This year not only is the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club celebrating its Bicentenary, it is also the centenary of the Gareloch One Design Class yachts that sail out of the RNCYC.
This coming weekend, September 6-8 is also the Silver Anniversary of their annual friendly - but competitive - exchange with German yacht club Freundeskreis Klassische Yachten or FKY for short.
The Garelochs, all named after Greek goddesses and painted in distinctive bright colours, are very special boats that were built at McGruer’s in Clynder specifically for sailing in the loch.
McGruers built more than 1,000 boats between 1914 and 2001at their Clynder yard, including everything from this classic 24 foot dayboat to minesweepers.
The Garelochs were designed by Ewing McGruer in 1924 in response to a request from prospective owners at the Gareloch Yacht Club (merged with the RNYC in 1936) looking for a boat to race on the Gareloch.
Ten boats were built from elm, oak, mahogany and pitch pine, with a cast-iron keel and launched in the spring of 1924. Another five boats were almost immediately commissioned by the Royal Forth Yacht Club and were originally called Royal Forth One Designs, the only difference being a teak rather than pine cockpit floor.
The last Gareloch was built in 1928 for a Clyde-based owner and this one, Juno, completed the set.
Of the Garelochs that sailed far and wide from home, several went to Aldeburgh Yacht Club in Suffolk in the 1930s. Indeed only Hermes was on the Gareloch by the time of WW2.
They were all reunited back on the Gareloch in the late 1950s by John Henderson.
Ones who had fallen on hard times, or even sunk in gales, have been lovingly restored by the class and all 16 of them now sail twice weekly on Tuesday evenings and Sunday afternoons during the season.
Their story is told in abbreviated form on a lovely plinth in the Outdoor Museum in Colquhoun Square.
The annual exchange with the German yacht club was instigated in 1999 by the late David Ryder-Turner, who knew everyone to do with yachting.
The FKY designed a lovely trophy of a ship in a bottle mounted on a base made by Adam Rodger of beautiful wood that David had collected from his travels around the world and the trophy is named in his honour.
When the visitors are here, the teams race in the Garelochs. Fifteen yachts will be coming over from Germany this year.
When in Germany they race in Dragons and Folkboats on Lake Constance or the Starnberger See at Tutzing.
Gareloch sailors are a very sociable crew with frequent BBQs, dinners and special events throughout the year, such as the annual Dog Race with handicaps worked out by the length of the dog’s tail. If anyone is interested in sailing in the Garelochs please contact the Class Convener at the Royal Northern.
Keep a look out for these beautiful classic yachts, looking as good as they did 100 years ago, racing in the Gareloch this weekend.
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