About the club
The Club is here to encourage people of all ages to participate in "on water" and "on shore" activities associated with sailing and motor boating. If you are new to the area or have always wanted to enjoy Scarbororugh's marine heritage, then get in touch and we will do our best to introduce people with little or no experience to the joys of sailing. New members who are experienced sailors are always needed as crew and skippers alike.
THE CLUBHOUSE
Scarborough Yacht Club is situated in the Lighthouse building at the end of the central pier of Scarborough harbour.
The Club has enviable views across the harbour and South bay, especially from the balcony where you can take in all the activities both on and off the water. You are assured of a friendly welcome at the bar with food being served on weekend lunch openings.
QUIET ROOM & LIBRARY
The downstairs room has been decorated and made into a "Quiet Room". The computer is available for use there and all the books which have been donated to the club over the years are now stored on the shelving there.
If any member needs to to take a book home to read, please return it as soon as possible so that everyone can make use of this facility.
Also if any member has any books which they wish to donate, please write inside the front cover of the book donated a name and a date, which adds interest for future members.
HISTORY OF SCARBOROUGH YACHT CLUB
The newly formed Scarborough Sailing Club held their 1st meeting at their headquarters in the Three Mariners Inn in Quay Street on May 23rd 1895.
In 1904 they decided better accommodation was needed so in January 1905 they moved to a new floating club house moored in the harbour, which was moored by the slip way at the top of the Outer Harbour. A leading member of the club was the renowned yacht designer Albert Strange.
Again due to the increase in membership, a new home was found in 1925 within the Watch Tower/Toll house where they stayed until 1952.
On January 12th 1952 it was decided a change of name would be beneficial so Scarborough Yacht Club was born and this coincided with the move into the Lighthouse where the Club still resides.
The Scarborough One Design class of boats were built by Johnny Ley at his works on St.Sepulchre Street, these attractive boats were ideally suited to sailing off Scarborough and continued as an active class into the 1960's.
See more at the Scarborough Maritime Heritage website CLICK HERE
In December 1914 the Lighthouse was hit by shells from German warships which attacked the east coast of England. The building attached to the lighthouse was the Harbour Masters lodgings prior to becoming the home of the Yacht Club. With people being killed in the raid and damage to towns along the coast a Remember Scarborough campain was used to encourage people to enlist.
In September 2014 the building was painted as planned civic remembrance ceremonies are taking place in the town, in December. Also in the summer of this year the Yacht Club completely refurbished the Race Station at the front of the building.
A SYC History talk was given in the Club House in 2003 – Members Clive Murray, Win Russell , Jane Graves, Gaynor Chatt and Denise Crosier had trawled through the Club Meeting Minutes to find items of interest through the years.
This was a fun night aimed at showing how some things had changed over the years, but others still kept reoccurring! Below are the notes from the night, which hopefully you will find interesting:
1905 47 Members 10/6d each Annual income £24.13s.6d Clubhouse rental £4.16s.0d pa Annual supper expenses £5.0s.1d Boatman’s wages £16.10s.0d Ben Grimmer
1914 Subscriptions £19.18s.0d Total turnover £61.14s.6d Boatman Ben Grimmer’s yearly wages £39.10s.0d + Christmas tip of 10/- Entrance fees for yachts in the Regatta 5/- each Prizes totalled £52.00
1918 Turnover £46.0s.0d Health Insurance contributions 3/- Loan to SYC by Mr W E Putna £5.0s.0d Subscriptions for the year £31.6s.8d Boatman’s wages £31.6s.8d Accident Insurance for Boatman £2.0s.0d Fire Insurance for Clubhouse 10/- Mr Strange’s Wreath 15/- Mr Strange’s Portrait framed 6s/6d
1921 Total turnover £154.0s.0d Subscriptions £49.6s.0d Total sale of tickets for the annual dinner £22.9s.0d Rent of Clubhouse £6.0s.0d Annual dinner and Piano £24.18s.0d
1925 Silver Spoons for Club races £4.10s.0d Cartridges for starting races 17/6d Scarborough Sailing Club Rules – adopted 19th January
1939 Rule 36 Intoxicating liquor. No intoxicating liquor of any kind shall be offered for sale or sold by the Club or any members on the Club premises.
1947 Total Turnover £162 Cartridges £4.8s.0d Boatman’s wages £130.0s.0d Rent of Clubhouse £6.5s.0d Cost of annual dinner dance £110.9s.0d
1948 Club assets amounted to £424.0s.0d Boatman’s wages £228.0s.0d 40 members attended the AGM out of a membership of 169 New members totalled 40 in this year. The Committee decided, with regret, not to hold an annual dinner dance – owing to difficulties with transport. The control of the harbour was to be taken over by the Scarborough Borough Corporation and harbour dues increased. Application was made for a telephone to be installed to the Clubhouse. A Ships Bell was donated to SYC by the Mayor Mr Shepherd – it still hangs behind the bar and rings ‘ time’ …. It was also ruled in this year that the bottom of the stairs should be kept clear – with the exception of dinghy oars ?
