Club History

Classic Yacht

A Classic Club
For the Modern Sailor

Our Roots

The Budleigh Salterton Yacht Club was born of a dissatisfaction.

Other yacht club's present during the era were eschewing tradition to welcome new members with less than excellent yachting pedigree and the aura of these establishments was changing.

A small group of dedicated yachtsman came together to form a league of extraordinary mariners.

This was the birth of our singular club.

Signature

The Early Days

Finding The Clubhouse

There have been many homes of the BSYC, sadly a number of the buildings dedicated to holding the many and varied accoutrements of the club have burnt down.

The building which hosted the very first AGM was one such unlucky domicile.

After concluding the meeting the rear-commodore sailing (The reverend Snapcase) succumbed to inebriation and knocked flying a lit candle. 

The subsequent blaze set alight much of the small town of Budleigh Salterton and a small travelling circus camped out on the town green, whose Rhinoceros  broke free and stormed, whilst ablaze, through the town hall.

The incident was later discussed in parliament and was ultimately responsible for the instigation of the law preventing the grazing of Rhinoceri on public land.

Clubhouse
clubhouse2

Later the club membership dwindled and the membership fees could not maintain the upkeep on the lavish halls which had accommodated the assemblage.

Thus it was to number 7 Treecreepers Lane that the club was forced to decamp. The previous owners were notorious for their love of tangerines and the smell could never quite be removed, however, they left a rather fine wine cellar, that kept the members intoxicated for many years.

It was here that the first open regatta was held, with many other distinguished clubs invited to compete. The competition was fought in paper boats of the competitors' fashioning. not every invited club fielded a team and stand in boats representing them were burnt on the start line, beginning a ritual still continued to this day.

A Contemporary Pasquinade

Establishment of an Ethos

Today members of the BSYC can be found all over the globe and within the sanctum of almost every class of racing, or oceangoing yacht.

As the membership grew and became more disparate, the executive committee grew concerned that the problems the club was founded to solve, namely loosing a consistent attitude to new and distant members, would afflict the organisation.

To combat this new rules and guidelines were introduced and members competing in any event were subject to spot checks.

Following an embarassing incident involving a senior flag officer, a pig, two pints of gelatine and a wig, the executive committee agreed to tone back the generally unpopular practice of following members around whilst in disguise.

However, the rules regarding conduct and attitude remain in force to this day.

dragonRacing
Trophies

Members competing in external events are required to comply with a simple set of defined rules.

They must never promote the yacht club to non-members and may only discuss the club with yachtsmen who have proven themselves both competent and disdainful of the interference of governing bodies. 

They must attend any and all drinks parties provided, suggested or organised by the host or any other competitor, impromptu or otherwise.

They must attempt to purchase the first round of drinks, unless a senior flag officer of the BSYC is present.

They must clothe themselves in suitable garments for a representative of the BSYC.

This last rule has been the subject of much discussion and contravention is a common occurrence.

Competition For the Few

Traditional Excellence

At the turn of the century, there was much discussion of the potential for fielding a team to challenge for the America's Cup.

The club had found themselves with a surfeit of funds that needed to be dispersed to avoid a significant tax bill. This combined with a prominent yacht designer and a number of widely applauded professional yachtsmen joining the ranks of the membership, naturally fuelled a campaign to convince the rest of the membership to ascent to submitting a challenge.

A group of malcontents, convinced that the money would be better spent enlarging the wine cellar and disguising the entrance to avoid the tax inspector's wrath, argued that a design must be presented before the club committed.

The designer set to work, however, the time required to design and produce a scale model proved too lengthy; by the time it was presented to the membership all fervour had been diverted to the wine cellar project. 

When the cellar cost began to spiral, the design was sold to the Americans who went on to defend their title using a larger sister ship to the model sat on the entrance table in the BSYC clubhouse.

Americas-Cup
flags

The grand tradition of the BSYC lies in it's broad embrace of competition.

Members have enjoyed great success in a variety of yachts on every continent (including the infrequent circumnavigation of Antarctica, more commonly known as the penguin squasher) and the club aims to support them in their endeavours.

The club also hosts a number of events every year, all are invitational and most are restricted to members only.

The club has earned a distinguished reputation for both excellent racing and sacrosanct debauchery.