Our History

The Founders
In the winter of 1965 I received some inside information from the offices of the Mid Northamptonshire Water Board: "A group of Northampton businessmen are negotiating for the sailing rights at Hollowell." The leading lights apparently were Mr C J (Johnnie) Leach and Mr D A J (Don) Howard.
Both were shopkeepers. Johnnie was a butcher on Wellingborough Road and Don a newsagent and tobacconist at St Leonards Road, Far Cotton. Talk about chalk and cheese! Johnnie was full of fun gregarious and generous, he loved people, he did not suffer fools. Don was quiet, a very shrewd thinker, strategic, diplomatic and totally organized. They were the best of pals. The chemistry between these guys created the foundation of Hollowell Sailing Club. Johnnie became our Founding Commodore, Don was our Founding Secretary. Shopkeepers in those days had Thursday afternoons off-half day closing. Thursday sailing remains an important feature in our calendar. This gets better year on year.
Later at Hollowell I met two more key figures, Brian Farey and Dennis Wright . These guys were keen and competitive dinghy sailors. Brian and Dennis became our Founding and joint Sailing Secretaries . We now know there were seven founders. However my receipt for my first year's subscription was numbered 007. No doubt Don caught up with that seventh founder in due course!

The Old Boathouse
This sturdy wood-framed building was handed over to the Founders in the original lease. Tidy on the outside, on the inside it was dark and dusty, home to a million spiders. Light, ventilation and outlook were provided by opening the large double doors. Amenities included were a single toilet, a heavy iron coke stove and a single gas ring. That old boathouse has survived . Today it is at the centre of our splendid clubroom .

Racing
Helping (and learning loads from) Brian and Dennis, we mapped out the lake. The position and the names our six race marks fell naturally into place. Initially all the starts and race timing were shore-based. We built a very small balcony race cabin on the front of the boathouse . Our present race office followed many years later. Corrected time calculations involved a lengthy session with the slide rule. This improved massively when John Walrond calibrated the clock in deciminutes.
Gate starts were popular for class racing: in the winter, when Race Officers hibernated, the competitors would sort out a course, nominate a gate boat and then set a start time. Once all the starters were in the area the gate boat would set off from the start mark on port tack. The gate boat was free to tack after the fleet had crossed "the line" on starboard tack.
Brian and Dennis were keen competitors and good ambassadors for Hollowell. Inter-club fixtures and our Ice Tankard soon featured in our programme . Water Board boss, Alan Simkins, lived at Guilsborough and was a regular visitor. He wanted The Board to provide us with a trophy which would commemorate a former Water Board Chairman. It would be contested between the local clubs sailing on Water Board reservoirs - The Warwick Trophy was launched.

Committee Meetings
Hazardous, pretty cold, and fairly brief. Would the torch hold up for the tricky ascent back through the trees to the top car park? They were very small meetings by today's standards - a dozen folk was a big meeting.

Safety Boats
Our original selection of boats were all round bilge and 2-stroke powered. A Seagull motor with its 1 in 10 oil to petrol mix could asphyxiate its driver downwind. For a time one of the Founders lent us a Fletcher Arrow speedboat... Wow! Totally useless for rescue, for work or as a committee boat, a serious hazard to dinghy sailors ... but Wow!
What a relief when we discovered and collected some Dory work boats. They could and still can do any task we can possibly set for them. The standard of our power boat fleet is now truly 50 years improved. Nice to see the workhorse qualities of the Dory hull can still help on occasions.

Charles Brett