the royal qld yacht squadron

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In the August 2024 issue of Yachting World magazine: News Few finish a tempestuous Round The Island Race European rules are eased for cruising to France and Greece Olympic sailing…

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Inside the Royal Yacht Squadron – we get a rare view of this most exclusive club

• Belinda Bird
• May 18, 2015

Sarah Norbury jumps at a rare chance to see inside the Royal Yacht Squadron, that unique and intriguing yacht club at the centre of Cowes, in its 200th anniversary year

Photo: Paul Wyeth

The Royal Yacht Squadron’s Castle clubhouse is best known to most sailors as the centre of the action at Cowes Week. Puffs of smoke in the aftermath of the bangs waft across the water towards the fleets of yachts, their crews’ faces pinched with concentration as they plan their beat up the rocky Island shore.

No first-timer to Cowes Week can fail to be awestruck by the Castle. Competitors mill around before their starts, staring at the flags and course-boards, getting a sight down the startline straight into the windows.

Looking is as near as most sailors ever get to this most aristocratic of clubs. Members will repair to the Squadron after racing, taking tea on the lawn, before entering the Castle for cocktails before a party or the fabulous Squadron Ball, but for the rest, the Castle itself, built by Henry VIII to repel the French, is a visual symbol of the club’s exclusivity.

The Platform, from where Cowes Week starts are signalled. Photo: YPS/Boat Exclusive

The most prestigious club in Britain, possibly the world, is wreathed in mystique. The only way to join this club of Kings, Lords, Hons and Sirs is to be invited by a member and be subject to a secret ballot. The fact that the membership list reads like Debretts is an indication of most sailors’ chances of being invited.

It’s said that wealthy tea merchant Sir Thomas Lipton was blackballed for being ‘in trade’, which is why his 1898 bid for the America’s Cup was sponsored by the Royal Ulster YC. He was allowed in eventually, but died just two years later so scarcely had time to enjoy the Castle’s delights.

Some accept a blackballing with grace, others kick up a stink, like the owner of a 150-ton schooner who, the story goes, sent a message to the club that he was anchored within close range and would commence shelling unless he received a personal apology from Percy Shelley, son of the famous poet, who had blackballed him.

Flying the white ensign

The appeal of being a member is obvious. Who wouldn’t want to fly the white ensign from their stern? The Squadron is the only yacht club with a Royal Navy warrant to do so, granted in 1829. And who wouldn’t want to walk boldly in to meet and drink with the great and the good?

I asked the current commodore, the Hon Christopher Sharples why, when a number of royal clubs are struggling to find new members, the Squadron has a healthy waiting list. “It’s a very fine club,” he responded. “People enjoy the standards and the tremendous history. Members treat the Castle as a much-loved country home.”

RYS commodore, the Hon Christopher Sharples

Originally named The Yacht Club, it was founded on 1 June 1815 by a group of 42 gentleman yachting enthusiasts. Five years later, member King George IV conferred the Royal in the club’s title and in 1833 King William IV renamed the club the Royal Yacht Squadron. Members met in the Thatched House Tavern in St James’s, London, and in Cowes twice a year for dinner.

Today there are 535 members and dinner is served in the magnificent Members’ Dining Room, under the painted gaze of illustrious past admirals and commodores. The room is adorned with silver trophies and scenes of the high seas, and waiters bring course after course from the kitchens and wine cellars below. There are bedrooms for overnight stays, a room for members to keep their ‘mess kit’ or black tie, which is required dress on Saturday nights, and even gun lockers for shooting parties.

But sailing is the club’s raision d’être and neither a title nor a fortune are a guarantee of entry. The club professes that “any gentleman or lady actively interested in yachting” is eligible for nomination.

The Library, a peaceful sanctuary as well as an important archive. Photo: YPS/Boat Exclusive

The Squadron was where yacht racing was born. In the early 1800s the aristocracy came to Cowes to socialise and cruise in their boats. The first races were duels between the yachts of the day, then rules for fleet racing were drawn up. The first club regatta, later to become Cowes Week, was in 1826. For more than a century the reigning monarch would be there to present the King’s or Queen’s trophy.

