The Royal Welsh Yacht Club (RWYC) is one of the oldest

yacht club A yacht club is a sports club specifically related to yachting. Description Yacht clubs are mostly located by the sea, although there some that have been established at a lake or riverside locations. Yacht or sailing clubs have either a mari ...

s still operating in the world today, and the one situated in the oldest premises. It is the fourteenth Royal Yacht Club in Britain and one of the twelve oldest clubs in the world.

History

The Royal Welsh Yacht Club was formed in

Caernarfon Caernarfon (; ) is a royal town, community and port in Gwynedd, Wales, with a population of 9,852 (with Caeathro). It lies along the A487 road, on the eastern shore of the Menai Strait, opposite the Isle of Anglesey. The city of Bangor is ...

Caernarfonshire , HQ= County Hall, Caernarfon , Map= , Image= Flag , Motto= Cadernid Gwynedd (The strength of Gwynedd) , year_start= , Arms= ''Coat of arms of Caerna ...

, in 1847 by local solicitor Llewellyn Turner, William Knight (Rear-Commodore of Royal Harwich Yacht Club), Lord George Douglas-Pennant and other prominent locals. It became the 14th Royal Yacht Club in Britain and the first in Wales. Sailing regattas had been held in the town in 1829 and 1846 and were subsequently organised regularly by the Club. The first flag officers at the club were Commodore Henry Paget K.G. ; Vice-Commodore

Robert Stephenson Robert Stephenson Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS HFRSE FRSA Doctor of Civil Law, DCL (16 October 1803 – 12 October 1859) was an English civil engineer and designer of locomotives. The only son of George Stephenson, the "Father of Railway ...

and Rear-Commodore Llewelyn Turner. On 5 May the same year it was also awarded the warrant to fly the defaced

blue ensign The Blue Ensign is a flag, one of several British ensigns, used by certain organisations or territories associated or formerly associated with the United Kingdom. It is used either plain or Defacement (flag), defaced with a Heraldic badge, ...

and three days later

Queen Adelaide , house = Saxe-Meiningen , father = Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen , mother = Princess Louise Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg , birth_date = , birth_place = Meiningen, Saxe-Meiningen, Holy Rom ...

, bestowed her royal patronage upon the club. In 1854 the Club took the 13th century Porth-yr-Aur, formerly the town's west gate or watergate, built c.1284, as its clubhouse.

Notable members

Club members have achieved a number of seafaring accomplishments, including major ocean crossings and circumnavigations of the world. Notable members include: * Thomas Assheton Smith, a vice-commodore of the club, whose

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

, ''Titania'', competed in the first America's Cup (then known as the 100 Guineas Cup). *

Lionel Rees Group Captain Lionel Wilmot Brabazon Rees, (31 July 1884 – 28 September 1955) was a Welsh aviator, flying ace, and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and ...

, who in 1933 sailed single-handedly across the Atlantic from Wales to Nassau in a

ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fr ...

, for which he was awarded the prestigious Blue Water Medal by the

Cruising Club of America The Cruising Club of America (CCA) is an international organization of cruisers whose objects are to promote cruising and racing by amateurs, to encourage the development of suitable types of cruising craft, to stimulate interest in seamanship, navi ...

in 1934.

References

{{Reflist Royal yacht clubs Organisations based in Wales with royal patronage Yacht clubs in Wales Organizations established in 1847

History

Notable members

Further reading

References