A History of the Fragility of Yacht Clubs. Dr Mike Bender

Transcription

1 A History of the Fragility of Yacht Clubs Dr Mike Bender Originally prepared as a paper for the meeting of the Association of Yachting Historians, Royal Dart Yacht Club, September 25, Extenisvely revised: November, 2015 To be published in Maritime South West, the journal of the South West Maritime History Society, no. 29, 2016 m.bender@exeter.ac.uk

2 1 On the Fragility of Yacht Clubs: Fission, Fusion and Extinction Dr Mike Bender Part One. A Classification of Types of Fragility of Yacht Clubs Fission Racing vs. Social Disagreement among members The club admits undesirables Geographical Fission Social class Racers form new club Marine Professionals Fission by Type of Sailing Extinction Loss of premises Closure of the works supporting a sailing club Loss of moorings Racing clubs Self-immolation Amalgamation Breakaway club re-joins older club Older club joins breakaway club Two previous unrelated clubs join together Amalgamation of club undertaking different aquatic activities Part One. The Fragility of the Early Yacht Clubs Part Three: The Future of Yacht Clubs The Future of Yacht Sailing The Future of Yacht Clubs Sources Competing for Restricted Time of Yachtspeople or Potential Yachtspeople What Happens Now? Who Survives?

3 2 When I started sailing in the Southwest. I used to wonder why so many yacht havens Dartmouth and Fowey for example have two or more yacht clubs, when one would have thought that it would make more sense to have one flourishing yacht club. Sorting out the answer meant dismantling the assumption that yacht clubs were unchanging. When I started sailing in the 1980 s, they did seem very solid, stable and monolithic organisations. And, indeed, most were forbidden territory, since you either had to be a member of a reciprocating club, and/or be signed in by a member. 1 In the first part of this paper, I will examine the considerable fragility to be found in the early yacht clubs those formed before In the main body of the paper, I will try and classify the ways that yacht clubs fall part; split into two, and why two form on the same patch. I give examples from the middle of the nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth. In the final Part, I speculate as to the future structure and shape of yacht clubs. My main source of information came from reading as many histories of yacht clubs as I could find and I shall be drawing extensively on these histories. 2 Over time, I like to think I got better at decoding them: there are no poor commodores, just some excellent ones, and difficulties are lightly mentioned, if not glossed over altogether. 1 This situation was guyed in Michael Green s best-selling The Art of Coarse Cruising, 104 where he suggests that one signs oneself in as a member of the non-existent Royal Goodwins Yacht Club, the Goodwins being the extensive, dangerous sandbank off the Kent coast. 2 I have made a catalogue of such accounts, which you can get from me (m.bender@exeter.ac.uk); and hopefully, will soon be on the website of the Association of Yachting Historians

4 3 A yacht club will aim to present itself as a unified group, with agreed aims, but is, in fact, more correctly seen as a plurality of power-sharers, i.e. various stakeholding factions with different values, aims and goals. These factions may include: those desiring only to admit high status individuals; those only concerned with the social side the bar, the billiard room, playing bridge; those who use the club as a convenient place to conduct business and network; those who find it a useful base from which to go cruising and return; those who race large yachts with many crew; those who race dayboats with one or two crew; those racing dinghies; owners of motor boats and so on. In any given location, there may be yet other relevant factions with their particular interests. For example, if the club is amalgamated with the local sea anglers or gig racers, the latter will have their aims. This is because the stakeholding factions all agree on one matter: disagreement in public would result in a decrease in the prestige of the organisation. What is to be avoided at all costs is public loss of face. The appearance of a united front is achieved through disagreements being aired back stage ( behind closed doors ) and a show of unity being demonstrated front stage. 3 This behaviour is in no way unique to yacht clubs, but is almost certainly displayed by all high prestige organisations and clubs. Both the clique-ridden nature of yacht clubs, and the emphasis on agreement in public, were nicely satirised in one of the first books of yacht humour, Michael Green s 1976 The Art of Coarse Cruising. ooooo Advice to the Coarse Yachtsman 3 cf. Erving Goffman. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

5 4 Having joined a club, the Coarse Yachtsman must watch his behaviour. The first rule is: Never have anything to do with cliques. Beware of the man who sidles up in the bar and says, Some of us think this club concentrates too much on the dinghies, and neglects the cruising side. We think the top management of the club is rotten. I ve seen you sailing. You obviously know what it s all about. I wonder if you d like to join us in putting up an opponent to the commodore at the AGM? Askew claims that he was inveigled into joining some sailing club rebellion, he was persuaded (while drunk) to propose a vote of no-confidence in the club officials at the annual meeting. To his horror, his was the only vote in favour. His former friends not only deserted him but bitterly criticized him. ( ) ooooo Yacht club histories are of three types. Commissioned histories such as those by Stella Archer and Peter Pearson on the Royal St. George; Dun Laoghaire, by Roger Ryan on the West Lancashire; or by Sheila Caws on Gurnard Sailing Club are uncommon. There are some histories written by groups of members, such as that of the Royal Burnham Club to celebrate its centenary, and that of the Island Sailing Club, organised by Rosemary Joy, to celebrate its 125 years. By far the commonest is the history written by a single, faithful, long- standing member. While a valuable source, relying too much on yacht club histories can give rise to serious difficulties. Whatever the type of authorship, these histories will reflect the stance of the yacht club if only because they

