Upper Forth Boat Club

The upper Forth Boat Club was formed on the 3rd Feb 1952 and had its origins in three Bo'ness clubs, the Bridgeness Yacht Club, the Upper Forth Sailing Club and the Bo'ness Motor Cruising Club. An elegant silver cup presented to Bridgeness Yacht Club by J P Smith Esq. in 1907 and on display in the Kinneil museum is the earliest know record of these.

Inscriptions on the silverware chart the progress of the Upper Forth Sailing Club and its successor the UFBC. The oldest UFSC trophy is a cup presented by Thomas Blackadder Esq., the Vice Commodore in 1925. With the exception of the war years, this cup and other trophies , one in the form a gondola presented by J M Hogg in 1930 and another, a motor cruiser dating from 1931 were competed for regularly until the 1960's. Financial records document a thriving social scene.

The UFBC site has been occupied since March 1953 and was originally rented from Caddell Estates. Since then the yard has been developed to resemble a commercial shipyard in miniature with patent slip and traverse. Craft are moved on bogies rolling on mines hutch wheels on standard gauge rail. A powerful static winch is used to launch and recover. The yard is also equipped with a small workshop, gantry, derrick, single phase main and three phase supply for welding.

A moveable flood barrier of 2 panels slotted into steel channel embedded in concrete protects the yard at springs and in onshore conditions, when tides can be well above prediction. Part of the yard is used for trailer sailers and dinghies for which there is a slipway, built with help from the Rotary Club, alongside the patent slip.

A small group of founder members built the pier at Grangepans, a remarkable achievement in itself. In those days excavation for concreting in steel verticals was by hand and the bolt holes in steel tiebars were drilled manually with a boring bar.

Our clubhouse is the officers smoke room cut from the Ben Line's S.S. Bencleuch when she was broken at P & W MacLellan Ltd at Grangepans in 1972. This compartment was moved in two sections and welded back together on site by our Vice Commodore Alex Fernie. In 1997 he added a flag mast in the usual style with gaff and fidded topmast.

Historically, given the local availability of ships ' boats, most of the members craft were lifeboat conversions. Today whilst there are motor cruisers the majority are small yachts. In the last few years members boats cruised the East coast from Hartlepool to Shetland, the logs of which have appeared in the club newsletter. An occasional fun race, followed by evening Bar-B-Que is organised as part of a social programme.

During the season boats are kept on drying moorings on soft mud at Grangepans, members laying their own moorings using the club raft. These are accessible from shore 2 hours either side of high water.

The majority of the membership live locally. In the past members worked in the shipyards and mines. Nowadays the membership is employed in all walks of life, but it has never lost its working class grass roots.

Strong ties exist with our adjacent clubs, at Grangemouth and Carriden and the club has also re-established links with Grangemouth Sea Cadets.