Sailing and the River
Sailing in the twenties was largely controlled by the state of the river and the general economy of the country. As mentioned before the river had become silted and excessively weedy, sailing was difficult, and it is to the great credit of the club that things continued on a more or less even keel.

In 1922 the Act of Parliament was set up to form the new Cam Conservators whose jurisdiction was extended as far as Bottisham Lock. Licence fees for boats were authorised and became payable by Club members. A penny rate from Cambridge City Council was also authorised to help with funding the new body. This must have been paid initially, but has now disappeared from the finances of the Conservators. In 1924 the new Conservators agreed to dredge the river, and as part of the work the Sailing Club agreed to guarantee the sum of £25 towards the loss of grazing on the fields where the spoil would be deposited. It was envisaged that various bodies would pay £5 each toward this cost, including the Motor Boat Club and the University and other rowing clubs. In the event only the five guineas from the University Boat Club was received and the Club was left in 1926 with the rest of the debt. An overdraft had to be obtained and a subscription list was opened to help pay off the debt which was to remain a drain on club finances for several years. The dredging was only partially successful in clearing the river since in July 1929 four weeks racing was abandoned due to the weeds.

The boats sailed changed little in this period, and despite various attempts to establish one-design sailing, particularly by W.G. Pye, the founder of the Pye instrument and electronics company this was never achieved. Numbers racing fell, and in 1924 a “novice” scheme was introduced under which all boats racing must have a crew who had never been in a winning boat for a series of races. Like most other schemes of this type this was not a success and was dropped after a year or two. In the same year only three races for each class were on the programme. Some Saturday racing was started, but this again did not appear to be particularly successful.

Despite the decline in general racing the summer Regattas continued at various venues and were very well attended. An innovation was the split regatta with a week-end regatta at Waterbeach followed by a three day regatta down the river. Matches were arranged against the Cambridge University Cruising Club the first time they had ever sailed in a match other than against Oxford.