Royal Langkawi Yacht Club (Malaysia)
| Location | Bass Harbour, Kuah, on the southeast corner of Pulau Langkawi, Kedah, Malaysia, 30km off the mainland northwest coast |
|---|---|
| Position | approximately 6 deg 18' 9.1 N, 99 deg 51' 1.2 E per Dockwalk; 6.30428 N, 99.85056 E per PredictWind, a few hundred metres from Kuah's Jetty Point and Eagle Square |
| Founded 1996 by Y.A.M. Tunku Tan Sri Abdullah of the Melewar Group with 44 berths; sea wall completed November 2002; conferred the Royal title in 1999 by HRH the Sultan of Kedah, the club's Royal Patron | |
| Berths | 234 wet berths including 6 for superyachts, per the club's own current marina, about and berth pages (checked 2026-09); a 2013-dated third-party page shows an intermediate 200 berths and a 60m superyacht limit |
| Disputed maximum LOA | the club's own berth-rate page says boats up to 80 metres; Dockwalk's descriptive text and Superyacht Services Guide both say up to 90 metres (270 feet) even though Dockwalk's own numeric spec table gives a maximum LOA of 70 metres, 5 metres beam and 3 metres draught |
| Actual basin depth | PredictWind's own survey gives 2 to 3 metres at mean low water; the club's 3 to 10 metre draft figures on its rate page are billing bands for its size-tiered tariff, not the basin depth |
| VHF Channel 69; phone +604 966 4078 (office) or +604 966 5682 (marina) | |
| Award | Best Asian Marine/Yacht Club of the Year, Christofle Asia Boating Awards, Shanghai, April 2008, the first Malaysian yacht club to win since the awards began in 2005 |
| Royal Langkawi International Regatta | inaugural edition 2003; 16th edition January 2019; 22nd edition ran 19 to 24 January 2026; past editions attended by former Malaysian prime ministers Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad |
| Clearance | two ports of entry on the island, Jetty Point in Kuah (a few minutes' walk from RLYC) and Telaga Harbour Park on the west coast; Immigration open 8am to 7pm daily, Customs and the Marine Department 8am to 5pm; clearance itself is free aside from light dues, rarely over RM5 for a 16-ton yacht |
| Since early 2018, registered motor yachts must clear in and out through an approved agent (Jabatan Laut ruling); one source quotes RM100 to 150, a named cruising couple quotes RM400 for a single check-in or check-out with their agent; sailing vessels with an auxiliary engine may still clear independently | |
| Berth rates (club's own January 2025 tariff): monohulls RM112 a day (12m) to RM308 a day (23m), RM2,533 to RM6,939 a month; multihulls carry a 50 percent surcharge, RM168 to RM461 a day, RM3,800 to RM10,408 a month | |
| Langkawi is a federally designated duty-free island; fuel, alcohol and provisions carry only a small customs clearance fee rather than import duty | |
| Best cruising window is the northeast monsoon, November to April, with January and February the most reliable (8-18 knots from the east, low rain); the southwest monsoon from May brings heavier rain and rougher seas, though many boats sit it out at Langkawi itself rather than leaving | |
| Membership (2013-dated figures, not reconfirmed current): Ordinary Membership RM28,000 one-time, Resident Membership RM8,000 one-time, plus a monthly subscription | |
Where the club actually sits
Royal Langkawi Yacht Club occupies Bass Harbour on the southeast corner of Pulau Langkawi, inside Kuah, the island's main town, on Malaysia's northwest coast about 30km off the mainland. Dockwalk and PredictWind independently fix it within a few hundred metres of each other, roughly 6 degrees 18 minutes north, 99 degrees 51 minutes east, a short walk from Kuah's own jetty and the giant eagle statue at Dataran Lang that marks the town centre.
Its real value to a cruiser is geographic rather than scenic. RLYC sits almost exactly midway on the Singapore-to-Thailand run through the Malacca Strait and functions as the default stop on the Sail Malaysia rally route north toward Phuket and the Andaman Sea, roughly 98 nautical miles south of Phuket. Bruce and Deb of SV Matilda, writing up their own passage, called Langkawi a fantastic location and said they understood why so many cruisers stop here and basically never leave, citing easy resupply and the short hop to both Thailand and Penang.
Forty-four berths become two hundred and thirty-four
The club's own history traces back to 1996, when Y.A.M. Tunku Tan Sri Abdullah of the Melewar Group, a keen sailor, built the marina with 44 berths. A sea wall protecting the basin was completed in November 2002, and in 1999 HRH the Sultan of Kedah, the club's Royal Patron, conferred the Royal title, turning Langkawi Yacht Club into Royal Langkawi Yacht Club.
