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Club News

WYC memory from Tony Hays

Posted: Thursday, 05 August, 2021

We recently received the following message from Tony Hays, one of our members in the 50s and 60s:
"In 2020 you posted an interesting video of the 1967 Admiral's Cup series. You might be interested to know that a WYC member was on the UK team (at least, I think I was still a member in 1967, having moved to Bristol in 1962 for university and work). My parents, Philip and Joan Hays, were members of WYC in the 1940s to 1960s. I vaguely remember my mother saying that she was the first woman member, although I don't know if that is actually true. My father had an Essex One Design and originally raced out of Herne Bay Yacht Club, but moved to Whitstable around 1939. He then transitioned to an 18 ft National, then a Flying Dutchman and Merlin-Rocket. I joined as a junior member in about 1956, sailing Cadets, and was probably a member for about 12 years or so, before emigrating to the United States.
I started to crew in offshore races when I was 17, and worked my way up to race for Ron Amey, owner of the Noryema series of ocean racers (the name of the boat is Ron Amey spelled backwards). Some of the races, or race series, that I competed in were:
1966 Transatlantic Race (Bermuda-Copenhagen) (Noryema IV),
1967 Admiral's Cup Team (Noryema V),
1968 Onion Patch Trophy Team (which included the Newport-Bermuda Race) (Noryema VI),
1972 Onion Patch Trophy Team. (Noryema, a stock Sparkman & Stephens design, was the overall winner of the Bermuda Race, thanks to brilliant navigation on the part of the skipper and navigator, Ted Hicks. She is the only non-American yacht to win the Bermuda Race (https://www.nytimes.com/1972/06/21/archives/noryema-british-sloop-is-victor-in-newporttobermuda-race-noryema.html)). The photo is the crew photo for Noryema, I'm the second from the right, Ted Hicks is third from the right.
I've also raced both the Fastnet and Bermuda Races on other boats. In 1969 I emigrated to the United States, and have raced fairly extensively on the US East Coast, Great Lakes and West Coast, including several races from the US to Mexico. Currently I crew on a Beneteau 32 out of Dana Point, in Southern California."
You can see the full 1967 Admiral's Cup series on our youtube channel at youtube.com/watch?v=mt5ToIUWkog. Thanks to Tony for getting in touch. If you have any memories of Whitstable Yacht Club, we'd love to hear them!