You all know I am no good at making speeches so I will instead tell a story about the dam.

Subsequent to Paddy Goodall stopping production of G.S.M.s in 1965, I turned to the design of powerboats - starting with offshore racing boats.

Later on slower workboats followed which led to an order for a general purpose craft for the Department of Nature Conservation for use on the vast stretch of water known as The Verwoerd Dam on the Orange River in 1973.

It had to comply with several special requirements such as "beaching" on rocks, very shallow water ability and extreme stability for working over the sides.

A low tunnel catamaran hull shape was chosen and Brian Clark built it out of meranti and marine plywood. To cope with the expected hitting of stones under the brown water - stainless steel plates were fixed to the bottoms of the sponsons.

For manoeuvrability and minimal draft Hamilton water jets were coupled by cardanshafts to two Volvo six cylinder petrol engines.

The cabin had seats and a table as well as a tiny galley for overnight trips. A launching-dolly type trailer was constructed to ease launch and recovery with one of the Department's jeeps.

In trials on Zeekoeivlei where I was living at the time a speed of 38 mph was achieved and everybody was happy with the stability and cornering as well as stopping ability.

I went to the launching with the V8 Flamingo and stayed over for a few days in one of the little wooden houses used at that time by the builders. The boat gave good service for many years and was sold quite recently.

My second trip was by Dart at quite a frantic pace - too many revs resulted in a conrod leaving the block almost within sight of the dam wall!
After an enjoyable weekend the Dart got to Bloemfontein on Steyntjie's trailer where Con found a 105E sub-assembly in a scrap yard for R50.00. That got me home to Paarl albeit at a very leisurely pace - slipstreaming pantechnicons!

Ek sou baie graag vanjaar se byeenkoms bygewoon het, maar al die glasveselstof van 47 jaar maak dat ek slegs by seevlak genoeg suurstof kry.

Geniet die geselskap en stuur vir ons 'n video opname sodat ons ook kan deel op 'n latere datum.

Beste groete aan almal, Bob

Gariep Dam Info

Letter from the President

Programme of Events

Price List