Club in Focus: Concord & Ryde Sailing Club (CRSC)
Concord & Ryde Sailing Club (CRSC) has been sailing Sydney’s Parramatta River between Putney and Rhodes since 1945 with the 2021 / 2021 season marking its 75th season!
Located at Kissing Point Park, Putney where every Saturday you will find an average fleet of 50 dinghies take part in racing on the Parramatta River between the Ryde Bridge and the Putney-Mortlake car ferry.
CRSC is a community-based club with no paid staff. Management of all club activities is performed by volunteers. CRSC members have worked together to keep the club going strong including the completion of four major extensions to the club, refurbishment of facilities and maintenance work all done on a volunteer basis. The ‘mid week warriors’ made up mainly of retirees, meet on a monthly basis and do what is needed to maintain the club’s training fleet, rescue boats and facilities. The CRSC culture is one of comradery on and off the water, focused on enjoying sailing with friendly competition. The club has several families who sail on a regular basis have three generations sailing in the one race! With no liquor licence or poker machines CRSC is a very family orientated club and have a large and thriving Adults learn to sail in dinghy program.
Key club events:
Sailing is programmed from the beginning of September to the end of April each year. The club also hosts interclub events and social functions.
Discover Sailing Day is a major event and always attracts over 100 participants in the sailing activities. It is an opportunity CRSC use to showcase their club and attract new members. The Club also has an active Cadet fleet and popular Learn to Sail program for young sailors and adults and the club is registered as an Active Kid provider.
Classes supported and types of sailing:
The club has class fleets of Catamarans (Maricats & Paper Tigers), Spirals, Tasars, NS14s, Herons, Optimists, as well as Firebugs, Moth, VJ and Flying Eleven. Sailors of all skill levels are catered for, from beginners to State & National Champions.
Junior Sailing Courses
This course is designed to progress the younger sailor (8 to 15 years old) from beginner to advanced racer. Courses are conducted each Saturday in the sailing season (September to April) from 9.00am to noon (excluding Christmas and Easter holidays). Modules are 5 weeks duration commencing with Start Sailing 1, Start Sailing 2 and Better Sailing. Course commencement dates are set out on our website
School Holiday Camps
These camps are designed to enable young sailors (8 to 15 years old) to complete the Start Sailing 1 module over three consecutive days in the School holidays.
Adult Learn To Sail
Many of CRSC’s sailors have graduated from their Adult Learn to Sail Program. The program is suitable for both adults and teenagers over 15 and ideal for families who wish to learn together. The program is conducted over five Saturday mornings, which includes theory. The program is structured around CRSC's fleet of Spiral dinghies.
Club history:
Towards the end of World War II in the winter of 1945 a group of parents from Yarralla Sea Scouts gathered in a back room in Concord and decided to form a sailing club. The “Concord and Rhodes Open Sailing Club” was born. They went about building boats, learning how to run races, about the rules of racing, devising a Constitution, etc. Soon there was a motley fleet of skiffs sailing from a reserve beside Ryde Bridge in Llewellyn Street Rhodes. Some were kept in waterfront sheds; others were wheeled down to the reserve by hand cart, some a round trip of quite a distance. Those who lived in Ryde or Putney rigged in the park on their side of the river. The buoys were placed by row boat and there was an umpire on the course and any rule infringement meant instant disqualification!
By 1950 a fleet of about 40 VJs and VSs were sailing each week plus a few other odd skiffs. These were divided into A and B Division. The Skate class appeared in A Division in the late 1950s and into the 1960s together with large fleets of Herons and NS14s. These and all classes sailed at the Club today emerged out of A Division when their numbers were sufficient to form their own class. In 1964 the club decided to form a Cadet Division and introduce a formal ‘learn to sail’ course, the Manly Junior being the preferred class. The first member of that Division continues to sail with the Club today.
The increased numbers of boats sailing each week meant that rigging space at Uhrs Point reserve was at a premium and the Herons decided to trail their boats down to Kissing Point Park on the opposite side of the River. They were later joined by the Catamaran Class and for around 20 years half the club fleet was rigging on the northern side of the river and the other on the southern side.