6 5 are usually published by the club. So, one has to learn how to read these texts. Usually, a history is commissioned because the club has reached a landmark birthday, occasionally its fiftieth or sixtieth, but most usually, its centenary. This means that the events the author is recording took place long before his time and he has to draw on the club s records. The same reticence to air dirty washing in public has been the case, at least since Victorian times. This means the records available to the historian are highly censored. Only the decisions reached are recorded, and the discussions, especially if heated, are described in a neutralised form. 4 So, with the best will in the world, the yacht club historian often will often not have written information on the background to decisions, and there may be no living witnesses to ask. This source of uncertainty will be seen very clearly in the first type of fragmentation of yacht clubs I will consider fission. Part One. The Fragility of the Early Yacht Clubs 4 It can be argued that this is the nature and purpose of minutes, purely to record decisions, but it is clear that yacht clubs go to great lengths to prevent any dirty washing being seen publicly

7 6 Fission Racers break away Examples of Racers Breaking Away to Form a New Club Location Original Yacht Club Breakaway Yacht Club Mumbles Bristol Channel Y.C. (1875) Mumbles Y.C. (1938) Falmouth Royal Cornwall(1871) Falmouth Sailing Club(1894) Saltash Saltash Y.C.(1898) Left: Essa (Social) Club (1971) Plymouth Royal Western(1827) Royal South Western(1890) Salcombe Salcombe Y.C. (1894) Salcombe S.C.(1922) Dartmouth Royal Dart(1866) Start Bay Y.C. (1889) Dart One Design Dinghy Club ( late 1920s) Solent West Quay Amateur Regatta Club (1858) Royal Southampton Club (1868) Shanklin, IOW Shanklin S.C. (1931) Yaverland S.C.(1978) London Royal Thames(1823) Clarence (1828) 5 5 Bernice Slater. Royal London Yacht Club , p.11. Douglas Phillips-Birt, in The Cumberland Fleet, p. 37, also lists the Arundel, formed in 1838, later re-named the Royal London, as a secession from the Royal Thames. It started by only admitting owners of craft of 7 tons and under.

8 7 New Thames (1867) The most common cause of a break-away club being started by existing members is that a group of them believe that the interest of the racers is being ignored; and this is likely to be small boat racing, which the established club feels is beneath them. I need to point out that we cannot easily separate social class and the desire to race small boats. Those wishing to race dinghies rather than large yachts were obviously likely to have less money, and it seems to be the case that the new club was usually more actively involved in small boat racing. Again, in some instances, it appears that members of the existing yacht club encouraged the creation of the second club, but did not leave the already existing club. This would not be very remarkable, as multiple membership of yacht clubs was very common in Victorian yachting (Ryan, 1997). To complicate matters further, fissions due to the dissatisfaction of women sailors are likely to also be connected with sailing smaller boats, which, unlike a yacht, they might own; and which the equipment was not so heavy as to render their participation pointless ( or point-less!) One point of clarification of terminology may be useful. A yacht club is likely to focus on cruising and racing yachts, and seek to have only members of high socio-economic status. A sailing club is likely to focus on the racing of small boats and be open to those of lower socioeconomic status. Ryan (2007) writes that the term sailing club was used by a growing number of the new foundations from the 1870 s. Sailing clubs were created to cater for persons who wished to race in

9 8 small boats with lifting centreboards instead of larger yachts with fixed keels (79, footnote, 26). The growth of sailing clubs was rapid in the latter years of the nineteenth century Lloyd s Register of Yachts listed eleven in 1882; 24 in 1885 and 90 in 1914 (Cusack, 255). For any given fission, it is difficult to know if it was amicable or not. While doubtless some caused bad feeling, it is not clear that this is by any means always the case. For example, at least some of the creators of the Island Sailing Club at Cowes were members of the Squadron who wished to race smaller yachts (Island Sailing Club, p. 17). Did this cause any bad feeling in the Squadron? Commenting on some of these breakaways, the Royal South Western Yacht Club has been rather written out of history, although its start line was used for the first Observer Single-Handed Transatlantic Race (the OSTAR) in It was founded in 1890 by a group of members of the Royal Western Yacht Club, with the intention of improving the opportunities for racing in Plymouth Sound, and received a warrant in 1891 (Cusack, 1996: 263). Dartmouth was always likely to spawn competing clubs. As Cusack showed in her Ph.D, the Royal Dart, formed 1866 quickly moved to a national, rather than a local, membership. This was partly because it had been part of the large yacht racing circuit from very early on. Squadron yachts came to Dartmouth Regatta before 1826 when the Squadron started organising yacht races. It offered safe moorings for visitors vessels, often of considerable size. Besides, visiting yachtsmen wanted to use its onshore facilities the Victorian yachtsman preferred to asleep ashore rather than in his yacht and the easiest way was to join.

