Club History

The Napier Sailing Club was formed on Monday 16th February 1891. The first race was held the next Saturday, 10 yachts took part.

The great earthquake on 3rd February, 1931, reaching 7.9 on the Richter Scale, was an absolute disaster. The yachting waters of the inner harbour was almost entirely converted to dry land. Yachts were then forced to sail in the open sea.

In July 1939 permission was obtained from the Harbour Board to erect a shed at Scapa Flow. After some debate the new club kept the old name of “Napier Sailing Club” Donors of cups and Trophies to the old club re-donated these to the new club; many of these are still raced for today. Thus in 1939 the club as we know it today on its present site, begun.

1951 saw the beginning of building some clubrooms, which were completed in 1952, mostly by voluntary labour. The clubrooms as they stand today were started in 1968, again built largely by voluntary labour. However in 1974 it was obvious that the new clubrooms were too small. The Clubhouse extension was completed in 1981.