Monument record MDO47087 - Motor Yacht Club, Sandbanks, Poole

The Motor Yacht Club was founded in 1905. First based in the Solent, the club later moved to Sandbanks and built a club house there. Organised and hosted the only Olympic motor boat races in 1908. From 1910, known as the Royal Motor Yacht Club.

Officially founded in May 1905, The Motor Yacht Club was created by a group of enthusiastic gentlemen who were members of the new Automobile Club, later to become the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall, London. They included Bernard Redwood, Lionel de Rothschild, Basil Joy, John Scott-Montagu, S F Edge, Tom Thornycroft, Major Lindsay Lloyd, Captain Dixon, Linton Hope, E A Whitehead, F P Armstrong and eleven others. From this list it is easy to see that these were influential men in the marine world. From yacht designer to banker, from torpedo inventor to marine engineer.

In January 1906, the club was granted the privilege by King George V, through the Admiralty, for its member’s vessels to wear the undefaced Blue Ensign of His Majesty’s Fleet. Club members could wear the Blue ensign on two conditions:
Every vessel belonging to the club must be registered as a British vessel.
The second was that the Ensign "shall not, without our authority in writing, be worn on board any vessel belonging to the motor yacht Club, while such vessel is lent, on hire, or otherwise, to any person not being a member of the club; or who, being a member of the club, is not a natural born or naturalised British subject." <1>

In 1908, London hosted the Olympic Games. The Motor Yacht Club was asked to organise “Olympic races for motorboats". These were held in Southampton Water, on August the 28th and 29th of that year.

The weather was poor, with a gale blowing from the south-west and large seas rolling up towards Southampton. In spite of the awful conditions, two members managed to stay the course and won an Olympic gold medal. This was the first and last time that motor boat racing was viewed as an Olympic sport.

In 1910, King George V approved the Home Secretary’s recommendation that the Prefix “Royal" be conferred upon the club and that henceforth it would be known as the Royal Motor Yacht Club.

The clubhouse and launch was a a vessel called the “Enchantress" moored off the coast near Netley, but it was hit by a bomb during the war and burnt to the water line, destroying much member’s equipment including X Boat masts and sails and the original deed of gift of the Harmsworth Trophy. With the loss of “Enchantress", RMYC now moved to Hythe Pier on the opposite side of Southampton Water.

In 1921 they commissioned a set of plans for a new club-house, which was built at the end of the Pier. <2>

<1> http://www.rmyc.co.uk/?q=club/history [accessed 12-JUL-2012] (Digital archive). SDO20102.

<2> Polley, M, 2011, The British Olympics: Britain's Olympic Heritage, 1612 - 2012, 114 (Monograph). SDO20101.

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1565388 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 30 2024 10:13AM