royal yacht squadron membership

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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

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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Special Report: Rolex Fastnet Race

Hints of the Modern Invade Royal Yacht Squadron

By Christopher Clarey

• Aug. 14, 2015

COWES, England — At the Royal Yacht Squadron, they still wear black tie and toast the queen every Saturday night. They still fire the cannons from their battlements to start the Rolex Fastnet Race and scores of other races throughout the year.

But as it celebrates its 200th anniversary in 2015, the Squadron — as it is known in Britain and in much of the sailing world — is not quite the same club of old.

It remains seriously exclusive and thickly populated by royals: from Prince Philip, the now 94-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth II, to Juan Carlos, the former king of Spain, to the Aga Khan.

Yet the Squadron elected its first three female full members this year, even if their names have yet to be released publicly. The club also has adopted a palpably more open approach to those who dwell outside Cowes Castle, the Squadron’s clubhouse on the Isle of Wight that was first used for defensive purposes when built by Henry VIII in 1539.

“I think we’re more relaxed about it all,” the club’s commodore, Christopher Sharples, said in a recent interview in the castle. “There used to be the feeling that you mustn’t put your head above the parapet or you’re certain to be shot. And I think they’ve got quite good parapets here.”

They do indeed, as well as a memorable, concentration-sharpening sign affixed to them: “Warning. Starting cannon may fire at any time.”

“I think there was a notion for quite a few years that the Squadron was a bunch of sort of pompous old guys together, very much the blue-blood, old-school type of thing,” said Mike Broughton, a British navigator and former British naval officer. “To be honest, I think over the last 10 years in particular, they’ve worked hard to modernize and also to modernize in terms of professional racing. They’ve modernized their racing management, which has been great to see actually, and they’ve worked hard to keep up with the times.”

That does not mean, however, that the time has come for an outsider with a profound love of the sea (and fancy dinners) to ring up the Squadron and ask to be emailed a membership application.

“The first thing to say about that is you get invited; you don’t apply,” Sharples said.

The club’s regular membership is now capped at 535, and there is a four-year waiting list. “There are also about 70 naval members who come in from a slightly different category,” Sharples said. “They come in through a side door and don’t have to queue up, and that’s because of our longstanding relationship with the Royal Navy.”

The club remains the only one whose member yachts are allowed to fly the white ensign of the Royal Navy.

The recent decision to add female members is part of a wave of similar moves by long-established British clubs: the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in Scotland elected its first female members in 2015 after 260 years of existence.

“I’m a firm believer that if a club wants to be a single-sex club only, it can be, but not if it’s connected to sport,” Sharples said. “I think if you have a social club in London, I liken it to bull elephants hanging around a watering hole. Well, nobody seems to mind about that do they? But if on the other hand you are connected to a sport where you have facilities that sportsmen use, it seems to me much better that you give equal opportunity to ladies to use and access those facilities.”

When the club was founded by 42 gentlemen in 1815 in a gathering at the Thatched House Tavern in London, prospective members were required to own a vessel of at least 10 tons.

Today, boat ownership — at any tonnage — is not a requirement. “You have to be somebody who is actively involved in sailing,” Sharples said. “If you have access to a boat or regularly sail on somebody’s boat, that’s fine.”

To become a candidate, one needs a proposer, a seconder and three other initial letters of support, plus eight additional letters: all of these from club members. Only then does one join the list with a chance to eventually face an election, which involves the full membership.

Avoid too many blackballs and you will join a club with a uniquely rich maritime history whose members and their boats played a role in both World Wars. The membership roll has included the Arctic polar explorers Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton, a Russian czar, British kings, the round-the-world solo-sailing pioneers Francis Chichester and Robin Knox-Johnston, as well as Ben Ainslie, Britain’s biggest sailing star of the moment, who the club hopes can finally bring the America’s Cup back to the Squadron.

It left here in 1851 when the yacht America — owned by a syndicate of New York Yacht Club members — defeated a fleet of yachts representing the Squadron in a race around the Isle of Wight.

The Cup, a silver ewer, had been purchased for the competition by a Squadron member, Henry William Paget, First Marquess of Anglesey, who had had his right leg amputated after being wounded by one of the last cannon shots of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Cowes Castle was Paget’s summer home, and it became the Squadron clubhouse after his death in 1854.

The cup purchased by Paget was eventually renamed the America’s Cup. Though the Australians at last managed to wrest it away from the New York Yacht Club in 1983 and yacht clubs from New Zealand and Switzerland have since won it, the British have yet to reclaim possession.

Ainslie, an honorary Squadron member and four-time Olympic gold medalist, helped Larry Ellison’s Oracle Team USA retain the trophy in 2013 by playing a major role in the epic comeback in San Francisco against Emirates Team New Zealand. But he is now head of his own team, Ben Ainslie Racing, which will represent the competitive arm of the Royal Yacht Squadron in the 2017 America’s Cup competition in Bermuda.

That will come in the final year of Sharples’s four-year term, which has already included the bicentennial celebration.

“I suppose my ultimate aim, if you like, is to help Ben bring the Cup back to this club before I step down,” Sharples said.

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History of The America’s Cup

The America’s Cup is the oldest international sporting trophy in the world. It predates the FA Cup, the Ryder Cup and even the modern Olympic Games by 45 years. The first America’s Cup took place in 1851, 35 years before the car and 52 years before the inaugural flight of the Wright Brothers. Though it started in Britain, a British team has never won it. “50 years of hurt” – how about 171?

The lack of success for Britain is, however, not for a lack of trying. Over the past 171 years there have been many British challenges for the Cup, some more successful than others, but they all have one thing in common. Not one of them has ever brought the famous “Auld Mug” back home.

When It All Began

1851 – 1895.

