Robe Yacht Club
Robe Yacht Club History
In the beginning...
The Robe Yacht Club was formed in the late 1920s. Mr Andrew Robson of "Lakeside" was voted Commodore; Mr Hurtle Fax of the Robe Hotel, Vice Commodore and Mr Reg Jarvis, Postmaster of Robe, was Secretary.
Regattas were held on Boxing Day each year. Mr Keith Bowman from "Poltalloch" Station would bring his boat called the "Dora Bassett" down to Robe every Christmas holidays, which he would enter in a sailing race against Mr Hurtle Fax's boat called the "Evelyn Mavis", together with a couple of fishing boats. They would also have a motor race with the same boats. As well, they would race their dinghies with oars, and then attach their outboard motors, racing them as speed boats. Occasionally they would use sails for races but, unfortunately, they did not have the small sailing boats which we have today.
Mr Reg Jarvis built the wooden racing boats, "Margy J". "The Playmate" and "Johnnie Walker" (the fastest). The other men who raced in those days were:
Jack and Bert Hateley
Richard S Cullen
Perce Reid
Jack Bennett
Tom Brown
Hugh Davis
The course selected for those early races was marked out north-west from the old jetty across to where the caravan park is today, and back to the jetty across to where the boats were always moored. Families observing used the beach both sides of the jetty.
Since 1954, Hooper's Beach has been used for the sailing scene, with the course for races being set west across Guichen Bay, north and east towards Long Beach and back.
The Robe Yacht Club has now out-grown Hooper's Beach and is awaiting its new "home" to be located above the cliff over the site of the new jetty, and down to Karatta Beach.
A.L. Dawson
Robe Yacht Club Inc (Affiliated with the South Australian Yacht Racing Association)
The Robe Yacht Club was re-formed on 7th March, 1954, after a considerable period of recess. The first Commodore was Mr Rick Cawthorne, Vice Commodore was Mr John D Lea, Secretary was Mrs Jenny Gilkes.
The following men have held the post of Commodore since then:
1955 T O'Grady
1956 F Squire
1957-1964 R Cawthorne
1965 Dr Magarey
1966-1967 M Sutherland
1968-1969 F Squire
1970-1971 R Jackman
1972 J Goode
1973-1974 G Squire
1975-1976 T Adams
1977-1980 J Lea
1981 G Baulch
1982-1983 R Castine
1984-1987 M Legoe
1988 H Nolan
Patrons are: Mr Eric Shaw & Mr Nigel MacGillivray
Special events have been:
1959 The "V.J." Championships were hosted
1969 & 1971 The Adelaide to Robe Yacht Race was held
1979 The "Redgum" Yacht Squadron first challenged
1983 Sailing Classes commenced
1986 Adelaide to Robe Yacht Race revived
1988 The "Young Endeavour" was hosted in Robe
(excerpt taken from "Dips and Drinks" - Robe Yacht Club Recipe Book 1988)