Founded by A.W. Bourner (O.B.E) in 1959

The club is located on the north shore of the Medway in Cockham reach, opposite Chatham dockyard, almost mid way between Hoo Ness Y.C. at Hoo and Medway Y.C. at Upnor. The club house and dinghy park are surrounded by woodland, which has S.S.S.I. (Site of Special Scientific Interest) status, and the two slipways give access to a shingle beach with launching at all states of the tide.

The club was founded by A.W. Bourner O.B.E., FALPA., (universally known as Bert) who was a pupil at Wilsonians Grammar School in Camberwell, South London from 1914-1918. He was a very successful businessman, being a Director of a company of estate and property agents in the West End of London and having a farm in Sussex and a large commercial garage in Edenbridge. In spite of his success he never forgot his school days (as a Camberwell boy made good) and was responsible for the purchase of a large sports ground in Hayes for old boys of the school, whose association was called the 'Old Wilsonians' (OWA).He developed an interest in sailing, having a small flotilla of boats and a number of yachts (the last of which was 'Firecrest') and founded the club in the belief 'that all people (and the pupils of Wilsons in particular) should be able to sail'. The requirement to encourage school members and boys from Camberwell was to challenge the club for some time ' mainly because of the travelling. Bertie was very persuasive and used his business, money and connections to further this aim. For instance, having good relationships with W.St.J Brice, owner of Cockham Woods and getting Harold Auten VC, DSC, Elder of the Trinity Brethren (another OW) to be the first president of 'The Old Wilsonian Sailing Association (OWS)'. The influence of Harold Auten is not documented, apart from a letter stating ' can get the admiralty to do anything', which probably accounts for the assistance from Medway Ports Authority and the Naval Dockyard. Thus in 1959 Bert started the club with 6 boats ' an Osprey, GP14, Enterprise, Day boat, 2.5 ton sloop and a motor boat, all launched from Hoo Ness where a couple of garages, a car park, a path through the woods together with the dinghy park were leased from W.St.J Brice. Bert's private secretary was despatched from London, looking very unhappy in bowler hat, directing contractors to clear the path and dinghy park.

The initial problem was that none of the OWs could sail, but Bert was a member of the 'Little Ships club' and asked one Paddy O'Connell to assist and he persuaded two instructors from the LCC sailing club at Putney to join. Thus from a start of 14 members the club finished 1960 with 45 members and 3 instructors so commencing a continuing tradition of training. It was also clear that members other than Old Wilsonians had to be accepted to build up membership ' though they had a restricted membership. Changing at Hoo Ness and then walking along the beach to the dinghy park was clearly restricting sailing, so Bert arranged for a 90 foot wrought iron barge 'Tuna' to be converted at Greenwich. The barge had accommodation, kitchen, club house, coal fired boiler and race box. This was moored opposite the club by the Medway Ports Authority in September '61' the uniform could easily have been mistaken for the 1920's!

By 1963 another Wilsonian tradition was started, namely 'winter work parties' or DIY in today's parlance, with members being instructed to 'bring your own spade/fork, wheel barrow or garden roller' which had to be dragged along the beach from Hoo to the dinghy park. This was one of a series of expansions of the dinghy park to enable the club to have sufficient extra members to be viable as, whilst Bert still regarded and used the barge as his private club,(not unreasonably as he expended much effort and a recorded expense of '20,000 plus a large sum in the 60's), the committee realised that he would not support the club for ever. The club struggled to become viable, putting in place measures such as a race fee (1 shilling or 5p in modern parlance) while the bar became a significant source of income with club visits from Sheppey, Leigh and Gravesend sailing clubs. By '66 the club committee appreciated the barge had limited expansion and unpredictable maintenance requirements and recognised the need to move to a shore based club house ' achieving this was to take more than a decade. In the interim, the barge, with its little quirks like coal fired water heating, had to be maintained and modernised, giving such luxuries as electric light (from a generator) and gas for cooking.

The club, from its initial need to train members to get boats on the water, gradually formalised training with an early schedule requiring members to be able to ' beat, gybe under control, reach and know the rules of collision' before taking club boats out. By '76 members had worked with the legendary Bob Bond in the Medina, testing training schedules which must have helped the award of Recognised Training Establishment status by the RYA, one of the first non educational clubs to achieve this. In 2000 the club was awarded RYA Volvo Championship status which greatly assisted in training junior members and raising the numbers and standards of instructors.

