MOB Pages

MOB ~ History Page

Registered UK Charity No. 1027432

The Beginnings

By Richard Hayden (A Founder Member)

I took up the post as the first full time manager of the new Bewl Water Outdoor Education Centre in April 1988.

Keen to develop sail training opportunities for both young people and adults, but with very few dinghies and none that were adapted for people with physical disabilities, I went in search dinghies that looked abandoned in the Bewl Valley Sailing Club dinghy park.

I soon spotted a Mk1 Challenger "Endeavour" sitting on its trolley with the name Spastic Society (now Scope) emblazoned on its hull. It certainly did not look abandoned but it did show all the signs of little use. This was good news – a specialised dinghy – little used – and owned by the then Spastics Society. Maybe there would be the possibility of borrowing the boat if anybody who found a mono hull dinghy too unstable.

With a 1001 jobs to be done, not least repairing the majority of dinghies owned by the Centre following the 1987 storms, developing a partnership with the Spastic Society at this point in time was not one of the highest priorities. It also was not that important as the Centre did not have too many customers in the first place!

A couple of months after spotting the Challenger on dry land, I was working in my office and through the window I spotted the three hulls and with two people on board.

The appearance of the Challenger on the water became a regular feature (I think on Wednesday mornings). Several weeks later I was afloat teaching a group sailing when the orange decks of the Challenger appeared and as she approached my group of Toppers I manoeuvred my safety boat so that I was close enough to introduce myself to the two men on board. The boat was being helmed by Robert Soper with his father John kneeling/balancing on the stern.

They always appeared to be having great fun and even when it was a little breezy John could be seen hanging on as Robert pushed the boat as hard as he could. Inevitably this did result in John taking a few duckings. As the number of schools coming to learn to sail through the Outdoor Centre increased, I was normally on the water at the same time as Robert and John went for their weekly sail them, and so I could not help but notice when these duckings took place. John would loose his grip and would end up in the water but hung on to any bit of the boat that he could grab whilst shouting to Robert to stop the boat. It then took John quite a few minutes very hard work to scramble back on board.

The more I saw this happen the more concerned I became. John, who was I guess in his late 60’s at this time began to say that he was finding it almost impossible to get back on board at times, but he also desperately wanted to be able to support Robert with his sailing.

As a result of this, I offered Robert and John safety boat cover as long as they sailed in the vicinity of where I was coaching. In this way I was able to keep an eye on everything, and if and when John slipped into the water in the middle of the reservoir I was able to pop over to them and help him back on board. As well as supporting them on the water I also helped out with minor repairs e.g. replacing a few fittings and re riveting bits on the mast.

At the start of the 1989 season I was still promoting/marketing the ‘new’ Outdoor Education Centre and one of my strategies to encourage more schools to the centre was to offer free coaching session for teachers and youth workers on one late afternoon/early evening per week.

Those who turned up on one of the first sessions was a lady by the name of Jennie Humm. From what I recall Jennie was either a complete novice or at least had done very little sailing. However, she was probably shown a Topper and under the guidance of an excellent Instructor (David Kirby) she began to learn the skills of sailing. It was a little time later that I found out that Jennie was not in fact a teacher and therefore it was very unlikely that she would be able to bring a group of pupils from the school where she was working as the School Secretary.

However, Jennies enthusiasm soon became apparent and I did not enforce the ‘only for teachers and youth workers’ criteria. She went on gain her RYA Level 1 and Level 2. I thought that it might end there, but no, Jennie was on a mission and had set her targets much higher. She wanted to become an RYA Instructor.

Given that she had little previous experience I advised her that she needed to do a lot more sailing and to set herself the target of passing what was then the RYA Level 3 (Seamanship) award. I set her some tough challenges and I may have even slowed down her progress but I wanted Jennie to be really confident and competent when it came to her Level 3 assessment and a little later the Instructors pre assessment. The weeks went by with Jennie putting in many hours sailing in all sorts of weather conditions and it was not long before she started to nag me to check her sailing skills so that she could move on and be assessed. I can recall that I was not totally happy with her depth of experience and felt that she needed another seasons sailing under her belt. It was then that I really became aware of how determined she was – it was impossible to slow her down.

