Club History
1866 The Beginning
The Royal Canoe Club is the oldest canoe club in the world.
Founded by John MacGregor in 1866
The Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) became Commodore in 1867, and Queen Victoria officially granted the club its "Royal" title in 1873.
The club has been at its current location since 1887, first in a wooden structure which was replaced in 2009.
1987 The Outrigger Section
The outrigger section was the first in the UK
Founded after club members competed in the Moloka’i Hoe race in Hawaii. After the race the paddlers met Hawaiian legend Toots Minivielle, who kindly gave the club permission to use his historic canoe called Wa’alele. Wa’alele was used to paddle the English Channel in 1978 to celebrate Captain Cook’s journey to Hawaii 200 years earlier, and had been donated to the Captain Cook Museum in Middlesbrough. Using Toot’s canoe the club made the first outrigger canoe in the UK- leading to the birth of “Keiki Wa’alele” (Child of the Canoe that Flies).
Since then, our teams have competed worldwide, from New York to Brazil and Hawaii, even setting a Guinness World Record for the fastest time to travel the Thames by outrigger canoe.