FROM THE ARCHIVES - #61.UTR March, 2026

After our 50^th year celebrations as I reported in my last article we are now moving onto the February, 1996 Up The River where we find another interesting little article by Bob Lindsay our editor.

Bob wrote this under the title of “The need for self-regulation” where he goes on about some sailors’ attitudes to our sailing rules. It is worthwhile reading so I am including it as he wrote it as these rules are in our regulations for a purpose.

“HOW DO YOU FARE when you sail in your national Titles? It’s a great time for honing your skills as you pit yourself amongst those who sail in stiffer breezes and rougher waters each week in their Club races.

But what happens out on the course? I noticed that, at the Nationals I sailed in, it seemed to be the case of “win at any price and hang the rules if you can get away with it”!

I had this young guy approach me on port, tacked right in front, and could not get underway by the time he broadsided me. “Right, you can do a 720 now” was my immediate response. He looked at me in disbelief – I had actually told him to do something he thought would not be necessary!

I approached one buoy behind four other boats with most of the skippers chortling ‘buoy room! buoy room!” and then colliding with one another and the mark “Righto, whose going to do the 720 out of that lot?” I inquired, and received blank looks in return – what the heck! They all got around, so on to the next one!

Protest? Me? Yes, but crikey there were so many incidents that everyone just turns a blind eye – protesting would be like facing the wind with a full bladder!

But, then, if anyone wants to see a fairer, more self- regulating sport on the water with respect for the rules, then just maybe we should protest more vehemently.

We have to start somewhere.”

In my President’s article for that issue I raised a warning for all that since Christmas had passed a number of syringes and needles had been found lying in the grass in our rigging area. Fortunately, no one was affected by these but all were warned to be very careful around that area. Thankfully as far as I know none have been found in our area for a number of years.

I also advised that our Club Members were progressing well with the new extensions under Bryce Ellis’s guiding hand. He seemed to be everywhere at once telling the mostly amateur workers what he wanted and where to put things. I wrote that “It was rather mind-boggling to see the wall frames constructed on the decking by keen amateurs led by a few professionals and then erected to fit together like a big jigsaw puzzle with very little problem”. Shortly after this the roof trusses were to be in place and the extension area would be at lock up stage. If you are interested in our first Club House extension there is a display of photos covering the efforts of our members.

For some time the Management Committee and myself had been concerned by the lack of sailors in our Junior Class Fleet and to a lesser degree in the “A” Class. It had been discussed at a number of previous meetings as this was an area where our future membershipwould be coming from. So a subcommittee of 5 members was formed to look into this to strengthen these classes for the 1996/97 season. Current members Nick Brown and David Loring were two of the members.- I wonder if they still remember what was discussed back then?

Over the years our “Up The River” magazine has tried to include articles which could help our members with their sailing efforts. In this February 1996 issue which I am now covering there was an article “Watching those sails work better” which our Editor at that time had reproducedfrom the issue of March, 1982. This article had been written by Frank Bethwaite around 1967 about the use of tufts of wool on our sails. Quite an interesting article but I will not reproduce it again in this article.

Moving on to our next issue in April, 1996 in my president’s report I commented on the work carried out over the season by our enthusiastic members again and of course the progress of our Club House extensions. This was covered by “The most evident of course is the erection of the new clubhouse extensions and each week as we come down to sail the tangible results of working bees are very easy to discern. Many people, under Bryce Ellis’s guidance, need our thanks for their terrific efforts week after week. Just to give you an idea of how much effort has gone into the construction of the extensions, volunteers up to March 10 had put in 1487 man (person?) hours which works out to 186 working days of eight hours each.”

Of course, more hours were to be worked before the extension was finished. We owe a lot of thanks to these folk.

I also reported that the sub-committee that had been formed to examine the problems of the Junior Class fleet had also been meeting and made some recommendations to the Management Committee. The main one was that the Class be maintained and that effort should be made to make it a viable and competitive class. To do thisthis Club should purchasetwo Sabots and be hired out for two months periods and at that time one had already been purchased and rejuvenated.

Over the years since then more Sabots and other boats have been purchased with help from outside of our Club.

More syringes had appeared from being washed up by the tides and it was recommended that members always wear something on their feet when rigging and walking around the park – which is still a very good idea!!

It was also advised that one should not swim in the river as just prior to that time a shark had attacked a swimmer in the river up towards Parramatta – “a sure sign that the waters of the river are becoming cleaner”. Fortunately, this was one attack, however in the years since an occasional shark has been sighted swimming in the river.

When one reads through the past issues of Up The River one can find articles on many different things. In the issue being covered now there was an article in memory of Englishman Jack Holt who had died in the UKduring November, 1955. He was born in April 1912 and was a member of the Sea Scouts and had a great affinity for sailing. Holt was the designer of many different sailing boats one of which was the Heron. His other designs included GP14, Solo, Enterprise, Cadet and Mirror amongst many others. Holt produced a kit form of the Cadet which could be built by the youngsters before sailing them. In 1979 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his service to sailing and then a Golden Anchor which was the highest award given by the British Royal Yachting Association. Quite a remarkably sailing person.

Now I am moving on to the Presentation Day issue of UTR from 1996. As was the practice back then that day of celebration was held at Clifton Gardens after a great ferry ride enjoying the company of our fellow sailors.