Growth since then is documented in stages rather than as a single jump. A Langkawi Insight page carrying a January 2013 rate card describes an intermediate 200 wet berths with 6 mega-yacht berths to 60 metres and pontoon electricity of 32 to 100 amps. The club's own current marina, about and berth pages, all checked September 2026, agree with each other at 234 wet berths including 6 for superyachts, with pontoon electricity now upgraded to single and three phase from 63 to 400 amps.
Royal Langkawi Yacht Club's own site promises fuel supply and complimentary full WiFi coverage on every pontoon. Anthony Swanston of SV Wildfox, who based his boat there through the entire 2022 rainy season, reported to Noonsite: there is no pump out and no fuel, and WiFi on the pontoons is almost non existent.
How big a boat actually fits, and a real disagreement about it
The club's own berth-rate page states boats up to 80 metres, with draft categories running 3 to 10 metres used to set the size-tiered tariff. That is the club's own current, most specific figure, and it lines up with the 234-berth, 6-superyacht-berth count repeated across all three of its own site pages. PredictWind's independent marina survey, however, gives the basin's actual depth at mean low water as only 2 to 3 metres, a very different number from the 10-metre draft band on the rate card, which is a billing tier rather than a measured depth.
Third-party directories tell a different story again. Dockwalk's own descriptive text calls it an award-winning 250-berth marina that can accommodate mega yachts up to 90 metres, yet the numeric specification table on that same Dockwalk page gives a maximum LOA of 70 metres, a maximum beam of 5 metres and a maximum draught of 3 metres, an internal contradiction on one page. Superyacht Services Guide separately states 250 berths accommodating vessels up to 270 feet, which is also 90 metres or so, and the Ramada by Wyndham hotel next door advertises yachts of up to 90m on its own site. None of these three sources cite the club directly, and all three look like the same older marketing figure copied forward without being checked against the club's current 234-berth, 80-metre count. A yacht anywhere near 70 metres should confirm current berth, beam and draught availability directly with the office rather than trust any single published number.
Clearing a foreign yacht in at Kuah
Langkawi has two ports of entry, Jetty Point in Kuah town, a few minutes' walk from RLYC's own pontoons, and Telaga Harbour Park on the west coast, and a yacht must clear in and out at one of them even if it has already cleared into Malaysia elsewhere. Immigration is open 8am to 7pm daily, and Customs and the Marine Department 8am to 5pm; the clearance process itself carries no fee beyond light dues on vessels over 15 registered tons, which one source puts at rarely more than RM5 for a 16-ton yacht. Kelly Turpin of The Captain and The Cook, who cleared in and out here herself, describes the process as super easy, a straightforward three-step visit to Immigration, the Marine Department and Customs each way, provided you carry multiple photocopies of passports, registration and insurance and the insurance explicitly states wreck removal cover.
Since early 2018, a Jabatan Laut Langkawi ruling requires any registered motor yacht or motor vessel to clear in and out through an officially approved agent; sailing vessels with an auxiliary engine can still clear independently. Sources disagree sharply on what that agent actually costs: one general cruising guide quotes RM100 to 150, while Turpin names a specific figure from her own agent, Mira, of RM400 for a single check-in or check-out. Neither figure is wrong so much as the range genuinely appears to depend on the agent and the vessel, and a visiting motor yacht should get a quote before assuming either number. SV Matilda's Bruce and Deb add a practical shortcut: pre-registering online through Malaysia's marine21.marine.gov.my portal before arrival speeds up the in-person visit.
The Royal Langkawi International Regatta
The club has run the Royal Langkawi International Regatta every year since an inaugural 2003 edition, and it has become, in the organisers' own words, one of Asia's premier sailing spectacles. Past editions have drawn Malaysia's own political leadership to the prize-giving, with former prime ministers Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad both attending in different years, and the event continued through the 2008 global recession rather than being cancelled.
The fleet races for a stack of named silverware, the Prime Minister's Challenge Trophy and the RLYC Commodore's Cup for the Cruising Class, the LADA-IRC Challenge Trophy for the IRC classes, the Langkawi Sports Trophy for sports boats and the Malaysian Multihull Challenge Cup, and the regatta keeps a fixed January date most years: the 16th edition ran in January 2019, and the most recent, the 22nd, ran 19 to 24 January 2026. A cruiser planning a season around RLYC should expect the marina and the surrounding Fisherman's Wharf precinct to be at their busiest and loudest that week.
