royal yacht squadron jewellery

BY BENZIES OF COWES, CIRCA 1920

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The Greenhill Collection

Fine Antique Silver

A Early 20th Century Diamond and Ruby Royal Yacht Squadron Burgee Brooch

Maker: In the style of Benzie of Cowes, Isle of Wight

Date: Circa 1920 - 40

A Royal Yacht Squadron burgee brooch, set with calibré-cut rubies and single-cut diamonds, the crown with orange enamel highlight, total diamond weight approximately 0.65 carat, set-on a 18ct white gold frame, the hinge and fastener are made of 9ct white gold, as tested by The Goldsmiths’ Company. Width 35mm.

Out of stock

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Royal Yacht Squadron ruby and diamond brooch

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• Item Details

About the Item

• Metal : 18k Gold
• Weight : 1.25 ct
• Dimensions : Width: 0.95 in (24 mm) Depth: 0.79 in (20 mm)
• Place of Origin : United Kingdom
• Period : 1930-1939
• Date of Manufacture : c,1930
• Condition : New
• Seller Location : London, GB
• Reference Number : 1stDibs: J13082945032

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Yachting World

• Digital Edition

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

Inside the Castle

The interior of the Castle is a cross between a grand country house and a maritime museum. I wish I could have stayed for days to study the paintings of Fleet Reviews throughout history, pore over the leather-bound tomes in the library and sit with a gin and tonic taking in the glorious views across the Solent.

Instead I caught glimpses of treasures and trophies taken down from the walls for the refurbishment and got a feel for the magnificent proportions of the ancient rooms, the splendour of the Platform, with its battery of brass cannon, imagining the Scottish reels danced there a few days before – this vast room hosts parties and dinners for up to 120.

The magnificemt Dining Room where members can host their own dinner parties

In pride of place is the enormous wheel from the yacht Victoria and Albert II , and over an arched doorway I spied the tiller from the royal racing yacht Bloodhound whose mast was once the Castle’s flagstaff – it was taken down for checking in 2014 and found to be past economic repair.

Members and their guests staying in the Castle in one of the 13 bedrooms, charmingly decorated in traditional style with chintz curtains and antique furniture, are treated to service every bit as good as in a five-star hotel. The commodore’s room is on the top floor. Both he and the vice-commodore have their own accommodation with ensuites.

The staff of stewards, waiters and waitresses is being augmented for the summer of 2015. They expect to be fully stretched serving drinks receptions and members’ dinners.

“And we’ll still provide normal service for members who like to come in to sit in the Morning Room or on the balcony in need of a whisky or a Martini and lemonade,” house manager Katie Waite told me. The Morning Room is Waite’s favourite part of the Castle. “It’s the most beautiful of them all,” she said.

Bells to summon the staff

Stewards, dressed in three-piece suits, offer a butler service and are at members’ beck and call 24 hours a day. Their ethos is to be “attentive, but not intrusive,” one steward told me.

One benefit of membership is the ability to book a room for a dinner, a party or wedding, entertaining your guests to superb food and drink. You can even book the entire Castle, effectively having your own country home for a day or two. If more than one member wants a room on the same date the complex hierarchy of membership comes into play and it goes to the senior member.

In the cavernous, old-fashioned basement kitchen, reminding me of a scene from Upstairs Downstairs , scores of jars of freshly made marmalade were cooling.

“All the food is made here fresh, from scratch, by the chefs,” the steward told me, “from bread, to jams and chutneys. We serve locally sourced meat and a lot of game in season.” They still do silver service if members request it, but most dishes are now in the new style, plated up artistically.

Wine cellar

Crouching slightly, we made our way into the wine cellars. In the first room for ‘high volume wines’, I noticed cases and cases of Sauternes ordered in for the bicentenary. The wines are chosen by the Squadron’s Wine Committee, some ready to drink, others bought en primeur to be kept until ready for drinking. The all-important port cellar is further down, in the deepest, coldest part of the building. Back up in the pantry, staff were polishing silver cutlery, which will no doubt be a Sisyphean task during the summer.

