Which yacht club are these buttons from?
QAs well as enjoying sailing, I collect yacht club buttons. I have identified where they all come from, except two, which have remained unidentified for several years. Can you help? Des McLindon
AGareth Bellis, library manager at Royal Museums Greenwich, replies: I have checked E C Talbot-Booth’s 1938 book
Ensigns and Burgees of Yacht Clubs of the British Empire and this includes a listing for Sea View Yacht Club, established in 1893. This would match the initials SVYC on the second button. The publication did not include button design, so this is a circumstantial fit rather than proof positive of a match.
The button marked OSYC has proved more mysterious, however, as I cannot find any club names that appear to match, beyond the US based Ocean Springs Yacht Club which I suspect is not the correct club for the button!
Our button expert Roger Revell also said that, ‘The identity of the OSYC button has never been confirmed, although there is evidence that there was an Offshore Squadron Yacht Club and so this might be a possibility.’