Pwllheli Sailing Club - History

History

The club was founded in 1958 in temporary premises to the east of Carreg yr Imbill (Gimlet Rock). In the early days membership was shared with the Gimlet Rock Club, a social club which allowed members to drink alcohol on Sundays, not allowed in public houses at that time. As membership split from the Gimlet Rock Club it migrated into an extension to the GRC building, and had the use of dormitory rooms on the first floor, where the "Bridge" to manage races was also located.

The early membership had several Folkboats and Stellas, and races were hotly contested, with owners sailing to and from the South Caernarvonshire Yacht Club in Abersoch to compete in each other's races.

The club acquired two GP14s, Frisky and Heidi, for members to borrow, and located them in the roughly surfaced dinghy park to the east, between the clubhouse and the derelict "Old Jetty" where there were twin slipways into the harbour. There was a dinghy racing programme from the early days of the club, but this was hampered by the need to borrow Jumbo, the boatyard workboat owned by Partington Marine, to act as safety boat. A seaward slipway was also installed from the dinghy park c1970, though weather conditions meant this was rarely usable both because it was very narrow, and because it was fringed by granite chunks from the old Gimlet Rock Quarry.

In the early 1970s Les Caddick, one of the earliest members, donated a small Dell Quay Dory and outboard, making the club self-sufficient for its safety boat. Though the major membership was for cruising and racing yachts, with many racing in the Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association's annual series, the dinghy side started to increase. There was an annual Long Distance Dinghy Race to Abersoch and back, for example, and the Merlin Rocket national championships were hosted - the first such dinghy championship at Pwllheli.

A strong relationship with Newquay Yacht Club created the annual passage race both from and to Newquay in South Wales.