Qualla: Royal Welsh Yacht Club

Royal Welsh Yacht Club: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Yacht clubs do not often live in 14th-century watchtowers. The Royal Welsh Yacht Club does. Its clubhouse is Porth yr Aur - 'the Golden Gate' - one of the original water-gates of the medieval town walls of Caernarfon, built into the same period as Caernarfon Castle and overlooking the same stretch of the Menai Strait that Robert Stephenson would later span with the Britannia Bridge. Founded in 1847, the RWYC is the fourteenth Royal Yacht Club in Britain, the first in Wales, and one of the twelve oldest yacht clubs still operating in the world. It is also, almost certainly, the one in the oldest premises.

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Royal Welsh Yacht Club: Caernarfon, 1847

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Sailing regattas had been held in Caernarfon as early as 1829 and again in 1846, regular enough to suggest a sailing fraternity that wanted formal organisation. In 1847 a group of prominent locals - the solicitor Llewellyn Turner, William Knight (Rear-Commodore of the Royal Harwi...

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Royal Welsh Yacht Club: Engineers and Adventurers

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The membership rolls have included some quietly remarkable people. Robert Stephenson, the club's first vice-commodore, was the engineer behind the Britannia Bridge - the wrought-iron tubular railway bridge across the Menai Strait completed in 1850 - one of the most ambitious civi...

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Royal Welsh Yacht Club: Living in Porth yr Aur

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The clubhouse is the headline. Porth yr Aur was one of two water-gates set into the late 13th-century town walls Edward I built alongside Caernarfon Castle - the other was Porth yr Marl, no longer standing. The Golden Gate was a working harbour-side entry, with a postern above an...

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Royal Welsh Yacht Club: A Modern Club in an Ancient Wall

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The club today is small by world standards - 301 members as of April 2023, up from 260 the year before - but actively sailing. The Menai Strait remains a challenging cruising ground: tidal, narrow in places, with the notorious Swellies between the Menai and Britannia bridges wher...

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