FROM THE ARCHIVES - #60.

I am now up to our Up The River for December, 1955 where our Editor started it off with an article he called The Treacle Swim and a couple of paragraphs from it follow:-

‘When things get a little tough around the Club – and we have had our share of those over the years – there seems to be a hidden strength among some members to valiantly fight and succeed for the sake of the Club.

The move from Uhrs Point was a real ‘treacle swim’ but there were some who led the way; the clubhouse extensions proved to be a ‘treacle swim’ and again, there were some who stood and fought for what the Club needed in its continuing growth and the fostering of sailing among the community at large.

Now, all our celebrations are over …. The work has finished… the Club’s going along nicely… the extensions are progressing and everything in the garden seems rosy.

Is it? Where are all the Juniors? The ones who will keep this Club going over the next 50 years?”.

He went on to say that we need a vibrant and exciting Cadet Class so if you can help out in this area!!!

Bob in his articles would throw up a lot of thoughts about our future and now thankfully with 30 years of this future we have continued to grow with many coming on board to help this happen. Unfortunately, Bob passed away some 8 years ago and I feel that he would be very pleased to see our current position but as he stated back then we need more members continuing to grow with our wonderful Club. So please keep this in mind.

The main thing I want to cover in this article is our 50th year celebrations and after a lot of thought I feel the best way to do this is to quote in full my “President’s Report” from the above issue of UTR as this covers it all and was an important part of our Club’s history.  Also I feel that it would be informative for our current members who were not with us in 1995.This year is our 80th Season so it is worthwhile looking back to what has happened in the first 50 years.

So here it is:-

“After some years of discussions in Management Committee meetings as to how to go about celebrating our 50 years anniversary and then with some twelve months of intensive planning by a special committee, the big celebration has come and gone …. but, oh, what a weekend!!! I would like to devotes a little time to give those who were not there an insight on what they missed.

Firstly with the dinner on the Friday night where there were so many previous members present some of whom were in the Club from the first. Did they have a great time telling tall stories amongst themselves and to whoever was in earshot of the past glories of CRSC. It was great to see these former members at this function – particularly those who travelled long distances to be present …. arriving from WA, Queensland and Tasmania to celebrate with us.

Ryde Bowling Club was tastefully decorated with balloons and flowers in the Club’s colours of blue and gold, the walls were adorned with mainsails of our current Classes as well as our new banner (thanks to Cameron Sloey for this contribution). As well as many photographs of all eras were displayed on boards and the Club’s perpetual trophies were on show. A number of videos of Club sailing over various areas were running during the evening.

During the dinner interspersed between dinner courses, we had some very interesting speeches from firstly the Mayor of Ryde, Ald. Jim Hull, and then from former members covering different eras of our Club.

Jim Hull said it was a privilege for both Edna Wilde and himself to be present for the celebrations and covered some of the ground with their involvement with our Club. He also mentioned that the Club is an asset to the community and with the formation of a special committee in the area to discuss plans for river improvement that the Club should ensure that it tries to gain a position on it.

Don Melrose was our first speaker and as a boy he was at the first meeting of some 40 adults and some youngsters when the proposal of the formation of the Club was made. His father was one of these adults who helped to get the Club off the ground and Don told many interesting things of the early days and the hard way they had to go about things we take for granted these days.

The courses then were around the same marks as today and before the races his father rowed around the course and set the marks and collected them in the same manner. Later they were laid from one of the sailing boats. Everyone built their own boat and in the VJs there were a thousand screws each of which had to have a hole drilled and then countersunk before inserting … very labour intensive. There was no Club House so some boats were stored in the yards of locals and were taken to and from the Club on hand-pulled trolleys …. how we have changed.

It was some years before a Club’s boatshed was constructed by the members for the storage of the members’ boats. He also told of the social life of the Club with dances and mid-week tennis during which time many friendships were forged. Don said technology for boat building began to change during the period from the 5th to the 15th year of the Club’s life making construction a little easier. This was  a most interesting insight to the early days and thanks to Don for sharing his memories with us.

Graeme Thompson was our next speaker covering the next era and he was a member from 1957. He gave us a rundown of the Clubhouse of his era with many interesting anecdotes. The Club used to be flooded every King tide which necessitated the replacement on many damaged refrigerators over the years and then after many attempts at relocation failed an extension was added with the floor level raised somewhat higher to prevent flooding and a dried canteen was possible with an adjoining meeting room to satisfy the Club’s needs. He told us of the cleanliness of the river when he first joined and the deterioration over the years until the late 60s when the river was dead. Then authorities took heed and laid down regulations and he described the thrill when he first saw a pelican in the area after many years of absence.

They had no cars so for interclub at the River or Drummoyne Clubs boats were towed down river by a pick-up boat which was now part of the Club’s assets. It was a single cylinder motor mounted on an old hull and used to just putt along. He recalled his early days when he had to ride a bike laden with his gear from Epping which was OK down hill to the Club but after sailing it was a hard ride home. Race entry fees were 2/- (two shillings – today’s equivalent of 20 cents) and collected each day … cotton sails and wooden blocks were the thing. He told us of Rod Walker (our perpetual trophy remembers Rod) who was always helpful to the young blokes … also recalled that Skates were either planing up or down wind or were capsized and they never seemed to finish many races. Graeme also mentioned one of the early NS14 skippers, Bernie Millner, who had a handicraft class at the Gladesville Psychiatric Hospital and how this class built many  of the CRSC fleet. He finished by saying that this was one of the friendliest Clubs in the metropolitan area and that he had been to many.

