Penarth Yacht Club was established in 1880 as the Penarth Boat Club but this name was changed to Penarth Yacht Club in 1895.
The earliest document giving a hint of the formation of a boat club at Penarth is a printed programme of ‘Amateur Aquatic Sports’ to be held at Penarth beach on 4th September 1880; the sports consisting of pleasure boat sailing, rowing, sculling, canoeing, swimming and a duck hunt. Unfortunately, no written records of the Club exist prior to the earliest surviving minute book, which commenced on 1st May 1893.
The first building on the site of the present Club was a substantial boathouse, built of local stone by the RNLI in 1861 at a cost of £118 and remained in use until it was sold to Lord Windsor in 1884 so that it could be demolished and the original Esplanade built.
The clubhouse as it exists today was built in three main stages; the northern wing, which contains the present two rowing boat houses, was first to be built, sometime before 1884. The second stage was added soon afterwards and the southern wing, extending from the main staircase, was completed in about 1896.
Early sailing boats were a mixed class of small craft - mainly half-decked and heavily ballasted. These were replaced by sloop rigged ‘one raters’ which, in turn, gave way to ‘half-raters’ – sloops with heavy centreboards. However, these boats could not withstand the weather sometimes experienced at the moorings off the Club and after a series of mishaps it was decided to adopt a class that could be hauled up into the boathouse. The Mosquito class, designed and built locally by former Commodore Harold Clayton, was introduced in 1901. These craft were 15’9” long and at least twelve were owned by Club members. However, they were cumbersome to house after each race and after a few years they were replaced by the smaller Dinghy Class.
The Dinghy Class was introduced in 1908. The boats were lug-rigged and were 12’0” in length; they were also designed and built by Harold Clayton.