Before
1940 Dunkirk yachtsmen would already practise sailing.
Once the war
was over the Dunkirk Yacht Club was born.
Most of Dunkirk
yachtsmen would then sail in Calais in the Yacht Club of Northern France..
At first both
clubs had merged under the banner of the Yacht Club of Northern France.
The Dunkirk
base had settled on the Quai des Monitors (Monitors' wharf) at the place
still in use today. A simple pontoon and a concrete gangway were the first
facilities.
In 1958,
the Dunkirk base seceded and became autonomous. The Yacht Club
of the North Sea (Y.C.M.N = Yacht Club de la Mer du Nord )
was then founded..
Two main principles
make the basis of the Y.C.M.N. :
1. The
Y.C.M.N. is a club and not only a marina.
2. Independance
:
True independance means financial autonomy. The association lives only
on its members'subscriptions without any subsidy from anyone.
From then on
the Y.C.M.N. was the leading actor in the development of leisure and competitive
sailing in the North Sea (quoted as such in the "Bateaux" magazine - july
1991 issue - that compared in a long article entitled "Three clubs in the
front page" the Y.C.M.N, the Royal Temple Y.C of Ramsgate and the Club
Royal of Nieuwpoort).
In 1963,
the Y.C.M.N. received the Silver Neptune award, granted to the most dynamic
and competent club.
Sixties
: the Y.C.M.N promoted the E.D.H.E.C sailing race. (that would then take
place in Dunkirk before moving to Southern Brittany ).
1979,1980,1981
: Dunkirk won three times the Round France Race (Tour de France à
la Voile).
The leaders
of the team and most of the skippers and crewmen who won were members of
the Y.C.M.N.
1983
: The "Count of Flandres" ( "Comte de Flandres"), won the World Quarter
Ton Cup with four members of the Y.C.M.N. on board.
Then members
trained in the Y.C.M.N. entered with success for the most famous races
: Fastnet, Single Handed Figaro, Sun Triangle, Cowes/Dinard, League Championship,
in France, in Belgium.
Until the beginning
of the nineties the Y.C.M.N. housed the Regional Sailing Center..
TODAY :
Bertrand
Pacé, the international match-racing champion , an America's Cup
regular and skipper of " 6 ème Sens", acquired his whole basic
training as a team member and as a skipper in the Y.C.M.N.
Other members
sailed around the world and across the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea.
In the 2000
- 2001 Vendée Globe single-handed race around the world , Joé
Seeten ranked 10 th after 115j 16h 46m 50s alone at sea.
The Y.C.M.N.
takes an active part in the Dunkirk nautical activities and releases a
bulletin two or three times a year , with a circulation of 1000,
widely distributed and very popular in the world of regional and international
leisure boating (Belgium, Netherlands, England).
Today members
of the club spend their holidays and more cruising from Dunkirk to the
Baltic sea, Norway, Iceland, Portugal, Spain and even around the Atlantic
Ocean.
See
portrait of the club published
in the Februay 1996 issue of " Bateaux." magazine
