Page 99 - KBHA BULLETIN 4

96

across the thwarts either centrally or to one side. The sail plan is four-sided. It is loose-footed (no

boom). The luff (edge next to the mast) is laced around the mast. It is not known whether a halyard
was used. With no centre board the cargo had to be used to trim the boat, or bags of beach sand were

used as ballast.

Conclusion

The demise of the Cape fishing beach boats, like the cargo beach boats before them, was inevitable
once the combustion engine displaced sail and oars as the means of propulsion. The three largest

beach boat fleets at Rogge Bay, Port Elizabeth, and Kalk Bay had all but disappeared by 1920. At

Rogge Bay harbour construction and foreshore reclamation forced the boats off the beach and into
more secure berths in the Victoria Basin. At Kalk Bay the construction of the breakwater and fish

landing quay 1913 – 19 was also the harbinger of a new order, and it was accurately foreseen by the

Resident Magistrate for the Simon’s Town District in his Annual Report for 1913:

“Parliament has authorised the expenditure of £49 000 for a fishing harbour at Kalk Bay. The

breakwater is being pushed on, the works contemplated will probably take another eighteen
months; when completed this small harbour should ensure a safe anchorage for the fishing boats,

and the fishing industry ought to develop very considerably. The present small fishing boats will in

all probability be replaced by larger boats with an auxiliary motor engine, which will enable them
to go much further afield and tap the valuable fishing grounds in the neighbourhood of Cape Point

and Agulhas.”

The contrast between the old and the new boats is evident in Fig. 4.10: all boats are equipped with

sails, but the partly obscured boat in the foreground still depends on sail and oars whereas those

moored to the breakwater are of a different design, are larger, and are motorised.

96