A reader from Cork Harbour has reached out to Afloat in the hope of garnering more information about a silver tankard he recently stumbled upon.
John Crosbie was clearing out his house in Cobh when he discovered the Royal Alfred Yacht Club tankard, engraved with the words "Corinthian Match", 26 July 1884 Ulerin.
The tankard originally belonged to his great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather, Atwell Hayes Allen, who were both members of the Royal Cork Yacht Club.
The RAYC tankard was from a large Clyde-built yacht, and Crosbie is asking Afloat readers for more information about this particular race or why his family would have been involved in it.
The RAYC tankard dating back to 1884 that was discovered in Cobh
As regular Afloat readers know, the RAYC is the world's oldest, specifically amateur yacht club and was founded in 1857. The RAYC merged with Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) in 2016, as Afloat reported here
John's appeal coincides with the annual handout of RAYC silverware in Dun Laoghaire this weekend at the DBSC and ISORA silverware, as Afloat reports here.
For generations, the RAYC was an umbrella organisation linking yacht racers from the rival harbours of Dun Laoghaire and Howth. It provided an attractive programme of regattas, complementing more local and national events.
As locally known, the' Alfred' played a seminal role in the evolution and formation of racing in sailboats worldwide. A short list of its "firsts" places the club as the original model for yacht clubs worldwide, to a much greater extent than most older clubs.
If you have any information to help John Crosbie solve this mystery, please contact him via [email protected].
Update Saturday 11th November: Reader Patrick O'Donovan quickly supplied two contemporary newspaper articles reporting Ulerin's 1884 Corinthian Match success.
Both the Freeman's Journal and The London Evening Standard gave details of the Royal Alfred Yacht Club racing below:
The Freeman's Journal 28th July 1884. Ulerin came second, Tankards for the crew
London Evening Standard August 18, 1884 (page 2, bottom right)