10 9 The pattern of royal, or senior, clubs establishing a national, rather than a local membership, is well-documented in Cusack s thesis, where she analyses the addresses of the members of the Royal Dart and the Royal Western of England, Plymouth in Victorian times. 6 As early as 1845, the Royal Western, founded 1827, had 43 yachts on its books, only 10 with a Plymouth location and one in Devonport. The Royal Dart, founded by local worthies in 1866 ( Royal after 1872), had a 5 tons burthen qualification. It rapidly became a club for outport members. In 1868, 22 out of the 34 yachts on its books were in South Devon. By 1872, 22 out of 95 were. 7 With its national outlook and its concern for owners of large yachts, the club was ill-prepared for the explosion in small boat racing. The growth of one-design dinghies is usually dated from the Waterwags of Dublin Bay, started in This gave a tremendous fillip to dinghy an keelboat racing, as it dispensed with the need for handicapping, and the ensuing quarrels; and, especially if sufficient numbers were ordered, the price of yachting became even more affordable; finally, the size of the boat and its gear attracted women sailors and younger people, which, as we will see, caused its own difficulties. 8 The Start Bay Yacht Club was formed in 1889 as a breakaway from the Royal Dart, hoping to exploit the fact that the Royal Dart, on the Kingswear side of the river was inconvenient for Dartmouth residents (Cusack, 264). 9 7 Cusack s data also shows the same trends for members elected after 1872, and for the Royal Torbay (Cusack, 1996: 155 ff.). In 1949 the Royal Cornwall had 139 in-port and 151 out-port members (Mead, 1951: 185) 8 They even had their own national organisation. Until nearly the advent of the First World War, the Yacht Racing Association was not interested in organising small boat racing, so the relevant clubs and owners formed the Sailing Boat Association in 1888 (Ryan, 2007: 68-69) 9 Although a steam ferry has run between Dartmouth and Kingswear since 1867

11 10 In the late 1920 s, a second breakaway occurred. The Royal Dart had, by now, a considerable fleet of Dart One Design Dinghies, designed by Morgan Giles. However, because ladies and children were not allowed to become members, they could not take part in any races for single handed dinghies sailed under the rules of the Yacht Racing Association (the YRA), one of which said that there must be a member of a recognised Yacht Club on board. So, the dinghy owners formed the Dart One Design Dinghy Club, with a view to gaining recognition for this new club from the YRA. The situation was further aggravated because, in 1894, the Royal Dart had elected ladies as members, but then, at some time between then and the First World War, the rules were altered to exclude and these stayed in force till There could not have been too much animosity as Vernon McAndrew, elected Rear Commodore in 1936, kept several Dart One Design Dinghies for use by children with no boat. He also used his motor yacht, Campeador, to tow the whole D.O.D. fleet to local regattas. 11 A detailed account of a dramatic fission between the social and sailing elements in a yacht club is recounted by Trevor Bardwell-Jones (1998) concerning Saltash Sailing Club, an old established club, formed in Its club house was in the middle of the town, in Alexandra Square, and by the 1950s, the commodores were local farmers or business men. Racing enthusiasts were moving across the river to the Tamar River Sailing Club. However, there was a nucleus of sailors wanting to put 10 Llewellyn. A Brief History of the Royal Dart Yacht Club, p He volunteered Campeador V for patrol work at the outbreak of World War Two with two other RDYC members, all serving as sub-lieutenants, captained by Commander Davey, late of the Royal Navy. The ages of the four ranged from 58 to 64. They patrolled whatever the weather. On June 22 nd, 1940, Campeador detonated a magnetic mine and only two of the crew, and none of the RDYC members, survived (Llewellyn, 10)

12 11 sailing back on the Saltash club s agenda. As sailing increased in popularity, so the membership rose from around 100 members in 1951 to around 250 by 1971, many of these new members being young sailing enthusiasts. An attempt was made to run two club houses one in town, one on the Tamar waterfront but this led to the waterfront premises being quite inadequate to the demand of the sailors and their families. In 1986, at an emergency meeting, a motion advocating the sale of the Alexandra Square premises was passed by a two thirds majority. The sailors went on to build a new and much larger clubhouse on the river. The minority, who valued their social base, bought the building back and formed the Essa Club, as a social centre up in Saltash. 12 Fission due to internal discontent: These seem relatively rare. At the Royal Solent, Yarmouth, IOW, formed 1878, another hike in membership fees in 1968 led to 130 resignations and a sizeable number of disgruntled and departing members decided to establish for themselves an alternative centre for sailing activities creating as they did in the summer of 1969 the Yarmouth Sailing Club (John Ager et al., 2004: ). One rather suspects that the discontent covered other areas than just the subscription fees. A Ladies Club: As Ryan(1997: ) points out, there seems to have been remarkably little resentment at least publicly, from women within yacht clubs. They seemed to accept, if not enjoy, their worthy 12 For the sake of completeness, I should mention Yaverland Sailing Club, Sandown Bay, IOW, a break-away from Shanklin Sailing Club by catamaran enthusiasts since the facilities at Shanklin were not suitable. The catamarans had to be left on the beach and were vulnerable to damage. The completion of a Sea Defence Scheme made the builders huts and yard redundant, so the new club was formed in 1978 and moved into them (

13 12 role as jib trimmers and sandwich cutters. For example, the Royal Burnham Yacht Club, Burnham-on-Crouch created, in 1923, created the membership class of Lady Associate. This category would not attend meetings, or serve on committees and were limited to which part of the club house they could use. What is remarkable is the number of women who accepted these conditions 82 of the 259 members in 1930; and 123 out of 456 in 1934; but, to object would have been to embarrass their husbands or brothers. 13 Lowerson, (1995: 233 ff.) and Tranter (1998: 88-92) have shown the same subjugation of women occurred in golf, where twenty percent of members by 1893 were women, and tennis clubs). Enthusiasm for women racers had to be muted or there could be a backlash. Thalassa (1894), in the Badminton Library: Yachting, Vol. I, notes that in 1889 It really looked as if ladies were about to take an active part in Solent racing; but next year [1890], although races for ladies were provided in the programme of the Castle Club, Calshot [formed 1887], some owners objected, and this form of sport received a somewhat rude and unexpected check from which it has never quite recovered (237). 14 The only exception to this acceptance of the status quo by women sailors that I have found comes from Salcombe. Parkinson, in her history of Salcombe Yacht Club, wrote that in 1908, ladies like dogs - were not allowed on the Club s premises (9). After World War One, a Salcombe Ladies Club was formed. They were given one room of the Yacht Club, but no security of tenure. The two clubs amalgamated in Royal, Burnham Yacht Club: A History of the Royal Burnham Yacht Club, 79 and 89 This to-and-fro ing of the front line of women s position in a yacht club is reminiscent of the Royal Dart, as discussed in the previous section.

