Dartmouth Yacht Club is situated on the South Embankment overlooking the river with Kingswear opposite and a view to the open sea through the harbour mouth, which is guarded by the Castle and St.Petrox Church. Although the Church's foundation predates the Norman Conquest, the first castle was not built until 1388 by Mayor John Hauley (Chaucer's model for the "Shipmanne of Dertemouth" in his Canterbury Tales; Chaucer having been sent to Dartmouth by the King to sort out a little matter of piracy!). The present castle was probably completed in 1403 and was inhabited until quite recently – just prior to it being handed over to English Heritage.

The great Elizabethan explorers and adventurers, Adrian and Humphrey Gilbert were natives of the Dart and their kinsmen Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake also had close ties with the Town and are a part of the long history of Dartmouth.

It has not only been an important trading port for over a thousand years but also a naval harbour. Indeed, in 1147, Dartmouth was the gathering point for the northern European forces for the second Crusade. In 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers set sail from Bayard's Cove, where a plaque commemorates the event, although they were forced into Plymouth for repairs before their final departure to the New World.

Dartmouth is also the site of the Britannia Royal Naval College, completed in 1908 to the designs of Sir Aston Webb, the Architect of the imposing main facade of Buckingham Palace. The College was founded in 1863 and was originally housed in two old wooden-walled fighting ships:- the two-decker Hindostan and the three-decker Prince of Wales, renamed Britannia in 1868. More recently, the harbour provided many small ships for the Dunkerque evacuation: it also played host to the Free French, who carried out many raids across the Channel. The Americans also practised their D-Day landings nearby on Slapton Sands.

Fishing has always been a staple and continues today, but in the past Dartmouth was famous for wine imports, Newfoundland cod and, during the heyday of steam, coal bunkering. Today as well as fishing the harbour attracts several cruise liners every year.

Dartmouth Yacht Club was founded in 1950 as the Dartmouth Sailing Club, meeting under its first Commodore Major G.R.Benson, on the first floor of the Dartmouth Arms Public House in Bayards Cove. It was not long before it was realised that larger premises would be needed.

Our present building had been constructed at the turn of the century for the Channel Coaling Company, whose brass plaque is displayed over the bar. On their demise, through the generosity of the late Mr. P.Perring-Thoms, who acquired the property, it was leased to the Club and the new Clubhouse was formally opened in December 1954. In 1965 with the help of member's loans the freehold was purchased outright and in 1974 the Club changed its name to the Dartmouth Yacht Club.

History seems to repeat itself, for, when the Channel Coaling Company moved into their new premises they let the upper floors to the Start Bay Yacht Club that folded with the onset of the First World War. Since the formation of the Royal Dart Yacht Club in 1866, gaining its Royal prefix in 1872, there were several other clubs formed, prior to the last war, through schism, special interest and, not least, the Royal Dart's original requirement of the ownership of a vessel of "5 tons burthen". All succumbed to depression or war. Dartmouth Yacht Club, however, founded shortly after World War II, continues to thrive.