With a rich history, its own hard boat and an annual photo competition, Torbay BSAC is one of Britain’s leading dive clubs. Interview by Kristina Pedder.
Tell us about the early history of BSAC branch number eight...
The club was formed early in 1954. The branch grew rapidly and in 1961 a project was started to survey all known and unknown wrecks along the south Devon coast. This resulted in the club purchasing the wreck of the SS Maine and subsequently the salvage of her bronze propeller in 1963. The sale of the prop financed the making of an awarding-winning film called When You Know How, which you can still watch on YouTube. In 1966, Torbay member Derek Cockbill was elected National Diving Officer, and the first ever Club Instructor course was held later at the branch that year.
Visiting King Rock on Torbay Diver, the club's hard boat
Where is Torbay?
Torbay is an area encompassing several towns around Tor Bay itself. The club is based in Torquay, a traditional and thriving seaside town set on what is nicknamed the English Riviera coast. It’s a top UK holiday destination.
Who are your members?
Members come from all walks of life and bring a range of skills to the club. The builders and motor mechanics are especially useful, but the occasional lawyer and scientist have their uses too. Age-wise, they range from early 20s to into their 70s, but the average age is weighted towards the older, more experienced divers, which probably reflects the fact that Torbay is also a popular retirement destination. Having said that, we are keen to recruit younger members and pass on some of that experience to them.
Boat work party
How many members do you have?
About 35 full diving members with a couple of social (snorkel) members and three life members. More than 30 per cent of our members are Advanced Divers, just over half are Dive Leaders, and the remainder are roughly equal numbers of Sports Divers and Ocean Divers (or equivalent qualifications).
What resources does the club have?
Torbay BSAC has always owned a hard boat. The biggest achievement in the past year has been the purchase of a larger, more powerful dive boat to replace our faithful, but ageing, Aquabell 27, which we agreed to sell early in the year. A lot of hard work and generous donations by many members allowed us to replace the boat within just a couple of months.
That’s a big purchase. How did you go about it?
It involved visiting a number of potential new boats across the country, negotiating a good deal for the best candidate, and transporting it by road all the way from Suffolk. The chosen Aquabell 33 with flybridge needed a re-fit to get her dive ready.
We bought a RIB too, a few years ago, but it was eventually sold because it didn’t get used enough. Apart from the occasional beach dive for training, nearly all our dives take place from our hard boat, which can easily accommodate eight divers. We can even provide a post-dive breakfast aboard.
Sporting conditions in the Red Sea (L-R) Mike Osler, Dave Perrett, Jerry Blackler, Tony McCarthy
And your land base?
We are fortunate to have a valuable berth in Torquay harbour, where we also have a storage and compressor room. We don’t have access to a pool but meet socially every Wednesday evening at the local rugby club, where our Diving Officer compiles the dive lists for the following week.
How does the club raise the funds to run a hard boat?
Mostly from our annual subscriptions and dive fees. Members pay a dive fee of £20 a day when using the club boat. Air fills are free from our own compressor. However, for extraordinary expenses such as our compressor upgrade in 2020 or our new boat purchase this year, we relied heavily on generous donations from many of our members. We have tried applying for various grants, but apart from a successful Lottery Fund award many years ago, we haven’t been successful.
New Year harbour dive
As a coastal club, you must have plenty of opportunity to go diving.
Yes, we dive most weekends throughout the year, usually on a Saturday, and there is often a mid-week dive as well. We concentrate on the relatively shallow reefs associated with the small rocky islands off the coast at Torquay or Brixham. However, we can also reach some of the deeper wrecks that lie off Teignmouth, the Bretagne being a firm favourite. The wreck lies upright in 30m with the deck at about 20m, so it is accessible to all divers. It’s relatively intact up to deck level and is teeming with fish.
Tell us a bit more about your local diving
The local rocky reefs have a rich marine fauna since they are often swept by strong tidal currents. If you do come off the reef, the flat areas between the rocks are rich hunting grounds for scallops, providing you have the requisite Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA) licence.
