Shelly Beach Skiboat club

It all started with Sonny Evans, who was an engineer who worked in the sugar industry. When he, with his family, moved to the South Coast in 1955, he used to launch his boat from the beach in front of his house, but it was dangerous and led to several narrow escapes and much damage. 

During the 1970s, several boat owners started to launch from the beach in front of the Metropole Hotel, but it was dangerous because of the scattered rocks, especially at high tide. Sonny got permission from the Town Board and removed some of the rocks, but it soon became obvious that the larger rocks needed to be blasted. 

In 1973/4, fellow skiboat enthusiasts came together at Sonny’s home for an informal meeting over the forming of a ski-boat club at Shelly Beach. The club started off with 12 members. Sonny and Gert Claasens (who could speak Afrikaans and could sell ice to Eskimos) flew to Cape Town for a meeting in the Parliament Buildings with the Minister of the Land Tenure Board, where they got permission to go ahead with the removal of approximately 24 cubic meters of rocks.

To make a long story short, it took 2 years to clear a safe channel for boat launching. A concrete ramp was also built. Club members continued to remove more rocks over the past thirty years with jackhammers and cranes.

The clubhouse, designed and built by Billy Mountjoy in 1981, was solely financed by club members by way of fundraising drives and sponsorships. The clubhouse was later extended towards the sea, and a lapa and swimming pool were added, ensuring that spending time at the club became a family activity.