The Royal Cruising Club was founded in 1880 by Sir Arthur Underhill and a coterie of friends to encourage and facilitate cruising in small yachts. Members, then as now, contributed to the enjoyment and safety of others by writing accounts of their cruises for the Club Journal (Roving Commissions) and publishing coastal guides. Many familiar sailing names have been RCC members: Claud Worth, Erskine Childers, Bill Tilman, Miles and Beryl Smeeton, and that other remarkable couple Eric and Susan Hiscock, whose lifetime of voyaging inspired countless long-distance sailors. And today members of the RCC can be found in their yachts in unusual and adventurous places around the world.  If you would like to read of their exploits and their cruises, they can be found in the annual Roving Commissions which is available for sale on the Club’s website www.rcc.org.uk.

The RCC’s ethos of producing and sharing Pilotage information led to founding the charity, the RCC Pilotage Foundation, whose aim is to provide pilotage and passage planning information for cruising areas around the world, and who publish nautical books and downloads about ocean sailing, coastal ports and anchorages. RCC members are often contributing authors. The RCC Pilotage Foundation’s website is http://www.rccpf.org.uk/, where the pilots, already familiar to many, can be purchased or downloaded.