The Association became very popular with people who liked to build and sail Hartley trailer sailers and soon had other classes of trailable yachts sailing with them at their many events. Eventually the number of people who sailed other classes of yachts outnumbered the Hartley sailers and it was felt that there was a need to form two groups; the Trailable Yacht Club of Victoria and the Hartley TS18-21 Association of Victoria.

In 1978 the Association had 89 financial members and during 1978/79 the Association concentrated on a "Build Your Own" theme for promoting sailing in general and Hartleys in particular. This emphasis on people building their own boat has continued for well over a decade. The advent of fiberglass trailable boats and increasing materials cost has meant a decline in the practice of "Build Your Own". However the number of Hartley TS18 and TS21 boats that have been built meant the continuing popularity of the class as an economical entry to sailing and the Class Association.

Over the years the Hartley TS 18 and TS 21 have continued to be a very successful class in trailable yacht racing.

After a long illness Richard Hartley passed away on the 26th. of October 1995 in New Zealand. The Committee of the Hartley TS18-21 Yacht Club decided to initiate an annual race to commemorate the service that Richard Hartley, (23rd. Sept. 1920 - 26th. Oct. 1995), did for sailing, in particular Trailer Sailers.

His genius for design and identifying the need for yachts that gave a little more room and comfort than that offered by Off-the-Beach yachts initiated a whole industry. TS16's have been built in Australia since 1963, and we have records of TS18's and 21's being built in the early 1970's.

In January, 1996 the Committee wrote to Richard Hartley's widow, Myllys Hartley, and obtained permission to name a race in his memory as an annual event. This race has become an annual event and attracts entries from TS16's as well as TS18 and TS21's.

A t a Special General Meeting held at John Speelmeyer's house on the 13th. of August 1994 members voted to apply to the Victorian Yachting Council to change the status of affiliation from a Class Association to a Full Member Club. The Committee submitted an application to the VYC for affiliation as a Full Member Club at its Annual General Meeting on the 15th. of September, 1994. This submission was accepted by the VYC. A t the 2001 AGM the members voted to resign from the VYC as a full member club. In 2003 the club rejoined the renamed VYC, as a Class Association. (The VYC has been renamed Yachting Victoria (YV).) Since July 2007 the Club has re-affiliated with Yachting Australia as a full-member Club with voting rights at YV Annual meetings and representation on the Trailable Yacht Division of Yachting Victoria.

This history follows the Association/Club progress over the past years, taking material from Committee minutes and articles from the Club magazine Windward.