HRH The Duke Of Edinburgh Officially Opens Restored Cottages At Royal Southern Yacht Club > The Royal Southern Yacht Club

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HRH The Duke Of Edinburgh Officially Opens Restored Cottages At Royal Southern Yacht Club in Club News & Articles
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HRH The Duke Of Edinburgh Officially Opens Restored Cottages At Royal Southern Yacht Club

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh visited Hamble on Sunday, to mark the official opening of the rebuilt pier and restored cottages at the Royal Southern Yacht Club.

HRH Duke of Edinburgh and Commodore Mrs Annette Newton at the opening of the restored cottages.
Photo: Judi Hussey

A keen sailor all his life, His Royal Highness has a long association with the Royal Southern Yacht Club, joining in 1948, being Admiral of the Club from 1952 to 2002 and now its Patron.

Originally homes for fishermen and coastguards, the cottages became the club house when the Royal Southern moved to Hamble in 1947. In recent years the Grade II listed cottages provided 13 traditional style rooms with shared bathroom facilities, offices and support accommodation for the 'new' Club House constructed in 1998.

The reopening commemorates two years of restoration and upgrading of the cottages to provide 11 well appointed bedrooms, plus a master suite, as well as new reception and administration offices and chart room.

The new interior designed bedrooms all have modern facilities and ensuite bathrooms and most have views over the River Hamble.

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh toured the new Club accommodation and was pleased to see that the outside has also been restored to its former glory. Accompanied by Mrs Annette Newton, Commodore of the Royal Southern, His Royal Highness unveiled a plaque commemorating the restoration of the cottages and met Club members at a reception to mark the opening.

Club Commodore, Mrs Annette Newton, said: " We are so thrilled that His Royal Highness could be here to officially open the restored cottages. His association with the Club goes back over 60 years and we are very honoured to have him as our Patron."

Commodore's words to Patron and Members. Sunday 3rd August 2008

Your Royal Highness, from all of our Members, welcome. We're delighted to see you here today and hope that you're enjoying your visit as much as we are. We have so much to celebrate with this visit. Firstly this year marks 60 years of your membership and during most of that time you have been our Admiral and now our Patron, a connection our Members are most proud of.

We're also proud of our achievements in the couple of years since your last visit. Our racing Members have done well from the largest yachts with helmsmen of such as Jeremy Robinson, to the smallest such as UK champion Optimist sailor, young Annabel Vose. I hope you'll meet a few of our young Members shortly.

Whilst yachting is our purpose here our rules require us to provide a Clubhouse, and over the years you've seen us develop our facilities - and opened all those during my years of membership. But every now and then we need to put in a big effort on existing facilities and this is part of what we are celebrating today - the renovation of our pier and our lovely old cottages. This rebuilding has provided us with practical offices, a chart room and 12 charming bedrooms. May I now invite you to unveil a plaque marking this achievement.