“I just love boats and the excitement on the water. I feel like a bird… just on the water,” says Hartbeespoort sailor Jolene Tolfts (28).

Jolene Tolfts (28)

Jolene has just recently returned from taking part in the MSC Week Regatta in Durban where her team won two medals. She spent a week offshore on a J22 yacht sailing between Durban and Umhlanga. Her forté is the foredeck. “Much more exciting than being at the helm. There is more to see and do,” she laughs.
Jolene started sailing when she was only seven years old. “My dad took me on a yacht for the first time on Hartbeespoort Dam in a storm! One would think the experience would have scared me off, but it did the opposite. I started a junior training programme in Hartbeespoort.” Jolene’s father Roy Tolfts is an avid sailor who has sailed around Europe and Australia.
Jolene was 10 when the father-daughter team won her first race in the Hunter Nationals. “I have been on the water ever since and I will never get tired of it.” She has since won races with her teams at the J22 national and provincial races, The Formula 1, Flying Dutchman and Hunter races. She took part in her first J22 World Championships in 2015 and again in 2020.
Jolene attended Hartbeespoort High School and Meerhof School, and after finishing school she enlisted in the South African Defense Force as a dog handler. “After my two years of service, I started sailing again. I decided to go to England to sail, but that did not work out. I missed the sunshine and colours… everything is very bland in England, and I quickly came back.”
Back in South Africa she threw herself into competitive sailing and is in big demand on the foredeck. “I sail with anyone who needs a crew and I spend at least three weekends a month racing on various dams and the sea.
What attracts her to this demanding sport? “It is just so much fun to be out on the water. I have this huge attraction to boats and the excitement of sailing. Nothing else gives me that rush,” she says. When not on the water, she is an enthusiastic hiker and cyclist. I am sort of an adrenaline junkie. Sailing in stormy waters doesn’t scare me, it is exciting!”
What is her dream? “I would love to sail in the Cape to Rio race. It would be amazing!” And a solo trip around the world? “Oh no! I would go crazy, I need someone to talk the ears off and yell at,” she laughs.
Jolene helps her father on their pecan nut farm at Uitzicht near Hartbeespoort when she is not sailing.
And when is the next race? “I am resting a bit after the MSC Regatta, it takes a lot out of you. One spends days in the sun, and stormy weather and gets battered and bruised. But I am always ready to get back out on the water. Anyone need a crew member?”