The Squadron boasts an excellent wine cellar

Is the club concerned that its traditional image may not appeal to potential younger members? I asked the commodore. He replied that the Squadron runs a racing programme every April for youngsters aged between 16 and 20 in J/109s and there’s a busy J/70 team-racing schedule for around 80 Squadron Sailing Associates up to the age of 35.

Commodore Sharples is himself a keen sailor. “I started sailing on a SCOD with my father, and then on an Excalibur 36,” he told me. “We did plenty of RORC racing and Cowes Week every year.” Aged 24, he took a sabbatical and set sail as skipper with three friends and his brother for Cape Town in a Gallant 53 in order to do the 1973 Cape to Rio Race. Since then he’s competed in more than 40 Cowes Weeks, Fastnets, Newport-Bermudas and Swan Worlds.

He said it was “a great privilege” to be commodore in the Squadron’s bicentenary year: “We have been planning for nearly two years so we are hopeful our events will be well-run and a great success, and everybody will have a good time.”

Behind the America’s Cup

Sharples will still be commodore in 2017, America’s Cup year, and says it’s “serendipity” for him that the competition will be in Bermuda. He has long-standing associations with the island, even keeping a J/80 there for racing, and visits as often as he can.

Obviously enthusiastic about the Squadron’s America’s Cup chances, he told me: “Our challenge, through our affiliated club – Royal Yacht Squadron Racing Ltd – with Ben Ainslie Racing as our team, is a tremendous opportunity for us to play our part in bringing the Cup back to Britain . . . We believe our member Sir Ben Ainslie has the best chance for a long time of winning the Cup. Our role, and mine as commodore, is to give Sir Ben all the support that we can.”

One of the cannon on the Platform

So the Squadron remains an enigma: a private members’ club still functioning with centuries-old traditions, yet a public-facing, dynamic organisation in the forefront of world racing. It has a reputation for being a bastion of high society, yet the members I know are not titled – one a surgeon, another in the arts.

July 2015 looks set to be a great celebration of this and all that’s unique about this 200-year-old club, which is changing with the times while not compromising its standards and its history.

The Bicentenary International Regatta

The Royal Yacht Squadron will be 200 years old on 1 June this year and in celebration the club has invited members of 25 clubs around the world for a week of racing from 25-31 July, in boats of all sizes from J/70 sportsboats to at least three of the mighty J Class classics .

A number of the bigger boats will arrive from Newport, USA, at the end of the Transatlantic Race 2015 , organised by the Royal Yacht Squadron in conjunction with the New York YC, the Royal Ocean Racing Club and the Storm Trysail Club as part of the celebrations.

The three J Class yachts confirmed to date are Lionheart , Ranger and Velsheda . Velsheda was built by Camper & Nicholsons in the 1930s and a couple of decades ago was a regular sight on the Solent as a day charter boat.

Ranger was an aristocrat of a boat, owned by Harold Vanderbilt and winner of 32 of the 34 races she ever sailed, successfully defending the America’s Cup in 1937. She was eventually scrapped and the new Ranger is a faithful replica.

Lionheart is a new J built to a similar set of plans to Ranger from the archives of designers Starling Burgess and Olin Stephens. She made her mark in J racing winning the Kings 100 Guineas Cup in Cowes in 2012. The appearance of the J Class at the Royal Yacht Squadron Bicentenary International Regatta will be a rare treat for Solent spectators.

The week of racing promises to be a lively set of events, including fleet racing under IRC and level rating plus team racing for younger sailors. Members of the 25 invited clubs who can’t get their own boats to Cowes will still be able to compete thanks to the entire fleet of Sunsail Farr 40s being made available for charter, offering closely matched racing.

The highlight of the week is likely to be the Race Around the Island. Ashore, the social programme features parties and gatherings at the Castle and other special venues, culminating in a Grand Party at Osborne House on 30 July.

