The Club traces its beginnings to the 1921/22 sailing season when a number of members of the Delwood Canoe Club decided to band together and conducted sailing races on Sunday afternoons. The Club was actually formed at a meeting held on Friday 23 February 1923 and was to be known as the Manly Sailing Club.

The Club carried on for a couple of years with a motley collection of different classes of boat, however, during this time it had been advocated that a definite class be formed. It was almost decided that the 14ft skiff would be the class, but the addition of several more 16ft skiffs during the 1925/26 season decided the issue. Any other type of boat racing with the Club then formed a "B" class.

The 16ft skiff class had its origins on Sydney Harbour at Balmain in 1901 and, by the time it was adopted by this Club, had already been established by other Clubs on the Harbour and Botany Bay and in Brisbane and Perth.

The greatest problem confronting boat owners and members of the Club at the time was that of suitable accommodation for their craft. Each individual owner had to find his own quarters. To this end the present site of the Club was leased from the Sydney Harbour Trust (now Waterways Authority) in January 1928 and a shed designed to accommodate ten boats was built at a cost of £298 ($596). This shed remained until 1992 when it was demolished as part of major renovations to the Club.