He was aged 11 at the time and 74 years later he remains an active and loyal member of the club.
"As a small kid I mucked around on the beach with my mates and jumped at the chance to join the club," he said.
Elder (85), Dennis Todd (Wanaka) and Brent Marks (Vauxhall) received the Yachting New Zealand Honours Awards last week in recognition of their contribution to the sport.
Elder is still actively involved in the sport as an official at local and national level and still sails Trailer Sailor yachts on the Otago Harbour.
Most of his time is spent on official duties during regattas and he runs an outdoor education aquatics programme for the Port Chalmers school.
Elder, who had been a boilermaker during his working life, found work a bit stressful when he was a foreman.
"Sailing took my mind off other problems," he said. "I find it very relaxing."
The Port Chalmers club was founded in 1892 and Elder is the only member who has a link back to a founding member.
Alf Wiseman was still actively involved with the club when Elder joined.
There is another link back to Wiseman because the pair were crew members of Port Chalmers Club yachts that won the Sanders Cup.
Wiseman won the inaugural Sanders Cup on the yacht Heather in 1921 and Elder was on board If when the cup was won in 1954.
Dennis Todd (61) began sailing in central New South Wales 50 years ago.
"We used to travel 90 miles [145km] to a lake at weekends," he said.
He settled in Wanaka six years ago after buying some land after visiting the Air Show in 1998.
During the past four years, he has been instrumental in establishing the Wanaka Yacht Club's sail training programme for juniors and adults.
The club now has a modern fleet of training boats and a rising membership.
"We follow the Yachting New Zealand training manual for children but I have written a manual that is more appropriate for adults," he said.
He won the gold medal in the Noelex 22 class at this year's New Zealand Masters Games in Dunedin.
Brent Marks (55), a technical specialist with Telecom, set up the youth and adult learn to sail programme at the Vauxhall Club and has run it for the past 12 years.
He runs the children's programme on Sunday mornings which has 20 children from the age of 8.
He limits his adult class to six budding sailors.
Marks was more interested in speedboats and water-skiing when he switched codes and joined the Vauxhall Yacht Club in 1985.
Other club members to win the Yachting New Zealand Honours Award are:
Port Chalmers: Roy Innes, Brian Inglis, Maty Inglis and Dorothy Kestila.
Vauxhall: Mervyn Read.
