Life Member

Syd Forbes

One of the two or three men who put in hundreds of hours to build the present Gisborne Yacht Club pavilion at Kaiti Beach is the subject of this month's feature for this page. He is Mr S. H. (Syd) Forbes, of 6 Townley Street. In recognition of his outstanding service to the club he was elected a life member some years ago.

Mr Forbes's association with boats goes back many years, to the late 1920's when with other enthusiasts he helped form a power boat club. His boat, "The Lizard", is still around. Older residents will probably remember the regattas organised by the club, when the power boats raced over a course in the Turanganui. The club had its headquarters under the Kaiti Bridge.

When the war came along, and petrol became hard to get, that was the end of the club. After the war, the interest of such members as remained was channelled by Mr Ted Otway into the promotion of yachting. Mr Forbes's two boys, Rex and Eric, became keen members, along with the Wallen boys and others, and as the sport caught on, the need for a home for the club became a major project for older supporters.

Ted Otway, Trevor Hansen, and Syd Forbes were three who stuck to the long job from start to finish. And it was a long job. A picture in "Photo News" in 1954 shows the building in the framework stage. It was not until February 1957 that the new building was ready for the opening ceremony, a fine example of what can be achieved by hard work and devotion to a good cause.

Today, the building which was opened with such enthusiasm 10 years ago is in the wrong place. Time and harbour development have demanded that the Yacht Club, now a flourishing institution, move away from the harbour channel, and yachting is now centred on a launching channel some distance further round the beach. The job of moving the headquarters building to the new site will be a difficult one, but nothing like the task which faced its builders back in 1953.