A Potted History
These pioneers obtained approval for their concept of a Yacht Club at the 27th Meeting of the Corps Committee on 27 May 1938. After consulting officers of the Corps throughout the world, a positive response was received from about one hundred officers. The Club was originally called the Royal Signals Sailing Association (RSSA) as it was considered that without a clubhouse or other base, the title 'Club' was inappropriate. A special committee sat on 14 November 1938 consisting of serving, Territorial Army (TA) and Retired officers and culminated in the Corps Committee authorising £10 from the Corps Games Fund for the RSSA.
The first General Meeting of the RSSA was held in the Officers' Club, Aldershot on 27 March 1939 and the sixteen members present voted in the following committee;
- Commodore - Vacant
- Vice Commodore - Captain JB Bolitho (R SIGNALS Retd)
- Rear Commodore - Brigadier R Chenevix-Trench
with a working committee of the Rear Commodore as President and;
- Aldershot Command - Major LB Nicholls (and Crews)
- Southern Command - Captain DN Smyth (and Secretary)
- Eastern Command - Captain WB Purser
- Northern Command - Captain WR Smijth-Windham
- Abroad - Captain WD Weir
- Territorial Army - Colonel TW Vigers
- Supplementary Reserve - Lieutenant Colonel FW Dallison MC
A vote of thanks was passed for donations already received from Captain Bolitho, Brigadier Clementi Smith and Colonel Cobb.
The RSSA, at its inception, was an "officers only" affair (very different from today's club which seeks to encourage sailing amongst all ranks and with particular encouragement and support given to soldiers and youngsters) and financially self supporting. Its first yacht "Certa" was gifted by Captain Bolitho. who also donated the first trophy (the Corps Motto is Certa Cito - Swift and Sure).
In the same year, the Corps loaned the sum of £85, interest free for two years, to Second Lieutenant David Gibson towards the £139 needed to purchase his twenty foot yacht "Herald", built in 1911.
During the Second World War, little sailing was done and the RSSA's first yacht was laid up for the duration.
In 1944 Brigadier Chenevix-Trench reported that the RSSA was now a member of the newly formed Association of Service Yacht Clubs. The Club has maintained an affiliation to the Army and Combined Services Sailing Associations to this day.
The first post-war General Meeting of the RSSA was held at Hobart House on 29 August 1945, at which it was agreed to re-commission "Certa". In 1946, the RSSA was given a second yacht, to be called "Cito".
By 1947, the Corps Committee had made two grants totalling £1000 to the RSSA. A subscription was taken out with the Royal Lymington Yacht Club (RLYC) so that up to ten members of the RSSA could use the club at any one time. Dinghies were purchased for Certa and Cito, as well as a work boat to operate between club and moorings. Because of her shape, she was known as the "Coffin". Her Seagull outboard engine was also used as an auxiliary by Cito.
At this time it was agreed that the Director of Signals would be ex-officio Commodore of the RSSA.
In 1949, dinghy sailing was started in the Corps by the purchase of two Fireflies, Magda and Arlette which were handed over to the Catterick Group and raced at Windermere.
In the same season the Corps Committee voted £100 from the Officers’ Games Club to start a sinking fund. They also agreed that the RSSA should remain independent of the Officers' Games Club.
In 1950, a sub committee was formed in West Germany to start Corps sailing there.
In 1951, the grant to the RSSA from the Officers' Games Club was only £50 but in 1952 this was increased to £100.
The first recorded regatta between sailors of the Royal Signals, Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers took place in 1951 on the Mohnesee with the Gunners beating us into second place. The event became known as the Triangular Regatta and is often fiercely competed.
Our first entry in the Association of Service Yacht Clubs (ASYC) Gold Cup Regatta in Mermaids class dayboats at Seaview in the Isle of Wight was in 1952. This is another tradition that has survived almost unbroken to the current generation of Corps sailors.
The status of the RSSA was changed at the 57th meeting on 4 December 1954 when the Commodore persuaded the Corps Committee that the Officers Games Club should take over the RSSA. Regular officer members now ceased to pay a subscription and income was to be made up of a grant. Previous assets of the RSSA were taken over by the Officers' Games Club.
In BAOR in 1959, the first passage races were held in 30 square metres yachts at Kiel. These yachts were Windfall and the same as Cito;. they were great fun to sail, had no engines, were basic and woe betide the crew who had to go onto the foredeck in rough conditions. The Corps won the Triangular Regatta on the Mohne See.
The first Royal Signals UK Dinghy Regatta was held at HMS Excellent, Portsmouth in 1961. Overseas triangular regattas were held in Cyprus and Singapore, and the Corps won both, although in Germany we came second to the Gunners.
This was also the year that Captain JOC Alexander, aged 24, of 246 (Ghurka) Signal Squadron (later Maj Gen JOC Alexander) chose to sail his boat Ganga Devi back from Hong Kong to the UK via Malacca, Singapore, and Aden, surviving a typhoon on the way but losing his thumb in an accident.
The Royal Signals BAOR Passage Race was started in 1962 by Max Charlton using the 30 square metre yachts of the British Kiel Yacht Club (BKYC).
