Jewel in the Crown

The Royal Southampton Yacht Club is fortunate to have two clubhouses in some of the most renowned sailing waters in the world.
Its headquarters in Southampton’s Ocean Village may be the hub for sailing and associated activities, but it’s this spot on the Beaulieu River, which is the real gem for many yachtsmen.
So much so that many sailors who are club members regard it as the jewel in the yacht club’s crown.
Small wonder because the river is one of the most picturesque on the south coast, yet is navigable for a good way both for keel boats as well as motor cruisers.
The river itself is part of the Beaulieu Estate and is one of the few privately owned rivers anywhere in the world. And it has history, right back to 1204 when King John granted the estuary, together with 10,000 acres of land, to the Cistercian monks who founded Beaulieu Abbey.
From the 1740s the river was used for the building of over 50 wooden ships for the Royal Navy, with famous historic ships like Agamemnon, Euryalus and Swiftsure, all of which fought at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
These days it is the home for pleasure boating right on the doorstep of the Solent. Sir Francis Chichester kept yachts on the river, including Gipsy Moth IV, in which he sailed round the world.

The Yacht Club’s Gins clubhouse, its pontoon and moorings in the river are a popular venue on the river, and just upstream is the Bucklers Hard marina and boatyard, but moorings have been kept to a low density so as not to diminish the river’s natural beauty or disturb an exceptional variety of habitat and  an equally varied display of flora and fauna to be found on the river banks.