The club continues to run sailing and powerboat courses every year with other courses supplied as the demand requires. A junior week was well established in the '70's and continues to this day, though now missing the additional fun of overnight accommodation on the barge.

From small beginnings the club membership increased, with the dinghy park being regularly enlarged to assist the expansion and in common with many other clubs membership peaked in the '70's to 370 members ' partly assisted by smaller boats such as Mirror dinghies (limited to 75 in the club!) which enabled 250 dinghies in the park. As larger dinghies became more common the membership reduced but has stabilised around the 200 mark with facilities, to be expected in the 21st century, that would have been the envy of earlier members. As an instance in the early years members were expected to self rescue with often unreliable and slow safety boats with no radio. In fact the only way to contact assistance from barge or dinghy park was to 'send a runner' to Hoo Ness but luckily this was never required. When donations were requested in '63 for a new rescue boat and willingly given, one member added an additional donation for the scow 'which does such sterling work towing the rescue boat!' Over time the boats were upgraded, a telephone installed and a radio system installed. The club now has 3 RIB's, a displacement committee boat and a small outboard rigid for training courses.

The debate over the traditions and character of the barge against a shore based club house continued. However, despite many attempts for designs, combined with fund raising and searches for grants, no affordable scheme was produced. To the surprise of all, outline planning permission for a club house was given in '79. However, in '82 a design, using minimum labour content was produced and grants again sought but declined until the Manpower Services Commission offered free, supervised labour with the condition that the design was labour intensive. The design was rapidly changed and this unlocked the door to grants from the Sports Council and Kent Playing Fields Association, with construction commencing in late '82 in the wettest winter for many years. The clubhouse opened in '84 and the barge 'Wilsonian' was sold to be used as a houseboat on the Thames. The improved facilities enabled the club to host the dinghy fleets starts for the Medway Regatta. The clubhouse has been continually improved over time. A new generator house and external disabled toilet was added in '93 and an extension, giving larger changing area and a veranda was completed in 2000.

Facilities

Our facilities allow all types of dinghy sailing throughout the year. The club has a development plan to ensure its facilities are kept up to modern standards.

• Changing facilities with hot showers.
• Changing, shower and toilet facilities for disabled persons.
• Fully equipped kitchen and bar area where food is served on race days, most Saturdays and at special club events.
• A sunny veranda overlooking the Medway.
• Car Park for over 140 vehicles.
• Trailer storage compound.
• A separate camping area used during specific events.
• Space for over a hundred dinghies contained within a secure fence.
• Secure sheds for housing the safety boats and other equipment.

The tracks in the dinghy park have been recently repaved with block work to make it easy to move boats around the park

There are two slips that can be used to access the river through gates which are unlocked on race days. Each has a freshwater hose by the gate for washing down boats and sails. There are motorised winchs for pulling the heavier dinghies and safety boats up the slip.

Dinghy Park

For an annual fee, members can store and have access to their dinghies whenever they need.

Boat Hire

The club has a fleet of boats available for members to hire, some of which are free, and are intended for:

• Members who do not yet have a boat of their own.
• Members whose own boat is temporarily out of action.
• Members own boat is a single-hander but the member wants to sail a double-hander or vice versa

Boats available:

• Wayfarer
• Laser 2000
• Wanderer
• Topper
• Laser (Standard, Radial, and 4.7)
• Tera
• Optimist

Availability:

• Saturday afternoons and Sundays during the main season
• Sundays while the Warm-up and Winter series are running
• Wednesday evenings when the Wednesday Evening racing is taking place

Classes

We encourage people to sail certain classes that suit the conditions found on the Medway. For young sailors who are doing training, we recommend Teras, Toppers, Laser Radials and Fevas. For adult training, we use 2000s, Laser radials and Wayfarers. For racing its always much better to have other boats of the same class to race against and so we encourage the, Miracle, Streaker, Laser Radial (and Lasers with the full-size rig), Blaze, Wayfarer, RS200, 2000, Musto Skiff, and RS800.

2000s

2000s have their own fleet, which the club supports with class prizes and by providing them with their own starts. The class also organises events of their own and give a lot of assistance to their more novice members.

