A brief history of the Cruising Association

Cruising became popular as early as 1880. For the growing number of cruising yachtsmen however there was no generally available organisation catering for their interests. There were of course boatmen around the coast who were quick to realise that some profit might be made out of this developing pastime. Frustration and ill feeling had probably been simmering for some time when on August 6th, 1908 the following letter from A. D. Hownam-Meek to the Editor appeared in Yachting Weekly:

'Dear Sir,
I am sure you will permit me to beg a little space in your valuable paper to ventilate a long-standing grievance among yachtsmen and to suggest a feasible remedy. I allude to the iniquitous overcharging so prevalent along our shores among the longshoremen of the land shark variety. What Corinthian yachtsman has not experienced the keenness of the teeth of these vultures! Their plausible yarns of having. at imminent risk to their precious lives, rescued a boat which according to their story, had broken adrift from her moorings or tripped her anchor, etc.., etc.

Also the fabulous prices charged to strangers for moorings and, worst of all, for rowing them ashore or putting them on board again. I know of more than one place where the anchorage is but 50-70 yards from the shore, but the local blood-sucker will not put the unfortunate yachtsman ashore under 2 shillings. apart from putting him on board again.

Surely it would be possible to form some Union as obtains in the cycle and motor world to compile a register of honest boatmen at the various ports who would. I feel sure, consent to work or supply moorings at a standard fee, in return for the advertisement which they would thus receive, and a most important benefit would thus be obtained at a very small cost.

I would suggest that should subsequently there be a complaint against any boatman on the register, the case should be reported to a committee who would deal with it, either by obtaining a satisfactory explanation from the delinquent or by striking his name off the register.

Hoping this letter may be the cause of further correspondence on the subject.'

The further correspondence was not slow to come, most of it under pseudonyms such as Ripple. Homeless Wanderer and Sea Gull and early in November the Editor offered a room to those interested in discussing the formation of an Association. Some 30 yachtsmen turned up at No.5 Arundel Street in the Strand and agreed that:

'It is desirable to have an Association, not formed upon the lines of an ordinary club, to give increased facilities to cruising yachtsmen.'

A provisional committee was formed which in five further meetings produced a draft constitution for submission to the first Annual General Meeting on 14th December 1908 at the Bay Tree. 51 Swithin's Lane.

Many of those at the meeting must have known each other well and some had sailed together. Although Worth does not appear on the list of those attending, there were at least three. HJ. Hanson, C. Devereux Marshall and ESM. Perowne who had sailed with him regularly. At the back of the room was a quiet man in his early fifty's who left others to do the talking. If anyone had probed his background they would have discovered a man who had led a varied and wandering life from the linen trade in Dundee, to storekeeping, lumbering and private banking at Grenfell and Saskatchewan in Canada. His last employment there had been in the grain trade in Winnipeg. In 1907 he came home and must fairly quickly have bought Rover his 41/2 ton yacht which he sailed from Tignabruaich. It was not exactly an impressive sailing background but to his great surprise he found himself in the Chair. He himself said later, 'That no other reason occurred to him for his election to the Chair in the first instance than his seniority among I those present.'

In any case the expertise was provided by the rest of the Committee which included an energetic Vice Chairman, WJ Almond, a solicitor, Perowne, who has already been mentioned and was Hon. Secretary, a City financier W Slade Olver, two of the great names of sailing, EF Knight and Claud Worth, HJ Hanson, who became Treasurer a year later and was virtually to run the Association for about forty years and a number of keen experienced sailors. G Burnet. F Dugon, DM Haig, CJ Harrison, WTR Becket, AH Solomon and ES Turner. Cowper and Reynolds were among the early members.

Early activities in the CA
This first Committee was a real working team which met three or four nights a week for many months at The First Avenue, sitting down at a round table at 7 p,m. and staying until the last train. By the summer of 1909 they had made considerable progress in providing the facilities which had been agreed at the AGM, These included a central office in London with an information bureau, local representatives, a register of boatmen and a Handbook of cruising information. When the Yearbook came out at the end of that year, membership had reached 240 and in addition to members' names and their boats, it included the Dover tide tables, the morse code, extracts from the Rule of the Road. a port register with recommended boatmen and details of facilities available, passage notes and sailing directions for 85 ports.

Further developments in the next year included navigation classes. the adoption of a members’ signal flag, the organisation of combined cruises for the Easter. Whitsun and August holidays and the inception of a dinner to follow the AGM.

The first of our Challenge Cups was presented by the Chairman, J Love, (the judge for the first three years being EF Knight), the Yearbook had doubled in size and 1910 saw the start of the Bulletin, an unpretenious roneod production, which appeared monthly, Like the Yearbook it was edited by Hanson who wrote in the first Fore'nd Aft in October 1910:

'It is hoped, that the Bulletin will be not only a useful. But also an entertaining addition to members’ yachting literature.'

Now called ‘Cruising’ It has done more than that - it also provides a picture of cruising over the last 100 years.