Treaddur Bay Sailing Club

Profile	ID = [1648]
Address	c/o The Hon Secretary 3 Quarter Mile Road Godalming Surrey GU7 1TG
Phone
Web	www.trearddurbaysailingclub.co.uk
Opening hours
Contact	Mrs Sally J. Greensmith, Hon. Secretary
Profile	At the end of the 1914-1918 war there were a dozen or so sailing boats at Trearddur Bay, and in the first August after the war some of the owners thought it would be fun to race them. So a race was arranged and the following boats took part: - White Heather, 18 foot half-decker (William Smellie – winner) Vanity, 17 foot half-decker (H. J. Ryalls) Alana, 17 foot dinghy (J.R. Smellie) Elf, 14.5 foot dinghy (F. Buckley) Lady Betty, 14 foot dinghy (J. W. Harvie) Wagtail, 13 foot dinghy (D. C. Bucknall) The starting line was between a mark on the Cod Rocks and Fan Tan, which was anchored in the Bay. The starter was Hugh Roberts of the Trearddur Bay Hotel, who used a shot gun firing an ordinary cartridge with the shot removed in case he hit anyone. The course was the present 14-footer course. On the 23rd August a meeting was held at the Trearddur Bay Hotel at which it was decided to form a Club. It was attended by various members of the following families: Alexanders, Buckleys, Bucknalls, Eckersleys, Goods, Roberts, Russells, Ryalls, Slaters, Smellies and Woods. By the end of that summer the following families, among others, had joined:- Baxters, Evans, Harvies, Mathews, Monsarrats, Munros, Reekies, Romes, Roydens, Shaws, Taylors, Thornewills, Warings and Williams. Of these the only ones still having members in the Club would appear to be the Buckleys, Goods, Smellies and Woods. These were reckoned as foundation members, about 55 in all, and they paid no entrance fee. The annual subscription was fixed at half a guinea, with an entrance fee of the same sum for those joining thereafter. By August 1920 the Club already had two one-design classes, the Myths and the Insects. The plans for the Myths were drawn by Morgan Giles and the boat was a typical Prince of Wales Cup type. The T.B.S.C. founding fathers thought this a bit too sporty for children in the open sea, so it was modified to the present design, but because of this Morgan Giles refused to have his name associated with it. The Insects were meant to be B.R.A. 12-footers. The plans were sent to Matthew Owen at Menai Bridge and the Insects were the answer. When someone some years later has a real B.R.A. dinghy built by Dickies it raised a problem, as it was obviously a different boat. However in due course Dickies built some more and so a separate class was formed. The first Seabird half-rater appeared in 1921, and she too presented a problem because, although she conformed to the design, she had broken the Seabird Association rules by being built singly and for one specific owner. However when they found that she was no better than the others the Association accepted her as legitimate. In 1921 the Novice Races were started and also the rule that crews must wear lifebelts. In 1922 Sir Francis Dent became the Club’s first Commodore, which he remained until he left Holyhead in 1933. In 1922 also the Club adopted the present starting line, operating from the headland. The Club has gone from strength to strength but still only operates for about 4.5 weeks in the summer holidays. We have over 900 members, including many of the descendants of the original families. The Seabird half rater fleet has 35 boats with several new ones (numbers 100-105) having been built in the last 10 years. The Myth fleet is also thriving with 31 boats and 3 new ones being launched this summer. Sadly the Insect class has faded away although there are one or two very old boats in mothballs which may be renovated for the centenary celebrations in 2019!
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