In 1985 Peter Pattinson again gave notice that he wanted to give up the

Secretaryship. He had married his faithful assistant Shirley Marsham the

previous year and together they had served the Club very well for most of

their ten years in harness, but it was time for a change. After interviews, it

was announced that member Geoff Hales had accepted the job. Geoff had

qualified in 1971 with a 1002 mile passage from Gibraltar to Malta. However,

he more than proved his credentials by taking the handicap prize in the

1976 OSTAR, and as a past Technical Editor for Yachting World he appeared

well qualified for his duties.

With hindsight, it should have been noticed that Peter Pattinson was winding

down. He had never fully recovered from his accident in 1978, and running

the Welsh Cruising School placed heavy demands on his time. Consequently

Club affairs were sometimes neglected and grumbles from members, especially

overseas, were becoming more voluble. In fairness, although Peter had negotiated

a significant rise in 1981, he had up until then worked long hours for the Club

for a purely nominal honorarium, and by modern standards his revised stipend

was still extremely modest. It has often been said that members should offer

their services voluntarily, but withsuch a far flung association it isdifficult not

 to become reliant on afew home-based individuals, and itis unfair to ask those

 who carry theburden to do so for noremuneration. The administrationbeing

 centred on Londonimmediately placed a restriction onthe number of

 members closeenough to offer effective help, whilethe inevitable delay

 betweenCommittee decisions being madeand being communicated to

 themembership at large meant that itcould be months before action was

 seen to take effect.

Secretary Geoff Hales

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The dividing line is sharp between the amateur outfit which drifts along

and the professional organisation which gives a guaranteed service to its

members, and the OCC had for too long tried to exist between the two. It

must be acknowledged that the Club was uniquely difficult to administer.

In fact, Peter Johnson, in his fascinating Yacht Clubs of the World, used

that very adjective in describing the OCC as occupying a unique position

with its dispersed membership and its qualification requirement. This, almost

by definition, meant that it was populated by marked individuals, even

eccentrics, and with many of them on the high seas it was difficult to

achieve coherence and a balance of service to members. Thus the obligation

to pay ones dues was not particularly strong and it is understandable that

many did not find their subscriptions a high priority.

Geoff Hales’ terms of employment were on a daily basis with an estimated two

days per week but he found, in those days of systems incompatibility, that he

could not transfer Club records onto his computer. This exercise apparently

took most of his time for the first year, with the consequent neglect of other

matters. It is not surprising, therefore, that members’ complaints, especially

those overseas, multiplied at an alarming rate.

It had been the practice for financial matters to be dealt with almost exclusively

by the flag officers and the Secretary/Treasurer, and the majority of the

Committee were unaware of the downward spiral which was developing. The

reduction of services to members led to a decrease in applicants and an increase

in non-payers, which further reduced the income. The Rear Commodore,

Howard Gosling, tabled an estimate of financial expectations at the beginning

of 1986 which painted a depressing picture. The Committee therefore used its

powers to increase the joining fee to £10, but the Rules still required AGM

approval for a change of subscription and, since they were already past the

deadline for that year, any change would take more than a year to have effect.

The Club solicitor was therefore asked to draw up a rule change which would

give the Committee authority to alter subscriptions without reference to the

membership, but this change would, of course, have to wait for AGM approval.

Meanwhile goodwill and good money were trickling into the sand.

Geoff was able to produce only draft accounts for the 1986 AGM, these

showing a loss of some £3500. Subscription income was down despite an

apparent increase in membership numbers. Secretarial costs were up and

accumulated funds were perilously low. There was insufficient money to print

a second Flying Fish that year.

