winning young men over to sailing, and that the cost of the smaller craft at the exhibition was accessible to many. His key theme involved an explicit appeal for the journalists present to spread this message far and wide: many good boats were cheap compared to the motor car, or even motor- cycles, and ‘every bit of sport afloat’ could now be enjoyed by men of modest means. Critically Queenborough demonstrated


that he had the instincts of a 21st-century influencer: ‘In the present age,’ he said, ‘nothing can really flourish without ade- quate publicity.’ Yachtsmen had kept the nation safe with their war service – how- ever, their skills were still needed. He referred to the Royal Thames’


upcoming 150-year anniversary in 1925, declaring that ‘through all these years there have been enthusiasts who have kept the club going under the various names under which it has carried out its activities’. He was confident, if the new generation of racing yachtsmen could be engaged with the assistance of the journalists present, that there would still be such men in the future ‘to carry on the traditions of the Club’. Queenborough and the Thames were


riding high. When their substantial but rented headquarters at 80 Piccadilly were earmarked for demolition and redevelop- ment, and indeed auctioned off from beneath their feet, a move to Knights- bridge to even more palatial and magnifi-


56 SEAHORSE


cent premises was swiftly organised. Queenborough presided over the dinner


to celebrate the club’s new home, in September 1923. Hyde Park House, mag- nificently refurbished by Lady Naylor-Ley- land before the war, had a grand staircase and magnificent ballroom. It was described as ‘perhaps the finest clubhouse in London, and certainly the most palatial one’. The Yachtsman magazine congratulated the Royal Thames for this ‘bold move’, declar- ing it ‘a ‘home from home’ for yachtsmen ‘throughout our overseas dominions’. In stark contrast the Ocean Racing Club


was thrust into being in 1925, largely because of the organisational stamina and vision of another very far-sighted, deter- mined individual. George Martin came from the Martin’s


banking family and was educated at Eton and Oxford. He asked the highest stan- dards of himself, whether as a linguist, an artist and engraver, a first-class cricketer, or the master of piano and violin to a pro- fessional standard. He was also an excel- lent cruising and racing sailor, winning the Royal Cruising Club Challenge Cup twice before the war, followed by his unexpected victory in the blue ribband international 6 Metre trophy, the One Ton Cup, in 1912. Despite his 6ft 7in Martin was also a


dedicated small boat sailor who, along with designer Frank Morgan Giles, patiently steered the 14ft dinghy concept through


numerous post-war YRA committees into the international class that remains active to this day. Ocean racing represented everything he


believed in – the skill and seamanship needed and developed by such challenges, the friendship and teamwork engendered, the testing of a ‘ship’ to its limits – and the fact that ex-working boats, often the per- fection of many decades of ‘rule of thumb’ design, could show their true capacities in both storm and calm. He, of course, had himself trawled


‘round land’ on the Brixham smacks for some three years. Just like Almeric Paget, he had spent his youth among working men, gaining their respect. Just like Almeric, he was a highly skilled and suc- cessful racing sailor and, just like his richer counterpart, he had a vision for his club… the development of offshore racing, not just nationally but globally. Weston Martyr’s enthusiasm, on his


return from America, had fired up more steady individuals, men used to the com- mittee method of initiating and running a project. George was the kind of individual, so valuable for any innovative project, who carries a list of everything needed in his head and then makes sure it gets done. It was widely acknowledged in the late 1920s that he was the ‘Founder’ of the ORC, as well as the first Commodore (by acclamation). For without him everyone


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