The biggest challenge for diving in Torbay is the relatively poor viz: four to five metres is considered quite good here, whereas further west, Salcombe way, they would call that poor. We often have viz of only two metres or less, so torches are essential pieces of kit.
Where else do you dive?
Each year, we try to take our own boat down to Salcombe for the weekend, which allows us to dive our own wreck, the SS Maine, and to enjoy some decent viz for a change. The club rediscovered the wreck around 1960 and negotiated to buy it for £100. This enabled the salvage of the bronze propeller in 1963 and 20 years later, members also brought up the spare iron propeller lying on the deck. Sitting upright, the Maine is a very popular First World War wreck lying in about 35m.
In recent years we have run a diving/camping weekend in Porthkerris on the Manacles across the border in Cornwall, and occasional day-charters are arranged for trips further afield, to Portland in Dorset for example or down in Plymouth. Most years, the club also arranges an overseas trip: this year it was in Malta and in recent years we have had two liveaboard trips to the Red Sea.
First sea trial of Torbay Diver 2
Do you dive with a purpose at all?
In the past, several members have taken part in seagrass surveys and some members have done British Divers Marine Life Rescue training. We also have some members with a keen interest in underwater photography, which led us to run the annual Torbay Splash-in competition. This is a one-day competition that is open to non-members and attracts a good selection of very talented photographers from the south-west (and beyond). Photos must be taken between 10pm the evening before to 5pm on competition day.
Loving it in February
You mentioned wanting more younger members, do you attract them with a training offer?
We try to train a few Ocean Divers each year, but recruitment in sufficient numbers is sometimes challenging. If necessary, we are happy to refer individuals to a local dive centre to get their initial training. Some then return to us because they prefer the club environment and can continue their training with BSAC.
What other training do you offer?
Local RYA powerboat training is popular and we have recently used a local BSAC Instructor to qualify several Diver-Coxswains. We would like to do more skills development in-house, but some courses offered by the regional team (such as Twinset Diving or Accelerated Decompression Procedures) are more convenient for members.
Where do you carry out your training?
Unfortunately, there are no pools more than two metres deep in the area, so we do Ocean Diver training and our try dives at a small, local school swimming pool. Beach dives can be carried out at Babbacombe, Brixham Breakwater, or Beacon Cove, all of which are local and fairly accessible. We also use Vobster Quay in Somerset for more advanced training.
Instructor Simon Jackson with Sports Diver cadidate Olly Ward
Who is in your instructor team?
Our Training Officer is an Advanced Instructor, and we have five Open Water Instructors, as well as five Assistant Instructors and some instructors from other agencies. So we are well staffed, but our problem is the lack of a sufficiently deep training pool. We used to be able to access a commercial four-metre-deep pool in Paignton, but that has now closed.
Looking back on 2024, what were the highlights?
As usual, we ran a New Year’s Day harbour dive, for which we get special permission from the Torquay Harbour Master. In June, we ran our eighth annual Splash-in competition that saw a good number of very high-quality photographs submitted. To celebrate our 70th anniversary, we are holding a celebratory dinner at a local Babbacombe restaurant.
We have an annual Christmas dinner, and this is usually combined with the presentation of the branch trophies, which include the Maine Cup for outstanding service and a cup for the member doing the most branch dives during the year. The Wally Plate is one of the less popular awards to win (for obvious reasons).
Another New Year at Torbay harbour
And in the next few years?
We plan to complete the fitting of a diver lift to our new boat, which we hope will attract more divers to the club; those who would like to do some more technical wreck dives, as well as more underwater photographers. We also aim to continue taking the Torbay Splash-in from strength to strength each year. The event includes an evening dinner. You can see the winning entries on our website.
Article ‘Club Focus – Torbay BSAC’ by Kristina Pedder first published in SCUBA magazine, Issue 151 December 2024.
How do I find scuba diving near me?
If you want to learn to dive in South Devon with Torbay BSAC, please contact Tim Allen.