What went on ex-committee is not clear, as there is no record of the flag

officers’ discussions with the Secretary/Treasurer, but, despite the recent

188

revelations of the Rear Commodore, there is little mention in the Minutes of

financial problems until it was proposed in September 1986 that subscriptions

be increased to £16 per annum. The reasons for this dearth of recorded

information perhaps demonstrates the tightness with which the flag officers

controlled Club finances – or failed to control them, as subsequent events were

to show. Also, since most criticism would have been directed at the Secretary/

Treasurer, his recording in the minutes was perhaps not overly detailed. At this

meeting there was also some discussion of allowing Life Subscriptions, which

topic the Treasurer dismissed as ‘mathematically fascinating but very unattractive

in practice’. However, on a positive note, it was decided to try to attract

advertising in Flying Fish, which was clearly successful as the very next issue

contained several useful entries. This was another nail in the coffin of

amateurism, but it must be said that it did not detract from the magazine and in

some ways gave it a more authoritative air.

The 1986 accounts were finally tabled at the 1987 AGM, but again the current

year’s statement was not available. The situation was further confused by the

decision to change the Club’s financial year to the end of October, to allow a

more up to date picture to be presented at the AGM. However, this meant that

the next accounting period covered 21 months which led to a much distorted

picture at the following AGM.

In September 1987 the Secretary/Treasurer held long discussions with the

Continental Section. A mutiny was brewing. They felt that they were running a

successful branch without any financial assistance from central funds and stated

an intention not to pay the increase in subscriptions. They did, in fact, pay a

local Continental Supplement to help defray their additional costs, but they felt

they should have a subvention from central funds to cover the expense of

attending London meetings. Their arguments were dubious and dangerous.

Such support would have opened the way to charging for expenses by other

members at the very time when funds were perilously low. This was rather a

surprising turn of events as until then the Continentals had run a healthy

organisation which was cited as a model for the rest of the world. However,

there appears to have been a growing lack of confidence in the London Committee

by the Continentals, as they were shortly to demonstrate their disquiet in more

dramatic fashion.

In November 1987 the Secretary/Treasurer produced a draft budget which

showed the rocks drawing closer at an alarming rate. He estimated that on the

basis of two days’ work per week his costs alone would almost equal previous

subscription income, and pleaded that he needed at least three days to discharge

the duties fully. The message was clear – the Club could not afford him on the

present arrangements. It was agreed to try to find someone willing to do the job

189

for an honorarium, but since the present incumbent seemed to spend much of

his time chasing backsliding members, even if a volunteer could be found any

interregnum would result in further loss of income. Much vigorous discussion

took place, as this was the first time that the full state of the finances had been

revealed to the Committee. Some members agreed to help the Secretary/Treasurer

on a voluntary basis and several other initiatives to reduce costs were proposed.

At the next Committee meeting, in January 1988, further proposals to improve

the finances were discussed, including the previously dismissed scheme of

Life Subscriptions. At this point the rather brief and terse minutes show that

Colin Fergusson wished it to be recorded that the Committee had no idea of

the financial situation before the Secretary’s recent budget. This was fair

comment, but perhaps a little late in the day as it was nearly two years since the

Rear Commodore had briefed the Committee on the seriousness of the situation.

Why Colin chose this occasion to blow the whistle is not clear, since he was

present at the previous meeting in November 1987 when stark revelation of the

true financial situation had been made.

The Commodore, John Foot, had indicated to the Committee the previous year

that he did not wish to serve his full term, and at the January meeting he asked

to be relieved at the forthcoming AGM. He proposed Desmond Hampton, the

current Vice Commodore, as his successor with Howard Gosling, who had

previously served two terms as Rear Commodore, replacing Desmond. He

offered to continue to serve as a Committee member. However, these plans

were to be dramatically upset by a last minute intervention. With only minutes

before the deadline for the submission of nominations, Colin Fergusson handed

in a counter proposition at the Secretary’s house. He proposed a hitherto little-

known member by the name of Jack Ruben as Commodore and Giles Chichester

as Vice, and in this was seconded by Gaston Trough, erstwhile Rear Commodore

Europe. Desmond promptly withdrew his name as he did not consider a

contested election for Commodore to be healthy for the Club. This counter-

proposal was the first positive demonstration of lack of confidence in the

hierarchy of which Desmond was a senior member, and it could have been an

unseemly struggle before the assembled Club if there had been a run-off election

at the AGM. As it was now past the deadline for any further proposals the

scene seemed set for the uncontested election of Jack as Commodore. The

choice of Vice Commodore would still be a contest between the known quantity

of Howard Gosling, and Giles Chichester who had recently shown little interest

in Club affairs.

