Frensham Pond Sailing Club 60th anniversary celebrations
by Jim Morley 13 Jun 2013 11:12 BST
8 June 2013
Frensham Pond 60th anniversary celebrations © Jim Morley
In 1953 Frensham Pond sailing club was founded by a small group of twenty people meeting in the local hotel on a miserable January evening.
Sixty years later on a glorious sunny June day a happy 60th anniversary was celebrated. Formal congratulations were voiced by the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt M.P, health minister, who spoke of his days as a schoolboy sailing at Frensham and his suspicion that his former maths teacher, a current sailor he spotted in the audience, might be checking his departmental sums.
In the clubhouse a talk was given by an early member with a slide show of ageing pictures of the club's development across the years. It contained a tribute to the late Norman Morley the club's early organiser who set in train so much that is still visible today. Norman then negotiated the club's lease on its current site.
Then came the programme on the water The Stig challenge is an annual event and this time it took place in a gusting northerly breeze that was a challenge to both the participants and the mystery masked visitor.
Then followed a parade of boats representing every type of racing dinghy through the years. These included a Frensham famous helm, Richard Hart a past champion of the Finn class and still competing in these boats in his seventies. Frensham prides itself on being; "a nursery of champions" and this was emphasised by the number of former champions who came to the start line.
The anniversary race predictably was won by Clive Eplett in his high-performance RS100 followed by brother and sister Roger and Katrina Gilbert in their RS200, and in third a Sailability 2.4R sailor Peter Gregory.
The conditions were challenging with a gusting northerly wind that caused a few thrills and spills, but the water was warm and the safety boats were not needed.
The evening closed with a hog roast, entertainment and dancing. A few of the very young members may be around for the next sixty years but the majority will not.