During the early days when she was coming to the centre on the ‘Teachers’ evening I talked of my vision of the Centre, one of these being that it would eventually be a Centre which could accommodate any body with any disability and that we could all go sailing on equal terms, properly integrated and not as I had seen elsewhere, as ‘us’(the able bodied carers) and ‘them’ (the disabled).

Chapter Two – The formation of MOB 1989 or was it 1990

I don’t recall how my aims and clearly Jennies aims actually turned from this into the formation of MOB,Jennie had some connection with the Spastic Society and already knew about the boat and how little it was used) but somehow the Spastic Society Challenger was moved from the Sailing Club dinghy park to the Outdoor Education Centre slipway and I became the guardian of the boat. I think that Robert and John Soper sailed it a few times during 1989. Sadly Johns health deteriorated, and I recall that Robert did not want to sail with anybody other than his father.

So this meant that I had use of a Challenger – but nobody to sail it. That was until Jennie stepped in. Its all rather vague but I think that Jennie began to invite some people to come and sail the Challenger. It was not long before we decided that we wanted to develop these opportunities and so the idea of creating a group and raising some money to purchase another boats was formalised – and the group became MOB.

Sailing from the Outdoor Education Centre slipway was a long way from being satisfactory but we managed. Everybody mucked in, worked together, sailed together and had fun together – MOB was going from strength to strength under the direction of an enthusiastic Committee led by Jennie MOB becomes a registered charity in 1993. M.O.B.'s aims are simply to provide integrated sailing opportunities for all (able-bodied and disabled) through the mutual enjoyment of sailing.

Soon a second Mk I ("Triumph") was discovered in Gillingham, Kent (where?) desperately in need of repair, recovered to Bewl and put on the water, MOB was founded and on the way with two Challengers.

1991 MOB purchased a second hand Drascombe Lugger which was re named "Sandpiper" This was jointly funded by Kent PHAB and Scope.

1993 MOB was well established and now a registered charity in it's own right. With funding from it's own efforts and a contribution from BVSC (name of person who made this money available) a brand new Challenger Mk I was purchased and named "Strident".

1994 saw the arrival of yet another new boat, this time a Challenger Mk II. A two seater with foresail and conventional mainsail. The money to purchase this boat was raised by a local girl's school. It was suitably named "Bedgebury Bluebird" and the launch attended by many of the girls and staff.

In 1995 we said good-bye to "Triumph" which was given to Chipstead Sailing Club and hello to "Pegasus" another Mk I Challenger which was loaned to MOB from Tonbridge Sailing Club where is was not being used. Was it 1995 when we moved to the Sailing Club area?

During the start of winter 1996 we had a small disaster, our Lugger "Sandpiper" was torn from her mooring during a storm and dashed against the dam wall. Repairs and renewals were undertaken by the insurance but the Committee decided that now was the opportune time to look for a replacement.

In 1997 MOB successfully applied to the Foundation for Sports and the Arts for a grant to purchase a brand new Lugger. Following many trials and tribulations, (like the supplier going into receivership) MOB eventually received the new Lugger in September. The new Lugger was suitably launched and named "Shearwater", MOB's original Lugger was then sold to local interests and still resides at Bewl.

1998 was a year of improvement of facilities, we attained a grant from Tunbridge Wells Borough Council that allowed MOB to purchase VHF radios for improved safety and more lifejackets

1999 Loan of Windrider (red) from Topper International

2001 New Windrider purchased – named David Windsong in memory of David Wakefield

2006 New Patron - Many thanks to Lee for finding, contacting and getting Hilary to agree to be our Patron. Thanks and welcome Hilary.

MOB crowd and Lee met with Hilary Lister (Hilary's website) whilst at the Nancy Oldfield Trust - see our pics page

Hilary and Lee