What a berth actually costs
The club's own January 2025 tariff prices a monohull by length: RM112 a day at 12 metres rising to RM308 a day at 23 metres, RM709 to RM1,942 a week, and RM2,533 to RM6,939 a month. A multihull carries a 50 percent surcharge across the same bands, RM168 to RM461 a day and RM3,800 to RM10,408 a month. On top of berthing, water is billed by size since November 2023, RM50 a month under 15 metres rising to RM350 above 21 metres, and electricity runs RM0.70 per kilowatt hour with a 10 percent discount for three months paid in advance.
A separate marina-booking listing prices a 79-foot monohull berth at RM6,582 a month, a little under the club's own RM6,939 top tier for a 23-metre (75-foot) boat, a small but real mismatch between the club's published tariff and what a third-party aggregator shows, worth checking directly before budgeting. Members of Aseanarean Bluewater Alliance clubs such as Raffles Marina in Singapore get a reciprocal 20 percent berthing discount up to 90 days a calendar year plus 20 percent off Charlie's Place Restaurant and Bar, but no transient rate for anything near the disputed 70 to 90 metre superyacht ceiling is published anywhere Yotters could find.
Duty-free Langkawi, and the fuel that is not always there
Langkawi is a federally designated duty-free island, and Charterworld calls it the perfect duty-free port for superyachts on that basis alone: fuel, alcohol and provisions arrive at duty-free prices, with only a small customs clearance fee rather than full import duty on incoming shipments. Cruising guides describe fuel as available at RLYC's own pontoons, at a separate fuel barge in Bass Harbour and at Telaga Harbour's own fuel dock on the west coast, giving a visiting yacht three points to choose from around the island.
Set against that, Anthony Swanston of SV Wildfox, who based his own boat at RLYC through the entire 2022 rainy season and wrote up the experience for Noonsite, reported flatly that there is no pump out and no fuel at the club, directly contradicting the marina's own description of on-site fuel supply. He also flagged electricity as always a problem on the pontoons, especially E Dock, with many breakdowns that year, and pontoon WiFi as almost non existent, good only at Charlie's Bar, which he said had not been touched since it was built about seven years earlier and was now somewhat dilapidated. Whether fuel, power and WiFi are working on any given visit is clearly not something to assume from the website.
Monsoon season and what cruisers actually say
The cruising calendar here runs on the northeast monsoon, which brings the calmest seas and the driest weather from November through April, with January and February the most reliable months, 8 to 18 knots out of the east and almost no rain. The southwest monsoon takes over from May, bringing heavier rain and rougher seas, though a meaningful share of the cruising fleet stays put at Langkawi through that season rather than moving on, since the island itself is considered sheltered enough to ride it out; the tidal range here can exceed 2.4 metres, worth allowing for on any long-term mooring.
The honest cruiser verdict on RLYC is mixed rather than glowing. Bruce and Deb of SV Matilda called it very well situated, with fuel, strong internet and a short walk to the Billion Supermarket and a good range of restaurants, but said plainly that the marina is prone to surge, with boats rubbing in their berths on their fenders, and that it has no hard stand or haul-out facilities of its own. Cruisers Forum's own thread on Langkawi as a yacht base independently confirms both points, describing RLYC as busier and more attractive than nearby alternatives while agreeing it lacks any haul-out capability on site, meaning a boat that needs to come out of the water has to go elsewhere on the island.
En tierra, accesos y reservas
| Getting there | Langkawi International Airport (LGK) is roughly 15 to 20 minutes by road from Kuah and RLYC, with direct flights from Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Singapore. The Kuah ferry terminal, a short walk from the marina, also runs regular services to and from Kuala Perlis, Kuala Kedah and Penang on the mainland, and Swanston's Noonsite report notes it as a convenient pickup point for guests and crew changes. |
|---|---|
| Arriving by sea and VHF | RLYC monitors VHF Channel 69, and the marina sits at Bass Harbour on Langkawi's southeast corner, roughly 98 nautical miles south of Phuket on the Sail Malaysia and Malacca Strait routes. PredictWind's own survey lists the basin's water depth at mean low water as only 2 to 3 metres and describes manoeuvrability inside as tight, so a deep-draught yacht should call ahead rather than assume the club's own 3-to-10-metre rate-tier figures describe the real depth underneath it. |