14 13 Another cause of internal discontent was the admission to the club of undesirables. 15 We shall see how this destroyed the original Royal Southampton in Part Two. The Royal Cornwall Yacht Club (RCYC) provides another example. Around 1900, the RCYC was short of members and was somewhat catholic in composition, at least as regards local members It is said that wealthy owners of visiting yachts using the club experienced no difficulty in finding persons on the premises eager to satisfy every need ranging from the supply of provisions to a simple hair cut (81-82). 16 In 1902, a Mr Norton, a member of the RCYC, was quoted in an editorial in the Cornish Echo as referring to his fellow members as scum and was voted out (83). By 1904, things had got so bad that members were having a sing-song, accompanied by the caretaker (85). One suspects that, for Mead, the caretaker s participation was the most serious of the two offences. A group of members interested in small boat racing broke away to form the Falmouth Sailing Club in Reading between the lines in Mead s History of the Royal Cornwall, they also objected to the RCYC s policy of admitting undesirables to bolster its flagging income. The breakaway group was, therefore, composed of more prestigious persons than the existing club. By 1907, two goals could be achieved simultaneously. The demise of the Sailing Club in 1907, partly caused by the re-entry of its members to the RCYC, allowed the General Meeting during September to re-elect Bonner indicates that this was the cause of the rapid demise of the Royal Southern (see next part of this paper) This undesirable pushing of their goods and services by unsuitable members was a common sources of Victorian yachting humour, for example in Gabe s 1893 Sketches of Yachting Life, where the narrator goes to see the (unsuitable) Hon. Secretary, the owner of a large furniture establishment. After having settled his business, Goddard was just going to leave the shop, when the secretary, probably from force of habit, said: Just one minute, sir, I wish to show you some patterns of a fresh consignment of curtains we have just received; they would do very nicely for bed curtains on your yacht. (52-53).

15 14 Norton and vote off the General Committee, and a fresh one was selected composed mainly of new members of the club (88). The social order had been restored and Mead records with approval: By the end of 1908 the hucksters who gained membership after 1900 have either resigned or ceased to visit the premises After 1908 there was a local saying that West of the Tamar it was easier to pass through the eye of a needle than to be admitted to membership of the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club (93). Geographical Fission. We return to the phenomenon of why small yacht havens often have two yacht clubs. Social class: The most common reason is that middle class persons were not considered of sufficient status to join the existing yacht club. We should note that, before World War Two, sailing clubs were just as fierce about amateurism as yacht clubs. This is perhaps not surprising as the lower costs might be within the means of inadmissibles, namely artisans and tradesmen. In addition, they also invariably adopted the organisational structure (Commodore, Vice-commodore etc.) and the regalia of yacht clubs. Both these conditions were requirements if they were to join the Yacht Racing Association, formed in 1875, and with the accession of the Prince of Wales to its presidency in 1882, the arbiter of yacht racing. Without membership of the YRA and agreement to its rules, racing against other clubs was very difficult, as differing rules would have applied to races organised by different clubs. The club also

16 15 would have had a much lower status (Ryan, 1997). So, the growth of the sailing clubs did not change the value structures already extant in the older established yacht clubs. Examples of Yacht Clubs Created by Inadmissables Location Established YC YC established by lower status individuals Clyde Royal Northern (1824) Clyde Model Yacht Club (1856) Bembridge, IOW Bembridge SC(1886) Brading Haven YC (1956) Cowes Cowes Corinthian (1952) Aldeburgh Aldeburgh YC (1897) Slaughden SC (1970 s) Blake and Small, in their history of the Royal Clyde, describe how the Clyde Model Yacht Club ( model as in exemplary, not miniature ) was formed in 1856 by a number of solid and respected citizens of Glasgow to consider the formation of what they proposed to call the Clyde Model Yacht Club, : A number of Gentlemen, connected with yachting propose forming a club under the above designation with a view of creating a greater amount of emulation among the proprietors of small craft. It is proposed to take in yachts under 8 tons only, this being the smallest acknowledged by the Royal Northern Yacht Club (11) Blake and Small are clear that the purpose animating the founders of the Clyde Model Yacht Club was clearly towards the establishment of

17 16 yachting as a sport as distinct from the occasional pastime of the Establishment and, to this end, the comparison with the Royal Northern is actually in the prospectus, which is clearly challenging, as any contemporary Glasgewian yachtsman would have understood. 17 Charles Pear, in his Yachting on the Sunshine Coast, 1932, wrote To live at Bembridge and not be a member of the Bembridge Sailing Club would, I imagine, be a rather distressing experience. It is the centre of all things Bembridgian (42). But, of course, before you could enjoy the fruits of membership, your application had to be accepted; and the term sailing club was misleading the club had aspirations to a very high social status as a yacht club. Brading Haven Yacht Club (BHYC) was set up because its members were not of sufficient social standing to be admitted to the Bembridge Sailing Club. The BHYC s opening prospectus said that membership would be open to all they did not propose to have any barriers of social standing or occupation, leading the club to be described by the Times, 18 May, 1956, as an artisan organisation largely concerned with dinghies (de Boise, 21; his italics). This raison d etre runs throughout the history, so that we find that, in 1994, they had to pull out of joint training of Cadets with the Bembridge S.C., when the latter announced the forthcoming dates [for Cadet week] without consultation. The dates coincided with the public school s calendar rather than that of the state schools (de Boise, 127). The original slur lives on in the title of the club s history: Sixty Years of Businessmen and Artisans (de Boise, 2010). 17 Due to the process of gentrification and status seeking, as described by Cusack, by 1863, model was soon dropped and it had become the Clyde Yacht Club and by 1865, it had successfully sought to become the Royal Clyde. May McCallum (personal communication 6/10/2015) informs me that, by 1910, the RCYC was the largest club in the British Isles.

