Pwllheli Sailing Club

Pwllheli Sailing Club was founded in 1958 and is a yacht club in Pwllheli, Wales. Over the years it has moved the location of its clubhouse several times, and it has also become organiser of national and international yachting and dinghy sailing events.

Location

The club is located on the western side of the harbour near to the Glanydon Beach and Industrial Estate. The club has dinghy storage compounds adjacent to the beach and boats launch from the beach.

Harbour

The club overlooks the harbour and marina.

Principal officers

Officers serve 2 year terms. The Vice Commodore becomes the Commodore and the Rear Commodore becomes the Vice Commodore.
* Commodore - Bob Sambrook
* Vice Commodore - Dave Hulse
* Rear Commodore - Phil Ranner

History

The club was founded in 1958 in temporary premises to the east of Carreg yr Ibmbill (Gimlet Rock). In the early days membership was shared with the Gimlet Rock Club, a social club which allowed members to drink alcohol on Sundays, not allowed in public houses at that time. As membership split from the Gimlet Rock Club it migrated into an extension to the GRC building, and had the use of dormitory rooms on the first floor, where the "Bridge" to manage races was also located.

The early membership had several Folkboats and Stellas, and races were hotly contested, with owners sailing to and from the South Caernarvon Yacht Club in Abersoch to compete in each other's races.

The club acquired two GP14s, "Frisky" and "Heidi", for members to borrow, and located them in the roughly surfaced dinghy park to the east, between the clubhouse and the derelict "Old Jetty" [The "Old Jetty" was a wooden structure leading to seaward, used for loading granite into ships by the Pwllheli Granite Company] where there were twin slipways into the harbour. There was a dinghy racing programme from the early days of the club, but this was hampered by the need to borrow "Jumbo", the boatyard workboat owned by Partington Marine, to act as safety boat. A seaward slipway was also installed from the dinghy park c1970, though weather conditions meant this was rarely usable both because it was very narrow, and because it was fringed by granite chunks from the old Gimlet Rock Quarry.

In the early 1970s Les Caddick, one of the earliest members, donated a small Dell Quay Dory and outboard, making the club self sufficient for its safety boat. Though the major membership was for cruising and racing yachts, with many racing in the Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association's [cite web |url=http://www.isora.org/ |title=The Web Site of The Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association |accessdate=2007-10-27] annual series, the dinghy side started to increase. There was an annual Long Distance Dinghy Race to Abersoch and back, for example, and the Merlin Rocket national championships were hosted - the first such dinghy championship at Pwllheli.

A strong relationship with Newquay Yacht Club created the annual passage race both from and to Newquay in South Wales.

Founding members

"Founding members are taken from the original Articles of Association [The names on the original Articles of Association are handwritten and difficult to read.] "

*Edwin Reginald Wilson, Optician
*Norman Timmins, General Manager
*Charles William Martin, Garage Proprieter
*Thomas Linney, Hotelier (The Victoria Hotel)
*Norman Parry, Director
*John Irwinne,Director
*Col Owens, Builder & Contractor

An early, if not a founding, member was Alfred Walter (Bill) Maley of the Maley & Taunton engineering company of Wednesfield

Previous Commodores

*2005/2006 Gareth Hughes-Jones

Clubhouse locations

* 1958 to c1980 - Shared premises with the Gimlet Rock Club
* c1980 to (unknown) - premises at the Gimlet Rock itself
* (unknown} to 1989 - Purpose built premises opposite the lifeboat station. (Now the treatment plant)
* 1989 to 1997 - Marina Building
* 1997 to current - Current Building

In 1986 the club received funding from the Sports Lottery and the European Regional Development Fund to develop a Sailing and Events Centre.

Events

Pwllheli Sailing Club is a host to national and international sailing events. [cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northwest/sites/pwllheli/pages/marina.shtml |title=Pwllheli - Sail Away |publisher=BBC |accessdate=2007-10-27 |quote=Sailing events held in Cardigan Bay include the National BT Matchracing the Optimist Nations, the J24 World and European championships, the Topper Nationals and the One Ton Cup.]

Past

*2007 Cadet World Championships [cite web |url=http://www.cadetclass.org.uk/events/2007/worldchampionships/default.asp |title=International Cadet Class 2007 World Championships |accessdate=2007-10-27 |quote=Pwllheli is one of the key venues in the UK as we believe the excellent sailing waters, coupled with the superb shore side facilities and race management, will enable sailors from all over the world to compete in an enjoyable, international competition.(John Derbyshire, RYA Racing Manager & Performance Director) |publisher=UK National Class Association of the International Cadet Class]

Future

*2009 Mirror World Championships

Racing

The club hosts racing for local and visiting boats all year round. The races generally start from the bridge on the treatment plant building opposite the lifeboat station and take place around buoys in Cardigan bay within a couple of miles of the start.

The club has a committee boat used to start and finish special regattas and a number of off shore races.

Famous Members

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northwest/halloffame/sport/richardtudor.shtml Richard Tudor]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.pwllhelisailingclub.co.uk Official website]