This is a good read, extending to some 1,700 words
Until the 1960’s only a few pleasure craft and some local full-time fishermen used the harbour, which had existed for centuries. But the number of pleasure craft, including some powered by sail, gradually increased and a group of local people felt that the time was right to approach the Town Council, which then ran the harbour, to gauge its support for the formation of a sailing club at Elie.
There is a record of a meeting on 8th January 1964 in a minute book of “Persons interested in the formation of a Sailing Club at Elie.” Twenty people attended this meeting and a further 12 people sent additional letters and messages of support. These included one from Admiral Sir William James, then resident in Elie, who in his letter gave his enthusiastic support. The Council agreed to the proposal and the Club was on its way.
The first meeting of the Elie Sailing Club took place on 4th March 1964 in the offices of D & A Cook (Solicitors), High St, Elie, where it was proposed that the Council be asked to lease a portion of the granary building for use by the Club to store gear and boats in the winter months. This was agreed by the meeting and a proposal to form a moorings committee jointly with the Council was agreed.
PREMISES
At subsequent meetings a high priority was the acquisition of suitable premises to be used as a clubhouse. Mrs Stewart, then the proprietor of the Bayview Guest House, offered the premises adjacent to The Ship Inn. The rent agreed was £10.00 per annum plus rates if the Club agreed to undertake some necessary repair work to the premises. It was also decided to change the title of the club to Elie & Earlsferry Sailing Club (EESC).
SUBSCRIPTIONS
It was agreed that the annual subscriptions for adult members (over 18) would be 1 guinea (105 pence) per annum with a 1 guinea entry fee. Under 18’s would pay 10/6d (53p) with no entry fee.
SUPPORT
The Club received wholehearted support from most sections of the local population. Applications for membership flooded in, not only from people keen to participate in sailing activities, but also from those happy to play only a passive role but who wished to support the club.
Admiral James agreed to become the club’s Honorary Commodore. The Admiral took a keen interest in activities from his vantage point in Wynd House and was not slow in offering his advice and criticism where required.
PROGRESS
The Club initially adopted the GP14 dinghy as the club class most suited to the conditions at Elie. With a grant of £40 from the Elie Improvements Association the Club bought one of these craft for the use of club members and for training purposes.
The boat was aptly named “Bubbles” as a reminder that in his boyhood Admiral James, who was blessed with curly hair, was the model for the famous painting by Millais of a little boy blowing bubbles; in later years this became the widely seen advertisement for Pears Soap. Admiral James presented the club with its first trophy – The Commodore’s Cup – which today is one of the popular trophies for which there is serious competition among the Elie sailors.
REGATTAS
The club’s first regatta was held on the weekend of the 8th and 9th August 1964.
There is no record of the number of sailing entries but 100 sausage rolls were ordered, together with 24 sliced loaves of bread and 12 bottles of milk.
Over the following years the Elie annual regatta grew in popularity. In those days, visitor support for club regattas was higher than today and the Elie Regatta attracted between 60 and 90 boats. A dance was usually held after the Saturday’s sailing, either in the Earlsferry Town Hall or the Queen’s Hotel, which were very popular.
Eddie Clark, the proprietor of the Craw’s Nest hotel in Anstruther, also presented the club with a handsome trophy - the Craw’s Nest Trophy - to encourage the growing number of keelboats at Elie. The course was initially from Anstruther to Elie and back to Anstruther. In its early days this race attracted up to 30 entrants and the hotel provided entertainment after the race. However, it became more difficult to get the competitors safely back to Elie and after a couple of years, with the agreement of the Clarke’s, the course was changed to its present form, that is, from Elie to Anstruther and back.
In June 1968 to further test crews of the keel boats a 24-hour race was introduced which would be open to all adjacent clubs. The course was Elie, Bass Rock, May Isle, Sand End Buoy off Burntisland and back to Elie. This course was estimated to take the yachts the best part of 24 hours. Entries came from Largo Bay club, East Lothian Yacht Club and Fisherrow Yacht club as well as from Elie itself. An Elie boat – “Tassie” - won the first race, being the only competitor to finish.
