Southern Wind Shipyard

Location

Cape Town, South Africa
five centuries of naval history

Cape Town has a long history as a naval centre.
Over more than five hundred years, thousands of ships have exploited this splendid north-facing natural port, and thus protected from the prevailing winds, as a stopover port during circumnavigation towards the East. For centuries it was the refuge to repair equipment damaged during the demanding voyage in the Atlantic, and to take on fresh food supplies, the cultivation of which was facilitated by the mild climate.
With the arrival of the Dutch in 1652, Kaapstad was founded in Table Bay, a small base organised to provide assistance to the ships of the East India Company heading for the Indian Ocean and the Pacific; it then become in 1806 an important centre for the British empire with the name of Cape Town.
In more recent times, this bustling, multiracial city has been chosen as a stage for the main ocean races: first the Cape to Rio, which we could call the mother of all ocean competitions, and then the fantastic Whitbread Round the World Race, now the Volvo Ocean Race, in which Cape Town was the first port of call.

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