Rugby Sailing Club was first founded by some Rugby town sailing enthusiasts about 1948/9. J.C. Sawyer was the first commodore for five years, followed by Chris Wilkinson, by which time the two year rota was instituted for this office. The nearest available sailing water at that time was Drayton Reservoir at Daventry and the sailing rights were obtained from British Waterways.
The first accommodation was a marquee, followed shortly after by a little more permanent housing in the form of an ex-army hut (still in use!). This was erected about twelve feet from the waters edge. The entrance to the hut was at the front between the reservoir and the hut. The doghouse was another small hut a few feet further on. It is now the ladies changing room. The men’s changing room was the present bosun’s locker but it was facing the other way. The bar was where the galley now is and the loos were just two little shacks a few yard towards the road. Sometime about 1963/4 a second army hut was obtained and erected by members to slightly overlap the first. This was built on land the Club purchased from the Middlemore farm land owners. The second hut was divided to provide a men’s changing room and a more spacious bar; the old bar being converted to a galley. A verandah was built over the footpath & front entrance and the present entrance & lobby was built with the doghouse above. This left a more spacious changing room for the ladies. The old men’s changing room was moved to it’s present location and was used by the then bosun to stock and sell various bits of chandlery.
The dinghy berths had been built from shuttering following the completion of the M1 and each boat owner had to build his own berth. We suffered a great deal at this time from very vigorous growths of a lily type water weed and it was a regular job to tow a weed cutter along the bed of the reservoir with the motor launch to clear the surface. It was impossible to sail where the weed was prevalent.
Charles Mortimer helped devise the present dinghy berths, which again were built by club members, first dismantling the old ones before driving in the scaffolding supports. This task was helped by one of the members bringing his home made wine for lunchtime, which somewhat slowed the afternoon work. The most recent convenience added to the club facilities were the brick built loos and quite recent connection to mains water.
The club represented Daventry in the New Town Games for several years and hosted the sailing twice before the games ceased to be held.
In May 1999, the club celebrated it’s 50th anniversary with re-union of past members, including many past commodores. Many of the “returnees” joined in the afternoon race, with Chris Wilkinson sailing a vintage Firefly restored for the occasion.