About this time the Daily Mirror newspaper sponsored the introduction of the “Mirror” dinghy. This was available either in home-build kit form or as a fully completed unit. The Club’s GP14 had been very successful and it was agreed that the purchase of a Mirror dinghy should be investigated to augment the GP and to serve as a suitable craft for the growing number of juniors who were attracted to the Club. The completed cost of the Mirror would be £113.00.
The Club was extremely fortunate that, on hearing of this proposal, a newly completed Mirror was donated to the Club on the condition that the donor remained anonymous. With the agreement of the donor the new boat was named “Squeak, a compliment to “Bubble”.”
As Club members gained in sailing experience a livelier dinghy was needed and the OK single-handed dinghy was chosen. This craft was easily handled on-shore, in contrast to the heavier GP, which was proving very difficult to haul up the beach, especially by young people. The OK was also a single-handed dinghy and this helped to solve the problem of finding crewmembers. The Club was fortunate at this time to have as its Vice-commodore and sailing secretary Lewis Bilton who had, in his younger days, been the British National OK Dingy champion.
Around the same time the much lighter Graduate dinghy was adopted as the Club intermediate class so that, with the Mirror as a juniors and beginners craft, the Club was fully equipped to accommodate members at all levels of experience. Later the GP 14 would eventually be phased out but a large fleet of both Mirror and OK dinghies built up over the next few years at Elie.
In 1969 the Club was invited to host the Scottish Area GP14 Championships and in the following year the Scottish Dinghy Association Single Handed and Graduate Championships were held at Elie.
In 1971 the Elie Town Council agreed to the lease to the Club the piece of ground, which is now the Club dinghy park. A contractor levelled the site but Club members laid the concrete themselves.
In early 1976 the OK Nationals Championships were held at Elie from 7th to 14th August. This was perhaps the most ambitious outside event that the Club had ever undertaken. With 85 sailing entries and their supporters the guest list amounted to approximately 150 persons to be looked after by the Club for one week. Fortunately OK sailors are a hardy bunch and the weather stayed reasonably good.
Accommodation for the Championships initially proved a problem but a tented camp was pitched near the harbour, with the Army supplying the tents and Farmer Robert Pollock the field to the east of the Coastguard station. The event was a great success and, in recognition of the Club’s efforts, it was presented with a silver tray by the OK Association to be competed for as the Club wished but preferably assigned to a single-handed event.
During the 1970’s Group 4 Power- boat racing became increasingly popular. At no time did the Club restrict its membership solely to owners of sailing craft and there was by now a significant number of motor craft of various sorts based at Elie. A Powered Boat section of the club was formed to satisfy the requirements of these members.
The sport of Group 4 Power Boat racing had been well established in England for some time and was gaining popularity in Scotland. Elie Bay was an ideal venue for this kind of event, which had a high spectator value, and it was agreed that approaches should be made to see if the regulating body would consider Elie for at least one event.
One Club member, Dr H Harvey, led the quest for such an event and spent endless time and his own expense in negotiating sponsorship by BP for the events, dealing with the necessary arrangements with possible participating clubs and placating the authorities that had to be made aware of the Club’s intentions. Competitors arrived from Wales, from All Hallows in Kent and from the West of Scotland, where similar events had been held on the Clyde off Gourock.
Scottish Television advertised the competition and a truly staggering number of spectators attended. One event was marred somewhat by the familiar “haar” (sea-mist) which obscured much of the action. The competitors themselves were pleased with the organisation and the facilities, and there were promises of support the following year. Unfortunately at this time action by OPEC put up the price of fuel to a prohibitive level and interest in repeating the event gradually dwindled.
However, the new sport of windsurfing was just around the corner and EESC once again welcomed new members and new sailing activities. The bay is very suitable for this sport, which is growing more and more popular and it is now competing for space in the harbour with extreme activities such as kite sailing.
Much has changed since then. We now have a well-equipped Clubhouse and many more facilities. What remains the same through all the years is the spirit of camaraderie, which still survives today as it did then.
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