I arrived at the Harp
in January 1952, about 18 months before WSC was founded.
There were no "individual member" clubs. All the clubs were associated with
organizations such as Smiths of England (now Smiths Industries), University
of London, British Transport, RAFSA, RAF Hendon (Graham thinks RAF Hendon
was part of RAFSA, I don't), Post Office Research Station, Handley Page (where
NCR is now), Cadets, Scouts.
The individual members did not belong to any club and sailed a variety
of boats: Charles Williams a Firefly F442, Alan Cramb a Snipe. In the early
days any boat was acceptable. After the WHSA was set up, boat classes were
restricted but existing boats allowed to stay on. The one very memorable one
was known as WHOD no1 (politely) or the banana boat. It looked like a banana
shaped coffin. The owner (I have now remembered that he was Bryan Anstey,
John Anstey's father; Brian will you please pass this information on to Graham
Kyte?) had built it himself and knew so little about boats that he was not
even sure that it would float. Nobody crewed in it more than once; the crew
was sure that a capsize would mean guaranteed drowning.
Other boats were National 12s (RAF Hendon), Wildcats - a mono hull with a
cat logo (PORS).
There were no concrete berths. The boats were parked on clinker; most of them
did not have trolleys and were supported by chocks at the back. A Firefly
needed four people to launch it, lifting it by means of rope handles through
holes in the deck. There was only one slipway, the one nearest to the clubhouses,
much shorter and steeper than the current one. The starter's box consisted
of a tripod with a bell hung from it at the top of the slipway; protection
from the elements for the race officer was an umbrella (provided he had a
friend willing to hold it up for him). It was thought at the time that a piece
of water the size of the Harp could not support more than about 25 boats.
I can't remember what the other clubs did but the University did not get a
toilet until about that time. We were given a small nissen hut (named Seagrim
Villa after the donor, a Colonel Seagrim) and an Elsan.
It was the race officer's job on arriving to empty the Elsan by tipping the
contents onto the allotments behind Smith's (now Seahorse) now replaced by
a housing estate. Probably the first act of the newly formed WHSA was the
setting up of WSC. The first chairman of the WHSA was Peter Glasby who had
just graduated from the University. Peter (and wife Barbara, also an ex-UL
member) lives on Hayling Island and is an active member of Hayling Island
Sailing Club.
Back to WSC...... The founder members (I hope I am not forgetting anyone)
were Charles Williams (F442), Alan Cramb (Snipe), John Pyne (RAF Hendon -
N12), Pete and Ann Smith, two from Smiths,
( possibly Owen Willis and ?? Dixon), Frank Hewlett, probably Bill Letten
of RAFSA, Brian Ansty and of course Peter Glasby. They had to go to Wembley
Town Hall to get permission to use the name Wembley and the town logo, and
then negotiate with the Waterways for permission to put up a new clubhouse.
Someone found a possible clubhouse building at a disused RAF aerodrome at
Stansted. It was wooden, needed to be dismantled, transported to the Harp
and reassembled. A visit to Stansted showed that it would not be sensible
to accept the offer and it was decided to have one built. Partway through
the building a party was held during which Bill Letten and Pete Smith danced
a "flamenco" on the just laid floor - concrete paving slabs on pillars. The
slabs broke and both dancers fell through.
Also in 1953, Willesden Borough (predecessor of Brent) sponsored a regatta
the Willesden Coronation Regatta. Sorry, it was not meant to celebrate the
birth of WSC. Willesden's representative on the organizing committee was known
as Bomber Harris (not the real one!). They erected a stand on the N Circular
side. John Conway-Jones, a Firefly Gore winner amongst other successes did
a commentary over the PA from the stand . We had sailing and paddling canoes
from the Royal Canoe Club, and a lots of rowing races in eights, fours, etc.
The Race Officer was Frank Hewlett (with yachting cap of course). We had one
reaching start with the line about the width of the Harp and the first mark
200 yards away!
Over the years the clubhouse was modified and extended, each modification
being preceded by lengthy arguments for and against. One unsuccessful idea
was an attempt to make the front of the bar look like a ship by bowing it
out and covering it with timber strips clinker fashion. The result was awful.
Changes included the addition of a committee room, the changing rooms tower,
and finally the replacement of the original single storey clubhouse by the
current two storey version.
The current clubhouse was built in three stages, firstly to the left of the
front door where the garages are now this was the clubroom and was single
storey, Then the second phase was to build on top of the single storey, Phase
three was to build the two storey changing rooms to the right of the main
door, and convert the clubroom to garages.. You can see the join where the
changing rooms were added to the right of the main door running from top to
bottom of the building. The completed clubhouse was opened on 23rd June 1973
In the early days there was no formal training. New members who wanted to
learn put their names on the "crew available" board. In the pre-Laser days
crews were in great demand and many helmsmen were prepared to train novices
hoping that it would give them a good permanent crew.
At first there was nothing special for training juniors. But a very active
junior section was set up with the purpose of having team racing matches with
other clubs with similar sections.
Later the Gull was chosen as the junior training and racing boat in preference
to the Cadet, very popular at the time. The reason for the choice was that
the Gull was big enough to enable a parent to sail with the junior when teaching.
This would have been rather difficult in a Cadet. How things have changed!
John Sagues
Further thoughts by Brian Whyte
When I joined the club in 1974 the classes sailed were Merlin Rocket, GP14,
Firefly & Fireball with the Gull being the junior class. When the Fireballs
left us we introduced the Laser class.. It was not until the 2000s (Not sure
of the exact date) that the RS200 and MRX were introduced, with the RS Vision
being adoptedin 2006 as a training boat for the Harp Sailing School, and finally
made a WSC racing class in 2009
The Harp Sailing School was founded in 2003 and was granted RYA Training Centre
status. The HSS is wholly owned by Wembley Sailing Club