Club Overview
Formed over 60 years ago by sailors living in Harlow, we are situated at Maylandsea on Lawling Creek, which is a tributary of the tidal River Blackwater, in East Essex, close to Chelmsford and Maldon.
Drawing members from throughout Essex, we aim to cater for all sailing tastes and abilities with our active dinghy and cruiser sections.
For recreational dinghy sailors there are sheltered creeks to explore and plenty of wildlife to see as well as the whole of the Blackwater from Maldon to Brightlingsea and beyond. If this sounds too sedate, the club offers a full programme of racing which runs from March to December. See the Dinghy Sailing page.
The sheltered bay the club is situated on makes a great, safe place to go for a blast on a windsurfer and the creek is ideal for exploring by kayak or stand-up paddle board.
For cruiser sailors the club offers mooring facilities, winter storage and an ideal location for day and weekend sailing with Maldon, Mersea Island and Brightlingsea but a few hours away. For the more adventurous, Holland, Belgium and France beckon. In addition to sailing cruisers the club permits non-sailing motorised cruisers (displacement hull craft) subject to committee approval. See the Cruiser page.
The club owns boats that can be borrowed by members and are also used for training. Click here for more details.
The club runs an Open Day each year to enable prospective members to find out first hand about the club and enables new sailors to explore the delights of sailing under the guidance of our experienced helms.
For additional information on membership go to our Members Page. Want more information? Have a question to ask then go to our Contact Us page
Some more history..
Inland Harlow would seem a strange start for the club especially when original site was the River Stort which whilst forming part of the boundary between Herts and Essex is only 20 metres wide at its best! However, such was the enthusiasm of the Harlow New Town that 1955 saw the launch of the club with 40 members.
The original clubhouse is now the Coho Restaurant just above Harlow Mill Lock. It originally was a trans-shipment warehouse for the Stort canal for the residents of the original Harlow. (The writer coincidentally remembers, in a previous life, gazing at odd spars and booms secreted in the roof trusses before its conversion in the early 90s)
However the restricted nature of the Stort led to frustration and a fall in membership and a move was undertaken to Lawling Creek in 1960 where land used as a ammunition dump in preparation for D Day, was acquired as well as a WW2 reparations Rhine ferry to be used as the clubhouse.
H(B)SC circa 1965
The club gradually grew and a new clubhouse, the dismantled officer’s mess from Roxwell, was erected over a 4 year period and completed in 1962. The old jetty, originally built for ammunition loading, was rebuilt at a cost of £1000 utilising a home built pile driver, the workings of which seem connected to the Bridge Over the River Kwai version!
The club expanded it’s membership catering for families and encouraging many children to sail and held its first Open Meeting in 1965.
Four main classes were catered for including Fireballs, Swifts, Mirror 14s and Mirrors plus a handicap section. The club entered open meetings and held regular races for points. With 250 boats and a large family membership the club became well established.
Click here to open photos of the Club's early years.