Clearly there was considerable disquiet over the maladministration of the

accounts, but this sudden turn of events appears to have taken the Committee

190

by surprise. There was understandable concern for the wellbeing of the Club if

the two senior Flags Officers were to be replaced by little known members, but

the wheels were put in motion for an orderly handover. Giles arranged to

introduce Jack Ruben to Desmond, a meeting attended by some Committee

members. They subsequently expressed considerable reservations as to his

suitability for the post of Commodore, and were unanimous in their opinion

that to install him would not be in the best interests of the Club.

Further examination of the Rules revealed a provision whereby the Committee

were empowered to elect a replacement flag officer to serve the remainder of

the term of one who resigned before the expiration of his period of office. A

precedent had already been set on the very first change of Commodore when

the Committee had elected Tim Heywood to replace Hum in 1960. Deliberations

took place as to who might be able to re-unite the Club and it was considered

that Mary Barton, the widow of the founder and an established Committee

member, was the only person who stood a chance of succeeding in this nigh

impossible task. She was persuaded to let her name go forward and the

Committee, with one abstention, elected her to take over from John Foot, the

lack of opposition being explained by Colin Fergusson’s absence from the

meeting.

There was thus no vacancy in the post of Commodore to put before the

membership at the AGM. In retrospect it should have been recognised that this

move would not go unchallenged, and the proposers of Ruben, not surprisingly,

took the arrangement as being a means of excluding their candidate. They were

firmly of the opinion that, one proposal for the post of Commodore having

been made, they were fully entitled to make a second. Furthermore, since their

candidates were intended to bring in new management after the questionable

performance of the current flag officers, they saw a re-election of some of the

old guard as largely a ‘rearrangement of the deckchairs’.

With only weeks to go to the 1988 AGM Mary was thus handed a chalice

which, if not exactly poisoned, was at least heavily tainted. She held a Committee

meeting on 21 March, at which Colin Fergusson again argued strongly that the

Club had been mismanaged by the previous flag officers and that the election of

Mary as Commodore was not valid. He went on to argue that she would have

no support, but this was firmly refuted by other Committee members.

The well-attended AGM was opened with a statement from the departing

Commodore, John Foot, who explained the background of his decision to

relinquish his flag and the propriety of Mary’s appointment as his replacement.

This, however, did not satisfy Ruben’s supporters and Colin Fergusson

immediately raised a point of order, maintaining that she had not been elected

legally. This was vigorously debated between Mary Falk, Committee member

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Mary Barton, Commodore 1988–1994 and Admiral since then

192

and solicitor, and Peter Carter-Ruck, ex-Commodore and internationally

renowned litigation lawyer, who wished to see a contested election between

Mary Barton and Jack Ruben. After considerable debate the mood was clearly

in favour of the status-quo, the point of order was defeated, and Mary remained

in the chair.

The position of Vice Commodore was then put to the vote. After several

recounts it was declared a dead heat, 25:25, which placed the Commodore in

the invidious position of having to exercise her casting vote. This she did,

understandably, in favour of Howard, but this was again seen by the opposition

as a means of perpetuating the old regime. To say the subsequent dinner was a

little tense would be to state the obvious and it soon became clear that the

arguments were far from over.

The accounts for the 21 month period since the last statement were put

before the meeting and showed an abysmal state of affairs which reinforced

the case of those wishing to see a change. They were heavily qualified by the

auditors, but nevertheless were passed after much acrimonious argument.

