The Garside Family's Story

Please get in touch if you or members of your family have recollections of the club in former days.

We came to Hoo in 1980(?) when our son Chay was only ten months old. Previously we had been at Cuxton.

Our present boat is "Maitresse". She is a Cobra 850 which we have steadily upgraded over the years. We are now hoping to move on to larger boat.

Gary was active on the Sailing Committee for many years covering the time when Kevin Dowley, Martin Richards and Alan Dann were Rear Commodore.

Gary is actively involved with the Hoo Freezer and has been Assistant Race Officer for many years, initially working with Barry Cann and then Bob Jones (Bob Jones is a member of Wilsonian Sailing Club and became the established Race Officer for the event in 1995(?) when Wilsonian SC were asked to help run the event when Barry Cann retired). Julie is famous for her cake-making and has made and iced cakes for just about every conceivable special occasion at Hoo Ness. Daniel, our second son, came along later.

We were at Hoo, along with many other people, after the 1987 Hurricane. There was extensive damage to the boats on the trot moorings and several were sunk. One boat was subsequently recovered like Simona. We went out to help secure boats.

We were at Hoo when John Murray and family were nearly drowned. They had gone out to the moorings but their rigid inflatable had sunk under them. John's son had been able to swim ashore and landed on the beach up near Wilsonian SC. John and his daughter(?) clung to a mooring buoy. Luckily they were spotted before it was too late. They were carried ashore and treated for hypothermia. This consisted of being soaked in the showers until recovered.

Gary's firm carried out the construction of Bower's Quay, the major land reclamation adjacent scrubbing docks 2 and 3. This was under the direction of Dave Bower and to the structural design of Keith Boddy and his son.

Similar techniques were used on the subsequent reclamation of the eastern end of the clubs's land. This forms the dinghy park immediately adjacent the public footpath. This work was carried out by Gransden Construction(?).

Lloyd(?) took his boat off sailing across the Atlantic and sent back pictures of his jury-rigged mast.

Martin Richards
February 2000

Date Published 27th Jun 2011