About the Club
The Royal Dart Yacht Club has been on this stretch of the river for over 160 years. In that time, we have survived two world wars, countless Devon winters, and at least one very heated debate about the burgee. We are still here, still sailing, and still rather pleased about the view.
We are a private members club with a broad range of sailors and non-sailors who between them race, cruise, instruct, volunteer, eat, drink, and occasionally capsize. Sometimes on purpose. If you are looking for somewhere to feel at home on the water, or simply near it, you have found the right place.
Royal Dart Yacht Club History
It started, as so many good things do, with a meeting at a hotel. On 8 June 1866, Henry Studdy and a group of friends gathered at the Castle Hotel in Dartmouth and agreed to form the Dart Yacht Club. The annual subscription was one guinea. The clubhouse was two rooms borrowed from the railway hotel across the river in Kingswear. Not quite the terrace you see today, but it was a start.
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Four years later, feeling the club had rather earned it, the members petitioned Queen Victoria for permission to add Royal to the name. She agreed, in time for the 1873 regatta. The burgee went red. Members held a postal referendum to make sure it stayed that way. Some things never change.
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The club has had its share of quiet decades and dramatic ones. The 1937 Coronation Regatta drew 313 entries across 17 classes, including seven yachts of over 100 tons, a spectacle that will not be seen again. During the Second World War, three club members served aboard the motor yacht Campeador V on Admiralty patrol duty. On 22 June 1940 she detonated a mine. All three were killed. Their names are not forgotten.
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Junior Sailing Week began in 1959 with six children and an idea borrowed from the 1930s. It is still going, still growing, and still built on the same principle: that enjoyment matters as much as instruction.
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160 years on, the river looks much the same. So does the enthusiasm.
Location & Facilities
Where
Kingswear sits on the east bank of the River Dart, looking directly across the water to Dartmouth. The club is right on the riverside, which means the view from the terrace takes in the town, the castle, the estuary, and on a clear day, the open sea. It is the kind of outlook that makes it genuinely difficult to leave.
The Clubhouse
The clubhouse has a bar, a dining room, and a terrace that is, on the right day, the finest place in Devon to sit with a cold drink. Food is served throughout our opening hours, with a seasonal menu built around locally sourced produce. Phil Almond and the kitchen team take it seriously, without any of the stuffiness that occasionally comes with that.
On The Water
On the water, we have trot moorings running April to October for boats from 7 to 14 metres, swinging moorings for smaller shallow-draught vessels, and on-site storage for tenders, kayaks, SUPs and outboards. On shore, facilities include changing rooms, showers, heads, Wi-Fi, and a galley kitchen with self-service tea and coffee on an honesty basis for when you need something warm before the bar opens.
Getting Here
Getting here is straightforward. The Higher and Lower Ferries cross the Dart regularly from Dartmouth, and the Noss Ferry now connects Noss Marina, Dartmouth and Kingswear. By road, follow signs for Kingswear. Parking is available, but limited in peak season, at Darthaven Marina car park, a short walk from the club. There is also parking up the hill, for those who like to arrive with a sense of achievement.
Sailing & Activities
Racing runs throughout the season on the Dart and out in Start Bay, with a full programme that covers everything from club racing to external regattas including Dartmouth Royal Regatta and the Classic Channel Regatta. If you want to race, there is a fleet for you. The Squib fleet in particular is growing fast and has a lot to say for itself.
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Cruising is equally well catered for. The cruising group organises rallies, passages and social events throughout the year, including the annual Week of Sail. Dick and Pam Morgan know the cruising programme better than anyone, and the group is as welcoming to those new to passage-making as to old hands.
Friday evenings bring out the dinghy sailors. It is relaxed, friendly, and a very good way to get on the water without the pressure of a full race programme.
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Training covers sail and power at all levels, RYA-accredited and open to members and non-members. Junior Sailing Week has been running every summer since 1959. Sixty-five years of children coming ashore grinning. That tells you everything you need to know.
Community & Social
Social
The social side of the club is not an afterthought. Wine tastings, suppers, charity days, Burns Night, Trafalgar Night, live music brunches, and events that tend to end with people still at the bar at a later hour than they planned. The calendar runs all year and there is nearly always something worth booking.
Access to Sailing
The Royal Dart Youth Sailing Trust works alongside the club to give young people from the local area access to sailing opportunities they might not otherwise have. SEAQUESTER, the Trust boat launched in May 2026, is the latest chapter in a relationship that has been central to the club for decades. Getting young people on the water is not a side project here. It is part of what we are.
Groups
Ladies Afloat, Boys in Boats, and the cruising group each have their own programmes. New members tend to find their people fairly quickly.
Becoming a Member
Membership of the RDYC is open to anyone who loves the water, or loves being near people who do. You do not have to own a boat. You do not have to race. You just have to be the kind of person who appreciates a good club.
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There are several membership categories to suit different circumstances, whether you are a full sailing member, a social member, a junior, or something in between. Fees are reviewed annually and come into effect from 1 October.
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To find out more, contact Gemma Rogers, our Membership Secretary, who will walk you through the options without making it feel like a sales pitch.