Some of history’s greatest yachtsmen are on the Squadron’s membership roll: Sir Thomas Sopwith, John Illingworth, Sir Francis Chichester, Sir Alec Rose, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. Ties with the Navy are strong and some of British maritime history’s most famous names have been Squadron members, not least Nelson’s vice-admiral Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy who commanded HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, Admiral Lord Cochrane who was the inspriation for C.S. Forester’s Hornblower novels and Admiral Sir Jeremy Black, captain of the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible during the Falklands War.

The public’s more usual view

Perhaps the club is still best known around the world for hosting the race around the Isle of Wight in 1851 won by the schooner America , which took home what became known as the America’s Cup. The Squadron donated the Cup itself in 1851 and mounted a number of challenges to win it back.

More than 160 years later the America’s Cup has still never been won by a British challenger, but now the commodore believes the Royal Yacht Squadron has “the best chance we have ever had” with its sponsorship of Ben Ainslie Racing as official British challenger for the 2017 Cup.

• 1. Flying the white ensign
• 2. Bicentenary celebrations
• 3. Inside the Castle

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27th Governor of Queensland Her Excellency the Honourable Dr Jeannette Young AC PSM

• The Governor of Queensland

Official Opening of the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron’s 136th Sailing Season

Cr Atwood, representing the Lord Mayor; Member for Lytton, Ms Joan Pease MP; Commander Savvakis; Commodore, Captain Cuneo and fellow Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Board members; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen.

It is always a great pleasure to be at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron looking out over Moreton Bay, and I thank the Commodore for making us feel even more ‘at home’ with his warm welcome.

At the launch of last year’s season, none of us expected we would find ourselves some months later in the middle of a global pandemic. Or that the impact of COVID-19 would be so pervasive and invasive, affecting the lives of everyone in the State in one way or another.  

We could say that we have been ‘taken aback’, that we have worked hard to ‘fend off’ the virus by ‘battening down the hatches’, and are ‘staying the course’ in order to end up back on an ‘even keel’. All of which goes to prove yet again that nautical terms are alive and well in our everyday speech.   

The sailing community in general, and the Squadron in particular, have inevitably felt the impact of COVID-related restrictions.

Some of the Squadron’s events towards the end of the last sailing season had to be cancelled. The operations of the Sailing Academy had to be suspended. Some celebrations such as the welcome to new Squadron members went ‘by the board’, for the moment at least.  

Despite these setbacks, the Squadron’s annual cycle of activities is now re-emerging, albeit in different formats at times, and that is great news.

I was pleased to learn that the Squadron’s 2020 Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race was the first offshore race in Australia after restrictions were eased. Congratulations!

And that regattas including the Finn Class Queensland Championship and Youth Week were able to be held after the easing of restrictions – along with the welcome resumption of hospitality services.  

Nevertheless, I know from experience that managing COVID impacts is anything but a simple task.

In March, we at Government House also had to suspend or defer important activities and substantially adapt others.

We recommenced regional visits and receptions only in June. Ceremonies at Government House for the presentation of Order of Australia awards have also recommenced, though they are now individual ceremonies rather than large group investitures. 

Like the Squadron, we have employed our online presence to maintain outreach and commemorate important community events.

And throughout the period of restrictions I have ensured that my constitutional duties have continued uninterrupted.

For these reasons, I appreciate the substantial amount of hard work involved to maintain an organisation like the Squadron even while it was, so to speak, in ‘dry dock’, and to keep it seaworthy for the coming sailing season.

On that account, I thank the Commodore, Captain Barry Cuneo, his supporting office-holders, Committee Members, RQYS staff and members and the Squadron’s sponsors for keeping this venerable ‘ship’ afloat through some unanticipated heavy weather. 

None of us can predict what will happen in the next year and more. However, let us look forward to the Squadron’s new sailing season with a sailor’s optimism.

This year, let us take the traditional Fleet Sail Past as a symbol of the resilience of the Squadron and the promise of better times ‘in the offing’. 

