History

The club since 1883 and the HYC on the web since 1997.

Just a page to get it started. Member Contributors invited and welcome (please email request).

Club History

The Club was formed in 1883 by canoeists that had decided that the Humber Estuary conditions required heavier and more seaworthy craft. Founder members and in particular George Holmes designed Humber Yawls which were originally open boats but by 1900 were equipped with the luxury of cabin accomodation.

These canoe sterned yawls designed by Club members such as Albert Strange (see also this), George Holmes (see also this), G. Mclean Gibson and Robert Cole proved to be seaworthy and popular and the Club’s influence stretched as far as America.

The Club’s early bases included Hull, Hornsea Mere, the River Hull and Hessle Haven before finally settling down in the mud at Brough in 1919. Winteringham Haven was added in 1976.

From the move to Brough in 1919 to the present day, the Club has encouraged a mixture of racing and cruising. Later in 2004 a History of the Club will be published and offered for sale to members and non-members.

The above text was copied from the ‘old beehive’ site.

An excellent History of the Humber Yawl Club was written by Tony Watts in 2005 and published by Highgate Publications (Beverley) Ltd. A similarly excellent review! is to be found here on the Albert Strange Society site, though we’re not too sure about the status of “Tony’s dalliance with Dorothy Una Ratcliffe“.

For other aspects of the club’s history, see: (click on the links!)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yawl
The Humber Yawl Club
Brief History of the Humber Yawl Club (as above)
More Canoe Yawls: W.P. Stephens and George Holmes (Nice pictures and wonderfully serendipitous links – the wonder of the web!)
More to follow – just a ‘quick and dirty’ webpage for now. (Well, what do you expect after TEN YEARS?)
An even ‘quicker and dirtier’ ‘History’ of the club, its antecedents, ‘leading lights’ and famous members etc. with many thanks to Tony Watts’ above mentioned “History” for the clues and basic structure.

• John ‘Rob Roy’ MacGregor (1825-1892) – with link to a full 15 Chapter and Appendix HTML version of A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe on Rivers and Lakes of Europe, [1866,] 1892 (the hyperlinks make dipping in and out – like a paddle? – very entertaining). (Another identical copy can be found here.)
• More on John MacGregor and the development and history of the Royal Canoe Club (from the International Canoe Association)
• Much of this sourced from “Canoe Sailing resources 2005″ which has much fascinating canoe yawl and literary material:
• Including this on US canoe sailing from 1911 with photographs from the era.
• This on canoe cruising.
• And these references to G.E. Holmes. and “Cassy” and W.P. Stevens as above.
• Here W.P. Stephens’ “Canoe and Boatbuilding for Amateurs” can be found in its entirety.
• The above includes this on Cassy, Holmes and Tredwen
• And this on the Canoe Yawl Iris built in Hornsea in 1887 and at some stage owned by Holmes.
• We jump here to 1933 and Uffa Fox winning the canoe championship of America in the name of the HYC.
• And this on Uffa Fox and the HYC as originators of the International Canoe class.
• Tempus fugit and gap-filling and more of the club’s history to be found on the net will wait another day.

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This page has the following sub pages.

• 125 years