SA sailing skipper Sizatu seeks win for diversity in race to Brazil

The first time he saw the ocean, Sibusiso Sizatu thought that, with all that water, it must have been a very large lake.

A couple of decades later, the former herd boy is getting ready to sail across that same ocean in an iconic race, helming an all-South African team that hopes to inspire a new generation of black yachtsmen.

"It's gonna be an eye-opener for the youngsters out there," Sizatu, 30, wearing a white polo shirt, told AFP standing on a Cape Town dock besides his boat, the Alexforbes ArchAngel.

The ArchAngel is to set sail for Rio de Janeiro on 2 January, as part of the 50th edition of the Cape2Rio race.

It will be racing against more than a dozen other boats from five countries to cover the more than 6 000 kilometres (3,728 miles) of Atlantic waters separating the two cities.

Sizatu reckons his 35 feet (10 metres) sloop has a shot at victory, but being at the starting line is arguably already a success for the skipper and his four-strong crew.

"The first aim is to finish the race," he said. "Winning it will be some extra bonus."

Open waters

The crew - four men and one woman - is the first all hailing from the Royal Cape Yacht Club sailing academy to take part in the race.

The academy was set up in 2012 to help youngsters from marginalised communities make it in a sport dominated by rich white people.

As a child Sizatu used to herd his family's livestock in a rural part of the Eastern Cape province before moving to a Cape Town township at the age of nine.

There he started going to school and was first introduced to sailing by a friend.

He didn't quite like it. Open waters didn't inspire much confidence and sea-sickness was a hard sell.

He much preferred football and hoped to make it as a professional.

Sailing