History

The Club was founded in 1936 and was originally located within the old Marine and Curlinghall Hotel buildings in John Street - above the old stables/garage adjacent to Hill Street. It relocated from there across John Street to a "purpose built" property consisting of old stable buildings that were re-configured to contain a Galley, Bar, Dance/Social area and of course shower/changing areas. Ground to the immediate east of the building was used for members to work on their boats and as a temporary boat storage area (most members had their dinghies on a dedicated space on the Broomfields Esplanade, at Cairnies Quay, which was rebuilt and widened in the late 1960's). All this development work was dependent on a Scottish Office Grant, awarded in 1964. Offshore from Cairnies Quay were several mooring trots, which in their heyday had somewhere over 75 keel and motor boats swinging from them.

There are a few photos from Cairnies Quay here.

By the mid/late 90's, these buildings were becoming increasingly difficult to maintain, and keep water-tight and thoughts turned to moving into a new purpose built facility. By this time, most of the keelboat members had taken their boats into the Marina which had by then been open for more than 10 years. The services and facilities on the site had grown and the owners (Yacht Havens Group) were keen to have us relocate there and made several offers to encourage this move. After several proposals were evaluated and designs submitted, the RYA made an offer to support a Lottery application - if the Clubhouse was large enough to host large National and International dinghy regattas. After much discussion and votes, it was decided to sell the existing Clubhouse and build a brand new Clubhouse and dedicated slipway on the Marina site.

The New Club House

Work started in late 1998 and progressed through spring and early summer, with the substantial scale of the building becoming evident as soon as the foundations and concrete base were laid. There were problems with both funding and construction, as would perhaps be expected from any project of this nature. At the time, this Scottish Lottery project was second only to the Hampden Park stadium development in cost and facility. Some large measure of credit is due to all those involved in the development, which was not without a level of stress that tested our then Committee.

The building was completed in July 1999, being opened on a nice sunny day by Sir Chay Blyth. It was barely in time for our very first event, Celtfest 1999. Boats were here from all the Celtic population centres, including those from Brittany. This imposing building was put to the test right from day one. Since then, Largs has established and earned its reputation as Scotland's National Sailing Centre, well able to stage Regatta Events up to and including World Championships. The highlight (to date) being Host Club to the 2010 Laser Radial World Championships, which saw over 550 competitors from 57 Countries here over a period of 3 weeks. Thankfully, they were not all here at the same time!

The outlook views from our Lounge and balcony must be amongst the best in Scotland. Most visitor jaws drop when they walk past the Bar area and see the Isles of Cumbrae, Arran and Bute in panorama, right in front of them. With the main race area in the Largs/Cumbrae channel before them, they can keep half an eye on their family competitor - with the other half eye on the surrounding scenery. Bar and Restaurant facilities are also available, with members also able to use the facility for functions by arrangement.

The Future

Right now, there are no plans to relocate to any other place - why would we want to?