[1] The club offers chambers for residence overlooking the Gateway of India, a bar, a lounge, a restaurant, ballrooms, a club shop, a men's salon, a library, a gymnasium with steam and sauna facilities, a cue sports room and members cards room, in addition to sailing facilities in the Arabian Sea.

The seafront clubhouse, also called Old Yacht Club (OYC) later, was built in 1881 and received a number of prominent visitors within its first ten years, including Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, and his wife, Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia, and the railroad tycoon and yachting enthusiast William Kissam Vanderbilt – part owner of the 1895 America's Cup winner, the 37.5-m sloop Defender.

Another clubhouse was built in 1896 (to the west, just across Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Road), a blending of Venetian Gothic architecture with Indian Saracenic, to provide accommodations for members and visiting associates.

Yachting received a major stimulus in 1911, when King George V and Queen Mary sailed to Bombay abroad the RMS Medina on her maiden voyage.

The RBYC at that time owned a fleet of four 21-foot Seabird Half Raters, whilst its members’ owned boats including the Chindwin (Bermudian cutter), the Iona (a Gunter sloop), the Silver Oak (a Yachting World keel boat), the Tir (a yawl), the Merope (Stor-Draken class) and the Griffon and the Wynvern (two International Dragons).