18 17 Aldborough has two yacht clubs the prestigious Aldeburgh Yacht Club, founded in 1897 and the nearby Slaughden Sailing Club, founded in the 1970 s, because, as their website delicately puts it: a small group of local people some had built their own Mirror dinghy and they wanted somewhere to sail, rather than race, and there was no nearby club willing to host their needs. 18 Which omits to mention that the Aldeburgh Yacht Club is a few hundred yards away. Roger Ryan(personal communication, November 2014) remarked that the disdain for Mirrors, petty in the extreme went far beyond the genteel surroundings of Aldeburgh. Again, it was the widening of the socio-economic base of yachting and yachtspeople that was being resisted the Mirror, designed by Jack Holt and Barry Bucknell, and sponsored by the Daily Mirror, was a self-build design, and thousands were built in garages, and even bedrooms. 47,000 kits had been sold by 1975 (Lavery, 2005: 131). Examples of a Second Club Set Up for Racing Small Boats The box below lists some examples. Torquay Royal Torbay (1875) Torquay Corinthian Sailing Club (1885) Bangor, Northern Ireland Mumbles, Swansea Bay Royal Ulster (1866) Bristol Channel Yacht Club (1875) Bangor Bay SC (Ballyholme SC) (1900) Mumbles Yacht Club (1938) 18 ( history).

19 18 Dartmouth Royal Dart (1866) Dart Sailing Club (1950) The Royal Torbay was founded by Sir Lawrence Palk, a major landowner in the area and keen to develop Torquay as a resort. In 1875, keen to also create Torbay as a yachting centre, he founded the Torquay Yacht Club, with himself as Commodore, immediately obtaining a Royal warrant. Ten years later, in 1895, the Torquay Corinthian Sailing Club was formed. Its name tells us that this was a racing club for small boats. It was affectionately nicknamed The Inner Harbour Mud Club (Torbay Council, 2013), most probably because the moorings dried at low water. It was very successful after the Second World War (Torbay Council, 2013). In Bangor, Northern Ireland, the Royal Ulster had been founded in 1866, membership there limited to the wealthy upper class, many of whom came from outside Bangor. 19 Local people of more limited means, desiring a club for local enthusiasts, set up the Bangor Bay Sailing Club, then Bangor Corinthian Sailing Club and finally, in 1900, formed Ballyholme Sailing Club (BSC) and commenced racing in The pattern of royal clubs have a national, rather than a local membership, is well-documented in Cusack s thesis, where she analyses the addresses of the members of the Royal Dart and the Royal Western, Plymouth in Victorian times. As early as 1845, the Royal Western of Plymouth had 43 yachts on its books, only 10 with a Plymouth location and one in Devonport. The Royal Dart, founded 1866 ( Royal after 1872) had a 5 tons burthen qualification. It rapidly became a club for outport members. Founded by locals, in 1868, 22 out of the 34 yachts on its books were in South Devon. By 1872, 22 out of 95 were. Cusack s data also shows the same trends for members elected after 1872, and for the Royal Torbay (Cusack, 1996: 155 ff.). In 1949 the Royal Cornwall had 139 in-port and 151 out-port members (Mead, 1951: 185)) Like the Salcombe Sailing Club, formed 1894, and the Dartmouth Sailing Club, formed 1950, the Ballyholme Sailing Club became the Ballyholme Yacht Club in 1920.

20 19 Yet another example is provided in the history of the Mumbles Yacht Club, Swansea Bay, formed in In its history, written by Maurice Wilde, records: Whilst sailing and racing activities continued through the thirties there was a lack of collective effort to encourage, maintain and improve the level of competition and no organisation to cater for the widening interest in sailing and the desire to participate in the sport. Bryan Andrews convened a meeting at the Pilot Hotel [the Mumbles] on May, 1938, with a view to creating a club dedicated to promoting and encouraging regular racing cruising and allied activities. 21 Here the reticence to air differences extends to the inadequacies of other yacht clubs, for Wilde is criticising the lack of interest in small boat racing by the extant club, the Bristol Channel Yacht Club (BCYC), formed 1875, the most senior club in the Welsh Bristol Channel, which is almost next door to the Mumbles Yacht Club. However, any differences must have been resolved at some point, for the BCYC archivist, Ronald Austin (personal communication, Sept., 2015) told me that, during a period when the Mumbles YC was in financial difficulties, the Bristol Channel YC helped them out. If the racing is lost to the existing club, it may become more of a social club and less of an active sailing centre. The Bristol Channel Yacht Club gradually gave over organising racing to the Mumbles Sailing Club and became a dining club for its members. The creation of the Dart Sailing Club in 1950 (gentrified into the Dart Yacht Club in 1974) illustrates some interesting features. The leading light was Major G.R. Benson, a member of the Royal Dart. It is likely /10/2014.