At this time work on our extension was still going on and would continue through the winter months. So there would have been plenty of discussion on this topic during the day. In my article in UTR in this issue I plugged the Annual General Meeting coming up in July and everyone was advised of the venue with the comment “where else but in the new extensions of our clubhouse.” All were asked to bring a folding chair as at that stage we only had a very few in the old precinct.

My statistics for the 1995/96 season showed that we had a total of 88 boats registered with 1,678 boats starting in the races, with an average of 52.44 boats per race. The largest fleet was 66 boats. The Spiral Class had 430 starters closely followed by the NS14s with 424 and then the Herons with 347. Something to think about when we look at the current numbers.

It was interesting reading the Class Captains’ reports covering the season as a whole. Most of them mentioned that the various classes from CRSC were always well represented at their respective Class Association’s various events and many brought back trophies. Our Club had one of the strongest fleets in the NS14 Association. So it is rather sad to see the depletionof this Class in the CRSC boats for the past season.

We now move on to the 1996/97 and our Up The River for August started with the big announcement that the Official Opening of the new Club House extensions with afternoon tea and celebrations would be held on 31^st August , 1996 the Saturday prior of the start of \sailing for the season. That event will be reported from the next issue of UTR.

The first article in this August issue was by our then Training Officer, Nick Brown, in which he reported on the plans for the 1996/97 Sailing Classes under his guidance assisted by Robert McMaster. Nick advised that back then the Club owned 3 Sabots and hope to fill them with Juniors from the sailing classes to sail them in the Junior races. He was planning to hold at least three evening sessions for the training class to teach basic skills and safety measures before starting any practical sessions.

Our new President for this season, David Loring, started his first report under the heading of “Our bigger and better Clubhouse” and I will quote it here. “The extensions and renovations to the Clubhouse are magnificent and, for under $45,000, we have doubled the previous space and vastly improved the older facilities. On behalf of all membersI thank everyone for their efforts but in particular there are two who deserve a special mention: Bryce Ellis and Chris Lowe. They have spent many hours at the Club not only at the weekends but during their working time to make sure the project came in on time and within budget. Their drive and enthusiasm was contagious – it kept all of their fellow workers on their toes and was a mighty effort.”

David also wrote in his report that I had been elected as the new assistant treasurer and was in charge if the boat storage area “Now we’ve more room he’ll have more spots to sell. By the way we can store larger boats in the new storage area as we have not yet installed any racks in there.”

Over the following years that space was taken up and we had to again add a further extension in 2016which is named “THE BRYCE ELLIS BOATSHED”. This is of course another story for a future article.

So back to the first extension’s opening which was held on 31^st August, 1996 and was reported on in the October, 1996 issue of UTR. Quoting the Editor’s comments he wrote that this took place “amid some of the wildest weather Sydney had experienced for some time …. but the Club House shone like a beacon in all its glory as the Mayor of Ryde, Ald. Jim Hull marvelled at the results.”

Our good friend, Edna Wilde was also in attendance that day for the official opening. Jim Hull’s speech was quoted in full but as much as I would like to include it all here I will only quote it in part. Jim started his address with “To David, and members of the Club, friends, and I understand that some residents are here too. I am very pleased to see that the Club has taken the initiative to invite their neighbours here to thisvery, very special occasion… Idon’t want to delve into too much history but I think it is important that we record the fact that it was only a mere ten years ago when it looked like this Club was going out of existence because of the new bridge that was going across the river. Its old clubhouse was, at one stage, going to be put on a pontoon and floated across the river but the Maritime Services Board didn’t think that was a very good idea………

Ryde City Council was very involved in that because Council was absolutely adamant that the facility this Club offered for so many years, to families and children, would not be lost and we would do everything we could to make sure that it was safe. So that transpired and, what was quite a reasonable clubhouse was built – with a walkway through the mangroves - to this location. But it was never quite what the Club wanted and so plans were soon under afoot to enlarge it.’

Jim went on to say:- “for those who haven’t had a grand tour, I suggest that you do so, because there would not be another amateur Sailing Club in Sydney Harbour that has such professionally built facilities as these. You look around and you see a slate floor, which in itself is marvellous, then a very good Canteen and marvellous facilities for both men and women sailors, the boat storage area and the whole thing has been done under the guidance of Byce Ellis, who is seeking to hide his light under a bushel over there, but every organisation needs a Bryce.

So Bryce I’m sure it’s been said, but I will say it to you from an outsider’s point of view: congratulations on a job well done and in pulling together a great team of volunteers to finish up with a very professional job. When you find out that it was all done for $46,000 and a year’s hard work then you can get an idea of the enormous amount of free time and effort went into these extensions….

The Club has built its strength from its juniors through to world champions and it will continue more so with greater vigour because it has clubrooms which encourage people to be here and be part of it.”

Jim said a lot more but I will leave his words at this place. Our then Commodore, Chris Lowe, responded and thanked Jim and Edna for their support.

As most of you will know Jim and Edna continued to support our Club well into the future with their attendance to our Presentation Days and Christmas parties. We have been very lucky to have had their continued support. As most will know we lost Edna a couple of years ago but Jim still visits us from time to time.

So until next issue.

Good Sailing!!!!

Ron Burwood - Archivist