FROM THE ARCHIVES - #57. UTR Nov, 2024.

I am now up to the May, 1995 Presentation Day issue of UTR and Bob Lindsay, our editor, back then wrote another interesting introduction for the magazine under the title of “50 years: better than Berger’s Paint!”. Bob used the under six soccer team ‘The Berowra Owls” as a background to his article and about the enthusiasm of these youngsters. The background for his article was that he was trying to instil enthusiasm into member to help with the forthcoming work on the first extension we made to our then new Club House. I will quote his article in full as I feel the content is still quite applicable 30 years on:-

“THE BEROWRA OWLS under-six steam full on individuals  - not a great deal of direction but plenty of enthusiasm, get-up-and-go and courage with just one thing in sight: the ball and how to get your boot to connect with it.

It’s interesting, isn’t it, to see young people develop in body, mind and spirit by taking advice from the older and wiser, by following their examples – and that puts us squarely in the arena with a huge crowd watching how WE play the game. The poor old coaches of those young soccer teams really have their work cut out trying to instil and foster a love for the sport and yet be obedient to the rules of the code. Is it not then a case of how the coaches perform that will dictate as to how the team will inevitably perform?

So then, just what has this to do with our Club? Well, I guess that if our forefathers didn’t have a great attitude towards one another and the young so as to foster an on-going love for the sport and establish the western-most Sailing Club on Sydney Harbour what would you and I be doing today?

Our Club exists because we are all individuals but, unlike the six-year-old soccer team, we do have a direct vision under the guidance of the Management Committee. We have a love for the sport, we care about one another, we want to leave something for those  who follow and it is by our example, advice and encouragement to the younger members, that will surely see our Club go on another 50 years.

Our coach over the winter lay-off will be Bryce Ellis. Together we can achieve great things outside our “Class restrictions’ and leave a stronger, more united Club by getting into it and working together on the extensions. Together the Club will keep on keeping on!”           

This extension was to extend the meeting area to the west from the canteen and add the men’s toilets, also the first boat storage area. Our members bent their backs and started into doing the work which took many months. Whether this article by Bob stirred them into their efforts will never be known!

However, his words from 30 years ago are still very applicable to us today as we go on – hopefully for many more years.

My President’s Report in that issue advised that the Management Committee had had a very busy schedule during the season with consideration being given to the above extension, a possible name change as well as preparatory work being done for our 50^th celebration later in the year. I advised that a vote would be taken at the forthcoming AGM on the special resolution prepared by the Management Committee on the possible name change to ‘Ryde Sailing Club Incorporated’.  Advice about this possible change was to be sent members with the official notice of the AGM.

In this issue Ted Kendrick wrote an interesting article under the title of “50 Years On” to cover things from when our Club commenced. It is worthwhile to include this article here as not many of our members would not know about what went on in 1945 – so here it is:-

“Being one of the few members of senior years I have been asked to recollect life as I remember it about 50 years ago – although I dare to say you have heard it all before from parents and grandparents.

We were still very much at war with fighting in New Guinea and Borneo and preparations under way for the push into Malaya and north to Japan. Our school physics in those days was that when the mighty atom was split would be the end of the world and of course the atom bomb was not even used in the comic strips.

Our area of the river was vastly different. The Navy buildings next door was Halvorsens who were I believe making Fairmile and similar rescue craft while opposite in Brays Bay, Tullochs were making small ships which were rolled over into the river.

On the Parramatta side of the railway bridge were swimming baths. This and the park were taken over by the Army for a water transport training unit.

The area at North Ryde for mile after mile, was packed with thousands of motor vehicles. These were moved to the marshalling yard at Ryde Station where they were loaded onto railway trucks 24 hours a day for movement north.

The railway bridge over the Hawkesbury River had a sinking pylon and only one train at a time was allowed to cross at about five miles per hour.

Then if you were travelling anywhere by train it was necessary to know what your station looked like or count the number of stations stopped at as the names had been removed as an invasion precaution.

For those who had cars they were given petrol coupons which allowed about 20 miles travel each week. Some cars were fitted with producer gas units, which were fitted to the back of the car. These burnt wood charcoal which gave off a gas which was all OK. The vehicle performed best on a bumpy road by shaking the charcoal about but sometimes when the driver had to have a look at the burner, this resulted in many men having their hair singed as the inrush of air caused the charcoal to flame.

There were no tubeless tyres so when they became worn and smooth, a canvass liner was fitted inside the tyre over the tube. The headlights had to be covered with hooded slits to allow a little light to fall on the road.

There were no streetlights and homes were blacked out yet there was practically no street violence.

Mothers had the problem of juggling the family’s food coupons for meat, butter, tea, sugar, coupons for clothing and home linen. In the Army we received a token issue of clothing coupons which I remember giving to my fiancée to go on her wedding dress.