On that positive note, it is my great pleasure to declare the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron’s 136 th sailing season open, and to wish the Squadron every success this season and into the future.

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The Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron (RQYS) Marina is a marina located in Manly, Brisbane, Australia. The marina is owned and operated by the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, a yacht club founded in 1885.

The marina is located on the Moreton Bay waterfront and provides easy access to local attractions such as the Brisbane CBD, the Gold Coast, and the islands of Moreton Bay.

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Located on the waterfront of Brisbane’s eastern Bayside suburb Manly, Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron is home to one of this state’s oldest and most prestigious sailing and cruising clubs. Formed in 1885, the Squadron is suitable for sailors at all levels – from beginners in Optimists or Sabots and juniors in a variety of dinghies, through to our elite sailors competing with distinction in class championships at international and Olympic events. The Squadron itself hosts regular Club Championship races for our members, along with State, National and International regattas on Moreton Bay.

578 Royal Parade, Manly QLD 4179

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Marina & Boatyard

Marina & boatyard services at royal queensland yacht squadron.

The Squadron is proud of its world-class Marina & Boat yard services and facilities. With a superb location on Brisbane’s doorstep at Manly and easy access to Moreton Bay beyond, it provides Squadron members and visitors with a range of facilities to enhance their boating lifestyle.

Marina One underwent a multi-million dollar refit and refurbishment in 2013, future proofing the sailing and berthing amenities, bringing the same high standards that berth owners in Marina Two also enjoy.

Details about our facilities

• 597 Floating Berths ranging in size from 10 to 36m mono berths and 12 – 18m Multihull berths
• 200 hardstand spaces up to 36ft
• Car and trailer parking
• Expansive secure hardstand areas for trailer yachts, powerboats
• Etchells hardstand area accommodates 26+ overflow
• A concrete boatyard/service area complete with various associated equipment
• Laundry facilities available in three convenient locations
• Bathroom and Showers in three locations
• 24-hour Fuel Pontoon (members discounts)
• A 35 tonne Marine Travelift with up to a maximum beam of 16′ 9″
• Roodberg 47 tonne catamaran trailer
• A 2.5 tonne Slew Crane (Etchells, Farr 30 etc.)
• On-site maintenance and slipping facilities
• 2 car trailer launching ramps along with 2 dinghy launching options
• Five rigging lawns
• On-site Wi-Fi
• Stainless Steel Fabrication
• Boat Building and Repairs
• Marine Electrician
• Boat trimmer
• Marine mechanic
• Marine plumbing
• Welding and machining

For more information please call (07) 3393 3554

America’s Cup

When is the 2024 America’s Cup? How to watch the regattas on TV and stream online

The 37th america’s cup takes place in the catalan capital of barcelona between august and october 2024..

The Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta starts on 22 August in Barcelona and the Louis Vuitton Cup (Challenger Selection Series) will follow (29 August-7 October), leading up to the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Match starting on the 12 October 2024 and running for a fortnight.

In 2 days time, the gloves come off 🥊 and every point, every race matters. https://t.co/mLbxBX0yYP — americascup (@americascup) August 20, 2024

The holders of the America’s Cup are Emirates Team New Zealand representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, but some strong competition is auming to dethrone the team from down under. INEOS Britannia, the ‘Challenger of Record’ from the United Kingdom, are in charge of the Louis Vuitton Cup (Challenger Selection Series) to decide who will race against Emirates Team New Zealand for the trophy.

The unique format of the Cup sees the Defender of the trophy automatically entitled to race in the final Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match whereas the Challengers will undertake a series to find the top yacht to take on the New Zealand team. The additional confirmed entries are: Alinghi Red Bull Racing from Switzerland, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli from Italy, American Magic New York Yacht Club from the USA and Orient Express Racing Team from France.

5 days to go 🤙 @americascup pic.twitter.com/eYlrRBKjkI — alinghiredbullracing (@alinghiredbull) August 17, 2024

Where to watch the America’s Cup in the US

The America’s Cup action can be followed each day in the United States via ESPN+.

The official website offers sailing fans a full replay every day for free albeit with a 24 hour delay.