THE
ROYAL YACHTS
By Richard Johnstone-Bryden, Part 2 How the Yacht Club became the Royal Yacht Squadron, and ‘junk parties’ on the lake at Virginia Water
COWES and WINDSOR
T 50 CLASSIC BOAT MARCH 2012
he Royal Family’s involvement in the sport of yachting resumed during the summer of 1817 when the Prince Regent, later King George IV, instructed Sir Charles Paget to approach ‘the Yacht Club’, later the Royal
Yacht Squadron (RYS), on his behalf and reveal his wish to become a member. Sir Charles conveyed the Prince Regent’s interest in the two-year-old organisation in a brief letter written onboard the recently commissioned HM Yacht Royal George while lying off Brighton. “Sir, The Prince Regent desires to be a member of the
Yacht Club, and you are to consider this as an official notification of His Royal Highness’s desire.” On receiving the letter, the Yacht Club held a special meeting in East Cowes on 15 September which passed a resolution to express the club’s appreciation of the honour accorded by the Prince’s interest. To provide a token of his status as a member, two copies of the club’s signal books were richly bound in red morocco and despatched to His Royal Highness.
Above: King George IV: joined the Yacht Club as Prince Regent
That summer also marked the public debut of Royal
George during the Prince Regent’s visit to Brighton to inspect John Nash’s progress with the transformation of his beloved Royal Pavilion. Crowds turned out along the resort’s sea front to catch their first glimpse of the new Royal Yacht. Sadly, the weather conditions proved too much for the royal party and Royal George’s inaugural cruise from Brighton lasted only a few hours and inspired one wag to write the mock-heroic poem, ‘Address to the Royal George yacht’. A flavour of its contents is provided by the opening and concluding lines: “Hail, gaudy Ship, what wonders hast thou done, To tempt to sea our Monarch’s eldest son!... To keep the sea at such a time were vain – You therefore brought the Regent back again.” A year later, the Royal Family’s connection with the
Yacht Club was strengthened by the Duke of Clarence, later William IV, and the Duke of Gloucester becoming members. In 1819, the Prince Regent announced that he would visit Cowes as part of his cruise along the south
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