South African Sailing elects a new President:

Frank Silberbauer is the confident new skipper at the helm of organised sailing in South Africa and believes this country should strive to put itself on the map as a sailing venue, which is recognised internationally. He has been elected president of SA Sailing, which represents all registered sailors through 78 affiliated clubs and 38 sailing class associations.

Silberbauer is a tireless worker for sailing; having served on committees at various levels in promoting the sport, especially among communities who were not previously able to participate.

In addition he is a veteran sailor himself. He has represented this country at a Hobie Worlds in the United States and now sails keelboats. He was a member of the Stadt 23 national champion team in 1999.

He believes sailing can and should be one of the country's foremost sports, but concedes this will be difficult because sailing costs money and there are too few funds spread amongst too many good sailors. "The cost of campaigning and getting the required training has become too costly for the elite sailor." They are required to compete abroad, but no sponsorship is available from government and very little from business.

One possible solution: "Maybe the answer lies not in far away places but to bring the action to our own shores. We have the means to run international events, we are the biggest sailing nation in Africa and we have everything going for us. SAS must explore all avenues to make this country a viable, recognized international sailing venue."

He says the fact that this country has some of the best sailors in the world is borne out by the international sailing federation's World Sailing Games 2002 in France where South Africa was ranked fifth out of 39 nations.

"This is not bad for a team of 35 sailors, of which only one can be classified as a career professional and the rest amateurs. "This team did not have any support staff such as coaches, managers or shrinks. They did not even have an RSA team tracksuit. Imagine if this team had been supported with 10 per cent of the Bafana Soccer World Cup budget. It is something we should strive for."

It is also his vision that SA Sailing should explore further relationships with Africa. '"We have limited sailing resources, but in the African context we are big and with our African partners we will be even better received in the international arena."

In the same way he would like to see local clubs and sailing organisations promoting sailing further among those who previously had no access to the sport.

"SAS must play an active role in guiding and assisting clubs with these programmes as sailing still has a long way to go before it can claim to be a truly equal opportunity sport."