After a short tenancy, the club moved to a one-storey building erected on a scow moored just east of Simcoe Street.

The Provincial provided shelter until the end of 1868, when it escaped its mooring, drifted away with the winter ice and was blown up as a hazard to navigation.

Early examples hewed closely to the extreme British plank-on-edge style that relied on ballast, not hull-form, for stability.

As the century wore on, Canadian designers such as Alexander Cuthbert and A. Cary Smith began to incorporate more of the features of American yachts, such as form-based stability and centreboards.

Interest was such that several cities vied for the contest – Toledo, Ohio won with the offer of a large cash prize and a splendid trophy by Tiffany & Co.

The RCYC yacht Canada, designed by William Fife and sailed under Æmilius Jarvis, defeated Vencedor and won the cash and cup.

In the days when the Royal Navy fought under sail and yachting was a new idea, "in the building and racing of fast pleasure craft, the Navy… received the benefit of experience and experiment… not possible… under service conditions".

[16] When the First World War came in 1914, the services were short of lead for weapons, and many members patriotically dismantled their boats and gave their keels to be melted.

In commemoration, the club in 1926 installed a large granite, marble and bronze memorial, designed by Charles J. Gibson in the form of a ship's capstan on a low podium on the front lawn, to honour those who had not returned.

)[18] The club rebuilt its fleet at the First World War's end, first with the purchase of four P-Boats in 1919, which were then sold to members, then the acquisition of a number of one-design 25-footers known as the C-Boats.

These one-design sloops, designed by TBF Benson, fostered close club and inter-club racing, raising everyone's skill and pleasure.

[22] The same year, Hurricane Hazel badly damaged the Toronto waterfront; yachts were then moved from moorings in the harbour to docks in the lagoons between the islands.

Buller, who was head of aeronautical design at de Havilland Canada deserves special mention, having realized that the tell-tales used to analyze airflow over aircraft could be used to advantage on sails.

The new boat, Red Jacket, was designed and built with a hull and deck cored with balsa, a first in North America; light weight combined with a fin keel and all-movable rudder made her faster and handier than her contemporaries.

The prestige of this and other high-visibility conquests, such as Manitou's defence of the Canada's Cup was a springboard for a new partnership of designers and builders under the name C&C Yachts.

In the late 1970s, a group of members engaged designer Mark Ellis and builder George Hinterhoeller to make six 30-foot (9.1 metres) cruising yachts that could comfortably be sailed by one person.

The island clubhouse with its porticoed verandahs, Toronto's largest wooden building, houses a ballroom, dining rooms and other social spaces.

[28] RCYC possesses one of the finest collections of yacht models in North America, in spite of clubhouse fires in 1896, 1904 and 1918 that consumed many valuable examples.

Fifteen Fourteen-footer and International 14 models in the City Club bar provide the most comprehensive available guide to the class's development over a 100-year span.