YACHT RACING
Founded in 1775, the Royal Thames Yacht Club is one of the oldest yacht clubs in the world. Credited with having devised the concept of fleet racing for yachts upon a regular basis, it has, throughout its long history been at the forefront of developing yacht racing, whilst its members raced, cruised or ventured world-wide on voyages of discovery.
The Cumberland Fleet 1775-1823
The Club was originally known as The Cumberland Fleet issued their earliest Notice of Race in the Public Advertiser on 6 July 1775.
‘A Silver Cup, the gift His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, is to be sailed for on Tuesday the 11th instant, from Westminster Bridge to Putney Bridge and back, by Pleasure Sailing Boats, from two to five tons burthen, and constantly lying above London Bridge’
There were between 18 and 20 entries for the race and the Cumberland Cups, as they became known, from the years 1776, 1777, 1780, 1781 and 1782 are in the possession of the Club.
In 1823 the Coronation Sailing Society was formed from the Cumberland Fleet to mark the coronation of King George IV That same year, following a contentious protest most of the leading racers in the club split away to form the Thames Yacht Club.
The Thames Yacht Club and the Royal Thames Yacht Club 1823-1865.
The Club is also unique in having the dual characteristics of a yacht Club and a London Club, albeit one that accepted ladies from the start – all they needed was a yacht!
The river Thames, before it was embanked and silted, provided a suitable racecourse, but the increase both of commercial traffic and the size of boats being raced, gradually pushed the Club’s activities downstream. In 1839 the seaward limit of racing was extended from Gravesend to Coal House Point, East Tilbury. A further development took place in 1844 when a race was organised from Greenwich to the Nore but meantime another factor influenced matters; in 1815, The Yacht Club, was formed, initially in St James’s, London, but running sailing event from Cowes, to which it moved in 1826. In 1833, it became the Royal Yacht Squadron. The Solent provided greater space and more shelter, than the Thames Estuary and by 1843, the migration of RTYC yachts to the Solent had begun – the seed was sown!
Despite the attractions of the Solent, the RTYC continued organising matches in and from the Thames, introducing novel concepts, all the while. New systems of handicapping were introduced, a significant milestone being the introduction, in 1854, of the Thames Measurement system for calculating tonnage, which had a marked effect on yacht design. In 1865 the Thames broke new ground by organising races from the Lower Hope, just east of Tilbury, to Harwich and to Ryde, on the Isle of Wight. The following year it ran the first of many ‘Channel Matches’, over a course of 52 ½ miles from the Nore to Dover. These open-sea, passage races gave birth to a new style of yacht racing, which became dominant in the latter half of the 20th century.
Into the Second Hundred Years 1866 to 1914
The Club continued to run sailing matches in and from the Thames whilst a club yachts competed both there and, in the Solent, including in the race which became known as the America’s Cup, first held in 1851.It was not until 1870 that that the Thames, encouraged by the performance of member James Lloyd Ashbury’s topsail schooner, Cambria, launched the first challenge to bring ‘the Auld Mug’ back to England.
During the 1860s and 1870s, yacht racing in English waters was dominated by the Royal Yacht Squadron and the Royal Thames Yacht Club, with the idiosyncrasy that each had formulated their own rules of racing. An undercurrent of discontent at this perceived duopoly led to the formation, in 1875, of an independent authority, the Yacht Racing Association, which later became the Royal Yachting Association. It was not until 1881 that the authority of this new creation was acknowledged, by our two clubs, both of which had the benefit of having the Prince of Wales, as their Commodore. The Prince undoubtedly ‘lifted the sport to unprecedented heights.’
To celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, in 1887, the Thames conceived its longest race yet; a 1,520-mile course around Great Britain and Ireland, leaving both islands to port!
With the turn of the century, yacht racing assumed an international flavour, with Club attendance at regattas at Ostend, Boulogne and Calais, involvement in the One Ton Cup, organised by the Circle de Voile de Paris, the first European Regatta at Spithead followed by the International Regatta at Le Havre, events being drawn together by the formation of the International Yacht Racing Union.
It was not until 1913 that the inexorable attraction of racing on the Solent won the day with the Club acquiring a pavilion on Stokes Bay Pier from which to run most of its future races.
Between the Wars, 1919 – 1939
The Sailing Committee resolved, nine days after the armistice, on 20 November 1918 ‘that a regatta should be held on the Thames or elsewhere in 1919’. Despite the enthusiasm, the wealth that had driven pre-war racing had vanished and it was not until 1921, that racing gathered momentum once more with a reinstatement of the Chanel Matches and organisation of days during Ryde Week. The Club’s increasing involvement in international events, such as the One Ton Cup and the Coupe de France, acted as a further lure towards the Solent. Racing was now run from Ryde Pier, the, the base at Stokes Bay having been requisitioned. 1920 saw the birth of the British-American Cup, a team racing event, originally in 6-Metres, the British side being supported by the Squadron, the Royal London, the Royal Victoria and the Royal Thames, who today remain the sole British participant.
During the inter-war period the Thames played a major part in the week-long regattas held at Ryde, Southend, Weymouth Bay and Brixham.
This was the age of the Metre classes, the most popular being the 6s, 8s and 12s and the Thames became leaders in organising top-class international racing. The Cumberland Cup was re-introduced, initially, to be competed for amongst 6-Metres. Also, by 1923, the larger yachts, J-Class, 23-Metres and the like, took to the water again.
