As I mentioned in my last archives’ item, I will start this one with the article from Up the River of May, 1994 written by past Cat sailor, Bern Leslie, on maintenance matters. With these details you can start planning for your future  winter lay off work.

“now’s the time to .   .   .

….  do a little maintenance and checking to prepare the boat for next season. We’ve spoken many times in the past about all the items which require attention: things like stays, their swages and anchor points and the trampoline stitching etc. One item which rarely gets any attention and does a lot of work is your trailer. Yep, that’s right, that piece of equipment that transports your pride and joy to and from the race each week.

What could possibly go wrong with it? You may well ask. Well, let me draw your attention to a few things worth looking at remembering that if something serious goes wrong you could risk damage to the boat.

Firstly have a look at the tyres for wear, cracks in the walls and check the air pressure not forgetting the spare. Next check the wheel bearings. You’ll have to get a jack under the axle and lift the wheel off the ground to give it a spin. Any strange noise should be investigated. At least it’s worth removing the centre retainers and re-packing them with wheel bearing grease. Your local mechanic will do this for you quite cheaply if you’re not up to the task (Wheels do fall off boat trailers more frequently than you imagine).

Next you need to go over the electrics. Certainly all the lights should be working correctly and also the wiring should not have damaged insulation. The risk of a short circuit is a reality and is most unpleasant if the car wiring is affected as a result of failure in the trailer harness.

Rust can be a problem in the steel framework and any tell-tale signs should be dealt with as they arise. A wire brush and a coat of paint to the affected area should suffice in most instances. Check that the tow hitch and safety chain are secure and working properly.

Last but not least  is the suspension or springs.  Now these are responsible for keeping the axle, wheels and trailer frame together as one unit and so the anchor points need to be inspected to ensure they are not going to cause the obvious catastrophe should they fail. The shackle bolts are a point of interest and these should not show excessive wear.

Finally, give your trailer a lube job. Yeh, that’s right! Your trailer needs lubricating! The tow coupling and electrical plug can use an occasional squirt of WD40 and the rollers need lubricating so they actually turn when they are required to do so. I use a chain lube in a pressure can available from motor cycle accessory shops. I also lube the springs with this to ensure the boat gets a comfortable ride. Silly, I hear you say? Not so, you hear me say! You see more damage can occur during transit than during use in most cases. I see many boats jumping around on the trailer getting unnecessarily punished all for the sake of a little lubrication. All that’s required is a small squirt on the leaf springs and any sliding section located at the end of the leaf set. This allows the spring to flex properly and prevent road shock transmission to the boat and that can only be good.

Well, there you have it, I hope you find this info useful. See you out there … Satdyarvo. – Bern Leslie.”

As I have said before you never know what can be found in old copies of Up the River, so what about you writing an article on the topic of your choice that could be of interest to our current members and then to future CRSC sailors. Go to it and give it to Nicole to print in our magazine!!!!

Now we move on to the 1994-95 season and the July AGM saw the Executive remain the same with Chris Lowe as Commodore, myself as President, Sandra Donovan as Secretary and David Loring as Treasurer. There were many who accepted positions for the first time and I hoped that they would find the experience rewarding. During the course of this AGM Chris Lowe nominated me for Life Membership and this was seconded by Ted Kendrick. In my report in UTR I thanked   everyone for this and wrote “It was totally unexpected and for once I was left speechless”. The latter was very true and does not happen often!

My report included advice that there had been some rule changes and to guidelines and that all should all should read the Year Book carefully. This should be done each season to see if there have been any changes. Also mentioned the ongoing problems of the River-cats around our fleet and that during the off season our Club and two other neighbouring Clubs had an invitation from the Waterways Sydney Harbour Manager to go out on the Waterways launch with him to point out to him the trouble spots where we were having problems with the ferries.

The result of this trip was that Waterways put out a new leaflet which stated that the ferries would give two beeps to indicate their presence to other vessels. This action was to be acknowledged by a crew member of the sailing vessels by the raising of an arm. I cannot remember how for long this continued but it does not happen these days.

Chris Lowe our Commodore advised that a new handicap system was to be in place for this season and this was to be based on the best 3 of the last 4 races (from 5 races previously). New handicaps had been calculated by this new system from the last 4 races from the previous season. He reported that the rock shelf was still emerging with no relief in sight.

