History of the club

The folowing article was written in 2002 for the Brighton Marina Yacht Club 25th Anniversary Year Book by long standing dive club member Alan Sharpe.  Alan has made great contributions to the club himself both as a dive instructor and active diver and also as editor of the Splashdown magazine for many years, and we thank him for his consent in reproducing this article. 
History of British Sub-Aqua Club   Branch 493

Our history goes back to 1971 when four men working for Brighton area GPO, Richard Harmer-Brown, Alan Turpin ,George Newell and Bob Charlton decided to form a scuba diving club. The Civil Service Sports Association promptly gave them six aqualungs and BS-AC special branch 493 went diving, although from the archives and minutes it would appear that the membership spent the next thirty years arguing about what to call themselves and how to raise money to buy new boats. None of these founder members are currently diving with us but veteran divers Paul Dupret, Paul Scully, Larry Hughes, David Harvey and Gordon Peters are still active members.

The term ’special branch’ has nothing to do with espionage or The Sweeney.
It denotes that membership is restricted, in this case to persons employed by the GPO. By 1973 it became apparent that many wished to join who were not telephone engineers. The club dropped its special branch status, invited the general public to join, presumably nicked the CSSA’s dive gear, merged with a local snorkelling club and changed its name to the somewhat less than snappy ‘Newhaven & Seaford Sub-Aqua Club.’

By 1980 few members lived in Newhaven or Seaford and most diving was carried out from Brighton. The old name was considered inappropriate and ideas for a new name were requested. We very nearly became Sussex Shrimps, Brighton Lungfish or Sussex Shads. Better suggestions were South Downs Divers, Sussex Coast Divers and Downs Divers and a democratic vote secured Sussex Coast Divers as the new title. Two weeks later someone pointed out that there already existed a club called Sussex Divers, so the Committee selected reverse gear with an audible crunch and chose South Downs Divers. It has been pointed out to us many times over the ensuing years that it is a little difficult to dive on or in The South Downs, what with them being made out of chalk and flint.

In November 1993 we started discussions with Brighton Marina Yacht Club, of which more later. We joined forces and called ourselves Brighton Marina Yacht Club - Diving Section. We used BMYC Divers as our radio name but by
2001 came to the conclusion that mentioning yachting as part of a dive club’s name was confusing people so we are currently Brighton Marina Divers. Short, descriptive and catchy but who knows what next year will bring.

We’ve used a variety of premises for our meetings: the minutes show that at one time we rented a beach hut at Seaford for £1 a year. There were discussions over affiliating with Newhaven & Seaford Sailing Club but that came to nothing. We’ve met and given training sessions at Salts Hall, Co-op Hall, Holland Road Post Office, Acres the Bakers, Bridge Hotel, Quentin & Associates printers, Marquis of Exeter public house and three manifestations of BMYC clubhouses. The current one being the best with its dedicated training room, once we chuck the bicycles out. The Marquis was excellent to start. The new licencees, keen to attract new trade, offered us a quiet room above the bar free of charge and passed around trays of hot food.
Unfortunately, they were too good as hosts. The pub became very popular and on one night when trying to explain the intricacies of decompression tables against a background cacophany of Leeds versus Accrington Stanley (two nil, extra time) on the wide screen telly and a drunken lady of indeterminate years and negotiable virtue singing ‘My Way’ in B flat against the karaoke machine in C, we decided to cut our losses and left.

We’ve had a variety of inflatables and RIBs, the first being a Terhi, then a Domino and a Seacraft. A Chinnook was purchased in 1981. Frequent use was made of Larry Hughes’ hardboat ‘Bimbler.’ The boats were stored in members front garden, rented lock-up garages and barns but later the club shared moorings at the cheaper fishermans end of the marina. There were reports in
1987 that someone had taken the Chinnook from its mooring for a joy ride.
Later that year the Committee noted that, despite its decision otherwise, no-one had yet bought a padlock to secure the vessel. In 1988 the Chinnook was stolen and the echo of a thousand stable doors slamming was heard in Dieppe. After the insurance company paid out the club purchased an Avon Searider which served faithfully for years. This was joined by a prototype i.e. cheap BWM which proved to be a disaster and had to be part exchanged with the makers for a newer model which was a lot better. We named her ‘Anthea’ after Jack Voss’s wife. Our current boat is a superbly fitted out Humber with inboard diesel engine - the best we have ever had.

In 1975 we were assisting the warden of Michelham Priory by restoring the water wheel and doing underwater excavation in the moat. Several finger bones and coins were recovered then it was reported that the water was contaminated with coliform bacteria, sewage to be polite. An attempt was made to continue diving with special water-proof face sets but seems to have come to nothing. There was a project to dive on a crashed aircraft found at Cuckmere.

The club has frequently, in mid-winter, floated down the Adur in aid of the RNLI Shoreham Life Boat. We also used to do the Lewes raft race and one set of minutes has the Diving Officer (DO) complaining that although all six of his ‘crew’ had dressed in drag for the event, two had refused to shave off their beards. The complete ensemble was described as looking ‘as cute as a wart on an elephant’s bum.’ The minutes show that in 1976 the Committee refused the DO the money to hire a projector and show a film ‘Bending and Unbending’ - presumably an early advert for Viagra.