This period saw the birth of ocean racing as we know it today, one of the earliest events being for the Morgan Cup, which was given by a Thames member. This was a race from Ryde to Cherbourg and back, first run by the Club in 1929, 60 years after it had organised the race from Dover to Cherbourg.
The late 1930s saw the end of regular Big Boat racing in home waters, its last few years being plagued with loss and damage to boats and crew, alike.
The remainder of the first 200 years, 1939-1974
During the war, many members had their boats requisitioned, some taking part in the Dunkirk evacuation but as peace returned, yachts were once more allowed to use coastal waters. The centre of the Club’s sailing activities changed again with the acquisition, in 1946, of Shore House, Warsash. As it was only possible to have a start line for small yachts on the Hamble, the line at Calshot was used. It was not until 1973 that the Club became involved in the management of Cowes Week and started to use the lines of clubs based there. The return to yacht racing activities was slow but, in addition to organising racing for the many Solent classes, the Club presented challenge trophies to the Ranelagh SC and London Corinthian YC to encourage dinghy sailing.
The iconic, Stewart Morris, who had dominated the International 14 dinghy class since 1932, won gold in 1948 at the first post-war Olympics. After his retirement from racing, he did much to build up the Club’s Model Room.
In 1955 a syndicate of 234 members commissioned another 6-Metre, to revive the fleet which had been side-lined by the IYRU. Although the yacht, again named Royal Thames,had successful seasons in 1957 and 1958, the 6-Metres were dropped as an Olympic class, effectively being replaced by the more economical 5.5-Metres, in which class, member, and subsequently Vice Commodore, Robin Aisher competed in the 1960, 1964 and 1968 Olympics, winning bronze in the last one. Numerous other members, sailing in different classes, also competed.
Much time and money were consumed in the lead up to the 1964 America’s Cup with the challenger, Tony Boyden’s Sovereign, racing under the RTYC flag, only to be beaten by the defender, Constellation. Preparations were made for a further challenge by the Club in 1974, but in the event, the challenge could not be issued. Nevertheless, the RTYC race management team proceeded to Newport, raising the standards in that vital discipline.
The reputation of that team led to their running international events throughout the ‘70s along the South Coast for Solings, Half Tonners and the established Solent classes, and, at the request of the RYA, running training races for the Olympic classes. In 1973, the Club was invited to join the race management of Cowes Week, in which it still performs a significant role.
Into the 21st century
To mark the late Queen’s Jubilee in 1977, RTYC organised a novel form of race involving 10 of the Royal yacht clubs, each laying out an identical course, the winning yacht being the one which had sailed the longest distance in 24 hours.
Team racing had, since the first BA Cup in 1921, become the favoured discipline for inter-club competition. Although competition thrived amongst British, American and European clubs, the difficulty of having to assemble a fleet of matched yachts, inevitably led to the acquisition of our own fleet. The pre-cursor to this was the Club’s use of a fleet of First Class 8s, formerly owned by the RYA, based in the Queen Victoria Dock in East London. In 2006 the Carmela Cup, the Club’s National 2 boat team racing event, was held there and competition for the Cumberland Cup was revived in the form of biennial 2 boat team racing between the Thames and its worldwide reciprocal clubs. The spatial limitations of docklands led to our purchasing, jointly with the Royal Yacht Squadron, in 2009, the RYA’s former fleet of 6 J80s which were based in Cowes during the summer and moved to the Queen Mary Reservoir at Datchet for the winter months. When, in 2015, the RYS purchased its own fleet of J70s, the Thames bought the J80s outright, taking them permanently to Queen Mary’s, whilst purchasing a new fleet of 6 J70s, based at Cowes. In 2023 the fleet of J80s based at Queen Mary Reservoir
were disposed of and replaced by a brand-new fleet
of 12 Sonars, these boats having
established themselves as the globally accepted standard for team
racing.
In 1996, the RTYC Academy was formed, attracting talented younger members by offering scholarships and courses. The take-up was immediate and led to successes in the Wilson Trophy, the National Match Racing Series, and numerous other events. In the same vein, Olympic Benefit dinners were started to help fund members in the GB Olympic squad providing a growing number of Olympic medal winners amongst its past and present membership.
Race management continues to shine, the Club’s capability being enhanced by Thames V, a custom-built, inboard engine, mark-laying RIB, another RIB and a committee boat.
The main RTYC internal event of the year is the Cumberland Regatta, held in June at Cowes, which offers a lot more than racing!
2009 saw the initial Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, a biennial fleet racing event in Newport, Rhode Island, the premier international inter-club competition. The Club has competed in all but one of the events, coming 3rd in 2013, winning in 2015 and highest ranked overseas competitor several times.
Another regular event, held alternately in US and UK waters, is the Cornerstone Cup, a biennial team racing competition between New York Yacht Club, St Francis Yacht Club, Royal Yacht Squadron and the Club. The current list of overseas regattas in which the Club and its members compete is too long for this brief history.
For 2023 a new fleet of Sonars has been commissioned and these, based at Queen Mary, will host the Global Team Race Regatta.
Alongside the top-level international racing, there are numerous intra-club events at all levels.