Our final speaker was Ian McMaster. He was to cover the period from 1979 to the current season. He said that 1979 was the first sailing season under the new-fangled BCY system of handicapping which took some understanding. Ian also mentioned the “sludge” that was the river we sailed on … which thankfully is now cleaned up. He commented on the long serving members of the Management Committee over this time and their efforts.

There was special mention made of a number of old members who had become well-known for their endeavours in other arenas, Ken McAlpine as the official measurer of America Cup yachts, Warwick Wood, who came second in the North America Trophy and third in the Worlds for Tasar sailing. Lorraine Crapp and Jon Hendricks for their swimming achievements. As he ran through the years, he mentioned that many of our skippers who had done well in the National and State series pf their relative Classes.

Ian discussed the frustrations of some seven years of problems with the relocation of our clubhouse of various sites all of which ran into dead-ends until we were eventually able to achieve our goal of the present location. In this connection special mention was made of the endeavours of the many people involved in this work. He told of the Club’s participation in the Granny Smith Festivals and the Ryde Bicentennial Day, of our new clubhouse opening in 1988. Also mentioned was the purchase of the JH8s for our training fleet. Ian stressed that we were a family club with the following generations of a number of families taking part.

The formalities were finalised with Sandra Donovan thanking our speakers and expressing her own feelings on our family club as it related to her.
All speakers mentioned the Club’s spirit, friendliness and that it was a family club. It also came through that the members were a great asset to the Club. The entire evening was held together by Malcolm Lloyd-Owen who did an excellent job as MC.

The celebrations continued on Saturday with a special regatta event and many of the former members came down to the Club to witness the procedures and to continue on from the night before. The displays from the previous evening were re-located into the clubhouse and there was a rigged VJ on the park as well as the modern boats of the Skate Association who also sailed in the regatta.

This regatta brought to an end our celebrations and I must say that they went very quickly for the amount of work which had been put into the planning by our excellent committee. On behalf of the members, I would like to thank those on the committee for the tremendous effort put in over the last 12 months … thanks to Bob Lindsay, Val Sloey, Sandra Donovan, Bruce Dunlop and Ted Kendrick for the many hours of effort you have all put in to pull off this great success.

Just a couple of more general matters before I finish firstly as you will have noticed that the new extensions has started to show some advancement. This is due to the efforts of many of our members led by Bryce Ellis and when asked to help I hope that you can do your bit.

Due to the amount of work involved with our 50 year celebrations the Management Committee has decided to forgo an after race Christmas Party this year. Many of the Classes have arranged their own celebrations so see your Class captain to find out the arrangements.”

In their Canteen report for UTR, Joe and Val Sloey included a little about the support given by the Club Ladies for 50th Anniversary Regatta Day so I will also include their comments about this.

“TERRIFIC! Terrific! Terrific! That was the support for the 50th Regatta Day - plates of goodies rolled in for afternoon tea which enabled us to have plenty of delicious food for the large number of members and guests on the day. Also, everyone pitched, manning the Canteen (which was very busy), slicing food before afternoon tea, managing the urn, tending the tables, keeping supplies coming out, setting up and clearing away. What a great Club effort that was – thank you all.

What a great day it was for the Club and, Combined with Friday night, certainly marked the 50th anniversary as a wonderful event in the Club’s history.”
In retrospect one anyone who was present could only agree about the great evening celebration and the following day’s regatta. In compile this article it certainly has brought back memories for myself!

As this is 2025 we have now moved on another 30 years so we have now been a great Club for 80 years and I feel that there are a few things to add to bring things a little more up to date. Many of those mentioned in the above report have passed away but I am very sure that they would be very pleased with the way we are still running our Club in the friendly and very family orientated way.

Before I close this article on old history memories, I feel that the above recollection should be brought a little up to date with current matters. As you know we are still a very family orientated Club who prides itself on this aspect of our operations. In the intervening period since 1995 this still remains and it is hoped that it will continue in the coming years.

In March 2023 I collated a list of members who had been with Concord and Ryde Sailing Club for 30 years or more as our Registrar wanted to know these facts. This list consisted of current members who are still involved in various aspects, together with life members and honorary members. I was very surprised when I came up with 33 names and I possibly may have missed a couple.

Some of those on that list have 40, 45 and up to 60 years of membership. Unfortunately, since compiling that list two of them have passed away but there are still many still here. I would guess that there are not many Clubs of any description who would have such a record. On top of this we currently have many with 2 generations of family members still connected with us.

As well we have the Donovan and Loring families with 3 generations and to top that we have the Swindells and the Burwood families with 4 generations participating in our Club’s activities. Kay and Frank Williams, the parents of our Editor Nicole Williams, also had 3 generations with the Club or many years and when they moved to the Tweed Heads retained their membership with CRSC in the 2023/24 season.

As mentioned earlier this year we are reaching our 80 years since the founding in 1945 and what a Club we have. We can only ask that the interest is maintained and the Club keeps up with what we have done in the past.

Good Sailing!!!!                                                
Ron Burwood - Archivist