Girls could not buy stockings except thick ( I think they were called Lisle) so they painted their legs a light brown with a dark line up the back of the leg to represent the stocking seam, How they drew it straight I don’t know – although willing I was never asked to paint that line!”

This article is all very interesting for the younger generation to know how things were when the Club began in 1945. Not many families had cars and often the youngsters would go to school without shoes as their families did not have coupons or could not afford the cost of shoes. I and my siblings were lucky as my parents managed to buy shoes for us. I am probably one of the few current members who can remember some of these things we experience from that time 80 years ago. I clearly remember the blacking out of homes and the coupons as my grandfather had a grocery store and at the end of each week he had to glue the coupons he received from customer on to sheets for the various items so that he could submit them to his providers for more supplies.

The rest of this issue of Up  the River was taken up with the usual end of season class reports summarising the various series sailed by each class. However, it is amazing that when reading these reports how many of the trophy winning sailors back then are still sailing with us although many in different classes. I did note that in the 1995 Cat Class Steve Levi and Jim Simpson won some trophies and they are still with us in the Cats. In fact last season out of the 35 races sailed Steve had 32 starts and Jim had 31. They are with us again this season!

In this issue another interesting snippet was found in the Spiral Class Captain’s annual summary where he claimed that he was the youngest ever Spiral Class Captain, which he was and he still holds that title! He had just finished his HSC and as he was just commencing university, so felt the he could no longer take on this role. This “youngest ever” title still[RB1]  reigns supreme and probably will remain for the senior classes. So I can advise that 30 years on this then young person has still been sailing with us in a Heron, usually with one of his daughters as crew, and occasionally reverts back to the Spiral and he goes by the name of Chris Loring. In the intervening period he used the skills he acquired in that early role to have a shared period as Heron Class Captain.  Keep up the good work Chris!

I now am now moving on to UTR of August, 1995 which unfortunately was dated 1996, the next issue returned to the correct year. Once more our Editor, Bob Lindsay, started with an article by himself. In this he pondered over the thought that if on the day 50 years prior “when a small band of enthusiasts gathered to formulate the ground rules for this Club had ‘signed off’ with a DNS?” Following on with this thought I would not be writing this article for CRSC’s Up The River as our wonderful Club and magazine would not be in existence. So many, many thanks to our CRSC forefathers.in not arriving at a DNS on that day back in 1945.

My President’s report in that issue covered the AGM and reported on the proposed name change and advised after a lively date the resolution of a change was defeated. So the name remained as “Concord and Ryde Sailing Club Inc.” which happily remains until this date, and I hope that it continues as such in the future.

Also I advised that final approval had been given to proceed with the extensions to the Club House, which was enthusiastically received by all present. It was planned that work would shortly start after the AGM with the driving of the piles and it was hopeful that these would be in place by the start of the season. It had taken some 18 months to get to that stage and it was hoped that members’ commitments to help would be honoured. For members who do not know this first extension was for the meeting area to be extended from the canteen westwards towards the Ryde Bridge and for changes to the ladies’ and men’s change rooms and toilets. The original men’s area section was converted into joining up with the ladies’ area and these areas are now  the current ladies’ area. The new section was added to the back for the gent’s area with an access area along the side – as you know it now. The full new extension was not expected to be finished until the next off season. For those who may wish to see what went on you will find a board with many photos of this work on the Club House wall – some of our current members are there but looking a lot younger than they are today!!!

Planning was commencing for our 50^th Anniversary Celebrations later in the year starting with a dinner at the Ryde Bowling Club on Friday, 10^th November 1955 followed the next day by a special day on the water. More on the actual celebrations in a later article

In this issue of UTR Murray Dismorr wrote a small article on the starting rule and which still remains in force. I will cover this here as it is very important to all our members. The summary of this is:-

“A skipper who signs on and starts or sails in the vicinity of the starting line between its preparatory and starting signals shall be scored as a competing yacht. This means the boat is considered a starter even if it does not cross the start line, If this happens then one has to sign off on the entry sheet as “DNF”. However if a skipper signs on for a race on the starting sheet but then decides not to go out onto the water then she/he has to sign off on the sheet as a “DNS”.”

Just to be sure that the above detail is still correct I have referred this matter to our Commodore, Duncan McRae. Whilst his comments are not from the archives, he has added the following to the above to keep you up to date.

"A skipper who signs on and sails in the vicinity of the start area shall be scored as a competing yacht. However if a skipper signs on but does not reach the start area, then she/he must sign off on the sheet as DNC.

ALL skippers who sign on, but do not finish their race, must sign off with one of DNC (did not reach the start area), DNS (did not start), DNF (started, but did not finish), or RET (started, but retired before or after finishing). This is a safety issue and ensures we account for all boats on the water.

Please see the RRS for the definitions of start and finish."

Your adherence to these requirements will be of great help to the finishers chasing up missing boats after the race and our handicapper with the results.

More from the Archives next issue!

Good Sailing!!!!

Ron Burwood - Archivist