The first edition of the America’s Cup took place in 1851. It began when during that year’s Great Exhibition the Earl of Wilton, the Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron (RYS), sent an invitation to members of the recently-formed New York Yacht Club (NYYC), suggesting that they might like to enjoy the club’s facilities in Cowes. The New York Yacht Club’s 30 metre schooner ‘America’ won the trophy, an ornate sterling silver bottomless ewer crafted in 1848 by Garrard & Co, and the ‘America’s Cup’ was born.

In 1885 the New York Yacht Club would face their first challenge to win back the Cup from the Royal Yacht Squadron, it was the fifth challenge they faced to date and came from Sir Richard Sutton’s Genesta. He lost 2-0. The RYS would not give up, however, and challenged the NYYC both in 1893 and 1895 again, this time through the Earl of Dunraven. He too, was defeated each time, and accused the Americans of cheating for which he was pilloried at the time.

1899 – 1930, The Lipton Era

From the turn of the century through to 1930, the British challenge for the America’s Cup was dominated by one man, Sir Thomas Lipton.   Lipton would challenge five time in thirty years for the America’s Cup, all unsuccessfully. His fourth campaign is the closest Britain has come to bringing the Cup home.  

Perhaps ironically, however, in the first three Cups he contested, Lipton was beaten by a boat skippered by another Brit, Charlie Barr. Barr is Britain’s most successful America’s Cup skipper and the only Briton to have been onboard an America’s Cup winning boat until INEOS BRITTAINIA Skipper Ben Ainslie won the Cup with Oracle Team USA in 2013.

1934 – 1937, Sir T.O.M Sopwith

The final pre-Second World War British challenges were led by Sir T.O.M. Sopwith, who bought Shamrock V from Sir Thomas Lipton. Sopwith was a sportsman in all senses; he raced cars and motorcycles, and he held the world waterspeed record in a powerboat.   Sopwith brought that sporting desire and scientific, innovative approach to yacht racing.  

There is widespread agreement that Sopwith’s first Endeavour, the 1934 J-Class Challenger ‘Endeavour’, it was the fastest and best prepared boat ever to leave Britain. She went to meet a weak American fleet, with the NYYC elite still struggling with the impact of the Great Depression. After initlal wins in the first races, it was not to be and the team were outsailed to a 4-2 loss.  

1958 – 1964, Post World War 2

Due to the austerity after the war, the size of the boats competing was greatly reduced.   The 12 metre class led the way and in 1958 Britain’s Sceptre, steered by Graham Mann, lost by significant margins and a 4-0 scoreline to the American entry, Columbia.

British losses continued in 1964 as Tony Boyden’s Sovereign did not win a single race to the American challenger.   The post war depression had a significant impact on the British challenges, with America outdoing them on multiple fronts from number of entries to resources and the technology available.

1980 – 2003, New Winners

It would be over 15 years before a British challenger would come forward, in that period both the French and Australians has begun their own challenges and made significant progress in developing their boats.   In 1983 for the first time in its 132 year history, America lost the Cup to the boat Australia II, and Australia became the new defenders. A decade after losing the Cup for the first time in history it returned to American waters in as America 3 took victory.

It was during this period that the International America’s Cup Class of yachts is introduced. These boats are longer, quicker and much more powerful than before. From 1995 to 2003 the Cup changed hands multiple times with new winners in the form of Team New Zealand winning twice consecutively. In 2003, after a 16 year break a British entry backed by Peter Harrison and skippered Ian Walker, were ultimately beaten in the semifinal and the Swiss entry went on to win the Cup for the first time, returning it to Europe more than 150 years after the first race on British waters.

2010 – 2013, The Greatest Comeback

Oracle Team USA claim the Cup and returned to America ushering in a new era of highly technical yacht design with their lightweight catamaran.

In 2013 the world witnessed the greatest comeback in sporting history as Oracle Team USA overcame Team New Zealand in one of sports most incredible wins recording a 9-8 victory on the waters of San Francisco Bay. Onboard was tactician Sir Ben Ainslie, the first British sailor to win the Cup since Charlie Barr over 80 years ago.

2013 onwards, The British Challenge returns

Sir Ben Ainslie Britain’s most successful Olympic sailor of all time alongside the Royal Yacht Squadron announced the formation of a British team to challenge for the America’s Cup. Ben led the British challenge into the 35th America’s Cup in Bermuda in 2017. Despite some successes including victory in the America’s Cup World Series, it was not to be for the first-time British challenger as they exited the Cup at the semi-final stage against Emirates Team New Zealand.

In 2018, INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe came onboard to back Ben Ainslie’s British Challenge in the 36th America’s Cup. A change in some key personnel followed, including four times America’s Cup winner Grant Simmer joining the team as CEO and Nick Holroyd, who was previously Technical Director for the Kiwi team that revolutionised the America’s Cup by introducing foiling, joining the team as Chief Designer.

INEOS TEAM UK challenged for the 36th America’s Cup in their bold and innovative new AC75 raceboat, BRITANNIA, in Auckland in 2021. Despite a remarkable late turnaround in performance which culminated in the team winning the PRADA Cup Round Robin Series with a clean sweep to qualify for the Challenger Series Final, the British team was ultimately beaten in the final by the Italian Challenger.

Together with the Royal Yacht Squadron Ltd, the renamed INEOS Britannia (formerly INEOS TEAM UK) will also become the first British Challenger of Record to compete in the America’s Cup since Boyden’s Sovereign in 1964. The Challenge letter was signed on 17th March 2021 onboard the yacht IMAGINE, by Bertie Bicket, Chairman of Royal Yacht Squadron Ltd and accepted by Aaron Young, Commodore of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron as Emirates Team New Zealand crossed the finish line to win the America’s Cup for the fourth time.

“Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves”

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