History of BJSC

  1988 I arrive in Brixham with my dinghy in tow and join the local yacht club.

What! No sailing….Only yachting…..Oh dear!

  My idea was to uphold the charter of BYC which says – “BYC is formed to promote sailing.” I also wanted some dinghy sailors so we could race proper boats. So I set about it.

  Dave Edwards (who remembered the BYC cadet days of old), Lynn Fitzgerald, Tony Ridd and I started informal training of local youngsters including family members. My girls never bothered. With lobbying and inside support from the BYC committee we formed a junior section whose sole purpose was to teach young people.

  In the early days we read a few books on training, invited others to help such as Mike Fitzgerald and Mike Hannaford and BYC bought us some Wayfarers. We launched them and those who did not like it at least had the experience and gained from having achieved a skill.

  Very Dad’s army in the 1990’s but we trained over 100 juniors – most escaped to other things but occasionally we had second years and race training. Now I see many ex juniors sailing on yachts. Two are professional sailors.

  Things improve with time and I became a senior instructor and we gradually took on more help; many supplied from the crew of apiano! Peter Chrystie , Mike Inness, Peter Goldsworthy, Jane Silver and many others swelled the ranks and training became more formal and consistent.

  Terry Phillips became principle of the yacht club and they were granted RYA training status. All commodores have supported the junior section and in 2003 we decided to form BJSC as a legal entity supported by BYC. Lynn, Dave and I are now supported by a strong team of helpers. In 2004 we bought 6 new Picos. Peter Bartlett added his considerable weight. Emily, Anna, Jerry, Adrian Fricker and Kevin Wright joined us. Even the juniors are getting involved in helping!

Now we are looking towards training more instructors from our existing staff and have recently made a giant step by forming an alliance with the local grammar school. We may soon double the usage of the club.

  The Outlook – to reach such success at retaining sailors that they will start racing soon. Maybe 2008 is the year - 20 years too late for me. We will continue “to promote sailing in Brixham” as Brixham Junior Sailing Club.

  Some stars have been left out of this mini history – sincere apologies.

 Stephen Linley-Shaw