| Clearing into Malaysia here | Clear in or out at Jetty Point in Kuah (a few minutes' walk from RLYC) or at Telaga Harbour Park on the west coast; Immigration is open 8am to 7pm daily, Customs and the Marine Department 8am to 5pm. The process itself is free aside from light dues on vessels over 15 registered tons (rarely more than RM5 for a 16-ton yacht). Since early 2018 a registered motor yacht must use an approved agent; quoted agent fees range from RM100-150 (a general cruising guide) to a named RM400 (Kelly Turpin's own agent, Mira) for one check-in or check-out, a real and unresolved spread. Sailing vessels with an auxiliary engine may still clear independently. Insurance must explicitly state wreck removal and pollution cover; pre-registering online at marine21.marine.gov.my before arrival speeds up the in-person visit. |
| What a berth costs | The club's own January 2025 tariff: a monohull runs RM112 a day at 12 metres to RM308 a day at 23 metres, RM2,533 to RM6,939 a month; multihulls carry a 50 percent surcharge, RM168 to RM461 a day, RM3,800 to RM10,408 a month. Water is billed RM50 to RM350 a month by length (effective November 2023) and electricity at RM0.70 per kilowatt hour, with a 10 percent discount for three months paid in advance. Aseanarean Bluewater Alliance reciprocal members get 20 percent off berthing (capped at 90 days a year) and 20 percent off Charlie's Place. No transient rate for a yacht near the disputed 70-to-90-metre ceiling is published anywhere Yotters could find. |
| Fuel, power and WiFi: check before you rely on any of it | The club's own site advertises an on-site fuel supply and complimentary full WiFi coverage across the marina, and cruising guides list a separate fuel barge in Bass Harbour and a fuel dock at Telaga Harbour as backups elsewhere on the island. A first-hand 2022 season-long report to Noonsite from Anthony Swanston of SV Wildfox says plainly that RLYC itself had no fuel and no pump-out that year, that electricity on the pontoons (especially E Dock) failed repeatedly, and that pontoon WiFi was almost non existent, working reliably only at Charlie's Bar onshore. |
| Where to eat, and after dark | The Fisherman's Wharf precinct inside RLYC carries a genuine spread: Jake's Charbroiled Steaks, Scarborough's Fish and Chips, Barbosa Pizza and Bar, Darabif Burger and Captain Eva's Pool Bar at ground level, Hachi Gatsu Izakaya for robatayaki and sashimi, Ocean E11even for Mediterranean and Indian fusion, Tayfun's Kitchen at Poseidon poolside and Charlie's Bar as the long-standing cruiser meeting point with a happy hour from noon to 6pm, though Swanston's 2022 report says it had not been renovated since being built about seven years earlier. |
| Where to stay | Ramada by Wyndham Langkawi Marina, formerly branded Langkawi Yacht Club Hotel, sits directly beside the pontoons; sources disagree on room count, 45 rooms per one hotel-booking listing and 46 rooms including a presidential suite per Superyacht Services Guide, a small discrepancy Yotters could not resolve from two agreeing sources. |
| The fixed dates that fill it | The Royal Langkawi International Regatta runs every January: the 16th edition sailed in January 2019 and the most recent, the 22nd, ran 19 to 24 January 2026, drawing an international fleet and, in past years, sitting Malaysian prime ministers at the prize-giving. Expect the marina and Fisherman's Wharf to be at their fullest and loudest that week. The best cruising weather window is November to April, with January and February the calmest and driest; the southwest monsoon from May brings rain and rougher seas, though many boats simply stay at Langkawi through it rather than relocating. |
| What is NOT published | A confirmed current maximum LOA does not exist in any source Yotters could reconcile: the club's own rate page says 80 metres, its own three current site pages otherwise avoid a length figure, and outside directories split between 70 metres (Dockwalk's own numeric table) and 90 metres (Dockwalk's prose, Superyacht Services Guide and the neighbouring hotel). No transient superyacht rate card is published. Current membership fees are not published; the RM28,000/RM8,000 figures Yotters found are dated to January 2013 and are not confirmed current. And whether fuel, pump-out and full pontoon WiFi are actually available on a given day contradicts between the club's own marketing and the most recent first-hand cruiser report Yotters could find. |
Lo que cuentan armadores y tripulaciones
A season-long stay exposed exactly what the marketing does not mention
Anthony Swanston of SV Wildfox based his boat at Royal Langkawi Yacht Club through the entire 2022 rainy season and reported to Noonsite that electricity on the pontoons, especially E Dock, was always a problem with many breakdowns that year, that there was no pump out and no fuel and that pontoon WiFi was almost non existent, good only at Charlie's Bar, which he said had not been touched since it was built about seven years earlier and was now somewhat dilapidated. He also named on-site businesses he rated highly: Marine Supplies Asia for marine electrics, Paul Jackson's yacht brokerage and Nautical Bits for general repairs.