This is an extract from a feature in Yachting World April 2014

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

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AMERICA'S CUP

On March 17th 2021, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, on behalf of the Defender Emirates Team New Zealand, accepted the Notice of Challenge for the 37th America’s Cup (AC37) from Royal Yacht Squadron Ltd and INEOS BRITANNIA (formerly INEOS TEAM UK) and were announced as the Challenger of Record for the 37th America’s Cup.  This will be the first British Challenger of Record to compete in the America’s Cup  since Tony Boyden’s Sovereign challenge in 1964.

Latest News

RYS Flag Officers 1825-Present

The Yacht Club was founded in 1815 for Members to meet twice a year to dine and share their mutual interest in yachting. It had no premises so had no real need of officers; various Members chaired the bi-annual meetings in the early years before there was a Commodore, viz: Lord Grantham, Brydges Pope Blachford Esq, the Earl of Craven, Hon Charles Anderson Pelham Esq (later as Lord Yarborough), the Marquis of Anglesey, William Baring Esq, Captain The Hon.B Pellew, the Duke of Norfolk, Sir George Leeds and the Earl of Darnley.

Until 1825 the Club held its annual Cowes meetings at several local hostelries. The Medina Hotel at East Cowes, home of the annual regatta ball, was most favoured; it was also near the Customs House where the Club’s first Secretary was a Customs Officer. In 1824 it was decided to investigate providing a coffee room for the Club and a committee was set up comprising Lord Yarborough, The Hon W Hare, Sir George Thomas, James Weld Esq and Henry Perkins Esq. The result was the Club’s first premises ‘Parade House’, leased from Mrs Sarah Goodwin in 1825. This building was on The Parade across the road from the Castle; it later became the Gloster Hotel and has since been replaced by the Gloster Apartments. Once the Club had premises trustees and a committee were required, once it started its yacht racing programme in 1826 stewards (forerunner of the Yachting Committee) were necessary also.

Commodore and Vice Commodore

The first mention of a Commodore is in the Club Minutes of 18th June 1822. A tradition of parading the yachts as part of the Regatta had begun in 1814 but the 1822 Minutes record that on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of each month [i.e. through the summer], Club yachts would assemble in Cowes Roads for the purpose of sailing together under the directions of a Commodore to be appointed for the day. A further Minute, a month later, suggests this had not worked quite as planned, stating ‘the original proposition of assembling the vessels … [had been] … made with a far different view from that of racing and shewing superiority of sailing’. It went on to give more detailed instructions for squadron sailing to ‘tend to the comfort of all, and particularly of the ladies who may honor the meeting with their presence’.

The Marquis of Anglesey and Stephen Challen Esq were the first Commodores for the day in 1822. In 1823 it was the Hon Charles Anderson Pelham who led the Club yachts to Plymouth, taking the salute as Commodore; in 1824 he led them again to the West Country and across to Cherbourg. In 1825 he had no yacht but is still referred to as Commodore in the local and yachting press. The Club Minutes have no record of such a permanent appointment but by 20th September 1826 they too are referring to him as ‘our Commodore’. His 351 ton Falcon, launched in 1826, became the Club’s flagship. In September 1827 Lord Belfast was appointed Vice Commodore.

Commodores originally served for life, the then Vice Commodore succeeding to the position when the Commodore left office. This practice continued until Sir Ralph Gore died in 1961. At that time HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was approached and agreed to become Commodore on condition that the appointment would henceforth be for a fixed term of six years. The term for Commodores and Vice Commodores was subsequently altered to five years and then to four, thus allowing today for a new Flag Officer to take office each year.

Rear Commodores

Prince Philip oversaw other reforms, doing much to transform the Club and bring it into the 20th century. Believing Cowes Week to be somewhat confusing for participants, one of his suggestions was the appointment of two Rear Commodores to give more attention to the administration of yachting generally, and this, together with his suggestion for the establishment of Cowes Combined Clubs, marked the rapid modernisation of the event. Serving overlapping four year terms, nowadays one Rear Commodore is responsible for yachting, the other for finance.

King William IV could be considered the first Admiral of the Royal Yacht Squadron: it was he who conferred that name on the Club in 1833, and he constituted himself its head. The idea was revived in 1901 on the death of Queen Victoria since the Prince of Wales could not continue to be Commodore once he became King Edward VII. The practice of the monarch being Admiral as well as Patron continued with subsequent monarchs until the succession of the present Queen when she became Patron and HRH The Prince Philip became Admiral.