With the end of National Service, it was time for change, and the Corps Committee approved the proposal to open Royal Signals Sailing to all ranks in 1962. Part of this adjustment was motivated by the desire to become eligible for Nuffield Welfare Grants, but it was also a realisation that offshore sailing needed wider participation if it was to sustain yachts in all the major theatres. Sailing was, by now, also seen as a form of adventurous training for all ranks. The RSSA was reformed and all Serving Officers and Soldiers became eligible to join. All craft were transferred to the RSSA. The RSYC remained remained that part to which Serving and Retired Officers belonged! In 1964, having found the RSSA/RSYC arrangement cumbersome, the RSSA was merged into the RSYC.
The Nuffield Trust was then approached for a loan for a Class III Ocean Racer and £900 was granted. Owing to a shortage of Corps Funds it had to be refused for 1961, but in 1962 the Corps found £900 for a cruiser with the intention of seeking a Class III Racer in 1965.
The Royal Yacht “Bloodhound" was chartered by the RSYC under Lieutenant Colonel Bardell in 1965, and again 1967.
The decision was taken in 1965 to sell all but one of the UK dinghy fleet and to purchase a road trailer for "Stella”.
Lieutenants Martin Roberts and Homfray Vines were part of the four-boat British International 14 team which took part in the World Championships at Annapolis in the USA in 1971. At the end of the championships, having sold their dinghy to an American, they capsized and sank in the middle of Chesapeake Bay!
The week long regatta/race to Copenhagen and on round Denmark was introduced in 1973 by Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Blake, the BAOR Chairman. This involved all the Cutlasses and Danboats of the BKYC, with "Kranich", a 100 square, as Committee Boat. AAC Harrogate crewed "Petasus” and support came from the Royal Corps of Transport (RCT) tender known affectionately as “Jelly Mould". The course was Kiel, Copenhagen, Helsingor, Hundestedt, then back to Kiel. The Committee Boat crew included the Commodore Major General Max Sawers, Brigadier Bill McFarlane, and Major General Harry Roper and his wife, who presented the prizes.
The same year the first members of the Corps took part in the Round the World Race and were Major Lee Edinger, Lieutenant Ashley Truluck and Sergeant George Marshall on the yacht "British Soldier" chartered from Chay Blyth. All were subsequently awarded medals by HRH Prince Philip.
Two years later the communications base station for the yacht "Great Britain III, competing in the next Round the World Race, was provided by AAC Harrogate who kept two radio schedules each day; communicating with the yacht from April 1975 to February 1976. Operating were Staff Sergeant (YOS) Castle, Sgt Jackson and Mr J Stockley who went to see her finish at 2332hrs on 25 February 1976. On board had been Captains John McLean and Martin Bevan of the Corps.
The first RSYC Dinner was organised by Brigadier Pat Webb at the 68th (Inns of Court and City Yeomanry) Signal Squadron TAVR Centre at Lincoln's Inn in November 1977. On this occasion the guest speaker was Chris Dunning, skipper of one the four yachts in the British Team which won the 1977 Admiral's Cup. Mr Dunning's achievements were particularly noteworthy as he was crippled with polio when young and had to be lifted aboard his yacht. In subsequent years the dinner has been, held at the Crown Hotel, Blandford.
The 1979 Fastnet Race will be remembered for the hurricane weather, which resulted in heavy loss of life. On the JSSC yacht "Flutter" were Captains John McLean, David Lowe and Barry Rowe of the Corps as well as a WRNS, Lieutenant Diana Coad. Battening down in the teeth of the hurricane, they were rolled 360 degrees on at least three occasions. On one such rotation, one of the batteries came loose and struck Lieutenant Coad on the head injuring her severely. She subsequently married Captain McLean!
Our first success in the Tall Ships Race came in 1980 when Lieutenant Colonel Roger Cemm skippered “Kranich”, the 100 square metre from BKYC to win the Santander Cup being presented by Prince Bertil.
The same year Staff Sergeant (FOS) DCA Ellis won the Army Bosun Championships, setting his sights on greater successes in years ahead. At the same time Sergeant R Coxon won the Services Albacore championships.
A spectacular success was the winning of the Three Peaks Race in 1982 with a crew from 30 Signal Regiment in a Trimaran called "Signaller". Major Barry H Rowe was the skipper with the other sailor being Staff Sergeant (Retired) McGilp. The runners were Captain (Retired) Ian Wells, Staff Sergeant Buffery and Corporal Gibney. The race started from Barmouth sailing up the west coast and putting in at Caernarvon, Ravenglass and Fort William where two crew members were disembarked to run up and down Snowdon, Scafell and Ben Nevis respectively.
Radios were fitted permanently in our Corps yachts in 1982 as a result of RORC rulings coming out of the Fastnet Race.
The club was marred by tragedy in 1988 when Sergeant Don Shaw of 21 Signal Regiment, Skippering a Contessa 28 from BKYC, was washed overboard and drowned on the Royal Signals Passage Race west of Hundestedt. He was the first fatality from sailing with the RSYC.
In 1989, Captain Andy Bristow (then serving in 7th Signal Regiment in Herford) was selected to join a British Combined Services crew to circumnavigate aboard British Defender in the 89-90 Whitbread Round the World race. The team was lying fifth at the end of the penultimate leg but was dismasted crossing from Fort Lauderdale to the finish at Southampton - crossing the majority of the Altantic under a jury rig in order to finish the race.