A concise history of Birmingham Model Yacht Club 

The few reports that are available for this period show that the club was formed in
August 1929 largely due to the support given by the city council. Councillor G F McDonald became the President and Mr W H Davey the first Commodore. The club was called Birmingham City Model Yacht Club.

The sailing water destined to become the first home of the newly formed club was in Salford Park, Aston where the club adopted A class and 6 meter yachts. 
Several members of Bournville MYC were active in the formation of BMYC and the first competition between the two clubs took place in January 1930 which BCMYC won by the slender margin of 14 points to 10.

April 1931 heralded the second BCMYC Annual Dinner (there are no records about
the first) which was held at the Imperial Hotel where prizes were awarded to the winners of 36” Championship Cup

In May 1931, BCMYC hosted a 10 Rater inter club event against Stoke on Trent MYC. The host club were the victors by six points.
Twenty year gap, no information available.
The first available committee minutes are dated 16th October 1952, the meeting was held at the Albion Inn and chaired by Mr S C Longford. 

AGM - 6th November 1952 where it was reported that there were 52 members and 7 juniors. The income was £98, 17 shillings and two and a half pence. The adopted classes were ‘A’ class, 10 Rater, 6 meter, M class and 36’s
The venue for subsequent meeting was the ‘Old Contemptables’ until January 1959.
From November 1960 until 1974 AGMs were held at Witton Lakes when they moved for two years to the CO-OP meeting room.

In 1976 the AGM returned to Witton Lakes and the first typed reports were included in the minutes from the sailing secretary and treasurer. 

On the 21st October 1986 BMYC suffered a significant blow when the council owned boat shed in which many club boats were stored, caught fire. The fire officer is reported to have said that it was not deliberately caused and several of his officers were instrumental in saving 20 yachts; it is not known how many yachts were lost in the blaze. 

1957 – 1995– A list of entries summarising a number of happenings at AGM’s the most notable of which include:
            On the 27th June 1956 the Duke of Edinburgh became Patron of the MYA 
            1969 – The club changed its name to BMYC 
            1975 – RC racing was accepted by the club and support for this has steadily increased

1995 – The lake at Witton was dredged to a ‘satisfactory depth’  
Dec 1995 – The first IOM Open meeting race was held, 29 entries were reported.
In January 2009 the AGM discussed the transfer of the club to Sutton Park and trial races were to be organised by Mr Henderson from March. This transfer has been most successful and our association with Sutton Sailing Club began to flourish.

2010 AGM– Mr Henderson was thanked for his efforts in enabling MBYC to join with Sutton Sailing Club.

January 2012 AGM– Starting equipment was purchased from J Meredith, cost
£120 and a replacement safety boat was also purchased. Tea was charged at 10p a cup. A request for boat storage was not approved since there was no storage facility on site. It was requested that the club flag be flown when racing.
December 2012– AGM – Club Officers:
President – P Lock, Commodore and Sailing Secretary– G Tite, Rear Commodore – P Henderson
Secretary – C Hartland, Treasurer - W Pitt
Winter racing was to be pursued and guidance will be provided to enhance compliance with the racing rules. An IOM open was held with 20 boats attending and ten boat also took part in a Footy open event. It was agreed by Mike Weston that we could host a MM open event and Mark Litherland provided the new club flag. Mike Stevenson was given sole control of the web site.

Dec 2013 AGM– New buoys and course board has helped to make the race briefings and the courses much clearer and a very successful season was reported. A duty rota was suggested to spread the racing work load, IOM’s, MM and RG 65 fleets were especially strong but the Victoria’s showed a further decline. The approved classes for the coming year will be IOM, RG65, MM and Footies. Safety boat training has been undertaken by several members. Open events were held for IOM’s and Footies. John Meredith’s efforts in the galley were apparent during the year and he was thanked for them. Open events were held for IOM’s and Footies. The club was in a strong financial position.

Dec 2014 AGM - Clive Hartland was elected President and Peter Henderson became an Honorary Life Member.

Dec 2015 AGM - Roger Unit was elected to Membership Secretary and Treasurer and John Burgoine became the Sailing Secretary. The racing goes from strength to strength and the club is in an increasing sound financial position

10th December 2016 AGM – Another good year for BMYC. Ties with SSC have been strengthened.

2nd December 2017 AGM- DF95 fleet races approved to be held on selected Thursdays

13th Feb 2018 EGM–Graham Tite was elected to the newly created position of Bosun and Alan Skitt became Commodore. The Constitution is to be updated and will be ready for approval by the next AGM. Club Rules and Job Descriptions for club officers have also been produced.  A+ Rigs on DF65 were adopted and will be raced on some Thursdays. A new race calendar will be produced to encompass the changes and also three race training days are to be organised. The number of heats has been increased to eight each race day allowing two discards. A new set of race marks is to be produced by the Bosun and the price tea was increased to 20p.
The relationship with SSC has steady grown in strength with club members attending their social events and assisting on work days. During the first ten years our membership has doubled from 24 to almost 50 members in 2018. 

August 2019  The 90th anniversary of the club. Club hats were supplied to members that displayed the club burgee. A buffet lunch was provided and team racing was undertaken during the afternoon.

3rd December 2019 AGM - The membership fee was increased to £6. RG AND DF 65 racing were combined  on two days each month. After 3 free visits members from other clubs can have 3 further visits each year at £5 each visit. The DF95 Class was formally adopted. Membership stood at about 38. The club is in a sound financial position and the standard of racing and rule observance is steadily improving.

March 2020 ​All sailing suspended due to the  corona virus pandemic.Some members participated in the Virtual Race series sailing with Blithfield S C.

May 2020 Informal racing commenced, members maintained 2m distance and the clubhouse was restricted to the use of toilet facilitiies.

August 2021 COVID restrictions are lifted and formal club racing is resumed.

September 2021 The refurbishment of the clubhouse is completed and it is much improved
The above summary has been compiled from the archives and minutes of the club and they are intended for members and others who wish to read an outline of the club history. Further details are available from the Secretary who has the minutes.
Alan Skitt,
Commodore 
November 2021

​A Word document of the above can be downloaded here bmyc_history.docx

Tuning the old way
Model yacht sailing has come a long, as this 1957 tuning guide may demonstrate!

Tuning_1957_style.pdf
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