We’ve trained in pools at Blatchington School, Surrenden Road, St Dunstans and Roedean. Not all were ideal. Surrenden Road suffered from pick pockets in the changing rooms. At St Dunstans we had to carry our dive gear through endless corridors and stairs to get to the pool. In 1977 we have Allan Ross writing a letter of complaint and resignation because the changing rooms at the pool (I’m not sure which one) were infested with fleas.

Membership has varied over the years with the peak being sixty divers and the norm forty. In 1988 only seven members turned up for the AGM which resulted in a proposal to wind the club up but fortunately this roused the membership from their coma and subsequent meetings were better attended, although in 1991 it was noted that the club had but a single instructor. I believe we have seven at the time of writing.

Diving accidents are referred to as ‘incidents’ and I can find only one serious incident in the history of branch 493. In 1976 the DO, Dick Bills, failed to surface after a dive and was later found drowned on the bottom.
The cause of the incident was never established. Whilst in sober mood I must also mention Ross Brackpool, a teenager who had lost his left arm and shoulder to cancer. He joined us in 1995 as a trainee, amazed us with his one handed dexterity and became a very proficient and well-liked Sports Diver. When teaching him to dive, I recall clumsily asking him if he ‘needed a hand.’ With a grin he replied ‘a left one would come in useful.’ I never heard him complain about his disability and he did many UK dives and Red Sea holidays with us. Sadly the disease returned and he died in 2001.

Ray Kingshott was a superb diver and instructor, who held the posts of DO, Chairman, Treasurer and Membership Secretary. He was killed in 1997 by a Cayman Islands government patrol boat whilst snorkelling in front of his hotel. I’m proud to say the club was so supportive of his widow that she remains an active social member.

Most of our diving is done from our own RIBs. There are many wrecks from WW1 and WW2 for us to explore, plus a geological fault line running from Brighton to Worthing that we call a reef.. We also organise weekends to the clearer waters of the West and overseas holidays. We’ve been to: Channel Islands, Lanzarote, St Kilda, the Scilly Isles, Hurghada and Sharm el Sheikh in the Red Sea, Gozo, Cuba, Grenada, Swanage, Barbados, Eastbourne, Pembrokeshire, Littlehampton, the Mulberries, Galway, Weymouth, Bracklesham Bay, Lulworth, Falmouth, Oban, the Manacles and Plymouth.

Since the beginning the club has produced a monthly or bi-monthly magazine called ‘Splashdown’ In 1977 I read that the Editor of Splashdown was being criticised for lack of serious articles on diving and note that a similar situation exists today. The purpose of Splashdown is to inform and to amuse.
We have always had members who seldom dive and having a magazine drop through their letterbox keeps them feeling a part of the group. Re-reading old copies could provide enough copy to fill a book, so I shall limit the reprints to one poem I found in the January 1977 issue.

Memo to Seaford U D C
Anon, but it sounds like Paul Scully’s work.

A storm-tossed stretch of ocean, with the name of Seaford Bay,

Full of rocks and lots of gullies where the spider crabs do play.

The planners there decided, a pumping house to place,

So that all the sewer outfall could meet divers face to face.

The sunshine spot of Sussex, so says the publicity,

Thank God the poor old public can’t see beneath the sea.

This dirty turgid bottom, a risk to health must be,

It’s not King Neptune’s garden, more like his lavatory.

The move to BMYC was driven by our DO, a larger than life character called Geoff Reade. Geoff was a Brighton taxi driver and amongst other callings, an ex-professional boxer. You did not argue with Geoff lightly. Before the amalgamation the dive club had found that once it had collected the annual membership fees and paid the marina for moorings charges for the two RIBS, there was little change to be had. We had no storage space for all our gear and were attempting to run training courses in a noisy room above a busy public bar. Geoff thought we’d be much better off within BMYC. He was of course absolutely right and any other person would have made presentations to the Committee, formed sub-committees and written feasibility reports. Not Geoff. His solution was to corner influential members and lecture them on the benefits of BMYC at twenty decibels above pain threshold whilst poking them in the chest with a stiff finger. When they started to dribble he knew he’d made his point and after preliminary discussions with Alec Maguire we joined forces. A few years later Geoff moved house and we lost him to another dive club and his dynamic enthusiasm, but not his rigid digit, are sorely missed.

Undoubtedly the move to within BMYC was the correct decision, for as well as being part of a club full of friendly people, and we do try to be active members rather than forming a cliquey ‘club within a club’, we’ve got storage space for our dive gear with superb carpentry from Larry Hughes, along with free mooring for the RIB. It’s worth mentioning at this point how lucky we are to have a club on the coast with our RIB moored in the marina.
Other inland clubs have to trailer their boats to the sea, often to discover that the conditions are too rough for diving. We’re spoiled. We’ve also got a training room with video, heating, chairs and tables, a bar and restaurant, use of Priscilla as a dive boat and Club Class yacht training.

In 2000 John Hayes got us a grant that enables us to buy six new aqualungs for training new members. In 2002 the same man obtained a grant that went most of the way towards buying us a superbly quiet and powerful compressor of our own. Unfortunately our application for a grant to buy a new RIB was rejected but the BMYC Board showed their confidence in us by sanctioning the purchase of a new inboard diesel Humber RIB which is of course available to the rest of the club as a safety boat for racing.

The future looks bright providing we can sort out the problem of club premises.

Alan Sharpe