Club history from founding member Robin Judah

As we approach the clubs 70th anniversary, what better time to revisit the club's beginnings.

Robin Judah, one of the founding members and the clubs first vice-commodore, wrote a fantastic memoir of the club's origin a few years back.

It serves as a reminder of the club's longevity and importance in the history of UK team racing. It also reminds of the ultimate purpose of Castaways - to form a permanent bond between alumni of all London's university sailing clubs.

This is an important read for all - thank you Robin and the fellow founding members of Castaways!

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"I realised how little was known about the early days of ULSC and that something needed to be done about it. If the early history is not written down soon, it might simply be forgotten.

Since I think I may be the sole surviving founder member of both ULSC and Castaways, I think it would be a good idea if I were to write down what I can remember before it is too late. But just to put ULSC’s early history into context, some understanding is needed about the nature of post-war society in 1948 when the story begins.

Britain was still a long way short of recovery from World War II. The nation’s coffers had been heavily depleted by the war effort and money was generally in short supply. Rationing was still in effect for certain food stuffs as well as clothing and other things also. The Universities were struggling – being crammed well beyond normal capacity with ex-military people whose life trajectories had been delayed by war service. Life was hard and a bunch of students wanting to form a sailing club was not going to be high on anybody else’s agenda. So scrimping, improvising and self help were very much the order of the day.

Those things said, in 1948 when I enrolled as a student at Chelsea Polytechnic (then a London University college) I was interested in sailing, but there was no university sailing club. However, I somehow learned of a chap called Barry Costin – a University College architecture student – who

wanted to do something about this and was holding regular meetings of like minded students to see what could be done. This seemed like a good idea so I went along to listen and help if I could.

"There was no money, nowhere to sail and no boats"

The first few meetings were depressing affairs. There was no money, nowhere to sail and no boats apart from two aged National 12s named Coot and Tabitha, belonging to University College and presumably in storage somewhere. Nobody could see any way forward until someone happened to mention a reservoir somewhere in North London called Welsh something or other. This seemed well worth investigating because if we could find somewhere to sail, we would at least have some basis for approaching the various college authorities for grants to buy boats.

My friend John Reece – a fellow sailing enthusiast and student at Chelsea Poly – had a motorbike and one Saturday afternoon he and I rode up the Edgware Road to see what we could find. After several miles we found a pub called The Welsh Harp where we stopped to have a beer and interrogate the publican regarding the whereabouts of the presumed reservoir. Good directions were given and we duly found ourselves motoring along the North Circular Road looking at a perfectly splendid and empty piece of water on our right hand side. After a couple of right turns we arrived at the north west corner of the reservoir where there was a small house and a huge and terrifying dog lunging and barking at us. Roused by the commotion a man emerged from the house, shut the dog up, introduced himself as the lock keeper and asked who we were and what we wanted. Upon our explanation he became quite friendly and advised us to contact his bosses The Docks and Inland Waterways

Authority whose address he gave us. A letter to them was duly sent asking if they would consider making their reservoir available for London University students to park a few boats (well ……. Coot and Tabitha anyway) on their land for weekend sailing. The D and I W gave short shrift to our letter and firmly replied that our idea was out of the question. This was gloomily reported at our next meeting whereupon one of those present said that his family knew an MP who might be approached to write to the D and I W pleading our case. Well, improbably the MP obliged and even more improbably the D and I W wrote back agreeing after all to our request subject to a strict limit of a maximum of six boats.

Yipee! – and off we went to our various college authorities asking for grants for a boat each. Fireflies seemed like the best bet and Faireys were selling them for something less than £100, I think. Surprisingly quickly, Chelsea Poly, Imperial College, Northampton Engineering College and a syndicate of colleges (which ones I can’t remember) were given grants for one boat each which – together with Coot and Tabitha (which could race against Fireflies) – made up the six!

Wow!! Four Fireflies were obtained, Coot and Tabitha were found and spruced up and we were up and running.

All of the above would have been going on during 1948/49 I think. But there was much still left to do. The site between the lock keeper’s cottage and the water was just a waste area of boulders, rocks and weeds, so the boats had to be hand carried over all of this and into the water. Also, racing marks had somehow to be laid (I suspect that at first we had to go out and drop temporary floats from the boats and then retrieve them after racing, but my memory on this is not clear).

There was of course no shelter or loo, so for the first winter it was a case of girls behind this bush and boys behind that one. During that winter, we managed to construct a pontoon which floated at the water’s edge, and this made launching easier as well as giving the ability to leave the boats in the water between races. We also bought a portaloo which was duly christened “Seagrim Villa” in an official inauguration ceremony.

Then we heard of a nissen hut in the East End of London which was for sale at £14 – buyer to demolish and remove. This seemed to be a heaven sent opportunity to actually acquire a club house! So we duly found and paid the £14 and one Saturday, armed with various destructive implements, drove University College’s lorry to the site, knocked the thing down, loaded the relevant surviving bits onto the lorry and delivered everything to the Harp all before dark!

The remains of the old nissen hut (the curved metallic bits) duly sat for some time all piled up somewhere amongst the rocks whilst we wondered how on earth to put it all together again. I should add that no planning permission was ever sought for our plan to reconstruct the thing. Indeed, had we asked, it would almost certainly have been refused (or deserved to be refused by any self respecting planning authority).

