Cape Town - 150320 . The 2015 South African Navy Festival anchors down in Simon’s Town from Friday (today), 20 to Sunday, 22 March with its usual fleet of family-friendly fun. pic Jason Boud Cape Town - 150320 . The 2015 South African Navy Festival anchors down in Simon’s Town from Friday (today), 20 to Sunday, 22 March with its usual fleet of family-friendly fun. pic Jason Boud
Katharina Riebesel
THOUSANDS of people flocked to Simon’s Town at the weekend to enjoy the annual South African Navy Festival, where tours of a submarine, frigates and German vessels were among the highlights.
Gun runs, dog shows and sports competitions entertained families and school groups in warm, but sometimes windy conditions at the base, with long queues forming to get a glimpse inside a submarine.
Connor Fourie climbed on board the submarine SAS Queen Modjadji I with his grandfather. After exploring the inside of the vessel for about 10 minutes, he was impressed.
“It was so great that I could see all those things,” the 6-year-old said.
The next stop for him and his family was a tug boat.
Many people took the opportunity of getting up close to the two German naval ships, FGS Hessen and FGS Karlsruhe.
Lily Rautenbach, from Johannesburg, and Pretorian Raymond Schoonraad excitedly surveyed the immaculate vessels from stern to bow.
“I have always dreamt of becoming a sailor, that is why we came to the festival. The ships are big and very impressive,” said Schoonraad.
“And they are so clean,” Rautenbach added.
Rear Admiral Bubele Mhlana was among the visitors on board the FGS Hessen, which is taking part in an exercise called Good Hope VI. The exercise aims to improve the South African-German naval partnership.
During the exercise, both navies practised their fighting skills, with live gunnery and missile firings at the Overberg test range.
Mhlana described the co-operation as unique and beneficial from the South African viewpoint.
“We can only learn from this exposure to the highly experienced and professional German navy,” he said.
The SA Navy intends to continue with Copper, its anti-piracy operation with Mozambique. A South African warship is present 24 hours a day in the northern Mozambique Channel.
“It is an extremely demanding operation in terms of logistic support and sustainment, as vessels are operating huge distances away from their home bases for extended periods of time,” Mhlana said.
The main focus of the following week was, according to Mhlana, the preparation of new ships to replace the ageing Warrior class offshore patrol vessels.
The navy has also launched several technical support initiatives as one of its troubling issues is a lack of maintenance and repair capacity.
“These initiatives already show promise, but they will take time as it is not possible to educate, train and develop technical support personnel with highly specific skills in a short space of time,” Mhlana said.
katharina.riebesel@inl.co.za