Having lost the issue of elections, Giles started canvassing for support for a

Special General Meeting on a motion of lack of confidence in the hierarchy. His

feelings were understandable, despite the judgement of the AGM that the new

Flags and Committee had been legally put in place, but it must have been clear

that to continue the argument on another tack was going to be extremely

disruptive and detrimental to the wellbeing of the Club. Nevertheless he persisted,

circulating a petition that heaped opprobrium on the Committee and was so

virulent in its condemnation that, whatever the outcome, a rift was being driven

so deeply through the Club that it would take years to heal. The Commodore

attempted a reconciliation by inviting Giles to join the Committee and work for

the good of the Club from within, but he refused.

Clearly, the Secretary had lost the confidence of the Committee and the Club at

large, and the search for a replacement was intensified. Jeremy Knox, a member

of nearly 20 years’ standing, was eventually selected and set to work with a

will. He found a muddle that would have daunted anyone of lesser mettle, and

quickly recognised that the job was too much for one man. He therefore

recommended that an Honorary Treasurer be found, so an incumbent for this

second post was urgently sought. The takeover date was fixed for 16 May and

a line was drawn under the Hales’ account as of that date, since prior to that the

funds appeared to be almost irreconcilable. Much midnight oil was burned by

the Committee, and Jeremy, assisted by his wife Caroline, made prodigious

efforts to get the accounts in order.

The cupboard was virtually bare so the Commodore and several Committee

193

Secretary Jeremy Knox and Caroline, whose

combined energies helped restore the Club to health

members each made substantial unsecured loans to start the new account, and

two paid large Club bills out of their own pockets. Additionally there was a

considerable injection of capital from the newly introduced Life Subscriptions

and one member used his company’s resources to fund a mass mailing. Jeremy

offered to defer his remuneration until the finances were restored and thus, in

fairly short order, the Club was able to continue trading from a position of

relative financial stability.

In due course the call for an SGM was sent to the Secretary, together with

sufficient facsimile signatures to make it a legitimate demand. On checking

closely however, it was apparent that some signatories were no longer members

and that others had not paid their subscriptions and were therefore

disenfranchised. It is also possible that some had signed up to a resolution that

differed from the one submitted to the Secretary. He asked to see the original

signatures before sending out the notice but, although promised, they were

never forthcoming. Nevertheless the meeting was called, but before the date of

the SGM a number of signatories wrote saying they had been misled by the

194

blandishments of the proponents and wished to point out that their supporting

the call for an SGM did not mean that they were in sympathy with the motion.

Battle lines were drawn at the London Rowing Club on 23 September 1988 to

hear the motion: ‘This meeting has no confidence in those London Flag Officers

and members of the Committee responsible for the affairs of the Club between

March 1986 and March 1988, on the grounds of mismanagement of the Club

and abuse of the Club Rules and calls upon them to resign’.

The Commodore opened the meeting by explaining that a great deal had been

done to right the mistakes arising from the undoubted mismanagement over the

previous two years, and that to call such a meeting before corrective action had

had time to take effect was both ill conceived and disruptive. Giles Chichester,

speaking for the motion, maintained that the Club was still being run by the

‘self-perpetuating group’ who were responsible for the mistakes that had run

the Club into near bankruptcy. However Peter Carter-Ruck, his erstwhile

supporter, now sought to soothe matters by declaring his support for the

Commodore and Vice Commodore, and weakened the motion further by asking

that only ‘one or two Committee members offer their resignations, thereby

creating vacancies for new blood’.

Skirmishing continued until that venerable patriarch Loftus Peyton-Jones

rose to speak words of such sagacity that their influence on the meeting was

palpable. He summarised the whole sorry saga, not sparing any of the players,

with such eloquence that it soon became clear the motion was lost. He called

for its withdrawal. Peter Carter-Ruck then returned to the fray but, amazingly,

with words of such emollience that a stake was finally driven through the heart

of the opposition. He too called for the motion to be withdrawn, but Chichester

and his supporters were so blinded by their convictions that they forced a vote

despite it being clear from the mood of the meeting that they would be heavily

defeated. Defeated it was, and members hoped that it signalled an end to the

months of disruption which had caused so much animosity and division.

