THE OCEAN CRUISING CLUB THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS Researched and written by Tony Vasey Commodore 1994 – 1998 i Humphrey Barton – the Founder ii CONTENTS Introduction .......................................................... vi Foreword ............................................................... vii Acknowledgements ........................................... viii Preface ................................................................... ix I – THE BEGINNING ................................................... 1 II – HUM’S CHUMS ................................................... 10 III – EARLY DAYS....................................................... 27 IV – THE NEWSLETTER ............................................. 59 V – THE CLUB MATURES ......................................... 91 VI – A REFLECTION................................................. 115 VII – THE CLUB COMES OF AGE ............................ 118 VIII – THE PROPER YACHT....................................... 133 IX – THE NEXT CHAPTER ....................................... 138 X – HOME IS THE SAILOR ................................... 154 XI – THE WRITING ON THE WALL ....................... 160 XII – DIFFICULT TIMES ........................................... 187 XIII – RENAISSANCE .................................................. 201 XIV – PORT OFFICERS : A TRIBUTE ...................... 225 XV – CONSOLIDATION ............................................ 228 XVI – MODERN TIMES ............................................... 251 XVII – LEGENDS ........................................................... 279 XVIII – EPILOGUE : THE CLUB ................................... 298 Appendices I – List of Member, 1954 ........................................ 299 II – Officers of the Club ......................................... 306 III – Award winners .................................................. 309 IV – Blue Water Medal winners .............................. 313 V – Bibliography ...................................................... 314 Index .................................................................. 315 iii INTRODUCTION It is important that the first 50 years of the Club’s history should be recorded, as if it were not written now much would be lost. Our thanks go to past Commodore and Club Archivist, Tony Vasey, for researching, collating, recording and writing this publication, and also to Anne Hammick and her team for assisting with the editing. Finally, I would like to say a big thank you to an anonymous member whose generous donation has gone a long way towards covering the cost of this publication. Much has changed since Humphrey Barton set sail in 1952. We only need to think of modern methods of communication, electronic navigational systems, reliable inboard diesel engines, high-tech protective clothing, sail handling, electronic and wind vane self-steering systems, together with the near doubling of the average size of boats crossing the oceans. It is interesting to speculate what the next 50 years may bring. However, going to sea in a small boat is, in some ways, still as hazardous as it was 50 years ago, so perhaps not much has really changed during that time. Sailing is still the challenge and adventure which it has always been and hopefully will long remain. I trust that there will continue to be a need for the Ocean Cruising Club to provide worldwide friendship and support for ocean sailors, both past and present. Alan John Taylor Commodore Ocean Cruising Club iv FOREWORD My connections with the activity of ocean cruising go back some way and by 1954 fortunately included enough long distances to allow me to become a founder member of this Club. In those long ago days amateur voyages across stretches of ocean were considered as splendid adventures, verging sometimes on the perilous. In some respects and in some vessels the perils and triumphs were totally real and many adventurous ocean cruisers were properly lauded. In fact at the early gatherings of the Club it was commonplace to hear the remark, ‘As I said in my book ...’. The origin of the Club rests almost entirely with the legendary Humphrey Barton, a man of consummate seamanship and one of nature’s born leaders, and with such a man at the helm it would have been quite unreasonable for me not to have volunteered at once for his new club. When one reads of the many famous people who flocked to become early members it shows that there was a real need for such a fraternity, and I suspect a great number saw Hum Barton’s Ocean Cruising Club as their natural home. Latterly, of course, the name Hum embraces his wife Mary, his successor as our Commodore and our Admiral, who led the club forward with style and panache through occasionally difficult head winds. The establishment of the OCC has probably done more to open up the oceans to the sailing yacht than any other process. From the start the membership conditions suggested in themselves that ocean sailing was a practical possibility not restricted to the supermen and women of legend with their publishers. Next one must credit the club and its members with their influence on the design and development of the yachts themselves – hand in hand, it has to be said, with those for offshore racing. This development of hulls and equipment has been matched with that of communication and navigation. Once it was not uncommon for less funded yachts to put to sea with a piece of wood with three nails on it representing the altitude of the pole star on the latitude of, say, Barbados. Now, with GPS, it is difficult not to know where we are to within a few yards at all times. It comes as a surprise to realise that the Ocean Cruising Club has been in existence and growing healthily for some fifty years, during which it has acquired a pleasant degree of veneration. And it is gratifying that Tony Vasey, a former Commodore, has recorded this period so diligently. It must have been a labour of love, with half his sources at sea at any time and the other half offering the embellished memories of advancing years. Dare I suggest that he has ‘Volume I’ printed on the spine, for this Club is not just to be a 50 year wonder. Colin Mudie Founding Rear Commodore v AUTHOR’S PREFACE History is written between the lines whilst hopes and intentions are to be found on the pages of formal documents. Real history is revealed in letters, minute sheets and in conversations, but it then becomes a matter of interpretation. To record events purely from agendas and minutes would be dull indeed, but once one places a construction on records it is no longer objective. I have tried to steer a course between the two in as light a vein as possible, but in doing so I do not wish to imply any lack of the importance of certain events. I have strived to be as impartial as possible, especially when describing controversial issues such as events during the ‘Difficult Times’, but to gloss over these would not do justice to the record or the Club. Inevitably I will have construed certain issues in a way that does not please everyone; if this gives offence it was not intended, and all I can offer is that they take advantage of Colin Mudie’s suggestion in his Foreword and in due course write Volume II. The development of the Club in its early days was relatively easy to follow, since it was a small organisation and people joined because they wanted the close association with like-minded fellows. Although it may sound trite, life was at a much slower pace 50 years ago and expectations were more modest. Relative costs and inflation were both low, so when initially all posts of responsibility were voluntary, the Club could be run on a few hundred pounds a year. In many ways it was its very success which caused problems with its organisation and running. What worked for a few, mostly known to each other, did not necessarily work for many hundreds and the Club found it difficult to adjust. Furthermore, the far-flung nature of the membership creates an inevitable time lag between decisions and results, which makes it uniquely hard to administer. In those early days the Club was dominated by a handful of colourful personalities whose names appeared regularly, either as part of the organisation or out on the oceans shaping its character. It was easy then to quote those of influence, but they are now so numerous that it is difficult to decide whom to cite personally. The more people who are named the greater the danger of giving offence by omission, but I cannot quote those who do not write and those who write well tend to get priority. We have doubtless missed hearing thrilling tales of derring-do from those too modest to commit themselves to paper, but that silent majority have done just as much for the Club by flying its burgee on many an adventure. If anyone whom I have left out feels neglected I apologise, but whereas a litany of personalities might satisfy many, it would certainly bore even more. Tony Vasey vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Mary Barton’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the Club has been invaluable and her encouragement throughout had been a great source of support. Rosemary and Colin Mudie’s recall of Club activities in the early days has been of great value and their shrewd advice on certain sensitive areas has been most useful. Without the help of Founder Member the late Chich Thornton, who provided the only known copies of the first two Members Lists, there would have been serious gaps, and the very much extant Founder Ian Nicolson has been a constant source of information on those same