"There was of course no electricity supply so we used paraffin lamps which, together with an old stove, made the place surprisingly cosy."

Anyway, our motley crew included two engineering students from NEC, namely David Ossleton and Norman Collins, who between them directed the necessary reconstruction operations. Firstly a rectangular area was flattened out, levelled and concreted to form the floor. Next, the curved metal bits were erected and fastened together after which a job lot of bricks was obtained to make the semi-circular ends. I, and anybody else who tried it, can vouch that brick laying is not the simple job that watching the professionals might suggest. Anyway, two rather wobbly looking ends were bricked in leaving room for a door at the front end and two windows on the back. The resulting Interior was then divided in half by boarding across the short dimension. The front half formed the communal area and the rear half was further divided into ladies’ and gents’ changing rooms. There was of course no electricity supply so we used paraffin lamps which, together with an old stove, made the place surprisingly cosy.

However, we tended not to linger after racing, preferring to decamp for games of liar dice at a small café in Neasden called Dirty Dick’s. Here it was noticeable that the locals deserted when we invaded, so perhaps good citizenship might have been better served had we stayed put in the nissen hut.

In the meantime we were having a whale of a time sailing hard, instructing novices about sailing and conducting inter-college racing. Other colleges were by now asking why they couldn’t join in, prevented by the rather ridiculous six boat limit. So another begging letter was sent to the D and I W asking for more boats to be allowed. I guess that nothing had happened to cause the authority any displeasure and the total number of permissible boats went up to 25. (In applying for the increase I think we must have been joined by the R.A.F and Handley Page Company, since both of these organisations shortly arrived at the Harp with boats.) I can’t remember how many of the extra 19 boats were allocated to ULSC, but it was certainly significant and surely elevated us to the status of fully fledged clubhood!

"We did our first team racing against Oxford (or was it Cambridge?) "

Turning the clock back a bit, we did our first team racing against Oxford (or was it Cambridge?) University who we invited to the Harp once we had finished the club house. (This was actually before the extra boats had arrived, so in order to have six identical boats the visitors had to bring two of their own Fireflies.) I can’t remember who won, but I can remember that our team comprised Barry Costin crewed by John Bartlett, John Conway-Jones crewed I think by Terry Rodgers and myself crewed by John Reece.

By then, both Oxford and Cambridge Universities boasted well- established sailing clubs and had certainly done plenty of team racing against each other and possibly other university clubs as well as against various non-university clubs too. The Oxford and Cambridge Sailing Society was already well and truly in existence (pre-dating the Castaways concept) and they formed arguably the most polished team racing teams in the UK.

"In due course our “A” team went on to include a woman when – incredibly - women remained barred from membership by no less than Cambridge University Sailing Club.

So, whilst it is not true that ULSC was responsible for originating team racing, the club was certainly very active in helping to popularise this form of the sport. In due course our “A” team went on to include a woman when – incredibly - women remained barred from membership by no less than Cambridge University Sailing Club. Our trailblazer was Barbara Galliford (now Barbara Glasby), to be followed no doubt by many more from the world’s other 50% - at least at civilised clubs like ULSC.

I cannot swear to the exact chronology of all the above, but I know for certain that I graduated in 1951 and that by then everything I have so far described had been completed with time to spare. I think all of us who had contributed to the creation of ULSC found that we had got a good deal more than we had been expecting from our university experience.

"And so the idea of forming Castaways came about as a means of keeping in touch with what had become so cherished."

And that leads on to the formation of Castaways (originally named Castaways Sailing Club). Following graduation, ties with London University and its splendid sailing club had to be severed. But to simply kiss it all goodbye and walk away seemed unbearable to the many of us who had been so deeply involved with ULSC. It was literally our baby. And so the idea of forming Castaways came about as a means of keeping in touch with what had become so cherished. We consulted ULSC who welcomed the idea and so in 1951 the deed was done. The name Castaways accurately described what we had become and the footprint in the sand seemed almost designed especially for us. A splendid and huge flag was made up and duly unfurled amid much cheering at the nissen hut. And yet another new club was born! John Reece was its first commodore and I think I was vice-commodore.

"Castaways went on to become an important force in the promotion of team racing. The first Castaways Cup took place in 1954 followed in the early 60s by the Foot Trophy as a southern answer to West Kirby."

Castaways went on to become an important force in the promotion of team racing. The first Castaways Cup took place in 1954 followed in the early 60s by the Foot Trophy as a southern answer to West Kirby. (In case anyone is wondering, the trophy was a resin cast made by Roger Brown of his left foot.) Looking back on all of this, it is amazing to realise what has resulted out of Barry Costin’s vision – pushed into reality by no more than a bunch of students.

We were surely lucky to have enjoyed perhaps a uniquely propitious window in time – after the war, but before the advent of the nanny state, exemplified by some ubiquitous and ghastly Ministry of You Can’t-Do-That. As it was, we were totally free to get on with what we wanted to do, when we wanted to do it. And get on with it we did!

How lucky we were to have had that freedom!"

Robin Judah (with help from Peter and Barbara Glasby plus Jean Sagues).

January 2015