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A towering and imposing individual in almost every respect, George Martin stood 6ft 7in in his size 14 shoes… He is seen here on the deck of Amaryllis which he found sunk in the mud near Brixham and which he went on to restore with his own hands. She later raced the Fastnet, crewed by officers and cadets from the Britannia Royal Naval College. Among many other interests, Martin was also a first-class cricketer frequently turning out for his home county of Warwickshire…


Man at the helm


2015 marks the 90th anniversary of the first Fastnet Race… which was not unconnected with the founding of a certain offshore racing club


The current tradition of the founding of the RORC runs as follows: at the end of the first Fastnet Race in August 1925 a dinner was held in Plymouth, at the clubhouse of the


Royal Western Yacht Club of England under whose burgee the race had been sailed. At the end of the meal the new Ocean Racing Club came into being amid resound- ing cheers. EG Martin, fresh from victory in his Jolie Brise, was elected commodore by the yachtsmen present, who became known as the ‘Founder Members’, a description they bore with great pride as years passed and the club’s renown grew. However, modern research has shown that this version of events omits the vital part George Martin played in founding the club. As we approach the 70th anniversary of his death, perhaps it is time to set the record straight.


We have to take up the story slightly earlier. In 1924 the sailing journalist Weston Martyr returned to his native Eng- land after taking part in the Bermuda Race, fired up with a new enthusiasm for ocean racing. In December’s Yachting Monthly he urged British yachtsmen to adopt ‘the King of Sports… the very finest sport that a man can possibly engage in’, while bemoaning the absence of an organisation to promote it and warning that Americans would soon be crossing the Atlantic to challenge the British in blue water.


The then cruising editor of Yachting World, George Martin, gave 100 per cent 


SEAHORSE 31


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