1825-1846 - The Earl of Yarborough 1847-1848 - The Marquis of Donegal 1849-1881 - The Earl of Wilton 1882-1900 - HRH The Prince of Wales 1901-1919 - The Marquis of Ormonde 1920-1926 - The Duke of Leeds 1927-1942 - Sir Richard Williams-Bulkeley 1942-1943 - The Marquis Camden 1943-1947 - Sir Philip Hunloke 1947-1961 - Sir Ralph Gore 1962-1968 - HRH The Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh 1968-1974 - The Viscount Runciman of Doxford 1974-1980 - Major General the Earl Cathcart 1980-1986 - Sir John Nicholson 1986-1991 - John Roome Esq 1991-1996 - Maldwin A C Drummond Esq 1996-2001 - Peter C Nicholson Esq 2001-2005 - The Lord Amherst 2005-2009 - The Lord Iliffe 2009-2013 - M.D.C.C. Campbell Esq 2013-2017 - The Hon. Christopher Sharples 2017-2021 - T J R Sheldon Esq 2021-Presnt - The Hon Sir James Holman

Vice Commodores

1827-1847 - The Earl of Belfast (to 1844), subsequently Marquis of Donegal 1848-1850 - Sir Bellingham Graham 1851-1861 - C R M Talbot Esq 1862-1875 - The Marquis Conyngham 1876-1884 - The Marquis of Londonderry 1885-1900 - The Marquis of Ormonde 1901-1919 - The Duke of Leeds 1920-1926 - Sir Richard Williams-Bulkeley 1927-1943 - The Marquis Camden 1945-1947 - Sir Ralph Gore 1948-1954 - The Viscount Camrose 1954-1965 - The Marquis Camden 1965-1971 - Sir Kenneth Preston 1971-1977 - The Earl of Malmesbury 1977-1983 - Major General Sir Robert Pigot Bt 1983-1988 - Sir Charles Tidbury 1988-1993 - A J Sheldon Esq 1993-1998 - The Lord Amherst of Hackney 1998-2003 - Michael D C Campbell Esq 2003-2007 - Sir Nigel Southward 2007-2011 - Ian Laing Esq 2011-2015 - C R Dick Esq 2015-2019 - Colin Campbell Esq 2019-2023 - Martin Stanley Esq 2023- Present - P L F French Esq   

1962-1964 - Colonel The Earl Cathcart 1962-1966 - The Viscount Runciman of Doxford 1964-1968 - Lt Colonel A W Acland 1966-1970 - John D Russell Esq 1968-1972 - Stewart H Morris Esq 1970-1974 - Roger Leigh-Wood Esq 1972-1976 - Major P R Colville 1974-1978 - Brigadier Sir Richard Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe 1976-1980 - J M F Crean Esq 1978-1982 - Sir Eric Drake 1980-1984 - J W Roome Esq 1982-1986 - Sir Maurice Laing 1984-1988 - Commander G H Mann RN 1986-1990 - J R D Green Esq 1988-1992 - D A Acland Esq 1990-1994 - P C Nicholson Esq 1992-1996 - A K S Franks 1994-1998 - A H Matusch Esq 1996-2000 - D F Biddle Esq 1998-2002 - Dr J H P Cuddigan 2000-2004 - R W C Colvill Esq 2002-2006 - John Grandy Esq 2004-2008 - John Godfrey Esq 2006-2010 - Captain S A V van der Byl RN 2008-2012 - John Raymond Esq 2010-2014 - David Aisher Esq 2012-2016 - The Hon Patrick Seely DL 2014-2018 - J P L Perry Esq 2016-2020 - C Russell Esq 2018-2022 - Robert M Bicket Esq 2020-Present - Jeremy Bennett Esq 2022-Present - B B Huber Esq

Royal Yacht Squadron

The Castle, Cowes, Isle of Wight, P031 7QT

Tel: +44 (0) 1983 292 191

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