The Club was founded as the Table Bay Yacht Club in 1905 and commenced operation as such in a waterside boatshed located some 50 to 60 metres northward of the foot of Loop Street. Surviving early vicissitudes, the club's name was changed in 1914 to the Cape Yacht Club which incorporated the Alfred Rowing Club and shortly after we received the Royal Charter to become the Royal Cape Yacht Club.

Buffeted by change we moved from clubhouse to clubhouse, and it was not until the decade after the 2nd World War (1939 - 1945) that the shell of the present clubhouse came to be erected. It was added to when the local yachting boom - started by the first Trans-Atlantic Race from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro in 1971 - took off and changed the Club from a small membership of around 300 to the present firgure of some 3000. Boat accommodation was forced to progress from swing moorings to the marina's of today. Likewise control had to pass from amateur committees to the professional staff which you will find today.

Throughout all these changes the spirit of the Club of which we are so proud has been maintained and handed down in a tradition which has survived the changes time has imposed on us.