Planing Boats

Perhaps the most significant development in the Club’s dinghy racing are the lighter, classes of planing boats, through which Members have progressed into today’s dinghies that are campaigned internationally.  Thereby hangs both the stimulus and the decline of some classes, within the club.  The smaller craft were affordable and provided exciting sailing: they could easily be transported to meets elsewhere, and the demand for both home and away competitions encouraged their growth in numbers but that depleted the numbers racing at home.  Within the club, some notable sailing celebrities have emerged and gone on to great things.  That success also had its drawbacks – imagine trailing the same superb helmsmen and crew, week after week – but then as those paragons of success found their sailing further afield, with national and international competitions – so, the home-based classes declined.  Nevertheless, as the racing stars progressed, they would go up a class and introduce a new design to the club, which then took root, as other Members acquired them and benefited from the high-class competition.

Before WWII – the Montagu Sharpie

Dinghy racing pre-WWII, other than the Prams or Scows, mostly featured the Montagu Sharpie, a 16ft, heavy, carvel-built boat, originating from Elkins’ yard in Christchurch.  The Montagu attribution arose from the class being commissioned for use on the Beaulieu river.  Like the Prams, they were moored on the river during the season – there being plenty of space for boats to swing to a buoy, in those days.  Their heyday continued post-war and a number were to be seen moored well into the 1950s.  Having names that began with an M, the class included Micawber, which was run down by the car ferry Farringford, but happily both crew-Members survived the ordeal.

The 60s and classes change popularity 

As the 1960s wore on, the not entirely unique situation arose whereby the GP14 was in decline, yet were eclipsed by their predecessors, the Prams, which still existed in some numbers.  At an Easter Regatta in 1963, of the 130 boats participating, 40 were Fireflies and another 40 were Prams – ancient and modern alongside one another.  Time was marching on for the Prams, however and they were seen more on organised cruises than at class racing.  Similarly, although declining in numbers racing, there were still a quantity of GP14s that were sailed individually.

The rise of the 420s

The late 1960s saw the emergence of  classes favoured by the young: notably the Moths, Cadets, Scows, OKs and 420s – quite an eclectic mix.  By the end of the decade, the 420 had been adopted as a Club, yet there was a further fading of more general class racing, as international and open meets attracted participation.  This tendency was later to be addressed by a dedicated racing strategy and the introduction of Thursday Night Racing and other regular fixtures.

Keelboats – the Solent Sunbeam

Of course, the Club was started by Members who also possessed some substantial keel boats, more suitable for cruising than racing, although one of the reasons the Club was created was with racing in mind.  As the Club grew and a wider range of folk joined, so too did the tastes in yachts broaden.  An early class that was popular around the Solent, was the Solent Sunbeam, an open decked 26 footer. Designed by Alfred Westmacott, it resembles his other creations of the XOD and YOD but possesses an extended counter stern and protruding bow. The Sunbeams were Bermudian rigged, from the outset, unlike the originally gaff-rigged X.  All 39 boats were built at Woodnutt’s yard at St Helens, IOW and they were identified by their V emblem on the sail.

Cruiser Racing and the Lymington L class

Cruiser-racing, really took hold before WWII, and again, the echo of picnicking, as well as racing, reflected the Club ethos.  This was first satisfied in the Laurent Giles designed ‘L’ class of four tonner.  A more affordable yacht, the Ls grew in numbers and were built locally; they went on to supplant the WS class, dispensing with the necessity of paid hands. At just over 23 feet long, the Ls were of a classic Laurent Giles style, that went on to be developed in to the Virtue class, still only 25 feet long but went on to distinguish themselves – and the Club – with Humphrey Barton’s crossing of the Atlantic.  Back in the river, there was increasingly intensive racing of the Ls, about which, enigmatically, there is a reference in the Club archives, of a racing cause célèbre that could have led to a public scandal, had not the war intervened.  The cause?  An allegation of a paid skipper giving the owner in question an advantage.  Cheating? Amongst gentlemen of the Royal Lymington?  Surely not!

Larger yachts for Cruiser Racing – the Gauntlet Class

A step up for the cruiser-offshore racer, came with the Gauntlet class, again from Berthon and HG May’s drawing board.  These originally 12, later 14, tonners were very sound, quick and comfortable vessels as might be expected of a 41foot yacht, they had a canoe stern and justified their aim of offering offshore potential. The first vessel of the class appeared in 1934 and a number were acquired by Club Members. The larger version was created just before the war and it was the first post build of these, that was acquired by Major Bill Martineau MC, who went on to be Commodore some years later.  The Members who owned Gauntlets, with their offshore cruising appetites, were said to be a breed apart, within the Club and took themselves off, when irritations like regattas intervened!