Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron 1920s move to Outer Harbor a triumph for members committed to sailing
The Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron's showpiece clubrooms and moorings, at Outer Harbor on Adelaide's LeFevre Peninsula, the result of dedicated decades of volunteering efforts by members.
Image courtesy Royal South Australia Yacht Squadron
The Royal (from 1890) South Australian Yacht Squadron, born into the province’s wealthy social strata from 1869, had to be rebuilt from the “tin shed in a swamp” at Adelaide’s Outer Harbor by members who cared most about sailing.
Starting as the South Australian Yacht Club, the squadron had its first race on January 1, 1870, with four yachts, the Curlew, Isabella, White Squall and Express, 13 feet to 19 feet in waterline length. In 1881, the marine board gave the club a parcel of land and water (bought freehold three years later) on the Birkenhead side of the Port River, next the future Birkenhead bridge at Port Adelaide.
Honorary secretary Magnus Wald led big improvements around its iron club house. Committee and members meetings were in port hotels –the Clubhouse, Ship Inn and Largs Pier until 1901 when members agreed to a merge the now-Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron with Semaphore club and bought premises on Dunn Street/Esplanade corner. Law changes saw the club transfer its liquor licence from Semaphore club to the former Bank of Australasia bank building it bought in Lipson Street, Port Adelaide.
A measure of yachting’s profile through its wealthy members were 30,000 spectators who jammed the Port Adelaide wharves to watch the 1923 Griffith Cup race, won by Arthur and E.S. Rymill in Tortoise II. Commodore Arthur Rymill arranged for a two shillings entry fee to watch. That also was the year the squadron left its Birkenhead premises for a move to Outer Harbor. This sudden decision was taken by commodore Rymill and other power brokers possibly to seize the Outer Harbor opportunity before someone else.
As far back as 1912, the South Australian marine board signalled it would be ordering inner Port River yachts to be moved to Outer Harbor. The board compulsory took over of the squadron’s Birkenhead site in 1917 but no move to Outer Harbor had been made by 1922 when an extendedBirkenhead 21-year lease was offered by the marine board. The shed at Birkenhead had a £2,620 upgrade, partly funded by selling the old bank building at Port Adelaide for £5,500. Controversially, the squadron also sold its Semaphore premises in 1927.
The move to Outer Harbor, at the top of LeFevre Peninsula, divided the squadron. From 1935 to 1968, squadron members (who had to be British gentlemen) used licensed premises in a basement in Grenfell Street, Adelaide city, mainly as a place for city businessmen lunches. Women were admitted on one night a year. This meant many social members had limited interest in Outer Harbor and at least one squadron secretary rarely went to Outer Harbor.
Outer Harbor began as a sheltered wharf for shipping in 1908 and the yacht squadron moved there in the 1920s to an area with little more than a narrow sealed road through sandhills to the village of Largs. The marine board provided original dredging of the squadron’s yachts basin in 1923 but this had to be extended five years later with the cost – like most improvements it needed – by the squadron.
The big advantage of Outer Harbor was readier access to St Vincent Gulf and the squadron realised it was the only safe home for the growth in South Australia yachts. The squadron at Outer Harbor began in 1923-24 with an iron shed to shelter its dinghies and lockers, plus minimal toilet and changing areas and no social rooms. Improvements came from huge volunteer efforts by those committed to yachting.
Those members committed to yachting gradually gained sway in the club post-World War II but it wasn’t until 1968 that commodore Alan Smith led a total commitment to Outer Harbor when the club closed its Grenfell Street, Adelaide city, rooms and transferred the liquor licence and the Tom Hardy Library.
The squadron bought its leased premises from Portscorp in 2001, equipping it to meet needs of 1000-plus members and guests.