By Euan Stretch
For those taking their daily exercise along The Beach in Clevedon it is difficult to miss the long, two-storey wooden-clad building that is the home of Clevedon Sailing Club (CSC). Dodging sailors rigging their dinghies on the prom and hearing the blast of an air-horn signalling the start of racing is a regular feature of life in the town.
For centuries sailboats have danced on the muddy waters off Clevedon Bay but it was only in 1947 that CSC was formed over a few pints in the bar of the then Royal Pier Hotel.
It was started by a motley band of sailing enthusiasts, some of whom were ex-members of Clevedon Canoe club and who had put sails on their canoes or had bought new light-weight dinghies and wanted to sail them off The Beach.
Previously sailing had been conducted in heavy, clinker-built dinghies and small cruising sailboats a mile away at the The Pill where they were moored on a heavy steel chain.
Sailing in these waters was so perilous that in 1953 the club spent £110 on a 28 foot ex-lifeboat which was converted into a safety boat and named it after the club’s first commodore.
Cruisers also face other perils, including sailing off the coast at Pilning which at times was used by the army as a live firing range.
But boat-building technology improved and a new breed of light-weight dinghies like Merlin Rockets and International 14s were winning all the trophies and could be easily launched from The Beach.
The town’s sailors were keen to sail these new fibre-glass and plywood dinghies and the slipway was extended for this purpose in 1957.
Contact Info
Address:
The Beach, Clevedon BS21 7QU, United Kingdom
Phone: 44 1275 875916
Email: clevedonsailingclub@outlook.com
Website: www.clevedonsailingclub.com