21 20 that, in this case, there was bad feeling for, according to Llewellyn, writing in 1983: The division of shore activities was not a problem, but the division of sailing interests was a serious matter as there was too little sailing activity for one club, let alone two. A ludicrous state of affairs used to occur in the late 50 s. At 3 o clock on Saturday afternoon, the Royal Dart would be firing guns and sailing in one direction, while the Dartmouth Sailing Club would be ringing bells and sailing in the opposite direction. Fortunately, after much patient negotiation from about 1961 onwards, sanity has prevailed and the two clubs now work in harmony together. (17) 22 Marine Professionals As I document in my thesis (Bender, 2012), the Victorian middle class professional had a near phobic fear of being shown to be an inferior sailor to the local marine professionals, and therefore, most yacht clubs refused membership to marine professionals. The Yacht Racing Association, founded November, 1875 to unify racing rules, would not admit any club which did not agree to the banning of marine professionals. Perhaps, therefore not surprisingly, there are not many clubs who clearly state they were founded by or for marine professionals. Hamworthy Sailing Club, Poole, was founded in 1898, because of the difficulty for artisans, such as paid professional skippers, paid hands, boat builders and sail makers and fishermen to become members of the 22 Nowadays, Dittisham Sailing Club, further up the River Dart, is probably the most active dinghy sailing club

22 21 more exclusive Yacht Clubs whose members consisted mainly of amateur sailing gentlemen. 23 I shall discuss the self-immolation of the Sidmouth Corinthian Sailing Club later in this paper. When it was relaunched as the Sidmouth Sailing Club in 1936, its core membership was tradesmen and artisans who had built their own racing boats, the clinker-built Redwings forming the nucleus of the racing fleet. 24 A third example is Cowes Corinthian, founded by Tiny Mitchell. In 1948, Mitchell had established the southern branch of the Royal Corinthian the Eastern branch is based on Burnham-on-Crouch. In 1952, he established Cowes Corinthian to provide a club for the professional crews that worked on the larger yachts. An unusual fission occurred around Southport Marine Lake. After the Southport Corinthians had ceased to exist (see section of Extinction due to loss of moorings, below), that left the West Lancashire Yacht Club. With the waters off the pier drying up, they retreated to the large Marine Lake, built by the Corporation, started in 1887, expanded in 1892 and The Club moved alongside the lake. Unfortunately, in 1960, the easy-going Southport Boating Company lost its management license to Tommy Mann, who set up a rival dinghy club, the Southport Sailing Club, in Their boathouse, with a slip one hundred yards away from that of the West Lancashire, was opened in Both clubs seem to be flourishing. Fission by Type of Sailing 23 early days 24 Julia Creeke, personal communication, June 2014

23 22 Fission by Type of Sailing Activity Original Competitor Cruising Racing Royal Cruising Club (1880) Royal Ocean Racing Club (1925) Cruising Association (1908) Ocean Cruising Club (1954) Junior Offshore Group (1950) Here we have a somewhat different kind of fission fission by type of sailing expertise. Both the original clubs had high prestige and exclusivity - the R.C.C. only accepted and accepts candidates that were/are nominated by existing members. The Cruising Association, created by Herbert Hanson, was much more inclusive; and the Ocean Cruising Club, under Humphrey Barton, specified admission by a thousand mile non-stop voyage. 25 The R.O.R.C required a Fastnet and was not prepared to accept smaller size boats. The original statement of JOG, on 8 th December, 1950, specified it was for boats between sixteen and twenty foot. (Illingworth in The Malham Story states that Patrick Ellam came to see him in late 1949, when Illingworth was Commodore of the RORC for advice (pp. 144 ff.), so JOG s creation seems to have been an amicable affair). Extinction 25 Relevant references: Alasdair Garrett and Trevor Wilkinson. The Royal Cruising Club ; Ian Dear. The Royal Ocean Racing Club: The First 75 Years; Tom Vasey. The Ocean Cruising Club: The First Fifty Years; Fred Barter, compiler. Cruising for 100 Years: The Centenary of the Cruising Association

24 23 Causes of Extinction 1. Loss of premises 2. Closure of the works supporting a sailing club 3. Loss of moorings 4. Racing clubs 5. Self-immolation Loss of Premises The (Royal) Solent Yacht Club s history ( Royal very late, in 1947) amalgamated in 1946 with the West Wight Sailing Club, when the latter s landlady wanted her house, their Headquarters, back. The Weir Quay Sailing Club on the Devon side of the Tamar above the bridges, was formed in 1966 and built its own clubhouse and facilities. Unfortunately, they lost their long term lease in Extinction has, in fact, been avoided. They were already sharing facilities with the Tamar and Tavy Gig club. Together, the two clubs formed the Weir Quay Community Watersports Hub Club. Plans to purchase and develop a suitable parcel of land are proceeding. 26 Works-based clubs 26 accessed 27 October, 2014.

