Digby de Villiers was participating in the “Rothman’s Week” long distance race, from Cape Town to Saldanha and back. This is the premier race event held mid-December, but it is now called “Table Bay Race Week”. The race started from Table Bay with a light, variable NW breeze. After rounding the mark, Saldanha South Head, they started the return to Cape Town. By sunset, the crew had a full view of Robben Island and were able to identify the lights of Milnerton and Mouille Point. The owner was new to this kind of sailing (ex-Vaal Dam sailor) and the navigator was teaching him to plot the lights and do fixes because visibility was good. Nigel Clack went off watch and was woken at 19:00 when fog set in. There was a light NW wind of about 10 knots blowing and the fog remained until 23:00. Confident of their position, the vessel headed between Milnerton and Robben Island at about 20:30. At this point they were leading the race. The soundings became shallower. The spinnaker was up and they were running at about 7 knots. They altered course to port but the soundings continued to get shallow and they headed “into a tight reach”. Minutes later, with zero visibility, the yacht bumped the bottom. The spinnaker was dropped and the motor engaged, in an attempt to reverse. They thought they were free, but the rudder grounded. The crew spent half an hour attempting to heel the boat by loading sail bags and crew members onto the boom, but the yacht remained grounded. Surge banged the vessel about and they radioed NSRI and the Island authorities for help. The Island authorities located the wreck using a searchlight on the perimeter road. The fog lifted. Some of the crew were divers and donned wetsuits, then swam a line to the beach and secured the vessel. The crew attached life harnesses to the line and went ashore. Before going ashore, the navigator and skipper packed the sails and closed up the boat, which was being seriously knocked around.
