Commodore's Message

50th Anniversary of Hornet Sailing Club.

Hornet Sailing Club is approaching its 50th birthday, having been established at the old Royal Naval Coastal Forces base of HMS HORNET in 1964. A glance at the Club’s history, also on this website, will show how the facilities which proved so vital during the Second World War in protecting British coastal traffic and defeating the E-Boat menace, lent themselves perfectly to the development of Naval sailing.

Hornet is a private sailing club, established on land leased from the Ministry of Defence. It boasts a modern, 230 berth marina with shore support facilities and lift out capacity for yachts up to 40 feet. Along with a full time marina staff, a shipwright and an engineer are also available on site. The Club itself offers a full social programme as well as a tailored sailing events and training schedule.

The Club’s primary purpose is to support sailing in the Royal Navy and to that end the majority of Members are also members of the Royal Naval Sailing Association. The Club provides berths for Royal Naval, and a limited number of Army, unit and establishment yachts as well as for privately owned yachts belonging to serving and retired Members of RNSA. The Club’s running costs are met by Membership and Berthing Fees paid by Members and thus the Club’s primary purpose is met at no cost to the public purse.

Serving Royal Naval personnel may apply for a berth wherever they are living or based, whilst retired personnel, and serving Army and RAF personnel, must be living or working in the vicinity of Portsmouth. Membership criteria are, however, slightly looser and can be found elsewhere on this website.

In essence then, we are a thriving sailing club and marina, ideally situated very close to one of the world’s greatest sailing areas – The Solent. If you are interested in joining, and meet our criteria, application forms can be downloaded from this website and I very much look forward to welcoming you to our Club.