In every corner


With the RORC’s centenary year approaching in 2025, it is a good time to revisit pivotal figures who nursed the fragile young institution through its frequently tricky early years. RORC co-founder George Martin’s great-niece, yachting historian Clare McComb, recalls the vigorous and highly accomplished life of racing sailor Algernon Maudslay


There are some people whose names appear everywhere but never seem to have a chapter of their own. Such a one is Algernon Maudslay. While researching


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early yachtsmen I looked in vain for stories about this highly influential and famous sailor, who seemed to flit in and out of the history books yet never made the title page. He was always so close to the action, a new appraisal was clearly needed. Thus I became Sherlock Holmes on the


trail of a semi-invisible man. Gradually his story came into focus, each discovery more impressive than the last. Maudslay was one of the prime movers


in the early RORC, but that was towards the end of his racing days. Whether from behind the scenes or at the helm, his steady hand influenced the sport, both domesti- cally and internationally, for nearly half a century, and is still influencing us now, some 74 years after his death. His contri- bution has never been properly recognised. It is time to start to correct that.


The early years We know he was born in 1873 in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, into the great Maudslay dynasty of inventors, builders of machine tools and steam engineers, whose machinery powered Victorian trade routes and war- ships across the Empire. His grandfather, Joseph, built the 84-ton auxiliary steam yacht Water Lily and owned the schooner


Dragon Fly, which so impressed Queen Victoria that she asked for Prince Albert to be taken out in her for a cruise. Algernon’s father, Herbert Charles


Maudslay, was equally celebrated for his yacht racing; he has even been credited with inventing the spinnaker and his leg- endary yachts Sphinx and Volante brought him many famous victories. Young Maudslay showed an indepen-


dent streak from the start, although it must have been quite a struggle to emerge from the family traditions as his own man. In the 1901 census he gave no profession, while his younger brothers are listed as ‘architect’ and ‘engineer’; elsewhere his uncle was an archaeologist and adven- turer. But although Algernon had the choice of any of the professions that took his fancy – the powerful Maudslay name would have seen to that – he seems to have turned that option down. At one point another conventional path


beckoned: a wedding date was formally announced. Something clearly went awry, as the match was soon called off and the lady quietly married another gentleman a few years later. The broken heart, if such it was, did not hold Algernon back for long. It is hardly surprising that Algernon


ALAMY


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