“Nautical” History
Dreamed up in an Antiques shop!!— |
| BSA club events ALL started somewhere, sometime, apart from the ones we inherited from the old club various new events were dreamed up in those early years, possibly the strangest reason for the naming of a rally was the case of the “Nautical”. Bill Sullivan’s name crops up occasionally, and it is him we thank for “inventing” this rally. Bill’s parents ran an Antiques shop somewhere in Essex, and like all people who run antiques shops they went to auctions regularly. Bill’s dad was at one of these auctions one day and came home with a collection of old cups from a defunct rowing club. This cup was in a sorry state, the three oars that supported the bowl of the cup were loose, the whole thing was tarnished and dirty and was consequently thrown in the dustbin. Well, along came Bill, now he didn’t see an old dilapidated cup, he saw a possible club trophy, but wait!! it had “Rowing club” written all over the base, Bill took no notice of this and simply looked through a few old boxes and found a different base that (almost) fitted, carefully soldered the oars back, cleaned it all up and presto!! a new club trophy, and Bill called his new rally—-you’ve guessed right— The Nautical, consequently the first ever rally of that name took place on December the tenth 1961, in Essex. Since then the rally has become another annual Classic club event, organised by many different people, and with many different formats, and the Nautical Cup? still hotly competed for—-. |
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