Langstone Sailing Club in the 1950s

I recently picked up an old pilot book in the Oxfam Bookshop in Winchester. Inside was a description of Langstone Sailing Club, of which I am a member. The book was Harbours of the Solent by John Scott Hughes, published in 1956. The following passage picks up from his description of the pubs of Langstone (it is spelt like this, I have included Hughes' spelling verbatim):

"The Ship Inn on the other hand, is associated with the only modern development that the village has apparently known, for the Langston Sailing Club uses the inn's malt loft as a clubroom.

"A word must be said about this club, for although founded so recently as 1946, and having not a few natural difficulties to contend with, it has become strikingly successful, and could indeed serve as a model of its kind. The members say themseleves that the characteristic of the club is a 'curiously elusive one', described by them in these terms: 'It is conveniently situated, and offers good sport at low cost, but these are not the points that strike the visitor and attract members from as far afield as London and the Midlands, and others who already belong to local clubs; there is something else - not exactly an atmosphere - perhaps character is the best word for it. The club has character, and it has not come by it accidentally, but has rather inherited it from the founders. . . . A single-minded concentration on people rather than property has preserved that freshness which is the mainspring of all new clubs, but which runs down so sadly with the advent of chromium-plated bars and their supporters.'"