History

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.

Over 80 people turned up to the first meeting of the Club.
The club soon offered the following.

• Use of a clubhouse on the waterside with moorings.
• The use of an office in London and a room for meetings.
• The right to enter races run by the club for reduced fees.
• Customs facilities for the Continent.
• Assistance in technical matters in the purchase or sale of boats.
• Assistance in planning tours.
• Representation on the Marine Motor Association.
• A club magazine, The Automobile Club Journal.
• Advice on points of law concerning boats.

Within two years these "objects" were to be substantially changed. The new ideas sound more like a modern yacht club.
 
It has not always been reported that women have been involved in the sport of motorboating from its earliest days.

Dorothy Levitt was a pioneer motorist both on the road and the sea.
 
In 1903, in the inaugural Harmsworth Trophy, she piloted the winning launch, much to the surprise of other competitors.
 
In 1905 she drove a De Dion-Bouton motor car single handed from London to Liverpool and back in two days, averaging 20 miles per hour over two hundred and ten miles. She carried out her own road-side work and repairs.
 
She also raced a Napier car for S F Edge. In 1909 she published a book entitled “The woman and the car”. In it, she gave the following advice to fellow motorists,
"carry a loaded Colt revolver in a drawer under the seat in case of trouble, I find it very easy to handle as there is practically no recoil"
 
The first Rear Commodore, Mansfield Cumming, purchased the 1,000 ton ex. Admiralty Yacht Enchantress in 1905.

Removing the paddles, steam engines and boilers, she was converted into a smart and large floating club house and moored off Netley, in Southampton Water.
 
Onboard accommodation included 25 sleeping cabins, a smoking room, drawing room, promenade deck, dining room and ladies drawing-room.
(Ladies however, were to leave for the shore by 10 PM each evening.)
 
The conversion was completed in record time. The press were invited to come and look over the new venture. (See pictures).

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."
 
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 1909 the club asked Alfred Wesmacott to create a new one design yacht for club racing. The well known yacht designer, who was also the owner of the boat-builders Woodnutts, on the Isle of Wight, drew a pretty day boat 20 foot 8 inches long, which would become known as the X Boat One Design, a boat which is still hugely popular in Poole but there are also fleets in Cowes, Lymington and Chichester.

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.

Rear Commodore Mansfield Cumming, who started MI6 and became “C”, (made famous in the James Bond books as “M”), now proposed to the Admiralty that they create a “motorboat reserve” of motorboat owners and their boats.
 
This soon became the RN Motor Boat Reserve.
 
In 1915 this was merged with the much larger Yacht Patrol and became the Auxiliary Patrol.
 
Enchantress became the base for these boats but was hit by a bomb 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.
 
It should be mentioned that Mansfield Cumming trained some members and their wives to spy whilst they were cruising in German waters before the first war started.
 
Following the end of the Great War and the loss of a number of members, it was suggested that the Royal Motor Yacht club might merge with another Marine Club the British Motor Boat Club, known as the BMBC. This club had been running for almost the same amount of time but in spite of being able to wear the Blue Ensign it had never been given the “Royal” accolade. It ran races and offered similar activities to the RMYC. Throughout the 1920s, the BMBC continually asked that they might be given the “Royal” prefix but after seven requests were turned down firmly, they stopped asking.
 
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. The club continued to offer motor boat racing, X boat and other class racing and successfully ran club events of many sorts throughout the 1920s, including motorboat races to Poole with a fleet of 10 boats taking part.
 
Club member Hubert Scott-Payne the well known sportsman, entrepreneur and motor boat racer, waved the flag for Britain and the Club. He was 23 when he founded Supermarine Aviation. He designed and made flying boats, was the owner of the British Power Boat Company, designing and building cutting edge fast boats of many kinds. He designed “Miss England”, which won the world Championship and built “Miss Britain” a challenger for the Harmsworth Trophy.

He was to go on to design and build fast motor gun-boats and torpedo boats for the Royal Navy and designs for the US navy PT boats. Scott-Payne was a larger than life figure who not only created a large and efficient business empire but had time to persuade the club to take on a club racing boat that members could afford.
 
This was the Puma class hydroplane, powered by a 240 hp inboard, costing £1,200 in 1927. Scott-Paine managed to bring both the Royal Motor Yacht Club and the BMBC together in a shared interest in the class and finally in an amalgamation, but that was to come later.
 
Note:
Over the course of the next few months the brief history of the club will cover the 1930s and 1940s. Motor-boat and sailing boat-racing. The Move to Poole, the purchase of our current Club House and the lead up to the second World War.
 
Club Memorabilia.
As the Club Hon. Historian, and a collector, I am always looking for Club related pieces to bring back bits of our history.
 
A few years ago, in Bath, I bought this beautifully made card case in solid silver with silver gilt interior, hidden hinges with an enamel club burgee on the lid.
Made by Benzies of Cowes. It measures 80mm x 57mm x 10mm

I bought this late ‘30s car badge, with a nicely painted Club burgee and engraved club name at Beaulieu Autojumble, 3 years ago.

I recently purchased this page from a copy of the “Bystander” magazine of May 23rd 1906, showing some new pictures of the “Enchantress”.

These will return to the club one day with other pieces.
Have you got something tucked away that we could photograph for the website?
If you have, telephone me, through the club office, and let me know.
Peter Burt. Past Commodore.