My annual report for the previous season was also included in this issue and in this I mentioned that our committee had been considering some alterations to the Club House to improve existing facilities. The plan was to add a second storey to the building to house the canteen and to give more space for our meeting room. It also was to improve the change rooms, showers and toilets. Preliminary plans had been submitted to Ryde Council asking for its support for our application when we lodge plans to the MSB at a later date.

In his Cadet Class report, Herbert Wiedemann, advised that the Saturday midday junior race that had been run on a hit or miss basis in past seasons would be put into a much firmer footing. A junior coaching and racing session would be run between 11 am and 1 pm each Saturday depending on demand and used to coach the youngsters in sailing techniques and racing rules. This was run apart from the normal Sail Training Classes run back then by Nick Brown.

Moving on to the October 1994 issue of Up the River and our Editor starts off with an article. In this he says - ”there are many features about  the CRSC that make it a good Club to belong to but one of its great strengths is the dedication of a number of people who make it function so much easier to allow us the time to enjoy our sailing each Saturday without any hassles”.

He went on to say that when there is a working bee why were there so few who come along to help out on the day. Bob says he can think of some of the reasons “but the one that seems to prevail is (excuse the French) ‘Bugger the club . . . I only go there to sail!”

So when help is required around the Club do not let us be retrograde to 1994 and please make the time to help others with the chores.

My report follows on from this and I wrote that we could only get 15 adult members to help out with a working bee. Then went on with the comment that it is surely not too much to ask to help out for an hour or two to keep the Club House up to scratch, so please remember this when next time help is requested.

The Ryde Council rejected our plans for the second storey addition to our Club House. David Loring had a vigorous onsite meeting with some 11 councillors and council employees together with 5 of our Committee members to discuss it. The outcome was that our space problems were recognised and the people from Council indicated that a horizontal extension to the Club House may be reviewed more favourably by Council. There was an article about this in the Northern District Times of August, 1994 but I do not have a copy of this to quote it in detail. If you have a copy of this item I would appreciate it if I could see it.

Plans were submitted to Council for a horizontal development to give more changeroom and toilet facilities, larger meeting area and some boat storage and this was to be discussed by Council at their November meeting.

My report also advised that the Management Committee had been discussion a possible name change for our Club prior to our 50^th anniversary. For those current members who do not know the history of our Club’s name in 1945 when it started it was named Concord & Rhodes Open Sailing Club, some years later the “Open” was dropped to become Concord & Rhodes Sailing Club. Then in the early 1960’s it as changed to Concord & Ryde Sailing Club which was appropriate as we were trying to find a site for a new club house in the area and as I said in my report “it was an each-way bet”. This proved to be an omen as there were too many boats to rig at our Club House on the south side of the river, so many boats were rigging on the north side where we are now situated. A few years prior to this discussion we had changed our name to Concord & Ryde Sailing Club Inc. and we had still retained our initials of CRSC. A name under consideration was Ryde Sailing Club Inc which would have made the initials RSC and this would have clashed with the initials of other sailing clubs. Any change was not resolved for some time after this report but it was decided to remain with our title of that time and retain CRSC.

I also made a note that the River Cat masters had been very careful coming through our fleet in the recent weeks prior to this issue. They had decided that the hooter would only be sounded if they felt it necessary to get the attention of our skippers.

The Commodore reported that the training sessions for the Cadet Class as mentioned earlier in this article had been suspended on 24^th September due to many who were interested did not own their own boat and the Club boats were being used by the learn to sail classes and so could not be used.

At this point it is probably appropriate to reproduce an article from this issue that Sandra Donovan wrote about the origin of our Cadet Class which went back a long way. It was called “It’s great fun – but how did it all begin?” and Sandra wrote the following.

“The 1994/95 season is another milestone in the history of our Club. It marks 30 years since the formation of the Cadet Division! The history of this division is one that many of us know well. How did it all begin?

We need to go back to the end of the 1963/64 season when the Committee under President Kent McDowell was gravely concerned at the small number of boats sailing at the Club.

A total fleet of between 10 to 25 boats sailed that season in the Club’s two divisions – Skates and Vee Jays. A great deal of discussion took place as to the Club sponsoring a Junior Class. The feeling was unanimous that not one class be favoured and that it be open to any Junior Class. At the General Meeting in April, 1964, it was resolved that for a boat to be eligible to sail in the Junior Division it must be creed by youths under 15 years of age and be ineligible to sail in any other Class. A change was needed in the Constitution to lower the minimum age for membership to 8 years.

