We talk to the president of the St Annes Land Yacht Club near Blackpool, Lancashire, ahead of them hosting the European Land Yacht Championships
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 [Waves crashing]
00:13 [Music]
00:18 [Music]
00:23 [Music]
00:28 [Music]
00:33 [Music]
00:38 [Music]
00:43 [Music]
00:48 [Music]
00:53 [Music]
00:58 [Music]
01:03 [Music]
01:08 [Music]
01:13 [Music]
01:18 [Music]
01:23 [Music]
01:28 [Music]
01:33 [Music]
01:38 [Music]
01:43 [Music]
01:48 [Music]
01:53 [Music]
01:58 [Music]
02:03 [Music]
02:08 [Music]
02:13 [Music]
02:18 [Music]
02:23 [Music]
02:28 The first time was '64 and '65 with a boat I designed. I made some models and made a full-size yacht.
02:36 There's an interesting story about that actually. I did an article for a yacht magazine in New Zealand about sand yachting.
02:45 A guy on the South Island got in touch with me and said, "I want to put land yachts on the beach in New Zealand."
02:52 So I sent him plans. Ten years ago, his son got in touch and said, "Dad's yacht was built in 1964 and it's in a garage around the back of the house and you've got an invite to come to New Zealand."
03:04 So I went to New Zealand for two months, we painted the yacht up, put new bearings and we sailed it on the beach at Nelson.
03:10 And apparently there was a club there and there were three yachts built from the plans in New Zealand and three in Australia.
03:17 So there's yachts all over the world designed by me in 1962.
03:20 [Sound of wind]
03:28 Dad had a grocery shop and he used to have a bicycle with a carrier on the front.
03:33 And he had a guy who used to take all the groceries round to different people.
03:37 And he'd seen land yachts in America and he said to my dad about it.
03:41 My dad, like me, was a very active sort of bloke. He said, "Look, I want to get some youngsters involved in this."
03:48 So he approached Blackpool first of all, but there's a pier and lots of people on the beach.
03:53 And then we approached St Anne's and they got some of the councillors down here to have a look and they said, "OK."
03:59 And it went from there. So, I mean, at one time we had maybe 100 plus members of the club.
04:07 And we had a flying mile where we had a measured mile and you'd shoot down the mile and record the speed.
04:14 Do you know what the record was for that speed?
04:16 57 miles an hour. But, I mean, that's a long time ago.
04:20 The modern yachts were a lot quicker than that, you know.
04:22 So I was saying before about the British Championships. I won it '64 and '65.
04:28 This is the Boys World Annual in 1966.
04:32 The guy that climbed Everest, Edmund Hillary, became a reporter and he came to St Anne's.
04:39 [Sound of people talking]
04:44 And there's me.
04:48 So that's the yacht I won the British Championships with.
04:51 We modified it later on and put a fairing on here and did different things.
04:56 Those wheels are off of Tiger Moth. They're probably worth a fortune now.
05:00 I sail one of the mini yachts now. I've sailed all the different classes over the years.
05:04 At one time there were Class Ones, which were 15 foot wide, 16 metre sails, massive yachts.
05:10 And then we started to bring classes in.
05:14 The 5.6 Mini is a fairly new class, but it's growing quite quickly because it's so portable.
05:20 [Sound of people talking]
05:30 And then, in 2002, tragedy struck.
05:33 A day tripper was killed after being struck by a sand yacht on St Anne's Beach,
05:37 which would see an end to the sport in the area for over 10 years.
05:42 In 2002, we were due to have the European here. A week later, when we cancelled it,
05:49 it affected the whole sport because other places said these things are dangerous, which they're not.
05:57 We'd sailed here for 50 years plus with no problems on one accident.
06:02 But we learned from that. We now have a zone with signs telling people there's sand yachting.
06:11 And we have a situation where if anybody walks into the zone, which we encourage them not to, obviously,
06:17 we put a red flag up and they stop.
06:20 When we get to the light, we'll have four or five vehicles on the beach.
06:25 Some of the Europeans will be here as marshals.
06:28 They'll be watching the beach and seeing if anybody's nearby.
