THE EVOLUTION OF THE BROADS RADIO YACHT CLUB !
Founder member, Rick Buxton tells the story;
“There had been a Model Yacht Club at the yacht pond in Eaton Park, Norwich, racing free sailing model yachts, since the early part of the twentieth century. In the early 1970’s club member Ray Batch took a holiday in the south of England where, for the first time, he saw radio controlled model yachts. Ray was suffering from arthritis which made chasing free sailing yachts increasingly difficult, so the concept of a radio controlled yacht which could be sailed from one position on the bank had great appeal. So, on his return home, he put the idea of radio controlled yachts to his club mates and by 1975 there was a small fleet of these boats sailing regularly at Eaton Park.
It was soon realised that Eaton Park pond was less than ideal for radio controlled yachts and the club moved to the water frontage to the Eel’s Foot pub at the north end of Ormesby Little Broad. By now I had my first radio controlled yacht – Marblehead class - and Ray, David Skipper and myself were joined at the new club venue by Audrey Batch, Jock Porter, Stan Pepper, Mike Hammond and Norman Wortley.
We needed a new name for our new club and decided upon ‘The Broads Radio Yacht Club’ because it accurately reflected and represented what the club was about, it being one of the first of a small number of clubs in the country exclusively for radio controlled yachts. The club grew quickly, establishing links with other similar clubs in the east of England and hosting open events which drew entries from far and wide. Members also supported open events at other clubs and entered National Championships.
I was later absent from the club for a few years and during this time the BRYC relocated to our current headquarters; the water frontage of the Filby Bridge Restaurant at the southern end of Ormesby Little Broad. The members continued to develop the Club and its facilities and in the early 1980’s the water frontage was dredged out and a paved control area constructed.
More recently this development has continued with the construction of some walk-in steps for the safe launching and retrieval of boats and a new paved area.
The BRYC is now prominent in the Eastern District of the Model Yacht Association (MYA) and has hosted and continues to host District, Ranking and National events.
It also has a number of trophies contested each year, many of which commemorate the names of founder and other 
members”.
Mark Holt takes up the story:
“The BRYC originally sailed only the Radio Marblehead (RM) but in 1989 the then fledgling International One Metre (IOM) class was introduced, and is now the most popular. In 1993 the Radio Six Metre (R6M) class was added for something a bit different.
Since it was established in 1976 the BRYC has introduced many people to the challenges and delights of radio sailing and racing. Some have become expert skippers and gone on to sail at the highest level whilst others have been happy just to enjoy the challenge and camaraderie of racing at our club and we thank our founder members for their enthusiasm, hard work and foresight in starting it all and hope that the next 40 years will be as happy and successful as the last 40 years have been.”