History

A History of Port Edgar Yacht Club 

Port Edgar Yacht club was formerly known as Queen Margaret Yacht Club and was originally based in North Queensferry. 

The Beginning 

The first founding meeting of the club was held at Cliff Cottage, North Queensferry at 3pm on Sunday 9th February 1969. The membership fee was set at £2 2s 0d and a draft constitution was discussed. (When decimalsation was introduced two years later the membership fee dropped to £2.) 

The inaugural AGM was held in the Tartan Room at the Roxburgh Hotel, North Queensferry on Thursday 13th March 1969.

Early offer of Clubhouse Building ! 

The club was offered a house called the `Black Cat Inn in North Queensferry if suitable accommodation could be found for the old lady who was living in it. In the event planning permission was turned down (no mention of what the plan for the old lady was ?!)and the committee chose instead to purchase a second hand caravan for £240. Forth Yacht Marina offered to host the clubhouse on ground they leased from Fife County Council. The inn was subsequently developed into cottages and is a listed building (see picture taken 2013 below) 

 

 

Membership Numbers 

Initial membership numbers totaled 52 members comprising: 8 adult members; 13 voting family members; 31 non-voting family members. There were 9 founding members who had all paid £10 10s 0d 5 years subscriptions up front. The members owned 12 boats. The directors of Forth Yacht Marina were instrumental in helping establish the club. 

Moorings 

The club had a 21 moorings. A plan of the mooring area was sent to FYCA and approval was sought from Queens Harbour Master. Taylor Marine Services also had 30 moorings. North Queensferry Residents had 6 moorings. 

First Race Calendar 

The new QMYC worked with Forth Cruising Club in arranging their first race calendar. A QMYC christening party was organised and raffle tickets sold with prizes such as : 10 hours sailing tuition; a bottle of champagne; gas cigarette lighter, bottle of Ben Line sherry; and a tin of biscuits. QMYC also hosted the Forth Area Schools Championship in its first year. 

First Set of Accounts 

First Controversy 

Two bands were booked for the first annual dinner dance Ragus Negative and Level Section. The result was not very satisfactory and there was a major disagreement over the £20 bill for the night which resulted in solicitors letters being written. The issue was resolved by agreeing to split the difference and pay £10 ! 

Year 2 - Build a Clubhouse and a thorny (still unresolved?!) issue 

In July 1970 a committee minute recorded The commodore asked if the Clubs objective should be to erect a permanent clubhouse at the earliest possible time. The Commodore considered that the money to supplement grants could be obtained. Committee Members, while agreeing that our objectives should be to erect a permanent clubhouse in due course, were concerned that the membership was not large enough not enthusiastic enough at this stage to commit the club to such a large venture and there was the added complication of security of tenure !!! Some things hopefully do change (albeit after 45 years). 

In August 1970 the membership was still only 58 but with 84 non-voting dependents including 55 children. Most members came from Edinburgh (23 of 58) and North Queensferry(16 of 58). 

The Annual dinner dance in 1970 was held at the Roxburgh Hotel, Charlotte Square, Edinburgh and attended by 59 people. A photographic competition was also started in 1970. 

In 1970, the first signs of tension between Forth Yacht Marina and the yacht club appear as 3 committee members resign in protest that the directors of Forth Yacht Marina have a conflict of interest. 

The first QMYC regatta was set for July 1970. 

First weekend cruise to Anstruther was held in 1972 it was run jointly with QBC and RNSA. 

From 1970 to 1974 the club operated without much controversy with racing and cruising both experiencing development ebbs and flows. 

Ladies There was a Ladies Committee who were involved in various activities.... 

Mrs Gaye to be written a vote of thanks for work done so far this season, particularly the regatta. This would be a suitable time to point out to her that we do not want her to over do it 

The Ladies Committee have been working very hard on fund raising and social activities. In the pipeline are the Burns Supper, Valentines Day Dance, Wine and Cheese Party and Hippie Happening Dance, as well as the normal coffee mornings 

Socials 

In addition to the Annual Dinner Dance there were various other socials events organised during some years including for example:

• Burns Supper 
• Cheese and Wine Parties 
• Buffet Supper 
• Post Regatta Dance 
• Summer Fayre 
• Haggis and Beer night 
• Barbeque 

Major fall out, move and generous offer from Commodore 

In April 1974, the tensions between Forth Yacht Marina came to a head again. It all started with handbags at dawn over putting up posters but this time finished with the directors of Forth Yacht Marina withdrawing their support of the club. The directors membership was subsequently withdrawn and the club made arrangement to move the clubhouse (i.e. caravan) and starters box to a new site at Signal Station Hill. This included the purchase of a chalet facilitated by none other than Dr J MacDougall (of Shoki fame). Commodore purchased the chalet and the committee agreed to reimburse the Commodore when the Club had the funds available to do so. 

Dinghy Slipway 

The club also leased the East Battery Slip from British Rail or launching dinghies at this time. The Category A listed East and West Battery Piers on Battery Road by John Rennie were built between 1810-1813. The West Battery Pier is 98m long jetty runs north/south and is flanked on the east by rising ground of north cantilever of Forth Bridge. The East Battery Pier is a 70m long jetty. Although the Town Pier became the main landing point for the ferryboats crossing from South Queensferry, the East and West Battery Piers were used during low tide conditions. The jetty of the East Battery pier also functioned as a pilot boat slipway for the Coastguard whose post was originally located on the site of the Fife cantilever and was removed to Battery Hill (Castle Hill) once the construction of the bridge commenced in 1883. 

1975 Accounts 

Our Longest Serving Members ? J Murphy (skipper Erin) April 1976 Jock Blair (crew Respect) May 1976 

Tom Dryden (Howards dad and Sams grandfather) was one of the initial members of the club. Howard and Sam allowed their membership to lapse in 2016 but as Howard was a junior in 1969, he is still in all probability the person who has been a member of the club longest. 

The Move to Port Edgar 

In November 1975 it was noted that one of our problems is that he Navy have vacated Port Edgar ! It is not clear why this was a problem. However, every cloud has a silver lining I guess 

If and when we can locate the committee papers for the period we will continue the story .... 

At some point, someone will fill in the rather large blanks covering the period from 1975 to the present day.

In short however, the club negotiated the use of the old officers mess building essentially a large Nissen hut overlooking the top of the slipway.  This characterful and functional building served as the clubhouse until 2021, when after much hard work negotiating with the council, marina management and much fundraising from members and various grant bodies, a new clubhouse and shower block were opened.  The ground where the old clubhouse used to sit is now the dinghy parking area.  The club has grown over the years and at the end of the 2023 season had over 350 members.

 

 

Last updated 2:33pm on 24 April 2024