Clearly, news of the Club’s troubles had spread, as applications for membership

slowed to a trickle, only 24 being received in the first half of 1988 when double

that number had been nearer the norm. With the diversion of Giles Chichester’s

motion out of the way the path was clear for putting the Club’s affairs in order,

and Mary Barton and Jeremy Knox, with a number of willing Committee

members, worked long hours to this end. Rigorous pruning of the membership

list and vigorous arm-twisting of backsliders improved the cash flow which,

together with the earlier measures to provide capital, slowly restored the finances

to health. The amount of business doubled, decisions were taken and acted

upon, and a far greater sense of purpose is apparent from the Minutes.

195

At the 1988 AGM a motion had been passed allowing postal voting, but this

was not to apply to Special General Meetings. This had become a bone of

contention during the preparations for the SGM, as the protagonists of the

motion considered that their case would be more widely supported if postal

voting was allowed. However, there was no provision for this in the Rules as

they stood at the time, so such votes were disbarred. An Interim Edition of the

Rules was hurriedly published to include the recent amendments, since the

previous edition was dated 1979. Whether by design or accident is not clear,

but it is noticeable that postal voting was to be allowed at the AGM while,

contradictorily, flag officers could only be elected by those ‘present and voting’.

Very sensibly the Committee then undertook a wholesale revision of the Rules

and produced a tidied up version in 1990. Even so, they varied very little in any

material sense from the first issue published in 1956.

This new edition of the Rules included a provision for Associate Membership,

doubtless conceived as part of the drive to widen the appeal of the Club and

increase the paid-up membership. However the 1979 edition, which this replaced,

already had an allowance for Provisional Membership which had been in existence

since the first issue of the Rules in 1956 and which sanctioned application by those

who stated an intention to qualify. If accepted they were obliged to qualify within

two years, otherwise they automatically ceased to be members.

Oddly, the new Associate Membership contained no such restrictions, so that

once elected they could remain ‘associated’ indefinitely. This held the danger

that a subordinate class of members could be created, but the threat was small

as the Club held little attraction for those not genuinely interested in becoming

deep-sea sailors. Indeed Phil Brooks, Port Officer Boothbay Harbour, wrote

in defence of the system two years later, but made the point that it should be

safeguarded by the introduction of a time limit. It was further vindicated in

1993 when the septuagenarian Ed Kendrick became an Associate having crossed

the Atlantic with Irving Johnson in Yankee almost 40 years earlier but in a

vessel of more than 70 ft. Later that year Ed became an honest man by crossing

to Ireland in the 40ft Astral with a group of mature New Englanders led by

Atlantic veteran Larry White, shortly to become Rear Commodore USA East.

Secretarial duties were gradually rationalised. Mike Taylor-Jones volunteered

to become Treasurer, Anne Hammick took over the organisation of Cruising

Information, Peter Aitchison took charge of rallies, particularly sailing events

for the young, while Fred Brown became responsible for Regalia and new lines

of stock were agreed. Colin Fergusson was invited to lead a revamped Awards

sub-committee and to make his own choice of members, but he declined. This

was unfortunate as he had been instrumental in persuading Mike Taylor-Jones

196

Lin Pardey aboard Taleisin, showing their novel self-steering vane

(see page 177)

197

to take on the Treasurer’s job voluntarily and his inclusion in the new organisation

could have done much to assuage remaining bitterness. Instead Kitty Hampton

took the Awards sub-chair and assembled an international committee. Chris

Watney tabled a paper with many sweeping proposals and circulated a

questionnaire to all members seeking views on the way forward. There was a

general air of vitality which could not fail to communicate itself to the membership

as a whole. Indeed, by the time of the 1989 AGM new members were coming