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HISTORY
| On 11th May 1959 forty-three people attended
a meeting at The Crusoe Hotel, Lower Largo, to establish whether
there was enough interest to form a Sailing Club. At the start of this
first season thirty-four members joined with twelve boats for
an annual subscription of £1. By the end of the season membership
had risen to sixty-five and the rest is, as they say, history. To start
with there were many different types of boats represented including non-racing
boats and motor-boats, but in1960, after much discussion many of the members
decided to race the Enterprise dinghy. At that time the Enterprise came
in many forms including kits and half finished hulls. Members paired
off and vanished into their garages over the winter to reappear in spring
ready to go with a sizeable fleet of boats. The Enterprise established
Largo Bay Sailing Club as one of the premier dinghy racing clubs
in Scotland, a reputation it still enjoys today.
The next problem was getting a clubhouse. For most of the sixties members changed on the beach (although few had wetsuits or other specialised gear) or in any number of nearby garden sheds but the club was then given a sea front plot by James Gillies of Cardy House, Lower Largo. |
Bluebell series early '70s |
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| A wooden builders hut was put there and this gave sterling service for a number of years and a bit of it was still behind the clubhouse until the recent renovations finally put paid to it, but a better building was needed.While methods of financing were being discussed at length, one of the members, Jimmy Russell, built a new clubhouse over the winter of 1968/69. His contracting business had spare manpower at that time and he was happy to wait for payments so he just got on with it. The members did the interior and exterior fitting out and decorating, and the new clubhouse was ready in time for the 1969 Mirror Championship. The Mirror Dinghy was also a major influence on the first 20 years of the club. Nearly everyone had one, often in addition to their main racing boat and a number of Trophies were sailed for using teams of Mirrors, usually with juniors in the crews. Gradually newer plastic boats appeared, of which the Laser was pre-eminent, bringing a whole new group of sailors into the club. Many of these sailors progressed to the high performance dinghies with trapeze sand spinnakers such as the Fireball and 505 and this latter boat is still sailed successfully at the club. The first asymmetric in the club was an International14 and we soon got used to its distinctive profile as it hurtled through the water in a cloud of spray. It is fair to say that the rescue crews quickly became adept at spotting its equally distinctive 'skiff' shape as it lay capized. Then came the ISO which was a little more manageable and became popular because of the possibility of having a lighter crew and still keeping up in the challenging conditions often found in LargoBay. Its smaller stablemate, the Buzz, has also been competitive here, but it maybe that the RS400 and the 29er are going to be the boats of the future in the club. |
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ClubClubhouse just before the start of the renovation and extension |
........into
the new millennium
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