Handicapped fleets with the Portsmouth Yardstick

Within the handicap fleets, members are free to choose the fleet and hence the course they sail.  The following classes are typically included:

• Fast Handicap:
  • RS 800
  • Musto Skiff
  • RS 700
  • RS 600
  • RS 100
  • RS Aero
  • Alto
  • Osprey

• Medium Handicap:
  • 3000 (Laser and Vandercraft)
  • Buzz
  • Blaze
  • Wayfarer
  • Laser Standard
  • RS Vision
  • RS 200
  • Phantom
  • National 12

• Short Course and Junior Fleet:
  • Streaker
  • Miracle
  • Topper
  • Laser 4.7 & Radial
  • RS Feva
  • Byte
  • Optimist

Safety

The club takes the Health and Safety of its members and other users of the river and local environment very seriously.

During race days we have access to up to three RIBs which are used as safety boats for the different fleets that are sailing on any given day. The RIBs are skippered by members who have all completed the RYA Level 2 Power boat and Safety Boat courses.

The role of the safety boats are:

• to come to the support of any dinghy crews that require it
• act as guard boat when any large ship passes down or up the river in close proximity of all craft to ensure club members keep their dinghies clear
• to keep the race officer informed by radio of any developments on the river

Level 2 Power boat and Safety boat courses are run annually for members.

The club is keen to help maintain the river and its shoreline to a high environmental standard and participates in an annual rubbish collection along the Medway shore.

Duties

Every area of the club is managed club by members in order to keep it fit for purpose and running that it has been accustomed to since 1959.

All adults on the following memberships are obligated to undertake duties:

• Full (Single)
• Family
• Youth/Student
• Life
• Support

Each member over 18 on the 1st January is required to partake in three duties per year, two in the main sailing season and one winter work party.

We manage all duties through an external system knows as DutyMan . Once you become a member you will be given access, although as a member it is your responsibility to ensure you can sign-in successfully. If you have any issues doing so, please email a href="mailto:duties@wilsoniansc.org.uk">duties@wilsoniansc.org.uk

Once the Sailing Programme has been approved, DutyMan will be opened initially for the Chief Duty Officer and Race Officer Duties to be filled, and after a short time all other duties are available to be selected on a first-come first-served basis. After another short time, duties will be automatically assigned to you and you will receive an email stating the dates that you have been given.

You can use DutyMan to confirm nearer the time of your duty that you will be attending although it is a requirement of the Chief Duty Officer to contact each member a couple of weeks in advance of your duty to ensure that the club is staffed appropriately for that day.

If you are unable to fulfil your duty, it is your sole responsibility to find a suitable replacement. By accessing DutyMan, you can see a list of members and their contacts number and a system to help request a swap. Additionally, you can use the form on the right of this page which lets the membership know that you need a swap, and that they can contact you directly to do this. Using this form does not negate your duty responsibility, it is a method of reaching out to see if anyone can help.

Duty types

Main sailing duties start from 9am until close (approximately 5pm) and can be one of the following:

Chief Duty Officer

• Manage the running of the club and its safety for that day.
• Opening and closing of the security elements of the club.
• Contact duty crew prior 2 weeks prior to the duty date.
• Ensure those due on duty are aware of their obligations.
• Ownership of any incidents that may occur during the day.
• Assist other duties if they are busy or under resourced.

Assistant Chief Duty Officer

• Assist the Chief Duty Officer in their duties.

Race Officer

• Opening and closing of the race box.
• Setting up the racing schedule for that day.
• Overall responsibility of the racing.
• Ensure Safety Boat crews understand the days racing format.
• Start and manage all the racing taking into consideration safety and the duty resources available.
• Recording of results.

Assistant Race Officer

• Assist the Race Officer in their duties.

Assistant House Officer

• Kitchen duties to prepare food as designated by the House Officer.
• Serve food and drink as required by members.
• Close down kitchen at the end of the day.

Safety Boat Helm

• Locking and unlocking of the safety boats.
• Ensure the safetly boat is fit for use.
• Responsible for launching and recovering the safetly boat.
• Communicate progress and potential risks or issues to the other safetly boats and Race Officer.
• Alert any issues regarding the safety boat to the Chief Duty Officer so that it may be logged.
• Ensure that the changing room floors are washed down at the end of the day.

Safety Boat Crew

• Assist the Safety Boat Helm in their duties.

All duty crews

• Assist with the cleaning and removal of rubbish.

Other roles

Apart from member duties, there are a number of other roles that help with the running of the club and we are always looking for members to join the committee to take on additional roles.

• Commodore
• Vice Commodore
• Rear Commodore
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• Committee Member
• House Officer
• Dinghy Park Secretary
• Duty Secretary
• Bosun
• Club Dinghy Manager
• ...plus many more behind the scenes