Sussex Yacht Club

For the past few weeks there has been a request for information on the dinghy Guy Meadows used to race at SYC. The enquiry originated in an email from Bill Norrie in the USA. Well we've had some luck with this and the following string of emails tell the tale so far.... 

On 28 May 2010 Bill Norrie wrote:

Hello Steve,

Way back in the summer of 1965 I crewed for a chap called Guy Meadows on his 18 ft Intl Dinghy(clinker built). I have been unable to find any photos of the class of boat and wondered if you might have one in your collection at the club.

I would gladly pay for copying, mailing etc..

I have been writing some memoirs of that exciting summer with Guy racing/sailing in the channel.

Bill Norrie, 2513 Yates  St, Denver, CO 80212 USA

Thanks, Bill

On 4 Jun 2010 Steve Vyse wrote:

Bill,

I have posted your question onto the SYC club website (www.sussexyachtclub.org.uk)  where hopefully it will deliver a response.

I will pass on any information as it comes in.

Regards

Steve Vyse

On 20 Jun 2010 Jim Hollingsworth wrote:

Steve,

The dinghy thay Guy had during the sixties was an International 18. 18 feet long with a tall mast. He kept this on a mooring in the river opposite the club house. Because of the tall mast it sailed particularly well in the river catching every little bit of breeze, basically because of the tall mast. My brother and me crewed for Guy on many occasions during 65/66. It was not an uncommon site to have about 100 dinghies racing in the river on a weekend morning. Racing controlled from a starting box on top of an old Dolphin accessed by a dinghy. There were multiple starts for the various classes, the 'gun' being a loud klaxon. The dolphin and box were demolished around 1980 I think.

Regards

Jim Hollingsworth

Bill,

I've had the following response from Jim Hollingsworth, one of our current members here at Sussex Yacht Club regarding Guy Meadows boat;

The dinghy thay Guy had during the sixties was an International 18. 18 feet long with a tall mast. He kept this on a mooring in the river opposite the club house. Because of the tall mast it sailed particularly well in the river catching every little bit of breeze, basically because of the tall mast. My brother and me crewed for Guy on many occasions during 65/66. It was not an uncommon site to have about 100 dinghies racing in the river on a weekend morning. Racing controlled from a starting box on top of an old Dolphin accessed by a dinghy. There were multiple starts for the various classes, the 'gun' being a loud klaxon. The dolphin and box were demolished around 1980 I think.

Regards

Jim Hollingsworth

I had a bit of a dig around online and found that the boat was a National 18 rather than an International 18 which are the skiffs on Sydney harbour.

Looking at the National 18 website ( http://www.national18.com ) I can see that Guy entered the boat Nimbus (sail number 236) for the championships on a number of occasions, coming 9th in 1963, though the association does not have any recent record of the boat which is listed as missing.

I've not had any luck finding a photo in the club but I suspect that if you ask the class association using the above website for contact details they should be able to help you.

Good luck with the memoirs.

Regards

Steve Vyse

On 21 June 2010 Bill Norrie wrote:

Steve and Jim,

Thanks so much for the quick response. This delightful piece of history and co-incidence will certainly add to the memoir writing - it is fascinating to think that we crewed for Guy at the same time but unfortunately never met.

I was in the process of immigrating from Zambia/ South Africa to the US and had a six month stay in England. We now live in Denver, Colorado.

Best regards, Bill

PS. I hope England can pull it together and win their next match v Slovenia on Wednesday.