Jim and Doris Robinson - Tees Sailing Club

Recollections of Jim and Doris' early sailing days.

"In the mid 60’s as the boys were growing up, they bought a caravan and kept it on a site on Lake Ullswater. Jim bought a “Maple Leaf” Gunter rigged sailing dinghy which was just over eight feet long which he transported to the lake from The Village, on the top of his Austin A40 car. Although it was not designed for the family of four, they all piled in and spent many hours learning to sail on Lake Ullswater. Jim really enjoyed his sailing and decided to buy an Enterprise Class boat and he joined the Tees Sailing Club. The boat he bought had been home built and was not very well made. When he started to sail it he found that it did not sail well at all. His brother Paul was looking for a boat so he sold it to Paul and bought a better-built Enterprise (#1349), which proved to be a winner. In his first year of racing at the club he won the cup coming in first in a field of 30 boats. He moved into a different class when he bought the Scorpion, and as they used to win all of the club races he started to compete in National Championships. They won two National races and were rated as the #2 team in the country. They towed the boat all over the country to different events.

In one of the club’s trophy races they were well in the lead when Jim spotted one of the spectator’s boats in trouble. He cut out of the race and rescued the people on the boat. This action prompted the club to abandon the race and run it another day. The day after the rescue a large bottle of whisky was left anonymously on Jim’s doorstep. Doris tells the story that when racing you must always obey the captain and do what tells you to do. One day Jim kept yelling at her to pull the sheets in harder and she told him that if he yelled again she would jump overboard. The next time he shouted she kept her promise, jumped and swam to shore. Because they were winning too many races at the club level, they stopped competing to encourage other club members to continue racing. They started a training program for club junior members including sons John and Alan who also were competitive sailors. Alan subsequently made a career out of sail design and manufacture.

The sailing club was operating out of a wooden shack and the members got together and decided to build a proper clubhouse. Jim and Doris together with the other members financed the building with personal loans and worked on the construction to reduce the costs. The loan was repaid about five years after completion of the building. They were very popular sailors in the club. At their annual dinner, members could request preferred seating. At one dinner the organizer came to Jim and told him he had a problem as too many of the members asked to be seated with them. He jokingly suggested that they should have a large table with a hole in the middle for Jim and Doris so that they could satisfy the members.

He found a boat that was owned by a man in Middlesbrough who was using it on Lake Windermere in the Lake District He bought the boat together with the old Land Rover that was used to tow it, delivered to the dock in Middleton. He paid £1500 and that was relatively cheap, Jim and Doris really enjoyed sailing and would sail along the coast to Whitby and Sunderland. It was an offshore cruiser with a cabin and had a bilge keel. They used the boat for a holiday on canals. Jim removed the mast and replaces it with a short stub from a broken mast, this was short enough to pass under the canal bridges but large enough to carry a small sail. The boom was used with a tarp to create a tent for sleeping. They were able to use the small sail to navigate in the canal system. This adventure was written up in three articles in a popular boating magazine.

Jim also made a couple of trips to Holland crossing the North Sea, which took about 30 hours but not in their own boat. The last yacht they owned was a 23 foot Super Sirius, the “May Gosling”, this was kept in the Graving dock in Hartlepool from which he sailed most Wednesdays with his friend Ken as crew.

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