25 24 If the club is essentially works-based, then obviously it is at risk if the works close. 27 Such an example is Hinkley Point Sailing Club, related to the nuclear power station, which was formed in In 1981, it was renamed the Parrett Boat Club, presumably to widen its appeal, as it was known that the power station was closing. In turn, this merged with the Combwich Cruising Club in 2005 to create the Combwich Motor Boat and Sailing Club. Loss of Moorings The prestigious Southport Corinthian Club had formed in 1884, its members keeping their yachts in the deep water of the Bog Hole off the Pier, which was scoured by the South channel of the Ribble. Preston Corporation and the Ribble Navigation Company, desperate to keep Preston as a major port in Lancashire, from the mid-nineteenth century, decided to enhance the outflow of the Ribble, which was silting up, through a Gut channel, some miles to the North, to be scoured by fourteen miles of training walls. Once the undertaking was seriously under way in the 1890s, it caused a severe loss of deep water in the Bog Hole. Without its anchorage, the Southport Corinthians wound up. (Ironically, by the time the scheme was completed in the 1930s, the Lancashire cotton trade was in terminal decline and Preston was never again to be a major port) (Ryan, 1993) The Tata Steel Sailing Club does not require members to work in the steel works at Port Talbot. The West Lancashire Yacht Club, which shared the same building on the pier as the Corinthians, survived and indeed flourished by adopting a one-design, centreboard, racing dinghy, the 20 foot Sea Bird, designed by Walter Scott Hayward and Herbert Baggs, and built, all in, for 35 (Ryan, 1997: ). Seventy of the class are still sailing today, mainly in Wallesay Yacht Club and in Welsh waters.

26 25 Racing clubs One of the striking features of yachting activity is how sharp its declines are. At the end of the 1890s, there was a nationwide loss of interest in sailing. It is not clear why. Queen Victoria died in Agricultural prices were depressed. Death duties were introduced in The motor car was the latest craze among the rich. (Witness Toad s fascination with motoring in Kenneth Grahame s The Wind in the Willows, 1908). King Edward was reported as having said in 1902: Everyone is going mad on motoring and apparently they enjoy it more than cruising in their yachts (Atkins, 1939: 27). The preference for steam yachts among the very rich and successful was becoming ever more marked. Investment in a major item like a yacht, as I suggested in my 2015 paper, requires the belief that the future is stable and of continuing economic wellbeing and political stability. Confidence in innate British superiority was severely dented by the long-drawn out Boer Wars, which was only ended by the British use of concentration camps. This doubt about our innate superiority interacted with the fear of a major war with Germany. E. F. Knight, in his The Falcon in the Baltic, as early as 1888, and Erskine Childers best-selling political thriller, The Riddle of the Sands, published in 1903, both described the build up of naval resources on the German West Coast. Nor were these lone voices predicting war. For example, William Le Queux had a best seller with The Invasion of 1910, serialised in the Daily Mail in 1906 (for more discussion, see Bender, 2012). Once even the distant threat of war hung over the nation, yacht production and activity began to suffer.

27 This decline was all too evident in the Southwest. The number of yachts on the Royal Dart s list declined from 112 in 1890 to 37 in 1914; the figures for the Royal Torbay from 48 to 27; and yacht building throughout South Devon decreased from 121 yachts built between to only 30 between 1905 and 1914 (See Cusack, 1998: 260ff. for the relevant evidence). Sailing or racing- clubs are at more risk during these downturns than clubs with more emphasis on social activities. This is for two reasons. Yacht or small boat racing tends to be a minority sport, so these clubs tend to have a smaller membership and therefore less financial and human resources. There is a second risk factor in sailing (racing) clubs. Racers displace their aggression and competitiveness onto their racing. Lord Belfast s aggressive attitude meant big yacht racing came to halt in the Squadron in the 1830s. Captain Bettsworth s attitude of win by fair means or foul broke up the Cumberland Fleet. At the Dart Yacht Club s ( Royal after 1870) first regatta: one member complained that the Commodore had drawn up the Sailing Instructions to suit his own convenience and to improve his own chances of winning and even insisted on having his complaint recorded in the minutes. In 1889 There were two Special Meetings and the Rear Commodore was elected twice and resigned, all in a period of three months. Feelings ran so high that one senior member went so far as to suggest that the Club be wound up. (Lllewellyn, 4-5) 26 At the end of White Sails Crowding: A History of the Royal Irish Yacht Club by Henry Boylan, we learn that :

28 27. the Twenty-Ones fleet in the 1930s when legend has it the tension within the class was such that no skipper ever spoke to any other skipper to offer abuse. (146) So, if the aggression on the water is not contained there and spills into the club house, life can get very unpleasant. One of the casualties of the down-turn was the Start Bay YC, which had to abandon its 1900 regatta and closed a few years later. Various sailing clubs were set up during the dinghy boom around the end of the nineteenth century on the Dart. Besides the Start Bay, Yacht Club, which folded in the 1900 s, the Dart Sailing Club, formed in 1873, also lost too many members around the turn of the century when, as described, there was a severe dip in yacht activity. It had talks with the local branch of the Minima Club a group of nation-wide dinghy clubs, with clubs at Surbiton, Plymouth and Southampton but these talks failed and both Dartmouth clubs closed in The Appledore Sailing Club, created in 1934 to organise racing on the River Torridge, was defunct by 1971 (Waters, 2004). The North Devon Yacht Club, formed in 1905, catered more obviously for the social needs of Barnstaple s more wealthy burgers and is still flourishing. 30 A dramatic example of self-immolation was the demise of the Sidmouth Corinthian Sailing Club, East Devon. Founded in 1894, it had gradually assumed the role of leading dinghy club east of Start Point. However, in 1912, it was decided to hold the club in abeyance for 12 months (Sidmouth Herald and Directory, 24 April). The newspaper gave The only surviving Minima Yacht Club is at Kingston-on-Thames, racing dinghies. The area is noteable for the variety of prestige sports clubs, founded at an early date. By the turn of the century the North Devon Cricket Club and the North Devon Tennis and Croquet Club were already well established in instow. There was golf at Westward Ho!, polo at Fremington and the Stevenstone Foxhounds and Instow Harriers for winter exercise and enjoyment (Peggy Lines. I m on Starboard! The Story of the North Devon Yacht Club, p.9)

