68 CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2016BRITANNIA AGROUND
the total tonnage to 3,338. For our purposes in
calculating the club tonnage these yachts should
be excluded.”
The yachts owned by Honorary Members included
WL Stephenson’s 205 tonne Velsheda; the 163 tonne
Shamrock V, owned by CR Fairey and Endeavour, 215
tonnes, owned by Tom Sopwith!
The minutes continue: “Only three yachts are of any
size and new members are urgently wanted as financially
the club seems in a poor way. It seems not unjustifiable
to suspect that the unsound economic position of the
club is at the bottom of the present application in the
belief that members would flock to join a ‘Royal’ club.
“The membership is almost entirely local; the only
well known member is the Earl of Iveagh. The club
seems to be merely a weekend sailing club.”
It was noted that commodore Ewing ‘assumes it is in
order to apply again after a reasonable lapse of time,’ to
which the file states: ‘Affirmative.’
In January 1936 King George V died and five months
later Britannia’s gear was auctioned and bits and pieces
of her exist in locations all round Britain: the Royal
Northern and Clyde YC has her House Flag, the Essex
Yacht Club a winch, a spinnaker boom became a
flagstaff at Carisbrooke Castle. And it was off the Isle of
Wight Britannia herself was scuttled six months after his
death as the monarch wished.
The bawley Vera kept on trawling in the Thames
Estuary and Alfred Kirby continued selling his brown
shrimps from a barrow in Leigh Broadway until 1951,
when the Club made yet another unsuccessful bid for
the royal title. In 2014 the ancient Alexandra Yacht
Clubhouse was condemned by surveyors after it slipped
down the cliffs at Southend and the abandoned remains
were finally torched by vandals. But the membership still
exists. They are building a new slipway at Southend and
hope soon to have a new clubhouse.Left and above:
The first bid of
the Alexandra
Yacht Club by
local MP Winston
Churchill for royal
warrantK1 Britannia is a project to build a replica of the
original King’s yacht. The project was started in 1994
by a Norwegian businessman, who built a hull that
now lies in a state of half build in Southampton. It
was brought to the UK in 2011 by an enthusiastic
Cowes-based team, which has recently secured
charitable status for the project in the UK and USA.
A company has been set up to create an
apprenticeship scheme, for young people,
particularly those who are disadvantaged or
suffering mental health issues, who will be trained in
boat-building and sail-training to work on the build
and on the boat itself, once afloat. As well as the US
arm of the project, there is a link to a charity in St
Maarten, in the Caribbean, which will send trainees to
Cowes to join the work.
The long-term plan is to remain as true as possible to
the original design but the build itself has been put
on hold while the new charity’s board decides how
best to approach key design and build issues.k1britannia.orgREPLICA OF BRITANNIA
The club’s current
vice-commodore
Linda McKay with
former commodore
Gary McKayPHOTOGRAPHS C/O DICK DURHAM