The earlier Mersea Sailing Club
In a memoir written decades later, Winifred Hone recalled a Mersea Sailing Club founded in 1866, with its headquarters initially at the White Hart. According to her account, the club later used the houseboat EVANDRA and went into abeyance during the First World War.
The memoir is evidence for how the island's earlier sailing community remembered its past. It does not, by itself, supply a continuous set of minute books or proof that the later club was constitutionally the same body.
The founding meeting of 22 April 1899
A later club's records give a precise formation date: on 22 April 1899 seven men met at the White Hart and chose the name Mersea Sailing Club, with T. Gilbert as club captain. This is the founding date used by today's West Mersea Yacht Club.
The change to West Mersea Yacht Club
On 14 March 1926 the 1899 organisation adopted the name West Mersea Yacht Club. Brigadier-General Sir William Horwood became its first Commodore under the new name. These details come from the club's own retrospective history published in its magazine Molliette.
Why the dates differ
The dates 1866 and 1899 both occur in authentic accounts of sailing at Mersea, but describe different lines of evidence: a reminiscence of an earlier organisation and the documented foundation of the later club. The available records do not establish an uninterrupted organisation between those dates.
Racing on the Blackwater
West Mersea's natural harbour and the sheltered waters of the Mersea Quarters attracted both working boats and pleasure sailors. The later yacht club developed racing for dinghies and keelboats on the River Blackwater and in the wider Thames Estuary. See also West Mersea Yacht Club's history.
Club history in Molliette (2017) · Winifred Hone's reminiscence.