29 28 no reason for the decision One can only surmise that there must have been such serious disagreements among the 15 or 20 boat-owning members of the club that it became impossible to continue (Tim Bass, 2000, 72-73). According to Julia Creeke (personal communication, November, 2014), who has studied the local history of Sidmouth, the key figure was G. H. Vallance, who had a very strong desire to win, especially against Ivy Carus-Wilson, a skilled helmswoman from Teignmouth (aided by the design skills of Morgan Giles, whom she later married, and who designed a winning 14 foot dinghy Myosotis for her). 31 Vallance was continually upgrading his boats, so that racing against him became unprofitable, both in terms of results and pocket. The members, unable to prevent his behaviour, preferred to temporarily dissolve the club; but it never re-started, the present Sidmouth Sailing Club being formed in 1936). Amalgamations Obviously, extinction is to be avoided and one way is through amalgamation. The various types are listed below: Types of Amalgamation 31 Myosotis is the genus name of the forget-me-not family. The hostility of male contestants had the unfortunate effect of discouraging less able women sailors a case of be careful what you wish for. In most locations, they deliberately made yacht racing unpleasant for women, and on occasion, unfair, as protests were handled by committees made up solely of men. This had the effect that only women who were very competent at yacht racing entered, and so they often won, much to male chagrin. Thalassa in his chapter on the Solent in Badminton Library Sailing, Vol. l, lists a number of top-class women helms, most noteably Miss Sutton with Wee-Winn in the last 1880 s, mainly members of the liberal Castle Club, Calshot

30 29 1. Breakaway club re-joins older club 2. Older club joins breakaway club 3. Two previous unrelated clubs join 4. Amalgamation of club undertaking different aquatic activities Re-amalgamation of the breakaway club: Some examples of amalgamations are given in the next table. They all involve a wellestablished yacht club and a sailing club. Location Date Clubs Involved Falmouth 1908 Royal Cornwall; Falmouth Sailing Club Dartmouth 1961 Royal Dart; Dartmouth One Design Dinghy Club Torbay 1961 Royal Torbay; Torbay Corinthian (Torbay Council, 2013) Plymouth 1961 Royal Western; Royal South Western Salcombe 1964 Salcombe Yacht Club; Salcombe Sailing Club This is probably the more common pattern, as it is likely to benefit both clubs a yacht club presents as rather inadequate without racing, since its major claim to prestige is absent. On their part, the breaking away racers may not have club house, and therefore have difficulty socialising.

31 30 It is thus in both their interests, with the passing of time and the election of new officers, to seek a rapprochement. Commenting on some of these examples, the Dartmouth One Design Dinghy Club had broken away from the Royal Dart in the late 1920 s; but because this caused a decline in membership of the RDYC, the RDYC decided to admit women and the children of members in 1937 (Llewellyn, 7-8). The Royal Western Yacht Club was bombed out of its clubhouse in April, Interest in yachting in the Plymouth area seems to have been at a low ebb after the war in 1955, only six members of the Royal Western requested tickets for the annual dinner (Shaw, 1984: 43), and consideration was given to combining the three royal yacht clubs. However, the Royal Western and the Royal Corinthian, formed 1877, Royal from 1886, reached the conclusion in 1957 that they felt there was a vast difference in outlook between the two Clubs as regards usage and types of Members (Shaw, 1984: 45). In 1961, the Royal Western and the Royal South Western Yacht Club amalgamated, keeping the former s name. I have not been able to find any examples of the original club joining the breakaway club. Amalgamation of unrelated clubs: An example of an amalgamation of mutual benefit occurred in Poole Harbour. I referred earlier to the risks to a club that ceases to race and becomes purely social; and also the Hamworthy Sailing Club as an example of a club set up by unacceptable marine professionals. By the end of the Second World War, the nearby Poole Yacht Club, formed in 1865, was no longer an active sailing club It had become a businessman s club

32 31 and the bar, bridge and billiards were the main activities. Eventually, the Club was no longer an economic concern and had to be wound up. The Commodore at the time, Commander Linklater, was also a Flag Officer at the Hamworthy & Bournemouth Sailing Club. 32 It was he who suggested that the Hamworthy and Bournemouth Sailing Club should take the name Poole Yacht Club in order to keep the famous name, and it has flourished ever since. 33 Again, we can see the difficulties in these sub-categories. If two clubs amalgamate, it may certainly feel to the members of one of the clubs that they have been extinguished they will have to go along with the practices and values of the other, more successful club; and with the closure of their clubhouse, they have lost their geographical identity. Amalgamation of clubs undertaking different aquatic activities: Some clubs were formed by exponents of more than one type of aquatic activity. On Unst, a Shetland Isle and the furthest inhabited part of the United Kingdom, the Unst Boating and Swimming Club was formed in The Burnham-on-Sea Motor Boat and Sailing Club was formed in Fusion across different forms of water sport is surprisingly common. The Rock Sailing Club, founded 1938, at some point became the Rock Sailing and Water Skiing Club. Minehead Sailing Club, established 1960, amalgamated with the Channel Rowing Club in 2002 and changed its 32 Bournemouth had been added in 1935 when the club wanted to build a proper clubhouse and hoped the addition would attract funding from Bournemouth businessmen. ( 33