History
WOBYC History
Yacht racing on Oulton Broad has happened for many years. In the early days, it was organised by the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club, usually from Everitts Meadow (the back garden of Broad House, owned by the Everitt family).
In 1885, another club was formed, called the Waveney Sailing Club, which was primarily aimed at working men (rather than the elite) and was based at the Commodore pub.
Following the death of Nicholas Everitt, Broad House and the land around it was bought by Howard Hollingsworth and in 1929 he gifted a section of land on the north-west to the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club with the instruction to encourage yacht racing on Oulton Broad (the remaining land was gifted to the council and became Nicholas Everitt Park). The Lowestoft and Oulton Broad Yacht Club was formed to facilitate this.
During World War Two, leisure boating was suspended, but resumed in 1946 when it was decided that the two clubs should merge and became the Waveney and Oulton Broad Yacht Club.
During the 1950s and 60s the main keelboat classes were Broads One Designs and Waveney One Designs, although there were also a variety of other craft. In 1976 the Squib Class was added to the racing programme.
Many dinghy classes have come and (mostly) gone over the years, including International 14s, International 18s, Oulton Raters, Oulton Gulls, Enterprises, Merlin Rockets, Fireballs, Mirrors and Optimists. These days there are so many different dinghy classes to choose from, that it was decided that handicap races offered more flexibility and allowed individual sailors the freedom to choose a boat which suited them.
The original WOBYC clubhouse was basically just a thatched shed with minimal facilities to enable racing. This was demolished in 1966 and a steel-framed brick clubhouse was built. This had a canteen, toilets and changing rooms downstairs and a viewing platform and race office upstairs. Over the years, this has been extended, firstly the upstairs was extended south to give a bar and lounge, later it was extended east to give a lift and disabled facilities and more recently the upstairs west balcony was added to give a more open lounge area.
The Gull Trophy
Awarded by the Flag Officers for services to the Club
1974 C.G. Fuller
1975 S.G. Allerton
1976 I.R. Colby
1977 V. Holmes
1978 B.H. Stebbings
1979 W.N.Cracknell
1980 P. Long
1981 L. Balls
1982 N. Blowers
1984 B. Batley
1985 R. Stone / R. Clarke
1986 V. Falat
1987 J. Fryer
1988 N. Blowers
1989 S. Lucas
1990 S. Lee
1991 R. Asher / T. Horne
1992 A. Turner
1993 L. Catchpole / P. Hodges
1994 H. Walker
1995 B. Horne
1996 B. Howard
1997 M. Matthews
1998 M. Cone
1999 M. Snowling
2000 C.G. Fuller
2001 J. Balls
2002 A. Gisborne
2003 H.D. Hannant / G. Deary
2004 A. Martin / J. Walden
2005 Keith Davies / Kathleen Davies
2006 Carol Calver
2007 Julia Falat
2008 C. Desborough
2009 J. Lindley
2010 J. Wilkerson
2011 Jackie Soards
2012 Tamsin Highfield
2013 Trish Rix
2014 Jack Pickering
2015 Emilie Reeve
2016 The Safety Boat Team
2017 Veronica Falat
2018 Jordan Levett
2019 Adrian Dobson
2020 not awarded
2021 John Ward
2022 Sam Cole
2024 Jake Hadingham
Last updated 21:31 on 11 January 2024