As the 19th. century progressed the Harwich regatta became increasingly popular, attracting racing yachts from the South Coast yachting centres, establishing the Royal Harwich as one of the leading racing yacht clubs in the country. This national reputation was about to go global with the appearance of James Ashbury on the racing scene. Ashbury was an ambitious racing yacht owner, fresh to the yachting scene, but established as a successful business man in the railway industry. In 1869 he enjoyed a fruitful racing season with his schooner the “Cambria”, and was appointed as Commodore of the Royal Harwich Yacht Club. His 1869 successes included a convincing win in the around the Isle of Wight against two of America’s fastest schooners. (Plate 3.  “The Cambria wins around the Isle of Wight in 1869.”) 

This prompted him to challenge for the America’s Cup in 1870, the first challenge for the Cup since the “America” had lifted it as the Queen’s Cup in 1852. Although this initial challenge was through the Royal Thames Yacht Club, Ashbury raced across the Atlantic in a duel against his arch American rival, James Gordon Bennett, under Royal Harwich colours, unexpectedly winning the boat for boat match against Bennett’s larger and faster schooner, albeit by the smallest of 

The immediate years after the war were a difficult time for yachting generally. Money to spend on any form of recreation was short, and materials for building yachts virtually unavailable. Fortunately for the Royal Harwich help was at hand from Austin Farrar, yacht and rig designer, and boatyard operator. Having acquired a yard at Woolverstone on the River Orwell between Ipswich and Harwich, he generously offered the RHYC a chance to re-form on part of the land, using wartime Nissen huts as a club house. So, with the first permanent premises since the mid 19th. Century, a hard core of members were able to establish racing from the Club once again. In 1937, a one design fleet of open keel boats designed by Robert Clark and Austin Farrar had been commissioned by the Club. This small fleet of seven boats (soon to be increased to eight) formed the basis for keel boat and dinghy racing from the Club in 1946. (Plate 7.  “Royal Harwich One Design, 1937.”)      

During the 1950s the two established dinghy classes racing from the RHYC were the Swordfish and Firefly classes. Amongst the Swordfish dinghies kept at Woolverstone was one owned by Cambridge University Cruising Club whose members regularly supported the racing from the Club. Dinghy classes tend to ebb and flow in popularity, and apparently nowhere more so than at the Royal Harwich. As the ‘50s slid into the ‘60s and ‘70s the National 12, a development class originally fostered by Sir William Burton, displaced the Firefly and Swordfish fleets together with Enterprises, Wayfarers and Mirrors, particularly popular with an increasingly strong Junior Sailing contingent in the Club. Then in the 1980s Lasers, Toppers and Optimists established themselves on the scene. In the 1980s the RHYC produced national champions in both  National 12 and Optimist competition; a healthy result for both adult and junior members. 

Thus, within only twenty odd years of re-opening after the war, the Royal Harwich was able to its offer members a pretty full variety of yacht racing. With this came the demand for something rather more appropriate as a club house than old wartime Nissen huts. So in 1969 a smart new clubhouse was opened on the Woolverstone site. With various later additions, this structure has lasted to this day providing facilities for members and visiting yachtsmen alike. (Plate 10. “The Royal Harwich Yacht Club at 6 Woolverstone.”)     

The "Britannia" was commissioned by the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, from the drawing board of G.L.Watson, acknowledged as one of the finest yacht designers of his time. The yacht was launched from the Partick yard on the Clyde in April 1893; With her long out-curving stem, high rig and great sail area she was a radical advance on the clipper bowed low aspect yachts of the 1880s and early '90s both in looks and performance, winning her first off-shore race in the Thames Estuary from the great yachts "Valkyrie II", "Calluna" and "Iverna"; By the close of her first season's racing that year "Britannia" had scored thirty-three wins from forty-three starts; This debut was no fluke, for in her second season she won all seven races for the big class yachts on the French Riviera (the Prince's favourite sailing area), and then returned to trounce the 1893 America's Cup winner "Vigilant" in home waters; By the end of her fifth season, not only had her prize money paid for her upkeep, but it also went a long way towards reimbursing the £10,000 which she had cost to build.The 1897 season saw a sad decline in the big class racing, and "Britannia"'s own racing flag was hauled down and not seen for another fifteen years; During that time she was to change hands six times, twice being re-purchased for the Prince of Wales by royal command, once to act as a trial- horse for Lipton's America's Cup challenger "Shamrock I", and finally after Edward VIII's coronation to be used as the royal cruising yacht; With raised bulwarks and a reduced rig she was cruised around the coast of Britain by the King and Queen to the popular acclaim of the people, but missing the revival of the big racing class in 1906; Her accommodation was clearly ideal for stately cruising as her general arrangement plans show, the general quality of which we can readily appreciate from her main saloon doors now housed in the Royal Harwich Yacht Club library.

After the death of Edward VII, the "Britannia" officially became the property of King George V, formally Commodore of the Royal Harwich Yacht Club, and then its patron; Two years later in 1913 she was back on the racing scene, entered in the handicap classes with albeit limited success by the King's representative Major Philip Hunloke whose later association with the yacht was to become legendary. During the years of the first World War the "Britannia" languished unattended in a mud berth, until the King brought her out for racing in 1920; Her return to the regatta circuit was spectacular; Still with her out-dated rig she met the challenge from the fastest modern big yachts including the cutters "Nyria" and "White Heather", and the American-built schooner "Westward"; George V was so pleased by "Britannia"'s performance that he ordered a complete refit to put her into competitive racing trim for the 1922 season. This was money well spent, for in 1923 she won twenty-three flags out of twenty-six starts; not bad for a thirty year old yacht; That year also saw the first big class yacht racing with a bermudian rig, but despite altering "Britannia"'s rig in 1926 and 1927, the King only finally agreed to "go bermudian" in 1931; His stubborn affection for the gaff rig proved to be a correct sentiment, for the "Britannia" fared badly under her bermudian sails despite being handled brilliantly by Sir Philip Hunloke. Strangely enough, it was her windward performance that was lost with the new rig; By 1934 she was hardly competitive with the new highly technical 'J' class racers beginning to appear on the scene; Her last race was sailed in 1935 at Cowes.The following year, 1936, King George V died leaving instructions that if none of his sons wanted the yacht, the "Britannia" should be broken up; As this was the case, it was left to Sir Philip to make the arrangements for her last departure; With all her spars, gear and refinements stripped away, her bare hull was towed from the Medina at midnight on July 9th, 1936, out past the Needles light and St. Catherine's Point to a position somewhere to the south of the Isle of Wight; There she was scuttled and sent to rest beneath the waves; The yard foreman had placed a simple garland of flowers on her stem-head.

No other vessel has ever captured the hearts of the public in quite the same way as the Royal Cutter "Britannia"; A yacht with astounding racing successes as well as exceedingly beautiful lines, she reflected the esteem with which her royal owners were regarded by a nation which has always applauded the spirit of fair competition and corinthianism in all sport and yachting in particular.