The club’s original boatshed on Uhrs Point Reserve beside Ryde Bridge was built by members with a loan from Concord Council for materials. It was completed around 1952 under the guiding hand of Clive Ellis. In the late 1950s when the club lodged plans with Council to complete the shed with a second storey club room it was informed that the reserve had been resumed by the Department of Main Roads for future bridgeworks. The name of the Club was changed to “Concord & Ryde Sailing Club” in 1960 to better represent its membership. However, a cloud hung over the club for 25 years as successive committees grappled with bureaucracy and opposing residents for an alternative site for the Club. D-Day came on 17th July 1986. The Club was given 3 weeks to vacate its premises and yet no decision had been made as to what they were going to do with our Club.
Ironically the Club was booming. There were 127 boats on the register and regularly had fleets of 80 and up to 100 racing on a Saturday. Only the junior boats were stored in the Clubhouse as all others were brought down by trailer. Nevertheless, it was a very difficult time for the club as it operated for the next season off the beach in Kissing Point Park Putney. At the eleventh hour an offer was made and a basic building was built. It cost the club its entire savings for the services needed for the changerooms and the ramp to launch the rescue boats.
To relaunch the club at its new site and attract new members, an open day was added to the calendar. Members gave their time and offered their boat on a designated non race day to give the general public a taste of sailing small boats. The Club takes part in Australian Sailing’s Discover Sailing events hosting a “Try Sailing Day” and in 2019 the CRSC “Discover Sailing” Day took out over 100 guests for a sail!
Recent challenges that the club has overcome has been the destruction of the launching beach by the wake of westward bound Ferries since the introduction of River cats. CRSC spent seven years lobbying the City of Ryde and State Government to undertake restoration work. On December 14th, 2019, a groyne designed to rebuild the beach was officially opened by the Member for Lane Cove, the Hon Anthony Roberts, and Mayor of Ryde, the Hon Jerome Laxale. The groyne is slowly rebuilding the beach.
CRSC members also identified the need to increase boat storage capacity at the club and in September 2016 the member for Lane Cove, the Hon Anthony Roberts opened an extension that quintupled storage for boats. The extension had been constructed by members under guidance of Bryce Ellis, with NSW State Government financial assistance for the piling, over the winter of 2016. This has been named the “Bryce Ellis Shed” in recognition of his efforts in project managing a mostly unskilled volunteer labour force for all the major extensions over two decades.
A recent success story has been the introduction of a winter boat building programme. With sponsorship for building materials the programme was offered to local high school students and three Firebugs were built over the past three years giving these youngsters specialist skills. One of these students is now studying to be a shipwright. A sailing making course was run also with materials donated from off cuts. This winter a boat maintenance course is planned for both wooden and fibreglass repairs as well refurbishing club boats. Members are donating their time and expertise to pass on their skills.
Membership / Achievements:
The Club has 228 (mostly sailing) members with an increase of 15% over the three years prior to COVID-19. The average age of members is 40 years old with 31% of members under 18. CRSC boast a high retention of members from season to season.
Swimmer Lorraine Crapp was a member during the 1950s and was a very accomplished VJ sailor. She won two gold and two silver medals over two Olympics and was a multi world record holder over several distances. In 1972 she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and in 1986 the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.
Trevor Gowland was a member during the 1950s sailing a VJ. He became a skilled shipwright with Halvorsens at Ryde and was responsible for building some of Australia’s famous racing yachts including Australia’s challenge for the America’s Cup “Gretel”. He was a sail trimmer aboard “Gretel” in Australia’s first challenge for the America’s Cup in 1962.
Ken McAlpine was a Moth sailor at the club when in 1982, as a Naval Architect, was appointed by the AYF to measure “Australia 11”. He was appointed Technical Director for the International Twelve Metre Association and subsequently appointed Chief Measurer and Technical Director for the 1992, 1995, 2000, 2003 and 2007 America’s Cup events. In 2018 he was inducted into the America’s Cup Hall of Fame.
Sally McManus sailed a Manly Junior back in the 1980s and then went on to become a champion in the Maricat class. She has been Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) since 2017 and is the first woman in this position in its 90 year history.
Over the years many CRSC sailors have won State and National Titles, some multiple times, in Skates, Herons, NS14, Spiral, Maricat, Fireballs and even Laser World Masters title.
CRSC is also proud to have many community awards issued to its members over the years.
Current Commodore: Duncan McRae