Anthony Swanston, SV Wildfox (via Noonsite)Well situated, but it will shake your boat around
Bruce and Deb of SV Matilda called RLYC very well situated, with fuel, strong internet and an easy walk to the Billion Supermarket and a good range of restaurants, and said they understood why so many cruisers stop at Langkawi and basically never leave. In the same account they said plainly that the marina is prone to surge, with boats rubbing in their berths on their fenders, and confirmed it has no hard stand or haul-out facility of its own.
Bruce and Deb, SV MatildaClearing in is genuinely easy, if you come prepared
Kelly Turpin of The Captain and The Cook, who cleared her own boat in and out at Kuah, called the process super easy: a straightforward three-step visit to Immigration, the Marine Department and Customs each way, provided you carry multiple photocopies of your passports, registration and insurance, dress respectably and make sure the insurance explicitly states wreck removal cover. She also named her own clearance agent's fee, RM400 for a single check-in or check-out, well above the RM100-150 range quoted elsewhere for the same rule.
Kelly Turpin, The Captain and The CookCruisers rate it above the nearby alternatives, haul-out gap and all
An independent Cruisers Forum thread weighing Langkawi as a yacht base describes Royal Langkawi Yacht Club as busier and more attractive than other options on the island, while agreeing with SV Matilda's account that it has no hard stand or haul-out facility, so routine bottom work still means leaving the marina.
Cruisers Forum members
Lo bueno y lo que conviene vigilar
Puntos fuertes
- A genuine, well-placed port of entry on the busiest cruising corridor in the regionRLYC sits almost exactly midway between Singapore and Thailand on the Malacca Strait route and is the default Sail Malaysia rally stop heading toward Phuket, with its own port-of-entry clearance a few minutes' walk away at Jetty Point.
- A genuinely long, documented history and a real industry awardFounded in 1996 and Royal-titled in 1999, the club won Best Asian Marine/Yacht Club of the Year at the 2008 Christofle Asia Boating Awards in Shanghai, the first Malaysian yacht club to do so, confirmed by three independent sources.
- An annual fixture on Asia's sailing calendar with real political and sporting weightThe Royal Langkawi International Regatta has run every January since 2003, survived the 2008 recession and has drawn sitting Malaysian prime ministers to the prize-giving in past editions.
- Duty-free fuel and provisioning genuinely cheaper than the regional normLangkawi's federal duty-free status means fuel, alcohol and provisions carry only a small customs clearance fee rather than import duty, a real cost advantage over most other stops on the Malacca Strait or Andaman Sea run.
- A real dining and social precinct built into the marina itselfFisherman's Wharf puts a dozen-plus restaurants and bars, an artisan retail row and Charlie's Bar, the long-standing cruiser meeting point, within a two-minute walk of the pontoons, backed by a hotel next door.
A tener en cuenta
- The maximum yacht length the marina can actually take is a genuine, unresolved mismatchThe club's own rate page says 80 metres; Dockwalk's own numeric spec table on the same page as its 90-metre marketing text says a maximum LOA of 70 metres, with a 3-metre draught limit and PredictWind's independent survey putting real basin depth at only 2 to 3 metres at mean low water. Nobody's number here has been reconciled.
- Fuel, power and WiFi are not reliably there despite what the club's own site saysA first-hand cruiser who based a boat at RLYC through the entire 2022 season reported no fuel, no pump-out, recurring electrical failures on E Dock and pontoon WiFi that was almost non existent, directly contradicting the marina's own advertised on-site fuel and complimentary full WiFi coverage.
- No haul-out or hard stand facility on siteBoth a cruising couple's own blog and an independent Cruisers Forum thread agree RLYC has no hard stand or haul-out capability, so any boat needing to come out of the water for bottom work or a survey has to go elsewhere on the island.
- The marina is prone to surgeSV Matilda's own account describes boats rubbing in their berths on their fenders in weather, a specific and repeated complaint rather than a generic one, and not something the club's own marketing mentions.
- Clearance agent costs and even the clearance sequence vary between sources that should agreeQuoted motor-yacht agent fees range from RM100-150 in one general cruising guide to a named RM400 from an actual cruiser's own agent, and published check-in/check-out sequences differ on whether Immigration or the Marine Department comes first, a level of inconsistency a first-time visitor should not have to untangle alone.
Para quién es: An owner or charter cruiser working the Malacca Strait between Singapore and Thailand, or riding the Sail Malaysia rally north toward Phuket, who wants a genuine port-of-entry marina with duty-free fuel, a repair and provisioning base and a real social scene, and who is willing to phone ahead and confirm fuel, pontoon power and a superyacht berth rather than trust a single published number. Not the owner of anything close to 70 to 90 metres who needs a guaranteed slip without first calling, and not a cruiser who wants a quiet, surge-free pontoon with reliable WiFi at the boat rather than at the bar.