Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania

The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania (RYCT) is Tasmania's largest yacht club, based at 15 Marieville Esplanade, Sandy Bay, on the River Derwent in Hobart — about a 15-minute walk from the city centre. It runs keelboat racing and cruising, the Off the Beach youth programme (Tackers for ages 7–12 and OutThere Sailing for ages 13–17), and Australian Sailing powerboat and safety courses including motor boat licence, marine radio and Safety and Sea Survival courses.

On the shore side there is a 210-berth marina for boats from 10 to 20 metres, a fuel dock, a boat yard and storage, plus a bistro and function spaces in the clubhouse. Several membership categories are available, and visiting boats can ask about berths through the club office on (03) 6223 4599. The club is affiliated with Australian Sailing and co-hosts the Hobart end of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race every December.

You can compare it with its neighbours on our Sandy Bay sailing clubs page.

The club's youth pathway runs through its Off the Beach programme, usually shortened to OTB. Children aged 7 to 12 start in Tackers, Australian Sailing's learn-to-sail course, while teenagers aged 13 to 17 move into OutThere Sailing. The club keeps its own fleet of training boats — Optimists, Sabots, Pacers and Lasers — so newcomers can try a few different classes before anyone has to buy a boat.

Once the basics click, OTB runs training and racing for centreboard classes on Sundays, there are learn-to-sail sessions in the school holidays, and the calendar includes the odd weekend away, such as the club's training weekend at Miena. If you are new to the sport, our beginner's guide to sailing in Australia is a good primer in the Central Highlands.

Adults are well looked after too. The club runs Australian Sailing powerboat courses, motor boat licence training, marine radio courses and Safety and Sea Survival, a course many crew need before they can take part in offshore races. If you would rather learn by doing, the easiest way into keelboat racing is the club's crew noticeboard, where skippers looking for hands and sailors looking for a ride can find each other. Cruising members also run navigation and seamanship cruises, a relaxed way to learn the local anchorages with experienced sailors alongside.

The clubhouse sits at 15 Marieville Esplanade in Sandy Bay, on the western shore of the River Derwent and about a 15-minute walk from Hobart's city centre, with shops, cafés and banks close by. It shares the esplanade with the Derwent Sailing Squadron next door, and the two clubs open the sailing season together each October on Opening Day, when their fleets sail past in combined manoeuvres on the river.

The Derwent is a broad, deep estuary that gives the club plenty of room to play with: sheltered racing off Sandy Bay, longer courses down towards Storm Bay, and the D'Entrecasteaux Channel and Bruny Island within easy reach for weekend cruising. Conditions on southern Tasmanian water can change quickly, which is part of the appeal for racing crews and a good reason newcomers are encouraged to sail with experienced hands first.

On the shore side, the marina has 210 berths for boats from 10 to 20 metres, all with power and water, along with temporary berthing for larger visiting yachts. There is a fuel dock, a boat yard and storage, and the bistro and function spaces make the clubhouse an easy place to finish a day on the water. Visiting boats can ask about a berth through the club office before arriving.

Organised yachting in Hobart is older than the RYCT, and the club's own account is refreshingly honest about the false starts. A Tasmanian Yacht Club — the first in the colony — was founded in 1859 and soon faded, and a revival in 1861 failed as well. In 1874 about sixty enthusiasts formed the Derwent Sailing Boat Club, which became the Derwent Yacht Club two years later. After another lapse the club was brought back to life in 1880, and it has sailed without a break ever since.

In 1908 a Royal Warrant was granted and the club became the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania; its present burgee was designed and approved in 1910. For its early decades the club had no home of its own and met in Hobart hotels — among them the Duke of York at Battery Point and the Nautilus Hotel on Salamanca Place, later known as Knopwoods Retreat. It moved into the National Mutual Building in Macquarie Street in 1910, then to the corner of Harrington and Davey Streets in 1913, before settling at Marieville Esplanade in Sandy Bay in 1955.

Offshore racing gave the club its national profile after the Second World War. The first Sydney to Hobart finished on the Derwent in 1945, and today the RYCT works with the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia to run the Hobart end of the race. The club's own Maria Island Race followed soon after and has grown into one of Australia's oldest ocean races, still sailed down the Tasman Peninsula and up the east coast every year.