Ski-Boat July 2024

2024 Durban Ski-Boat Club Festival

By Mark Wilson

THE Collins Dictionary defines a festival as “a day or time of year when people have a holiday from work and celebrate some special event”.I have been attending the Durban Ski-Boat Club Festival on behalf of SKI-BOAT Magazine as the appointed scribe for over two decades now, and this event is certainly special and worth celebrating.In fact,I rate this year’s festival as the best yet.

Oft times great success is the result of facing challenging times and overcoming them.Durban Ski-Boat Club is not only one of the oldest and largest such organisations in the country, but also had to navigate displacement from their original club house after it was demolished, occupy a temporary site for over three years, and eventually settle underneath the Point Promenade with direct access to the beach.

Those were definitely challenging times.Despite that, throughout the transition to the five-star club house they now call home, the festival has always been on the yearly calendar come hell or high water, with the obvious exception of 2020 thanks to Covid.

This year the festival took place on 27 and 28 April, with two days dedicated to fishing.The main prize is always guaranteed to motivate anglers to do all they can to catch the heaviest ’cuda, and this year the prize was a Seacat 565 and trailer, powered by two 100hp Yamaha outboard motors, all worth over R850000.Natal Caravans & Marine who have been part of the festival since its inception once again stepped up to make this prize possible.

The main prize is already a great drawcard to anglers nationwide, but, in true festival fashion,Durban Ski-Boat Club strives to ensure as many participants as possible walk away with fantastic prizes.This year those prizes were valued at over R350000.

Substantial lucky draw and family prizes, along with entertainment for both the young and old ensured the club was filled to capacity over the whole weekend.

The organisers decided to limit this year’s entry to 250 boats and 700 anglers, and this was achieved easily.This festival has, in the past, drawn over 500 boats, so I wasn’t surprised it met its target by close of registration.I also attribute the ongoing success of this event to them investing in advertising well in advance through various media which gives all the sponsors exposure leading up to the event.A collective prize value of R1.2 million certainly sets this festival apart from most.

DAY ONE

The first day of fishing was greeted with a light south-westerly wind and a partially cloudy sky, and the majestic sunrise was a beautiful backdrop for the launch and start of the competition.

With all the craft safely launched thanks to the energetic beach staff and efficient beach control, they were let loose to chase that winning ’cuda.

I made my base at the weigh station in anticipation of what the sea might give up to the enthusiastic anglers racing to get live bait or to their favourite GPS marks according to gameplans which had been discussed in fine detail before the day’s launch.It proved to be a long wait, as boats only started beaching with their fish at approximately 12.30pm.However, the wait was well worth it as the weigh station only closed after 4pm with all catches verified and signed off by the respective skippers.

The mood in the weigh-in area was electric, with the original leading ’cuda being eclipsed on three occasions.The area was packed with onlookers and anglers alike, all eager to know who was top of the leaderboard.I have developed a brand-new respect for the weigh masters who have to work under tremendous pressure and make sure all the details recorded are 100% correct.

The anglers who stood out on day one in the ’cuda category were Wian Jacobs with his 14.28kg fish, Etienne Diener with his 19.56kg specimen and finally Rudi Venter who topped the standings with a 21.38kg ’cuda, setting the benchmark for day two.

Prizes are also allocated to species other than ’cuda, and a number of anglers made their mark on day one catching yellowfin tuna, snoek, dorado and bonnies.

DAYTWO

The second and final day’s fishing dawned with Rudi Venter’s ’cuda set as the benchmark to beat.

Again all the participating craft launched without incident, although strong winds were predicted in the afternoon. That would make angling more challenging, to say the least, but the men, women and juniors who make up the ranks of this sport are a hardy and determined breed and no boats beached early when the wind picked up.

The first ’cuda eventually made its way to weigh-in just after 12 noon and was a sign of things to come.Once again a seemingly never ending queue of anglers started lining up and the excitement was tangible

We had to wait a full hour until, just after 1pm, Coenie Vermaak and a very nervous crew weighed in a very healthy ’cuda. The crew and the massive crowd of onlookers erupted in roars of delight when the weight was confirmed as 24.26kg.Would that be this year’s winning fish?

Many more ’cuda and other species were brought to the scales, but the buzz running through the crowd was that a bigger fish still was on its way.

Just after 2pm a nervous looking angler,21-year-old Joshua Holdstock, helped haul a croc of a ’cuda onto the scales.

The crowd went dead quiet and you could have heard a pin drop… The scale settled on 25.96kg! The applause and cheers were deafening!

Joshua Holdstock, fishing on Lady C, had officially joined a select bunch of anglers and was named the top angler and winner of the main prize at the Durban Ski-Boat Club Festival 2024!

Jack Cheney, owner and skipper of Lady C, a DSBC registered boat, told us about their day ...

Jack, his son Cameron, and Joshua were on the boat for the comp.Joshua works for Ant Smalberger as a trainee marine specialist, and is dating Ant’s daughter.He is crazy keen on deep sea angling, but finds little time to enjoy the sport, so Ant asked Jack to take Joshua as part of their crew, offering to sponsor Joshua’s entry fee.

After a rather “tough”launch on Saturday, during which the prop touched the tractor’s push pole causing a minor ding, they were out to sea.

The crew aboard Lady C had a very firm game plan: (a) They were going to fish up north in the Umdloti area; (b) if they won the boat they would share equally in the spoils; and (c) they would rotate turns on the rod –first Jack, second Cameron and third Joshua.

More drama ensued when a rod went overboard on a striking fish and Jack dived into the water to save it, but the challenges were leading to a great victory.

The team managed to land one ’cuda on day one, and when they got home and gutted it, they saw it had a walla walla in its stomach.As a result, the game plan the following day was to catch walla walla for bait and then visit the same area they’d been lucky in on the first day.And – BANG – they had the formula for the winning fish!

As it was Joshua’s turn on the rod,he landed the croc and the rest is history.Incredibly,this was Joshua’s first ’cuda,but it certainly won’t be his last.This is definitely a case of hooked for life!

The top ten ’cuda weighed were all in excess of 17kg, with five of those over 20kg.

Here are the final standings in all the various categories:

Joshua Holdstock 25.96kg ’cuda

Craig Bashford 6.28kg yellowfin tuna

JJ Slater 5.06kg snoek

William Dowsett 12.12kg dorado

Storm Dalton 3.54kg pick handle barracuda

Jono Watkins 7.5kg bonnie

Sally Seppings (top lady)11.04kg ’cuda

Hassan Ahmed (top junior) 15.62kg ’cuda

Mark your diaries now for the last weekend in April 2025 – it’s a festival you don’t want to miss out on.