As there was no security you could not leave the boats at the club site, Capt Bacon made arrangements to store the boats at the Slough Fort. At this stage, members would meet and take their small sailing dinghy's through a gap on the bank of the Thames at Allhallows. In the late 60's, the seawall was introduced and the installation of the East and West ramps were negotiated with the local council planners. In the beginning, to increase the membership, an advert was placed in a magazine called "Getting Afloat".

Two of the next members to join were Reg and Brenda Turner. It was these early members that put together a wooden shed as the clubhouse; we expect its main use was to store the beer! In 1964 Charles De Groot became the first Commodore of AYC and over the following years the popularity of the club began to increase. The Clubhouse as we know it was built in 1965 and was constructed in two stages. The first section to be built was the bar area, then the hall, and the caretakers flat and the race tower were added a couple of years later.

The funding for the construction of the second section of the clubhouse was paid for by the members and supplemented by a 50% donation by the playing fields association.

Eric Vieler, a local man and, one of the early committee members, actually objected to the club at the beginning on the grounds that he wanted it all for himself!! He went on to be a committed member of the club for many years after.

As time rolled by AYC built up experience in hosting racing events of all kinds. The club had many club races and "Opens" for power, ski and sailing.

In 1977 and 1978, following the success of the Open Meetings for ski-racing, when Mike Hullett was Ski Captain, A.Y.C hosted the first ever World Ski-racing Championships in 1979. The event was sponsored by Sperry Univac, and at that time they were the second largest computer company in the World with a turnover of £200M. Allhallows hosted international teams from Great Britain, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Austria, France and the Netherlands.

The event was made up of three legs - Allhallows, Whitstable and Welsh Harp, London. At Whitstable the teams encountered unpredictable sea conditions which can vary dramatically depending upon wind and tide.

Allhallows had a triangular course with acute turns testing the teams' ability to change from one water condition to another. Finally, the Welsh Harp or Brent Reservoir is a 170 hectares of open water, marshes, trees and grassland less than 10 miles from the centre of London. This venue provided maximum speeds, overtaking and racing in close proximity.

In 1978, the first AYC shakedown powerboat event was proposed by the Power Captain R Eldred. Its original title was the April Fools Challenge. Ever since the race's conception it's been the event that precedes the National Season, a time to prepare and test before the season starts, and this race continues today.

Throughout the 70's and 80's AYC continued to develop racing, the club became one of the major organisers of National Offshore Power Boat Racing in the UK and were organisers of the National Class I, II, III, IV Annual Thanet Races at Margate, we staged an annual Class III national points event known as the Estuary Classic and also hosted the Class IV national Finals four years running! During this racing heyday AYC had 66 boats entered into the Margate race (which in now the Ramsgate race).and 40 boat entries were common place for the Class IV races at the club (now known as Offshore Circuit Racing).

In 1993, AYC hosted the World 1.3 litre finals. This event was spread over a week and we had over 17 countries represented with entries coming from as far as Argentina. In fact we played them at a friendly game of football on the green outside the club and won 2-1 in a World Cup style revenge attempt for Maradona's hand ball in 1986.

AYC can be proud of its past and as the club heads towards it's half century we can look forward to and embrace a new era in water sports.