1949 Membership subs £367.8s.6d Boat owners £3.3s.0d Crew members (11) £1.11s.0d Social cadets (90) 15/6d Profit on the sale of Badges, Brooches, Burgees and keys £2.2s.7d 192 members The naval vessel HMS Superb visited and SYC organised a race – Officers of the ship skippered member’s boats with members crewing. It was reported that one member had ‘cut moorings on four occasions’. The Secretary wrote to the offending skipper and told him to take great care in future when entering & leaving the Harbour. SYC wrote to the Town Clerk to ask if the present clubhouse could be altered to make it more comfortable & spacious. Regatta prizes – 1 pint tankard 1st prize ½ pint tankard 2nd prize It was reported to the Committee that Mr Corrigan had applied for an extension to the amusement park of 150’. An apology for absence was received from Mr Ringrose with a suggestion that the Committee meetings be held at the Clubhouse and members be allowed to enter for their belongings during such. There was clearly a logistical problem as; It was ‘felt’ that the next two meetings should be held at the Lancaster Inn.
1950 Feb 4th SYC received a letter from a Mr Burrows – saying he was willing to let or sell the property known as The Three Mariners – SYC ‘came to the conclusion that these premises were not suitable’. April 1st SYC offered 37 Sandside for £5,000 – It is stated – ‘This price of £5,000 is out of all proportion to it’s present value. It is old and maybe only worth it’s site value, and certainly not more than as many hundreds as they are asking thousands.
1952 Trustees; G C Payne ; J Dearden ; J A Langstreth (Hon Life Member) ; Mr Briggs …. Who offered a billiard table …. Offer accepted.
1955 Boatman’s wages £26.0s.0d Rent of Clubhouse £100.0s.0d Membership subscriptions £745.0s.0d Annual turnover £800.0s.0d Balance held of £3,947.0s.0d
1962 Boatman’s wages £38.0s.0d Rent of Clubhouse £103.0s.0d Annual turnover £1,354.0s.0d Subscriptions £938.0s.0d Profit on fruit machine £348.0s.0d
1965 6th Feb Dinghy pontoon. It was informed that it would not be possible to buy new pontoons and that it did seem that the present pontoons were repairable and it was resolved that the necessary steps should be taken to have these repaired – (2003 … so nothing changes!!) Further suggested alterations to the Clubhouse including a possible new entrance were shelved for consideration and discussion with the Town Clerk in the hope that more space could be obtained allowing us to provide showers. Prospect of Whitby was launched by Arthur Slater that spring and he presented a ½ model to the club which still has pride of place in our entrance. He later went on to represent England in the Admirals Cup. The Commodore explained to the Meeting that he felt that members would make much more use of the club with consequential increases in bar takings if simple meals could be provide. It was therefore suggested that the Steward should be provided, at the expense of the club (all heart) with a grill fryer and a deep freeze. Sept 65 Vice Commodore produced to the meeting a portrait of Tom Birch, the club boatman and asked if the committee would accept this as a gift on behalf of the club. The committee gratefully accepted the gift
1967 April 67 Difficulties occurred in preventing unauthorised parking and the Rear Commodore was made responsible. Therefore a solution was to have a suitable label affixed to the car, and a car park attendant was advertised for, to be paid at £2 per day to police this new scheme. It was also agreed to spend £1600 on alterations to the clubhouse so subs were increased to £5.5s.0d In June the Burton Cup week was held with the promise of 155 boats attending. (Nat 12 championships when the Club had a dinghy park – Filey Sailing Club became the focus of small boat sailing after this time) Oct 67 It was resolved that on one Saturday each month during the winter some form of entertainment should be arranged, ladies to organize!!
1968 Steward and Wife’s wages £1,098 Annual turnover £3,635 Rent of Clubhouse £313 Feb 68 The Mayor, Harbour Master and representatives of neighbouring clubs should as usual be asked as guests to dinner dance tickets were priced at £2.0s 0d Henderson who had been the Steward of the Yacht Club had taken cigarettes to the value of £140.02.6d. According the account there was a profit on the clubhouse but a loss on the bar account. July 68 With 325 paying members and all but 44 had paid, bar takings were very much down, and it was felt that an increase in subs would decrease the clubs subscription income, by reason of the fact that it could easily be followed by numerous resignations. The breathalyser test and the credit squeeze seemed to be blamed by the majority. There was also a consolidated racing fee of £5 for Class A and £3 for class B. These were instituted as it was becoming difficult to collect race entry fees each week W.D. & H.O. Wills kindly sponsored the offshore Regatta and presented 2 trays and paid for drinks and a buffet at the event. (Cigarette sponsorship was banned at a later date.)
1969 Jan 69 Mr. Frank Wilkinson who owned Mike Zulu (which incidentally was his call sign which he used when he was flying) offered to have the annual account and balance sheets printed and sent to all members. It was suggested that the dinghy pontoon should be moved from its present position and secured in the South corner of the harbour by the racing stations. It would be much safer there and would help bar takings as owners would secure their dinghies and call in the club. A metal pontoon was later installed on the outer wall. It was also resolved that yacht owners should be asked to pay £5 consolidated Racing fee for the whole season, or 5/- per race and £1 for each Regatta Race.
1976 Clubhouse rent £720.00 Membership subscriptions £3,548 Annual turnover £4,557 Annual profit on Bar takings £326.00
The Boatman who is mentioned up until the early 1960’s not only ferried members out to boats but also on special occasions took boats out into the bay and anchored them on an early tide so that racing could take place over low water.
