The Best Time Of My Childhood

A Memory of Woolverstone.

From 1954 until 1958 The Royal Harwich Yacht Club at Woolverston was where our Thames Sailing Barge was moored, and I spent my holidays from boarding school sailing, swimming, climbing trees or running free in the parkland which surrounded the Club, and cycling over to see my friends. I would nearly always be out all day, returning to the barge when summoned by its bell for lunch, wolfing the food down, and then hurrying off to whatever adventure awaited me. My best friend and I would frequently walk to Pin Mill or climb the Freston Tower, or just spend time on the hard, maybe swinging our way down the pier or just watching the yachts laying on water at the end of the pier. On race days and regattas I would either crew in friends dingys (I often crewed a 505) or yachts or later my own 12 foot, 'National'.