Fusion M: Fast,
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Martin and his crew relax after winning the first Fastnet Race in 1925 aboard his Le Havre pilot cutter Jolie Brise (left). The result silenced the many critics for whom offshore racing represented ‘too perilous an endeavour… one not to be encouraged’
wishing to make use of Griffin was issued with an official RORC leaflet in which the introduction read, ‘The intention of the gift was to commemorate Commander EG Martin, who was the Founder of this Club in a practical manner of direct help to yachtsmen, particularly embryo Ocean Racers.’ There we have it, straight from the Seahorse’s mouth!
York to Bermuda during the years of 1923 and 1924. And so, said Martin, ‘Have you got ten shillings?
‘I think so,’ said Maudslay, rather bewildered.
‘Right!’ said Martin, putting a ten- shilling note on Maudslay’s desk. ‘Put yours with mine. You be treasurer, and now we are the first two members of the Ocean Racing Club.’
Interestingly most formal references to George being the RORC Founder occur at his death, which fell a few days before VE Day, in April 1945. His Yachting Monthly obituary stated that after winning the first Fastnet race ‘Commander Martin founded the Ocean Racing Club, now the Royal Ocean Racing Club.’ Similarly the local Devon press announced ‘the death of the founder of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’. The ‘Founder’s Cup’, donated in memo- riam by George’s brother and sister, bears the appropriate apostrophe.
Perhaps the most conclusive proof, however, came to light recently in RORC’s own archives. HE West, in whose Patience George had gained Fastnet line honours in 1931, had gifted the gaff cutter Griffin which they had co-owned, as RORC club yacht, in George’s memory. Any member
This historical revision adds to, rather than subtracts from, the existing tradition. All the Fastnet yachtsmen from that first dinner at which the ORC was publicly called into being were ‘Founder Members’ and nothing can take that title away. How- ever, it was EG Martin who was recog- nised as ‘the Founder’.
Weston Martyr wrote of George: ‘Whatever he steers, be it boat or club, is bound to go ahead on a true and steady course at its maximum rate of speed.’ In 1945 the RORC committee’s unanimous resolution of regret and deep loss issued at George’s death stated: ‘He established ocean racing in this country on a firm basis and the club will always remain grateful to him for the inestimable services rendered by him.’ The respect in which he was then held is shown by the fact that he was not replaced as Admiral until many months after his death – it is said that no one had felt themselves of sufficient stature to step into his size 14 shoes.
George Martin himself acknowledged that after resigning from the council of the YRA in the 1920s he had ‘devoted himself to the development of the RORC’. His touch is everywhere – even in the Seahorse motif, which was taken from a carving he made in WW1 while on active service. Today his vision and drive live on in the RORC’s worldwide leadership of the sport he did so much to establish. Clare McComb and Ben Hoogewerf
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