Wilsonian Sailing Club
Located on the north shore of the River Medway close to the village of Hoo, near Rochester in Kent.

It is prides itself on being a very friendly club that welcomes all visitors and new members. It is probably the largest club solely for dinghy sailors in the north of Kent.

The club is located in woodland on a south facing hillside next to a shingle beach from which you can launch and recover dinghies at any stage of the tide. We have a full racing and training programme and the river provides an excellent cruising area.

Wilsonian Sailing Club has facilities to 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.

The club house has:

• Men's and ladies' changing facilities with hot showers
• Changing, shower and toilet facilities for disabled persons
• Fully serviced kitchen and bar area where meals are served on race days and at special club events
• Sun porch overlooking the Medway
• Car Park for over 140 vehicles
• Trailer storage compound
• Dedicated camping area

In the dinghy park:

• There is space for over a hundred dinghies contained within a secure fence
• The tracks in the dinghy park have been recently repaved with block work to make it easy to move boats around the park
• Secure sheds for housing the safety boats

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 is a motorised winch for pulling the heavier dinghies and safety boats up the slips.

There is racing at Wilsonian Sailing Club generally on at least one day every month of the year.

The majority of weekly racing is held between the club and buoy 16 for the Fast Handicap, or buoy 22, near Kingsnorth Power Station for other classes, but a number of races go further afield. Starting is generally from the fixed club line set across the river from the Race Box in the Dinghy Park, but special events such as Commodore's races and the 3-Race Regatta are started from a committee boat.

February and March

• The nationally famous 'Hoo Freezer' handicap event is organized by the club on behalf of Hoo Ness Yacht Club, usually in February, and attracts top sailors from all over England.
• A Warm-Up Series runs for the five Sundays prior to the season proper, and generally attracts the hardiest or most sailing-addicted members!

April to October

• This is when most of the club racing takes place.
• Class Series Racing with separate starts for Miracles, Laser 2000s, Fast and Medium Handicaps, as well as a Slow Handicap if the demand exists.
• Club Events on five Sundays per season, including Commodore's Series taking place in the afternoons around High Water, when boats choose between Long and Short courses; and a Ladies', Juniors' and Novices/Improvers' on the mornings of Commodore's Series days
• One-Off Events such as the South Kent Race downriver to near Sheerness and back, the Leigh Trophy, a long distance race exploring lesser-used creeks, a 3-Race Regatta, the season opening Ice Breaker and the end-of-season Laying-Up Cup, and Pursuit Races based on personal handicaps.
• Wednesday Series held on evenings from May to August, starting at 1830 hours.
• Wilsonian SC hosts the Medway Dinghy Regatta for the Medway Yachting Association in July; the event is set to top 100 entries and has recently offered class racing for Laser 2000s, Wayfarers, 3000s, Laser Vortexes, Stratos and Wanderers, as well as large fleets of Fast, Medium and Slow Handicap dinghies.

November and December

• The club runs an Open Winter Series, which is well-supported both by club members and visitors, and which offers the choice of Long, Medium and Lapping Courses.

January

• The Winter Series is traditionally rounded off by the Chilly Willies Open Handicap Race on 1st January, which while it is a separate event from the Winter Series, tends to include the same competitors in a single race with entry fees donated to the RNLI.

The club organizes dinghy cruises in addition to the race programme. These cruises which are always timed around high waters are aimed to take members in their dinghies to places on the river the normal race courses do not venture to.

This can include sailing up to Aylesford, the limit of tidal access on the river, and around the creeks of the estuary closer to the sea. The coastal environment of the Medway estuary is of international importance for many migrating birds.

All cruises are accompanied by a safety boat.

Laser 2000 and Miracle classes both have their own fleets, which the club supports with class prizes and by providing them with their own starts in Class Series Racing; these classes also organize events of their own and give a lot of assistance to their more novice members.

Within the handicap fleets, the following classes regularly race:

Fast Handicap (Portsmouth Number up to 1000)
RS800	Musto Skiff	Laser 5000	RS 600
59er	Vortex	Laser 4000	29er
Osprey	RS400	Contender	Laser 3000
Medium Handicap (Portsmouth Number 1001 to 1131)
Buzz	Phantom	Blaze	Kestrel
Wayfarer	Laser 1 & Radial

Wilsonian SC is a RYA Recognised Training Centre and provides training in dinghy sailing and powerboating and is open to all members of the public.

National Dinghy Sailing Scheme - aimed at adults

• Courses cover everything from start sailing for beginners through to seamanship, performance sailing and racing for those who already know the basics of dinghy sailing.
• We typically programme in two courses each year.

Youth Sailing Scheme - for junior/youth members

• A progressive scheme taking students from start sailing through to advanced racing skills and techniques
• We also have Volvo RYA Champion Club status in recognition of our commitment to introducing our young members to dinghy racing and developing their sailing and racing skills
• Junior training sessions are run monthly during the season
• Junior Training Week at the end of August when a fun week of intensive sail training is given in a friendly atmosphere

Powerboat Scheme

• Courses range from Level 1 introduction through to advanced boat handling and navigation.
• Our main focus is on Level 2 and Safety Boat modules to ensure we have a pool of qualified drivers for our safety boats
• The Club enters juniors/youths in the annual RYA Honda Rib Challenge with its final at the Southampton Boat Show

Instructor Training

• The club runs course to train dinghy instructors and race coaches on an ad hoc basis
• The club supports the local Medway Sports Leadership training programme

For more information on the training courses we run throughout the year, please click here to contact the Training Principle.

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

• Members who do not yet have a boat of their own
• Members whose own boat is temporarily out of action
• Your own boat is a single-hander but you want to sail a double-hander or vice versa

Boats available

• RS Vision
• RS Feva
• Topper
• Laser - Standard and Radial rig

Availability
The boats are available during normal club opening times:

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

If you wish to hire a boat, see the Chief Duty Officer on the day and he/she will allocate the boat, explain the hire conditions and take the hire fee.

Current rates are £5 per single hander and £10 per double hander.

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 3 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 is:

• to come to the support of any dinghy crews that require it
• to escort any large shipping down or up the river and ensure club members keep their dinghies well 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.

The Wilsonian Sailing Club 1959 to 2009 - The 50th Anniversary Year

The Wilsonian Sailing 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.

In addition to the sailing programme the club runs social and fund raising events for its members.

Hot and cold lunches are served between races every Sunday during the season.

Examples of special events include:

• The 2009 50th Anniversary Summer Ball
• Annual Dinner and Dance and Prize giving
• Medway Dinghy Regatta
• Christmas Quiz
• Lecture and Supper evenings
• Sunday Evening Roasts and BBQ's
• Children in Need sponsored sail and party

Whilst we encourage our members to sail, they do not have to, and some just enjoy the social events. The House committee work as a team to organize the volunteers needed to put on these events.

A major event is the Medway Dinghy Regatta in July when many visitors come to enjoy the challenges of competitive sailing on the Medway estuary. During the regatta there is a BBQ and disco on the Saturday night as well as catering throughout the weekend.