06:32 What we're hoping over a length of time is like on the continent, people walk about on the beach
06:37 and they see the sand yachts and they're aware of them and they keep away from them.
06:41 So it works very nicely.
06:44 Now, because we've had these years between, people need to get used to us again.
06:52 But we seem to be getting a lot of support from people and saying it's good it's back.
06:57 So it's a lot safer. You're very much safety conscious.
07:01 Yes, very much so.
07:03 I mean, there's a buffer zone.
07:05 The first 100 yards, we don't sail. We push the yachts out into the zone.
07:10 And what I've said to people is don't come into the zone, but you can go around that side or that side
07:16 up to Blackpool, around by the sea. There's plenty of room.
07:19 Please don't come into our zone. Respect it.
07:22 We can expect 41 or possibly 42 yachts from all around Europe.
07:33 French, the Belgians, the Germans, a couple of Americans, quite a few Brits.
07:39 And obviously this is my own club, so I'm hoping to do well.
07:44 We've got stiff competition from the Europeans because they sail regularly against each other
07:51 in different, you know, they can sail from France to Belgium.
07:54 So it's also on the curriculum for the school kids.
07:57 So, you know, they're a force to be reckoned with, but we'll try our best.
08:02 We haven't had a European here for 20 years plus, so hopefully it'll bring some people down.
08:13 If the conditions are really windy, it might put a few people off, but the sporting people will come and see it.
08:19 But the main thing is it's promoting the sport and the council, if they like what's happening,
08:25 they're going to help us to improve things over the years and maybe open up to bigger regattas.
08:30 We do what they call a rolling start, which is we have a two-minute rundown,
08:38 and then all the yachts will go for the start line at the same time,
08:41 which will be quite interesting with 41 yachts.
08:45 And we manoeuvre around the course, there might be soft sand and water and banks and things like that,
08:51 so we have to not only use the wind to our advantage, but work out the best way to go around the course as well.
08:58 So it's going to be very interesting. I've been doing it a long time and I love it.
09:02 What sort of speeds do they get up to on these yachts?
09:04 These minis will probably do 50 miles an hour.
09:08 They're designed as a boat, which is not expensive, that you can pull apart and stick in the boot of a car or put on a roof rack.
09:16 Some of the bigger boats, you need a trailer for them.
09:19 So hopefully people can come from Manchester or whatever with a car with a semi-yacht in the back and come and sail here.
09:31 Some of the class 3's in Belgium have been blowing, they're probably knocking on for nearly 70 miles an hour.
09:38 But they're on an area which is a very big area, and because it's a massive sport over there,
09:44 so many people there, there's barriers and there's vehicles and marshals all over the place, you know.
09:51 So the bigger it gets, the safer it is really, because the more people you can have marshalling and watching what's going on,
09:57 the less chance of something happening.
10:01 Yeah, the world speed record, we held it at 126 miles an hour in a 53 miles an hour wind.
10:08 And what the New Zealanders did basically was copy it and make it a lot lighter out of carbon fibre and Kevlar.
10:15 And they've done 140 miles an hour in a 24 miles an hour wind.
10:20 And they say if they can get 30, 35, they think they can do 150, powered by the wind.
10:27 Nothing more environmentally friendly than that, is there?
10:32 We've not got a huge amount of members at the moment, but it's growing.
10:41 I mean, you know, we've got the facilities now, we've got the yachts, we've got some club yachts,
10:47 and people can come down and have a go and like it.
10:51 And then they tell their friends and we get some new members from that.
10:55 We've had a couple of national regattas here, and we have club sailing on a fairly regular basis.
11:01 We want to open that up a little bit because we're a bit restricted at the moment.
11:05 So if we can sail more days, I mean, for instance, today if there's no wind, we would like to say, well, can we sail tomorrow?
11:14 We have to plan it with the council.
11:17 Come down and see what it's about. You know, the club's going to get bigger over the years.
11:26 More people will come down here. You've got an amazing beach, the continentals love it.
11:31 Come and use it. You know, I've been sailing all my life.
11:36 I do salsa and stuff. It's kept me fit, kept me healthy, and I love it.
11:41 On my Facebook, I've got 630 people from all around the world. What more could you wish for?
11:47 [Music]
11:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]