| RNVR Yacht Club Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Yacht Club |
Welcome to the RNVR Yacht Club!
ABOUT USA love of boats and sailing is the surest of all passports to a happy life wrote Arthur Ransome. This is a sentiment that unites all in the RNVR Yacht Club. The RNVR Yacht Club was formed in 1947 by Naval Reservists and is predominantly a cruising club with over 400 club members who own between them 185 yachts, of which many are based on the south coast of England. Our annual membership fee is only £35. Click here for our current 2021 programme. |
Our 75th Anniversary year is in 2022 and will culminate with a gala dinner at the Painted Hall in Greenwich in November 2022. This will be an exceptional occasion and we welcome old and new members to join us.
In a normal year, there are at least three formal dinners at prestigious venues and many other social events around the country.
The Summer Rallies take in several ports over the week with dinners arranged in attractive clubhouses or local restaurants and visits to nearby places of interest. In 2014, the Club’s Summer Rally visited Cherbourg, St. Vaast and Ouistreham, where the Club participated in the ceremonies to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Normandy Landings and we toured the D Day beaches. In 2019 we returned to Normandy to take part in the 75th anniversary commemoration. The 2018 cruise took members on a 10 day cruise along the French coast from St Vaast to Granville in time for Bastille day and France winning the World Cup Final.
In 2020, our Summer Rally took us from Yarmouth to Dartmouth. The Rally started in style by a dinner at the Royal Solent Yacht Club in Yarmouth on 15 August and ended in Dartmouth with a dinner in the Royal Dart Yacht Club following a previous well-attended dinner at the stunningly positioned Berry Head Hotel.
Successive years have provided for the Five Rivers Cruise in the Solent followed by the Five Harbours Cruise, which visited Bembridge, Port Solent, Hythe Marina, Island Harbour and Lymington. The last of the 'five' cruises culminated in 2017 with the Five Sailors cruise which visited Bembridge, Southsea, Cowes, Hamble and Lymington. Also that year the Club's 70th Anniversary dinner was held at the Royal Yacht Squadron in the presence of our Admiral, Prince Michael of Kent.
Weekend Meets are usually based in the Solent, with a Saturday evening dinner in a yacht club or restaurant.
Club Sailing Weekends in the Solent provide an opportunity for owners to meet crew and vice versa. Practical informal onboard training (for example, in navigation, yacht familiarisation or yacht handling), can be provided by one of the several members who are RYA Instructors or by experienced skippers.
The Club also organises a "further afield" Cruise when members enjoy exploring exotic locations in company on chartered yachts. After organising Caribbean Cruises in many alternate years, the Club ran a charter cruise in Malta in late September 2019. We are returning to the Med with a Charter Rally in Croatia in 2021.
Reviving a very successful Narrowboat cruise organised some years ago, we have another one arranged for October which fits in nicely after a summer of sailing on the high seas to a cosy time in heated narrowboats on the Grand Union Canal.
The Club makes a number of annual awards which are presented at the Annual Dinner. Two of these are for sailing accomplishments, being:
• The Volunteer Cup for the most enterprising voyage made during the year
• The Elizabeth Cup for the first member home in the Round the Island Race
Whilst upholding a strong Naval tradition and ethos, the Club welcomes past and present members of all the Armed Services, their Reserves, University Units and Commonwealth equivalents to apply for membership. There is also a more limited opportunity for applicants without a Services connection to join. Just click on Join to find more details and to apply.