Background
How it started
Although it operates as a separate entity, the Haven Ports Yacht Club grew up with Suffolk Yacht Harbour and the two remain closely related. The Harbour was the vision and creation of Michael Spear, its present Managing Director (and the President of HPYC) together with landowner Charles Stennett and local boatbuilder Eric Wright. A brief account of the Harbour’s history from its beginnings in 1967 may be found on the SYH website.
In 1975 SYH acquired the lightship LV87, now retired from its duty on the Mid-Barrow and previously Cromer stations, to become the clubhouse for the newly-formed HPYC, as it has been ever since. The ship has been constantly adapted and improved, both by the voluntary efforts of enthusiastic members and the immense resources and support contributed by SYH, to make it the comfortable and near-unique clubhouse that we now enjoy, with full bar and catering facilities and accommodation for large functions for both club members and visiting clubs.
Facilities & Amenities
In general the club is open throughout the year (albeit at lunchtimes only in winter except on Fridays and Saturdays). Cooked food is available at lunch and evening mealtimes when open, and the catering is such that the most exacting members may entertain their friends and visitors with confidence, while those with a large family or crew to re-fuel can do so wholesomely at a reasonable cost.
What we do
Despite its relative youth, the Club regards itself as one of the most active and successful in the region, with a busy and varied social programme, and organised (more or less) cruises ranging from “the first pub in the next river” (usually a popular one) to long weekends in the Thames and/or Medway or the Belgian or Dutch coasts.
The racing programme extends from early Spring to New Year’s Day and offers events ranging from the gentle and gentlemanly to the downright competitive, with several club boats each year flying the flag (and generally doing well) at Cowes or Cork or further afield.
We have a Squib (keelboat) fleet that keeps going through thick and thin, and generally has more races in its calendar than there are weeks in the year, and a very active and professionally-run youth section (the “New Wave”) which does everything from sheltered-water dinghy tuition for the very young to real racing, via all the supporting skills-training like first aid, RYA instructorship, liferaft drill, safety boat driving and so on, not to mention a fair bit of offshore crewing in each other’s family cruisers and (of course) the occasional party.
There are also a few members most years who vanish into the blue and come back a year or two later with several thousand sea miles on the clock and some good tales to tell – but this is admittedly fairly unusual, and certainly not compulsory.
Location
SYH is to be found on the North bank of the Orwell, some 3 nautical miles upriver from the Felixstowe docks (see local charts and the Harwich Haven Authority’s useful “Yachting Guide”, available at www.hha.co.uk. If arriving by road head for the post code IP10 0LN. The clubhouse is moored within the Harbour on the landward bank, about halfway along towards Felixstowe (i.e. downriver) from the Yacht Harbour offices and workshop – it’s big and red and you can’t easily miss it.