Over the next few months, a membership drive was instigated. Enormous effort went in and approaches were made to Ryde and Concord RSL Clubs and local industries for sponsorship of a junior training boat. The Ryde and Burwood Chambers of Commerce were approached for information regarding public displays and parades at which the Club could be publicised.

The first members of the Junior Division (subsequently called the Cadet Division) were accepted at the monthly meeting of August, 1964 and they were brother and sister Chris and Sandra McDonald. Their Sabot was named Wendy Too (named after their four year old sister). Thirty years on all three, Chris, Sandy and Wendy (the sister, not the boat) are still members. Chris is a non-sailing member while Sandra and Wendy terrorise the NS14 fleet each Saturday.

By the October 1964 meeting Don Melrose reported that he had a group of 22 in his training class – 16 boys and 6 girls. He suggested that the parents of Cadets should be encouraged to join the Club and a BBQ was organised.

The training classes were so successful that Bob Montgomery was appointed ‘Commodore of the Junior Training Division’ and a race programme was set up on Saturday mornings with a triangular course set between Reynolds, Brays Bay and ‘Home’ (Bridge). It was decided that no race entry fees should be charged for this [RB1] division and that shed rent would be three shillings per week.

Initially, under the guiding hand of Don Melrose and Bob Montgomery (who on a number of occasions opened his home for social functions for Cadets and their families) this new division went from strength to strength. The following season the Club became affiliated with the Manly Junior Association and during the 1966/67 season hosted its first Invitation Race for Manly Juniors at which 40 boats competed.

The same season the Club hosted the Zone elimination trials over two days. There were 35 entries and it is noted that Club boat Aquila, sailed by Murray Rottenbury, qualified to compete in the State Titles for the second year running.

By 1968/69 there were as many as 22 starters in the morning races and it was decided to allow Manly Juniors to sail the senior course in the afternoon once each month. However, as the morning winds failed in the second half of the season, Manly Juniors were allowed to sail permanently in the afternoon.

Over the next few seasons, the Juniors acquitted themselves very well, with good results at interclub level and as many as four boats qualified for the State Titles.

The 1969/70 season saw a couple of converts from the Heron Class. After crewing with their respective Dads, Malcolm Lloyd-Owen moved into a new MJ called Rufus (what else!) and Allen Grimwood into Vulture. As the years passed those early members had moved into other Classes and the Cadets, with some fluctuations, remained around 15 boats.

A general downturn in Club membership on 1975/76 had the Cadet Division suffering also. Graeme Thompson took on the role of Training Officer in an attempt to attract new members and by the following season the numbers were up around eight to nine boats but these numbers declined even further over the next few years.

Warwick Wood became Cadet Class Captain in 1980/81 and took over the reins as Training Officer. Among the new Cadets that season were many second generation Club members including Stephen Donovan. The numbers rose over the next few seasons to nine boats,

Nick Brown took over as Training Officer in 1984/85 but in the ensuing years the Cadet Division became almost extinct due to the uncertainty facing the Club with the duplicate Ryde Bridge being constructed.

That uncertainty is now history and when the new Club House was built in 1987, Nick Brown – with the help of some former Cadet Division members - continued to conduct the training classes in his own inimitable style. With the trend towards single-handed boats the Club decided in 1988 to adopt the Sabot as the preferred Cadet Class but remaining open to any recognised junior class boat.

Into the 90’s and it has been difficult to rebuild the Cadet Division up to anything like the early days, but just ask anyone who was a member of that division at any time over the past 30 years what they remember most

The answer they give? -  It was great fun! “

Please note of course for those who do not know the Sandra McDonald mentioned is actually Sandra Donovan and still a member (actually a Life Member) after another 30 years Kent McDowell is now an Honorary Member. Also, Chris and Wendy are still non sailing members!!!!! So now 60 years in all and I think they would be our longest CRSC members except for Life Member, Don Melrose who was sailing with our Club not long after it was founded by his father and others. Also mentioned by Sandra in her article were Stephen Donovan and Nick Brown who are still members of CRSC.

I will follow up with this issue of UTR in my next article.

Good Sailing!!!!

Ron Burwood - Archivist